Professional volleyball resumes within the USA in lower than three months.
— Athletes Limitless (AU) is up first and it has introduced that its subsequent season begins October 6;
— Professional Volleyball Federation (PVF) begins in February 2024 and Omaha has a president;
— And League One Volleyball (LOVB), which begins in November 2024, has a brand new rent.
AU units season, lists gamers
AU will play in Legacy Park in Mesa, Arizona, close to Phoenix from October 6 to November 6.
The five-week season, AU’s third, wherein captains select their respective groups every week in a participant draft, consists of the defending champion, one participant from the USA crew that simply completed Volleyball Nations League, and fairly a couple of different former NCAA stars.
Defending champion Bethania De La Cruz, the Dominican Republican nice, received the AU particular person title final time it performed. Becoming a member of her is former Stanford star and USA libero Morgan Hentz.
This would be the third AU season and all matches can be proven on ESPN platforms. The primary two had been in Dallas within the springs of 2021 and 2022.
As AU famous in its information launch, this season can even mark the U.S. skilled debut for current faculty graduates Gabby Blossom (San Diego), Claire Chaussee (Louisville), Danielle Hart (Wisconsin), Sydney Hilley (Wisconsin), Katie Lukes (San Diego), Brooke Nuneviller (Oregon) and Yossiana Pressley (Baylor).
The preliminary roster additionally options 5 Olympians (De La Cruz, Sassá, Natalia Valentin-Anderson, Alisha Childress and Aury Cruz), and 4 athletes at the moment coaching with the USA nationwide crew (Hart, Hentz, Nuneviller and Kendall White).
For extra about AU: https://auprosports.com/volleyball/
PVF’s Omaha franchise hires a president
The Nebraska crew employed Diane Mendenhall as its president and introduced that matches can be performed within the CHI Well being Heart.
From the information launch:
Most just lately, Mendenhall served as Vice President for Strategic Giving with Lincoln Group Basis, having beforehand accomplished serving 20 years for the College of Nebraska in a number of administrative management positions. These roles included 12 years in Husker Athletics, as Volleyball Coach John Prepare dinner’s first Director of Volleyball Operations, a Senior Affiliate Athletics Director, in addition to six years main the 25,000 member Nebraska Alumni Affiliation because the Government Director. Diane accomplished her tenure on the College by serving because the Chancellor’s Director of Exterior Engagement. She was honored to serve two Chancellors over eight years as a member of the Chancellor’s Cupboard.
Previous to her time on the College, Mendenhall was a nationwide advisor for an employment communications firm in addition to a volleyball coach on the collegiate and highschool ranges. A local of Ogallala, Nebraska, Mendenhall is an alumna of the College of Kansas. She was a four-year starter for the Jayhawk volleyball crew and a crew captain as a senior. Many volleyball followers have recognized her as the previous radio analyst of Nebraska Volleyball for 16 years. Mendenhall and her partner, Wealthy, stay in Lincoln. They’ve a grown daughter, Ally, who was Captain of Yale College’s volleyball crew.
There are additionally PVF franchises in Atlanta, San Diego, Orlando, Grand Rapids and Columbus, Ohio.
For extra about PVF: https://www.provolleyball.com/latest-news/
LOVB tabs Tom Hogan
Tom Hogan, most just lately the pinnacle coach at Denver, would be the LOVB “Director of Sport for Professional.”
From the LOVB information launch:
With a storied historical past of constructing record-breaking Olympic packages for the USA Nationwide Volleyball Crew, and with championship skilled groups internationally, together with: Volero Zurich within the Swiss Skilled League and Congliano Zoppas within the Italian League, Hogan can be charged with serving to LOVB put the entire proper items in place to make sure its professional league is prepared for launch straight following the Paris Olympics in 2024. These duties embody: overseeing LOVB’s professional league’s expertise identification, main all volleyball particular programming for league competitions and coaching, the event of insurance policies and procedures, recruitment and retainment of gamers and coaches, and extra.
LOVB’s inaugural season begins November 24 and runs by way of April 2025. It stated it’ll have six groups and has introduced Atlanta, Houston, Salt Lake Metropolis and Madison, Wisconsin.
Whereas AU and PVF have signed extra gamers, LOVB has the market cornered on USA Olympians, together with all three of the highest national-team setters, Micha Hancock, Jordyn Poulter and Lauren Carlini.
For extra about LOVB: https://lovb.com/pro-league
