Former Longhorn libero Zoe Jarvis makes name for herself in Austin, beyond – The Daily Texan

Former Texas volleyball player Zoe Jarvis’ career has taken her across the world, but it always draws her back to one state: Texas. 

Jarvis currently plays professional volleyball with League One Volleyball in Austin and is heading to a Volleyball Nations League tournament this upcoming weekend in Arlington. However, her Texas roots date back to college when she played for the Longhorns. 

Although her tenure with the team lasted just one year, Jarvis attributes some of her closest relationships on and off the court to her time wearing burnt orange. 

“I knew it would be a high level of volleyball,” Jarvis said. “I didn’t know that I would make some of my best friends. (Texas head volleyball coach) Jerritt Elliot was the officiant at my wedding. His wife was one of my bridesmaids. All of my closest friends come from Texas, and I had absolutely no idea that would happen.” 

She recalls playing in Texas’ Gregory Gym for the first time as a pivotal moment in her volleyball career, but at the time, she was still a sophomore for UC Santa Barbara. Jarvis had her debut there as a walk-on libero before transferring to UCLA for two seasons. 

“My final game playing for UC Santa Barbara was in my sophomore year at Texas in Gregory Gym, and it was just genuinely the most fun volleyball game I’ve ever played,” Jarvis said. “I knew (going to Texas) was an experience I wanted to have before going pro.”

In 2022, after spending her entire senior year in the transfer portal, she finally became a Longhorn.

Jarvis joined a talented roster of transfer players and returners, and the team would end up claiming the 2022 NCAA title.

“Honestly, it was a fairytale,” Jarvis said. “I think we were pegged from the start to be front-runners all season long, but everyone — from the staff, to the starters, to the players who didn’t get to travel — was just so bought in.”

However, as much as her year at Texas meant to her, Jarvis knew that the end of the 2022 season meant the end of her college eligibility. 

With no solidified route for players to filter into professional volleyball in the United States, Jarvis took her talents to Germany for two seasons before returning to Austin to play for its new LOVB team.

Now, roughly six years after her college debut, her most notable titles read as follows: NCAA champion, League One Volleyball inaugural season champion, 2023 NORCECA Pan American Cup Final Six gold medalist and 2023 Pan-American Volleyball Cup bronze medalist.

After winning the LOVB title during the league’s inaugural year, Jarvis credits some of the success to fans in Austin.

“The Texas fanbase—they travel, you know, they come to our away games,” she said. “They just love volleyball. They love us.”

Former college and current LOVB Austin teammate Madisen Skinner echoed this sentiment in an interview after the title game.

“The only option before this was to go overseas and to be away from family, and to be able to compete here in front of our fans and the people who have supported us day in and day out is so special,” Skinner said.

Now, Jarvis will get the chance to represent Team USA in the third and final week of the preliminary phase of the VNL in Arlington, Texas, on July 9, with advancement to the knockout stage on the line.