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.

 

Not long after Hawaii was ousted in straight sets by UCLA in the national semifinals last season, Hawaii setter Tread Rosenthal sat at the postgame media press conference to the left of coach Charlie Wade, who was asked a question about motivation going into next season.

Rosenthal, clearly not happy with how his sophomore All-America season had just ended, leaned over and told Wade he would answer the question for him.

“We’re motivated enough,” Rosenthal said directly.

In that one answer, the tone was set for this Rainbow Warrior volleyball season.

Seven months later, four days out from the season opener tonight against New Jersey Institute of Technology at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, Rosenthal was asked about that moment from the last match he played wearing “Hawaii” across his chest.

“Yeah I remember that. I think it was more just angry that I felt we were a better team than we showed,” Rosenthal said. “I think going into this year, it was more just, ‘F’ everything else. We need to be as good as we can every night.”

When Wade got the most valuable player from the United States’ U19 team in the Pan Am Cup that summer to enroll at Hawaii a year early, this was the leader he imagined getting going into Year 3 of an already stellar collegiate career.

Rosenthal, who is still growing and is now listed at 6 feet, 11 inches, was named to the AVCA All-America first team as a sophomore.

He’s surrounded in the starting lineup with players who are almost all underclassmen and have joined the team after he did.

He’s the floor captain, the quarterback of the offense, and the guy the rest of the team looks up to — and he’s perfectly comfortable with it.

“He clearly is the leader of the team. These are his guys. A lot of them are here because of him,” Wade said. “A lot of guys, it’s Year 3 is the payoff year, right? They come through in the first year and in the second year a little better, and by the third year you can see there is just kind of a calm confidence in him.”

The Rainbow Warriors are a clear contender for a national championship this season. Ranked No. 2 in the AVCA preseason poll, UH returns most of its starters at key positions and believes it has brought in upgrades in the middle and at libero to help offset the loss of Kurt Nusterer and ‘Eleu Choy.

Hawaii won two national titles and advanced to four straight national finals in the seasons prior to Rosenthal’s arrival on campus.

UH failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships two seasons ago and came up one game short of the national final last year.

It’s the first time since 2017-18, before Rosenthal was in high school, that UH didn’t play in a final in back-to-back years.

He knows what is at stake.

“Stay focused mentally all times,” was the one goal Rosenthal repeated multiple times. “I think a few times last year we let it slip and then it seemed we let other teams get confident and got teams in games we feel that they shouldn’t have been. This year it’s stay consistent throughout and don’t let any team play with us who can’t play with us.”

The same goal Rosenthal has for the team is also one he has learned to have for himself over the summer.

During a busy few months in which he played a lot of international volleyball, Rosenthal spent time with both the United States U21 team and the Senior National Team.

His time spent practicing with national team setters Micah Christenson, a Kamehameha alumnus, and Micah Ma‘a, a Punahou graduate, opened his eyes to just how much better he can get as a player.

“The biggest difference between me and them right now is their consistency and their technique,” Rosenthal said. “Every point, they were so dialed in to square up to four and focused on getting it to the right spot every single time. That’s my biggest focus this year is getting consistent in my technique, and then everything else will fall into place.”

TREAD ROSENTHAL

6-foot-11, Jr., Setter

AVCA first-team All-American

Two-time All-Big West first team

WESTON, Mass. — As announced by the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), the Regis College men’s volleyball team has been picked third in the conference’s preseason poll, totaling 40 points. Reigning GNAC champions Wentworth Institute of Technology claimed the top spot with 62 points and six first-place votes, while crosstown rival Lasell University earned the remaining two first-place votes to finish second.

The Pride return a strong core of veteran leadership along with a talented group of up-and-coming players.

Brandon Valdes and Jalen Watt return as the team’s top attackers after posting 292 and 218 kills, respectively, last season. Valdes also made his mark from the service line, recording a program-best 48 aces to go along with 148 digs. Senior John Nangle returns as the team’s leading blocker and will look to continue his presence at the net after totaling 79 blocks a season ago. Underclassman Adam Bonica is also back following a standout rookie campaign in which he tallied 209 kills, 120 digs, and 33 blocks.

Regis will add four newcomers to the roster this season, all looking to make an immediate impact.

The Pride are led by fifth-year head coach Josh Anderson, who guided the program to its best regular-season finish in team history last year, placing fourth in the GNAC. Regis hosted and won a home playoff match before advancing to the GNAC semifinals, where it fell to the eventual conference champions.

Regis opens the 2026 season on Friday, January 9, hosting Elms at 7 p.m.

2026 Men’s Volleyball Preseason Poll Results

1. Wentworth- 62 (6)
2. Lasell – 58 (2)
3. Regis – 40
4. Emmanuel – 39
5. Rivier – 35
T-6. Emerson – 20
T-6. Elms – 20
8. Dean – 14