WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue volleyball head coach Dave Shondell has unveiled the 2025 non-conference slate, highlighted by four home showdowns, six road matchups, all kicking-off with a preseason exhibition in West Lafayette on August 15. The Boilermakers will welcome Georgia Tech to Holloway Gymnasium for a highly anticipated home opener on Wednesday, September 3.
 
Purdue will take on four NCAA tournament teams during non-conference play, including three teams that appeared in the NCAA Second Round last year: Georgia Tech (9/3), Kansas (9/5) and SMU (9/14). Meanwhile, three teams were ranked in the top-22 of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) final poll: No. 12 Kansas, No. 15 SMU and No. 22 Georgia Tech.
 
“Our team looks forward to another challenging non-conference schedule that will encourage our athletes to develop daily and entertain our fans each gameday,” said Shondell. “With four NCAA tournament teams in our first five matches, our players and coaches understand the magnitude of the off-season training and I know our 18 athletes will embrace the journey. Our non-conference schedule is brutal for a crew of young players, but the docket is designed specifically to enhance growth and provide our amazing fans with convenient opportunities to watch the Boilermakers compete.”
 
The Boilermakers will host the Valparaiso Beacons for an exhibition match on Friday, August 15 before the season officially begins.

Coming off one of its best seasons in program history with a 27-7 (16-4 Big Ten) record and a fourth-place finish in the league standings, the Boilermakers return 2024 Second Team All-Big Ten honoree Taylor Anderson, who not only ranked No. 8 in the nation in assists per set (11.25), but guided Purdue to its third-highest hitting % in single-season history (.280%). In addition to returning rising stars, which include Kenna Wollard, Ryan McAleer and Grace Heaney, Shondell’s incoming freshmen and transfer class set Purdue up to tie the tallest team in over 22 years, with an average front court height of 6’2″.

 

Checking in at No. 8 in the nation in average attendance in 2024, Purdue’s season ticket holder renewals will begin June 3 and will close July 18. Fans looking to join the waiting list can do so by contacting the Hayes Family Ticket Office at 765-494-3194. The single-season ticket on-sale date will be released at a later time.

 

THE WEEK-BY-WEEK BREAKDOWN

The 2025 season will begin in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday, August 29, where the team will take on South Florida before traveling to Nashville for the Broadway Block Party, which Purdue will face Tennessee at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET (30 minutes following the Nebraska vs. Kentucky match at 12 p.m.) on ESPN2.

 

Purdue will spend Week 2 in West Lafayette, hosting Georgia Tech, Bowling Green and Kansas for the Stacey Clark Classic from Wednesday, September 3 through Friday, September 5. The tournament features two top-22 ranked teams with Georgia Tech finishing last season ranked No. 22 in the AVCA poll and Kansas No. 12.

 

The Boilermakers will have a Tuesday midweek at Butler on September 9 before traveling to Lexington, Kentucky to take on Houston on Saturday, September 13 and SMU on Sunday, September 14, a team that finished No. 15 in the AVCA final poll in December.

 

The non-conference season will wrap up with an away/home pairing for Week 4, which will begin with a Friday evening match at Ball State followed by hosting IU Indy at home on Sunday, September 21.

 

There will be four chances to catch Purdue at home during the non-conference season, hosting Georgia Tech, Bowling Green and Kansas for the Stacey Clark Classic and IU Indy as the final match before Big Ten action begins.

 

Purdue’s Big Ten slate and television selections will be released at a later date.

 

Home Opponents: Georgia Tech (9/3), Bowling Green (9/4), Kansas (9/5), IU Indy (9/21)

True Road Opponents: Butler (9/9), Ball State (9/19)

Neutral Site Opponents: USF (8/29), Tennessee (8/31), Houston (9/13), SMU (9/14)

 

There are only two more days until the Women’s College World Series, one of the biggest annual events in Oklahoma City, returns. Preparations are underway at the Devon Park, and businesses in the area are also prepared for the influx of people flocking to the area. More than 100,000 people will come to Adventure District during the softball showdown. “Softball in general brings over $40 million a year in economic impact to our city,” Tiarra Harper, marketing coordinator of the OKC Adventure District, said. “Annually, the Adventure District sees about 10 million visitors a year. The Women’s College World Series brings in 110,000 of those visitors.” Hundreds of thousands of people will watch the top eight teams compete for an NCAA National Championship. >> Video Below: Sooners look to defend title as field is set for the Women’s College World SeriesIt is an event that Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt calls “one of the greatest events in sports.” “It’s one of the biggest,” Harper said. The Adventure District said businesses prepare early for the influx of people, from fan-favorite attractions to new places for people to try this year. “We have right across the street the Firefighters Museum, which has a lot of interesting information. We have the Oklahoma City Zoo, Science Museum Oklahoma, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum,” Harper said. “You might want to stop by Boombox Beach Club. It’s our newest attraction, and it is open late night, so after you wrap up your games, go by there and play a couple rounds of indoor beach volleyball.” The Women’s College World Series starts Thursday and will run through a best-of-three championship series from June 4 to 6. The event could overlap with the Thunder if the NBA team continues its run toward the NBA Finals. Those with the Adventure District said they are ready for the opportunity to serve hundreds of thousands of visitors. Top Headlines Police identified a man fatally stabbed in OKC, prompting a search for a suspect who tried fleeing the state Severe storms brought intense winds, large hail to Oklahoma Overturned semitruck blocks inside lanes of I-44 in northeast Oklahoma City Person rushed to hospital after fire sparks at northwest Oklahoma City apartment Thunder just 1 win away from NBA Finals after Game 4 win over Timberwolves

Thursday, May 29

Friday, May 30

Saturday, May 31

If the Buffs qualify, they will continue with the men’s semifinal races on Friday and the women’s semifinal races on Saturday. Those who punch their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships will compete from June 11 to 14 in Eugene, Oregon.

 

Jonesboro, AR — (Contributed) — May 27, 2025 — The Arkansas State University Athletics Department has launched its 2025 volleyball and 2025-26 men’s and women’s basketball season-ticket renewal process, as well as announced that new season tickets are on sale for all three sports coming off Sun Belt Conference championships.

The Red Wolves’ volleyball and men’s basketball teams both claimed Sun Belt regular season titles this past year while advancing to the National Volleyball Invitational Championship (NIVC) and National Invitational Tournament (NIT), respectively. A-State’s women’s basketball program won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in 2024-25 before making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Season-ticket prices for the 2025 volleyball campaign remain unchanged, while changes to the pricing structure for men’s and women’s basketball are being implemented for the first time in over a decade. The season-tickets renewal deadline for all three sports is set for Aug. 1, 2025.

Lower-level men’s basketball tickets will continue to require a per-seat donation to the Red Wolves Foundation (RWF). Those donations count toward the rewards-based priority points system to provide better opportunities for not only home ticket options, parking locations and activities surrounding home A-State game days, but also ticket options for future postseason appearances. Information about priority points can be found by clicking here.

Information and pricing for men’s and women’s basketball suites at First National Bank Arena can be obtained by contacting the Red Wolves Foundation at 870-972-2401.

New this season, a 5% “One Pack” fee will be applied to ticket prices only (not the per-season donation to the Red Wolves Foundation) for all ticketed A-State sports. The minimal fee will allow A-State Athletics to be more aligned with various initiatives being implemented by peer institutions across the country with sweeping changes occurring within the college athletics landscape.

New season ticket purchases can be made by clicking here. Renewals can be completed by clicking here and logging into the ticket holder’s account.  Questions and requests for additional information can be directed to the Red Wolves Foundation by e-mailing redwolvesfoundation@astate.edu or calling 870-972-2401.

VOLLEYBALL
Location (Sections)	Ticket Cost	RWF Seat Donation	Total Cost (Ticket + RWFSD)
Lower-Level (all sections)	$50	$0	$50
Courtside	$100	$0	$100
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Location (Sections)	Ticket Cost	RWF Seat Donation	Total Cost (Ticket + RWFSD)
Upper Level (all sections)	$150	$0	$150
Lower-Level End Zone (L, M, N, P)	$200	$150	$350
Lower-Level Sideline (E, J, Q, U)	$200	$225	$425
Lower-Level Sideline (F, G, H, R, S, T)	$200	$250	$450
Courtside	$0	$1,000	$1,000
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Location (Sections)	Ticket Cost	RWF Seat Donation	Total Cost (Ticket + RWFSD)
Lower-Level End Zone (L, M, N, P)	$75	$0	$75
Lower-Level Sideline (E, F, G, H, J, Q, R, S, T, U)	$100	$0	$100
Courtside (Renewal)	$0	$200	$200
Courtside (New)	$0	$300	$300

 

Grand Canyon head coach Winston Gandy and the women’s basketball program added a veteran piece to Gandy’s first Lopes roster in 5-foot-9 shooting guard Karley Johnson.

Johnson, who hails from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, spent the past three seasons at Arkansas and enters GCU as a senior for the 2025-26 season.

Johnson’s playing time increased throughout her career in the Southeastern Conference, playing in 30 games last season with nine starts in 15.4 minutes per game. She averaged 2.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 0.7 steals during her junior season while playing significant minutes against the nation’s best teams, including Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and UCLA.

Prior to Arkansas, Johnson was a 2022 McDonald’s All-American nominee and earned Oklahoman’s Super 5 Honorable Mention choice four times from 2019-22. She was named to the All-City (Little City) First Team in 2021 and Second Team in 2019 and 2020, along with VYPE Top 100 selection in 2020 and 2021. She transferred to Mustang High School prior to her junior year, helping lead the Broncos to a No. 12 state ranking.

Johnson’s name joins six other incoming Lopes who have been signed this offseason, including:

• Favor Ayodele, 6-1 forward (Tennessee)
• Faith Carson, 6-4 forward (Ohio State)
• Sophia Fontaine, 6-2 forward (Stetson)
• Holly Griffiths, 6-4 forward (Fresno State)
• Julianna LaMendola, 6-1 forward (Indiana)
• Chloe Mann, 5-8 guard (Cincinnati)

Softball and women’s basketball. Even with golf, water polo and a number of terrific women’s sports programs on campus, those two often come to mind when people think of women’s sports at Stanford.

For decades, women’s basketball has been in the upper echelon of the NCAA, with legendary head coach Tara VanDerveer guiding the program to 13 Final Fours and three national titles during her 38 years in charge.

Softball saw extreme success from the late 1990s until the early 2010s and after half a decade of struggle, have since returned to national prominence under current head coach, Jessica Allister. But are both of these programs well equipped for future success?

When it comes to the Cardinal women’s basketball program, you can never count them out. Even though they experienced their worst season since the 1980s by going 16-15 and missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1987, it all came during a major time of change–with the program being in a new conference and having a new head coach in Kate Paye.

But, the Cardinal have one of the top recruiting classes in the nation coming in for 2025-26, bringing in three five-star prospects in Hailee Swan, Lara Somfai and Alex Eschmeyer and two four-stars in Nora Ezike and Carly Amborn.

Most of Stanford’s teams have had superstar players, from the Ogwumike sisters to Cameron Brink. However, this season saw the program really struggle to figure out who that headlining player was, but having Somfai, Swann and Eschmeyer enter the mix for next season could see the Cardinal reestablish that star-studded identity that made them so good for all those years and return to the NCAA tournament after a one season absence.

When it comes to softball, more dominance could be on the horizon. A large number of the key contributors from this season, such as Joie Economides, River Mahler, Emily Jones, Kyra Chan and Zoe Prystajko, among a slew of others are slated to return for next season and beyond.

Assuming a limited number of those players enter the portal, the Cardinal have the opportunity to put together a lineup with a lot of continuity.

Despite a strong 42-13 record and being ranked in the Top 25 for almost the entire season, this season can actually be considered a down year for the Cardinal in many regards, losing in the NCAA regional and falling just short of a third straight Women’s College World Series appearance–a good sign that the best is still yet to come.

This was the first season that the Cardinal were in the ACC and they still did very well. Now they will enter 2026 with a season under their belt in the conference and a largely familiar roster, the ceiling of success for Stanford could be very high.

Both programs have invested a lot in their futures and have high expectations for themselves on a yearly basis. From what they have shown historically, it would not be surprising at all if both softball and women’s basketball return to be being among the best in the country as soon as next season.

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