BATON ROUGE – LSU Beach Volleyball coach Russell Brock has announced the addition of two transfers – Emily Hellmuth and Zayna Meyer – who will join the Tigers for the upcoming season.

Hellmuth and Meyer come to LSU as grad transfers. The Tigers return 11 players from last year’s team. These two transfers join LSU in addition to six freshmen.

“Really excited about our two additions for this spring,” Brock said. “They are both athletic players with good size and great skills and are excited about the transition to beach. Both, are decorated indoor players who have been seasoned leaders for their teams. Their work ethic, positive attitudes and excitement will be fantastic additions to our culture and our team this year. Couldn’t be more excited to add them to our family.”

Hellmuth comes to LSU after a great four-year career playing indoor volleyball at Pepperdine and Texas A&M University. During her time playing indoor, she was a lethal outside hitter with over 1,000 career kills. Three of her four seasons she recorded at least 300 kills and during a match in her final season, she recorded a career high .667 hitting percentage.  As a senior last year, Hellmuth helped lead the Aggies to the NCAA National Championship Title with 72 digs, 45 blocks, 12 aces and eight assists.

“Emily has been tested as a passer and has great skills as a blocker and hitter. Her offensive ability will transition really well to the sand. She’s faced the biggest challenges under the brightest lights and has excelled in those moments.”

Meyer is coming to LSU following a four-year career playing indoor volleyball in which she finished her final season at UCLA with a total of 187 assists, 62 digs and 11 blocks. During the 2023 season, Meyer was named Big West Setter of the Year while playing indoor at Long Beach State and averaged 10 assists per set.

“Zayna is quick and springy. As one of the elite offensive setters in the country, she brings excellent control of the ball both as a setter and a hitter. Her ability to play above the net will also be a great asset defensively.”

“Everyone we have talked to about Trinity says she is the best teammate and hardest worker, so she is going to fit right in here at Creighton,” said Creighton head coach Brian Rosen. “She may also be the best overall athlete in any sport to come through! Trinity is so explosive off the floor, has a great arm, and ability to play six rotations. With experience in the Final Four this season, she can handle the big moments. With Angie’s training, there is no limit to her potential and we are all so excited to get her in the gym this spring!”

Shadd-Ceres played in nine matches for Wisconsin’s Final Four team in 2025, finishing the season with 12 kills, six digs, four assists and two blocks. Eight of her 12 kills came during the NCAA Tournament, including four kills in the First Round vs. Eastern Illinois on Dec. 4th and three more in a Regional Final win at Texas on Dec. 14th.

That came after Shadd-Ceres played in four matches as a freshman in 2024, starting two. She finished her rookie campaign with 10 kills, seven digs and three blocks in four matches played. Among her teammates in 2024 was current Bluejay defensive specialist Saige Damrow.

The 5-foot-11 native of Ontario, Canada, was named the Senior Female Volleyball Athlete of the Year in 2023 and a member of Team Canada’s U19 Women’s National Team. She was also a track standout before enrolling at Wisconsin, as she was named Junior Female Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 2022 and Senior Female Athlete of the Year in 2023. She also partcipated in Canada’s Olympic Trials in the Long Jump in 2024.

Creighton finished the 2025 season with a 28-6 record, appearing in its 14th straight NCAA Tournament, winning its 12th consecutive BIG EAST regular-season title, earning sixth BIG EAST Tournament title in a row and reaching its second straight Elite Eight.

League One Volleyball is serving up a new season. 

While League One Volleyball (a.k.a. LOVB, pronounced “love”) may still be new to the mainstream sports conversation, its 2025 debut was more than enough to cement it as one of the fastest-growing women’s leagues in the game.

And that momentum isn’t slowing. Before its sophomore season tips off Jan. 7, LOVB has already expanded, with the league adding three new teams of top-tier athletes to join in 2027. 

So what’s next in the meantime? USA Insider has everything you need to know about LOVB ahead of the 2026 season.

Now, channel your inner Jordan Thompson and dive in. 

WHAT ARE THE LOVB TEAMS

LOVB currently has six franchises located out of Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Nebraska and Salt Lake City. 

Each team bears a sleek, abstract logo representing its homebase—paired with a unique shade from the league’s signature bright color palette. 

WHO ARE LOVB’S A-LIST SUPPORTERS

LOVB has found champions across the sports world and beyond, including investors such as Olympian Lindsey Vonn, WNBA alum Candace Parker, Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant, Amy Schumer (who played high school volleyball) and Chelsea Handler, to name a few. 

And, not to mention, supporters who are already in, well, love with LOVB.

“The momentum in women’s volleyball is unreal, and we’re fired up about what’s coming next,” Reddit co-founder and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian shared on X, after his firm announced it will lead the ownership of LOVB’s upcoming Los Angeles franchise. “Get ready, LA. Your new favorite team has officially landed.”

DOES LOVB HAVE OLYMPIC ATHLETES 

Nineteen, representing 35 Olympic appearances, in fact.

Among them, gold medalist Xiangyu Gong (LOVB Madison) and two-time Olympians Ana Carolina da Silva and Anne Buijs (LOVB Nebraska). 

WHAT NEW LOVB TEAMS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED

Starting in 2027, LOVB will expand from six to nine teams, adding Los Angeles, San Francisco and Minnesota to the roster.

“Being part of the founding of LOVB has been one of the great honors of my career, and helping launch LOVB San Francisco feels like the next chapter in that same purpose-driven journey,” three-time Olympic medalist Kelsey Cook said in a statement shared by the league. “We built LOVB to reshape what’s possible for volleyball players in this country, and bringing a pro team to one of the sport’s strongest and most passionate communities is a dream come true.”

WHEN DOES LOVB’S NEW SEASON BEGIN

LOVB’s second season begins Jan. 7, 2026, with 2025 champions LOVB Austin hosting LOVB Nebraska for the league’s First Serve. 

HOW TO WATCH LOVB

To witness the excitement in person, fans can secure their tickets on LOVB’s website. 

For those wanting to watch at home, the league’s Match of the Week will air on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET, exclusively on USA Network (including the 2026 LOVB Championship Match). 

All six teams play every week, with one weekday head-to-head match and one weekend three-match series.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt volleyball will welcome four transfer student-athletes to its roster this spring, the program announced Friday.

“Bringing this transfer class to Nashville will be a defining moment in our young program’s history,” head coach Anders Nelson said. “All four student-athletes will raise the level of athleticism in our gym immediately, but more importantly to us, they’re competitive, driven and academically gifted. We cannot wait to integrate them into our program and get to work on realizing Team 2’s potential.”

Carly Hendrickson, a 6-foot-2 outside from Cincinnati, Ohio, will join the Commodores as a graduate transfer from UCLA. In 2025, Hendrickson appeared in 29 matches and 101 sets, recording 25 service aces. This season, she registered nine kills and six blocks vs. Oral Roberts, hitting at a .412 clip. She recorded a career-high10 kills vs. Texas State. To end the season, she served up a pair of aces in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Hendrickson will return to the SEC in 2026 after beginning her collegiate career at Florida.

Molly Kate “MK” Patten, a 6-foot-5 opposite, comes to Nashville after spending two seasons at Georgia. The Alpharetta, Georgia, native played in 96 sets as a sophomore, recording 228 kills, ranked second on the team, with a .254 hitting efficiency in 2025. At the net, she posted 90 total blocks, recording seven matches with five or more blocks. As a freshman, Patten missed all of nonconference play due to an injury but saw the court in 13 matches. That season, she totaled 71 kills and 48 blocks.

Avery Scoggins, a 6-foot setter from New Bern, North Carolina, played two seasons at Arizona before transferring to Vanderbilt. During her freshman campaign, she tallied 1,184 assists and 289 digs, both stats ranking top 5 in Arizona freshman history. Scoggins was named the 2024 AVCA Pacific Region Freshman of the Year and to the All-Big 12 Second Team and Big 12 All-Rookie Team. In 2025, she led the Wildcats with 1,190 assists and ranked second on the team with 314 digs.

Hailing from Austin, Samantha Wunsch is a graduate transfer from Texas State where she garnered AVCA All-Southwest Region honors in 2024 and three All-Sun Belt Conference nods. In 2025, the 6-foot-3 opposite recorded 336 kills while hitting .205, 263 digs and 86 blocks. She led Texas State in kills during back-to-back seasons in 2024 and 2025. She was named the SBC Offensive Player of the Week on four occasions, Texas State Invitational MVP in 2023 and has earned spots on two all-tournament teams.

Fans can follow Vanderbilt volleyball on Facebook, Instagram and X at @VandyVolleyball.

Collectively, Akron student-athletes own a cumulative departmental GPA of 3.27, with more than 69 percent of Zips maintaining an individual cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better at Akron.

 

The Zips registered 32 Academic All-Mid-American Conference selections across its five MAC-sponsored teams for the 2025 fall campaign.

 

For the fall semester of 2025, 14 of 16 Akron athletics teams achieved a semester grade point average of 3.00 or higher, led by women’s soccer earning a 3.72 team GPA for the semester. Additionally, swimming and diving (3.675), softball (3.609), rifle (3.59), lacrosse (3.563), women’s cross country (3.518), golf (3.472), baseball (3.30), women’s basketball (3.263), women’s track and field (3.241), men’s soccer (3.184), men’s cross country (3.178), volleyball (3.126) and men’s track and field (3.07) each surpassed the 3.00 team GPA threshold.

 

The excellence of the Zips in their academic studies was on display as nearly 73 percent of Akron’s student-athletes, 316 of 434, earned an individual GPA for the term of 3.0 or better, while more than 46 percent garnered a GPA of 3.50 or higher.

 

Fifty-three of the Zips’ student-athletes garnered a perfect 4.0 GPA for the fall semester, including lacrosse (7), women’s soccer (7), men’s soccer (6), swimming and diving (6), softball (5), women’s basketball (4), men’s track and field (4), women’s track and field (4), baseball (2), women’s cross country (2), football (2), rifle (2) and volleyball (2).

 

Football paced the combined list with 44 Zips earning between a 3.0-3.99 for the fall semester. They were followed by swimming and diving (32), baseball (26), lacrosse (24), women’s track and field (22), women’s soccer (19), softball (16), men’s track and field (16), men’s soccer (14), volleyball (10), men’s basketball (9), rifle (9), women’s basketball (7), golf (7) women’s cross country (5) and men’s cross country (3).

 

Sixteen Zips earned their degrees from the University of Akron following the fall 2025 semester.