Today, League One Volleyball (LOVB) announced SKIMS as its official loungewear, intimates, and sleepwear partner as momentum around volleyball continues to surge in the United States. The partnership will see LOVB and SKIMS work together to accelerate the future of professional women’s volleyball, as well as empower girls and women both in sports and beyond.

“Partnering with SKIMS is an incredible milestone for our league and clubs — their dedication to empowering women and celebrating confidence aligns perfectly with our mission to elevate our athletes of every age, and accelerate growth of the sport of volleyball,” said Michelle McGoldrick, LOVB’s Chief Business Officer. “Together, we’re not only supporting our remarkable athletes on their journey to becoming household names, but also helping to inspire the next generation of players and fans.”

With record breaking crowds, the LA28 Olympics approaching, and LOVB’s grassroots-to-pro movement, volleyball has become more visible and influential than ever before. As the #1 team sport among girls in the United States, the sport has inspired a community of confidence, empowerment, and cultural change. With a combined commitment to empowering women of all ages to feel confident in sport, while celebrating the strength and spirit of athletes both on the court and beyond, the partnership between SKIMS and LOVB became a natural fit from the start.

“This partnership with LOVB is an exciting opportunity to expand our reach at the intersection of fashion, culture, and sports,” said Jens Grede, Co-Founder & CEO, SKIMS.  “Volleyball highlights strength, teamwork, and rising female talent and we’re proud to partner with LOVB at this key moment, as LOVB’s mission to transform women’s volleyball aligns with SKIMS’ goal to empower women, both in sports and beyond.”

“We’re excited to partner with League One Volleyball and to support the incredible community they’re building from youth players all the way to the professional stage,” said Kim Kardashian, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, SKIMS. “Together, we look forward to inspiring confidence and empowering athletes at every level through innovative products, community activations, and storytelling that celebrates the athletes on and off the court.”

The partnership will feature a number of touchpoints demonstrating how SKIMS and LOVB together champion volleyball athletes of all stages. SKIMS will participate in LOVB community and athlete-driven events, league-wide activations, and more throughout the season. The collaboration will also focus on elevating the voices of female athletes from youth to pro, as well as highlighting volleyball’s growing cultural impact across the United States.

In addition, the partnership will provide SKIMS with exposure across LOVB’s official digital platforms, events, and broadcasts, connecting with one of the fastest-growing youth and professional sports communities in the country.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches released its 2025 Women’s All-Academic Awards, honoring water polo student-athletes and teams for their successes in the classroom during the 2024-25 academic year. UC Santa Barbara was one of the top teams academically this year, with 14 student-athletes earning individual honors and the Gauchos’ 3.64 team grade point average besting every water polo team in both The Big West and the University of California system.
 
The ACWPC All-Academic awards recognize all student-athletes who maintained a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20, so long as they were listed as active for at least one match during the season. Student-athletes are recognized in one of three tiers: Outstanding for those with a cumulative GPA between 4.0 and 3.71, Superior for those with a GPA between 3.70 and 3.41, and Excellent for those with a GPA between 3.40 and 3.20.
 
UC Santa Barbara’s 2025 All-Academic honorees are listed below.
Christina Mullane — Outstanding
Ava Donleavy — Outstanding
Cami Mras — Outstanding
Isabel Valaika — Outstanding
Lainey Weintre — Outstanding
Loretta Hovey — Outstanding
Molly Souza — Superior
Aidan Flynn — Superior
Juju Amaral — Superior
Annie Kuester — Superior
Zoe Gabriel — Superior
Hadde Hall — Excellent
Bella Mady — Excellent
Athena Wigo — Excellent
 

The Altoona Curve offense sputtered en route to a 2-1 loss to the Chesapeake Baysox Tuesday night in front of 6,208 fans at PNG Field.

Both Baysox runs came in the second inning when Curve starter Po-Yu Chen gave up a two-run home run to Carter Young.

“It’s hard to win when you only get two hits,” Altoona manager Andy Fox said.

The Curve got a run back in the third when center fielder Jase Bowen roped a double that turned into a run on two throwing errors.

07/22/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /
Curve’s Jase Bowen is told by Brenden Dixon to stay up as he scores on a two-error double on a line drive to left field.

Bowen’s little league home run was the lone hit the Altoona offense mustered until a Mitch Jebb single in the ninth inning.

“They ran some good arms at us today,” Fox said. “They pitched well, and sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat. We couldn’t really get anything going, a little in the ninth, but we weren’t able to cash in.”

Chesapeake’s Trace Bright struck out eight in five innings of relief work for the Baysox and allowed only the hit to Jebb and one walk. Baysox starter Levi Wells threw 3• innings, allowed one hit and struck out five.

“We struck out 14 times and walked once,” Fox said. “They were commanding the ball, executing pitches and working ahead — all things you wanted to have with your pitching staff.”

Bullpen brilliant

Tasked with covering six innings, the Altoona bullpen maintained the upper hand against Chesapeake as three pitchers combined to hurl six shutout innings and keep the Curve in it until the end.

Valentin Linarez threw 1ª innings, struck out three and walked one. Blake Townsend entered for Linarez and tossed three innings in which he allowed two hits and struck out three.

Beau Burrows threw the final 1• innings and promptly struck out two and allowed only one hit.

“They’ve just maintained what they’ve been doing all year,” Fox said. “They’ve been stemming the tide for us, keeping us in games and giving us a chance. They did that again today.”

Valdez exits

Outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez exited Tuesday night’s game with an apparent leg injury in the top of the sixth inning.

Valdez was sprinting toward a foul ball and injured his leg while sliding for the baseball.

“Valdez is at the hospital getting some x-rays of his lower leg,” Fox said. “We’ll know more tomorrow. It’s a little too early to tell the extent of it.”

Setting world record

All who attended Tuesday’s game at PNG Field were on hand to witness a world record in the making.

An 8-foot, 1,200-pound replica Minor League baseball made a stop on its tour around Minor League Baseball stadiums to become the world’s most autographed baseball.

Fans, players and staff were able to sign the ball throughout the course of the game, and the line continued for nearly seven innings of play.

“It is a really cool thing to be a part of,” Curve fan Dane Leone said. “Being able to potentially be a part of baseball history is something I wasn’t expecting but is neat to think about.

Entering Tuesday night, the ball had 4,439 signatures. After the game, it was estimated, the ball had 4,942 signatures. The previous world record was 2,146 signatures on a soccer jersey in the United Kingdom, which means that every person who signed the ball while at PNG Field held a world record albeit very briefly.

The idea was derived by those in the Minor League Baseball office as a way to bring together communities and draw into the quirkiness that is Minor League Baseball.

“We like to have a lot of fun in Minor League Baseball,” vice president of marketing for Minor League Baseball Kristin Stratton said. “There’s all sorts of things about the minor league experience that you can really only find in our ballparks. And we thought, you know, ‘what’s the way we can go even bigger, even better? And let’s, let’s try to break a record that nobody’s done this before, might as well test it out in Minor League Baseball.”‘

That led to the creation of the ball and the development of a tour of cities as far west as Indianapolis and coming back east through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey before ultimately landing in New York City at MLB headquarters on July 29.

“A lot of it was triangulating mileage math and trying to figure out how far we could get within the six-week time period we had, knowing we wanted to end this tour in New York, outside of the Major League Baseball offices,” Stratton said. “In a perfect world, we get to all 120 clubs, but we would need a ball about 10 times the size of the one that we have, which would not be road legal.”

The ball arrived early Tuesday morning and will be departing for Lehigh Valley and the Ironpigs this morning.

Up next

Altoona will have a matinee game Wednesday afternoon with a noon start.

The GIST: The podcast space is finally listening to women’s sports fans — something we’ve been doing since 2020. Everyone from sports media companies to standalone podcasts are getting into the women’s game, so we’re covering some trends in the space and what they mean for the future. Let’s dive in.

The talent: There’s typically three types of hosts running these pods: Traditional sports media personalities such as Sarah Spain, retired athletes like Sam Mewis, Sue Bird, and Megan Rapinoe, or Gen Z athletes like Ilona Maher, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink.

• These younger stars tend to host shows that blend sport with culture and entertainment topics while featuring star-studded interviews. This reflects how Gen Z consumes sports, with influencers and pop culture moments introducing new fans to sports content.

The consumer: While overall podcast audiences have skewed male and millennial, that’s quickly changing. Podcast discovery is high among Gen Z and women listeners, with 75% of Gen Z tuning in (up 5% YoY), especially on YouTube.

• Listener trust runs notoriously deep, with 61% of Zoomers saying pod advertisements influence purchasing habits. On average, heavy podcast listeners are 60% more likely to purchase advertised products online and 71% more likely to purchase them in store.

The brand integration: Since these listeners are interested in making purchases and attending live events, brands are capitalizing on these widespread, engaged audiences. Bird and Rapinoe are hosting their revamped podcast live at major events like Cannes, SXSW, and WNBA All-Star Weekend, all of which nabbed event sponsors to bankroll these moments.

• While companies tend to generally focus on low-lift programmatic ads, something heavy-hitters Amazon and Disney are catering to, brands also benefit from partnering directly with podcast hosts.

• Media companies like Audacy and Vox Media are teaming up with independent pods for opportunities, but it still pays to partner with a whole network: iHeart Women’s Sports founding partners Capital One, E.l.f. Cosmetics, and Novartis benefit from the brand’s 99% positive sentiment on social media. Liked and subscribed.