When he was in grade school, Christian Teresi would take car rides with his father, Marty, to and from volleyball practices and matches.

The soundtrack to those trips often was a particular tune: “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw.

“He would always play that song and that’s how he raised me,” Teresi said of his father. “It was all about being humble.”

Even when the awards keep coming.

On June 25, both the Junior Volleyball Association and the American Volleyball Coaches Association announced their All-America teams. The Marist setter/opposite hitter from Mount Greenwood was named on the first team for both organizations.

Both Teresi and RedHawks teammate Nathen Toth made it to the JVA All-National first team for the Class of 2025.

Marist’s Briggs Corona made the JVA’s All-National team for the Class of 2027.

Teresi was also named to the first team by the AVCA, while Sandburg’s Jermiah Aro made the second team along with Toth.

Marist’s Jordan Vidovic was named the High School Coach of the Year by AVCA after leading the RedHawks to their second straight IHSA state championship and finishing second in the nation in the AVCA poll.  

Even with collecting the All-America awards, Teresi emphasized staying humble.

“A lot of people don’t even win one, so I am grateful,” Teresi said. “Both my dad and coach Vidovic have told me to be thankful for the awards but put them to the side because there is always room for improvement.

“I’m extremely happy about getting the awards, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like there is way more improvement to be done.”

The Ohio State commit finished off his Marist career with a senior season that featured 638 assists, 359 kills, 212 digs, 86 blocks and 28 aces.

His career assist total of 3,258 is third on the  IHSA all-time list. Second is Vidovic, who had 3,704 for Brother Rice from 2002-2005.

“It’s been a fun road,” Vidovic said of coaching Teresi. “His first couple of years were eerily similar to my experience as a player. We both started playing volleyball at such a young age. We had similar freshman seasons and we had similar sophomore seasons.

“To get to challenge him to further that, I remember my own experience and I told him, ‘You gotta avoid this and you gotta avoid that buckle down on this.’ To get to work together was fun the last two years to get over the hump in some ways because I was in similar situations.”

Vidovic is also glad for Toth and Corona.

“To have multiple capable players like that kind of explains the season,” he said. “It’s pretty cool for them to enjoy that together. To see them get recognized across the board basically is just another great cap on the season. It’s well-deserved.”

Teresi, Toth, Marist’s Delvin Biggs, Sandburg’s Will Ashim and Oak Lawn’s Oisin Walsh have their eyes on a national championship.

They were scheduled to open play for the Adversity South club this week in the AAU Boys National Volleyball Championships in the 18 Open division. That’s the top division in the tournament. 

Related

HAVANA — The Cuban women’s national volleyball team was denied a chance to play in a tournament in Puerto Rico following the new visa restrictions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Cuban Volleyball Federation said last week that the team, comprising 12 athletes, a referee and several coaches, had their visa request denied and will be unable to attend the tournament later this month.

“The disappointment is huge because I train every day, every hour of training is leading up to this and dedicate myself to it,” national team player Laura Suarez told The Associated Press. “It’s really disappointing not to be able to participate in the competition, which is what I’ve been preparing myself for.”

Cuba was scheduled to play in the NORCECA Women’s Final Four tournament in Manatí, Puerto Rico. The tournament includes Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica and it awards ranking points toward qualification for the Volleyball Nations League.

“We were focused on the competition because it’s right there,” said Dayana Martínez, another player. “Arriving at the embassy and being denied the visa affects us a lot because that competition gives us points to improve our ranking,”

The Cuban team’s coach, Wilfredo Robinson, said the decision means his team is likely to miss out on the Nations League.

“The competition grants points for each match and at the end it all adds up,” Robinson said. “In September, we have another tournament and if we get there needing to achieve 80 or 100 points we are not going to be able to do it.”

The United States added Cuba to a list of 12 countries with restrictions for entering the U.S. or its territories, effective from early June. It includes nationals from Afghanistan, the Republic of Congo, Iran, Venezuela and other nations.

“Denial of visas is part of a racist and xenophobic list of visa restrictions,” Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote on his X account.

In a message sent to The Associated Press, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba stated that, according to its privacy policies, it could not comment on specific cases but that directives were being implemented to secure the borders and protect U.S. communities and citizens.

The Cuban women’s national team won back-to-back world championships in 1994 and 1998. It also won three Olympic golds in a row in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.

The U.S. measures are likely to impact many more Cuban athletes who depend on international competitions, some on American soil, to qualify for major championships and the Olympics, which is set to take place in Los Angeles in 2028.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Greece claimed a dominant win against Hungary, while Spain had to give it all to down Italy in a hard-fought match in the semi-finals of the Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championship in Istanbul. In the end, the two unbeaten sides will clash for the title on Thursday.

Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Day 6 Semi-Finals – Istanbul, Türkiye
Wednesday 2 July 2025

Greece 15-12 Hungary
Italy 10-13 Spain

5-8th Classification Semi-Finals

Türkiye 10-7 Germany
Netherlands 19-8 Croatia

9/10th Final

Serbia 14-13 Czechia

11th/12th Final

Ukraine 9-10 Romania

13th-15th Play-off

Slovakia 7-5 Malta

Women’s U16 European Water Polo Championships
Day 7 Finals – Istanbul, Türkiye
Thursday 3 July 2025
(Local times shown)

Bronze Medal Game

18:30 Hungary v Italy

Gold Medal Game

20:00 Greece v Spain

In Wednesday’s first semi-final, the Greeks were superior to the Hungarians all over the pool and their composed game secured the win practically by the end of the third period.

In the first quarter, the Magyars managed to climb back from time to time to trail by one, but in a span of two minutes the Greeks hit three from distance to make it 8-4 and never looked back.

A missed Greece penalty didn’t slow down their march, as they played on a different level to the Hungarians, both in attack and in defence.

All in all, the Greeks netted six in the second period to lead 11-6 and they even increased the gap in the third, as the Magyars couldn’t really outplay them in any situation.

Indeed, Hungary scored from six on fives twice only after regaining the ball and pushing it through the virtual goal line (once together with the defender…) – while the Greeks came up with flawless finishes.

Hungary had a late surge when they scored three in a row to come back to 15-12, but they were unable to add any more in the last four minutes and the Greeks could celebrate their fifth straight victory in Istanbul.

Some expected something similar in the second semi-final, as the Spaniards have seemed invincible so far in Istanbul.

However, the Italians stunned them with a strong start, and Margherita Minuto was on fire, hitting three goals in quick succession to put her team 4-2 up.

The Spaniards came back to even shortly before the first break, but it was clear it wouldn’t be the usual easy-going game they had enjoyed on the previous days.

Spain added two more to make it 4-6 at the start of the second, but their 0-4 run was soon halted by Minuto and later Francesca Lucignani joined her to equalise for 6-6.

After a Julia Vilaseca strike, Lucignani quickly levelled again for 7-7, then Daniela Penalver hit one from action to retake the lead for Spain and Italy missed a six on five, so it stood 7-8 at half-time.

The third brought a grand defensive battle, as the goals dried up for a while, especially for the Italians. Two fierce bouncers gave Spain the momentum, as they went up by three for the first time.

Still, just when Spain may have thought they had finally gained control, a great action goal from Rebecca Novella and another hit from Sara Pulvirenti hauled the Italians back into the game, as they trailed 9-10 with eight minutes remaining.

Again, a Spanish bouncer from the left wing did the damage two minutes into the fourth, and this came seconds after Italy had missed a crucial extra, which could have brought them level.

Instead, Penalver’s fine goal doubled Spain’s lead. Lucignani pulled one back from a six on four, but the Spanish reply came immediately, as Julia Vilaseca also converted an extra for 10-12.

Italy kept fighting, but couldn’t really penetrate Spain’s defence, while their rivals could afford missing a couple of six on fives, before a lucky goal – from a rebound after a missed penalty – secured Spain’s win 1:01 before the final buzzer.

In the crossovers among the losing quarter-finalists, the Netherlands outclassed Croatia. The Dutch dominated right from the beginning and won convincingly with their captain Marjoelin de Gier hitting six.

They will play against Türkiye for the 5th place, as the host side outpowered the Germans with a great run in the third that saw them storm into a 9-3 lead, which was enough to sail away with another memorable win.

Serbia claimed the 9th place by downing Czechia. The Serbs led 14-10 after three periods, and even though the Czechs had a great spell in the fourth – reducing the gap to a single goal in three minutes – they couldn’t score any more in the remaining five.

The match for the 11th place also saw a close contest between Ukraine and Romania. Ukraine came back from four goals down to level the score at 9-9 with 1:47 remaining, but Maria Stan hit the winner for Romania 46 seconds from time.

For the lower ranks, Slovakia downed Malta by two goals to set-up a decisive match against France for the 13th place, while Malta finished in last place after their second loss in the 13th-15th round robin.

Watch all the action live from Istanbul for free on the European Aquatics TV channel, which can be found by clicking here. For the full results/tables and schedule, click here.

Gergely Csurka for European Aquatics

Tuesday was the start of the revenue-sharing era in college athletics after the House v. NCAA settlement was passed on June 6. The biggest change has been schools paying student-athletes for the first time ever and a new NIL clearinghouse that will attempt to clean up direct pay-for-play. However, this settlement almost failed to pass due to roster limit designations. That caused the NCAA to adjust on the fly.

Judge Claudia Wilken wanted walk-ons or any other player on a roster to have their spot saved for the duration of their college eligibility. That meant that these collection of players were to be grandfathered in for this new era. Now NCAA member institutions must classify what players on their roster are a part of this group.

The NCAA has essentially created a walk-on waiver.

Schools now must tag the players receiving this waiver. Those that become a “Designated Student-Athlete (DSA)” would have been cut from the roster if the roster limits immediately went into play. Once on the DSA list, those student-athletes are eligible to transfer this summer without conditions, and “must be released from their contract prohibition(s)” with their current school. That transfer portal window opens on July 7 and will close on August 5.

Do not expect rosters to drastically change this summer across all sports, but there will be some more player movement heading into the 2025-26 school year. Players currently on scholarship will not be allowed to transfer in this window.

Teams are shifting around how they roster-build moving forward by obeying the roster limits, but also bolstering roster depth with walk-ons who will remain in college athletics for the next couple of years.

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