League One Volleyball’s Defining Moment: A Championship Years in the Making
By — Front Office Sports
Posted — April 4, 2025
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From April 10-13th in Louisville, inside the storied KFC Yum! Center, the inaugural League One Volleyball (LOVB) Finals will unfold. Not only as a championship tournament, but as an inflection point for the sport of volleyball in the United States.
Six teams, each composed of world-class talent, including 19 Olympians and national team veterans from over 20 countries, will compete for the first-ever title in a professional league that is, at once, an origin story and a culmination. A sport that has long dominated at the youth and collegiate levels in the U.S. is finally getting the professional stage it has long deserved.
LOVB was founded in 2020 with a mission not just to establish a professional volleyball league, but to fundamentally change how the sport is played, promoted, and experienced in the United States.
Rather than launching a top-down league with no foundation, LOVB built from the ground up, creating the country’s largest youth volleyball system—now spanning 58 clubs across 27 states, supporting over 19,000 athletes.
The approach was deliberate: ensure a built-in player pipeline and an engaged fan base before the first professional match was even played.
For years, volleyball has existed in the American sports landscape as an anomaly—one of the most widely played youth sports, yet without a major professional foothold.
With the LOVB Finals set, all six teams—stacked with Olympic medalists, NCAA champions, and national team standouts—have battled all season for a shot at the title. LOVB Houston claimed the inaugural in-season tournament, the LOVB Classic, but now the league’s best collide in a Finals weekend that brings the sport’s elite under one roof.
Two-time Olympic medalist Jordan Thompson, a dominant force for LOVB Houston, has made quick work of defenses all season, her 6’4” stature and rapid-fire arm swing redefining what it means to be an offensive weapon in this league. LOVB Atlanta's Kelsey Cook – a three-time Olympic Medalist -- has been equally relentless, driving her team with a blend of precision and raw power as a defensive all-star.
In 2023 alone, over 470,000 high school girls played volleyball—more than basketball, more than softball—yet the question always remained: what came next?
That’s where LOVB is different. Where other leagues serve as endpoints for elite athletes, LOVB is a continuum, a structured system that links youth development directly to the sport’s highest level.
It is both a proving ground and a promise—a system that begins with a 10-year-old picking up a ball for the first time and ends with that same athlete, years later, stepping onto a championship court under the lights of ESPN2.
And now, all roads lead to Louisville.
Rather than launching a top-down league with no foundation, LOVB built from the ground up, creating the country’s largest youth volleyball system—now spanning 58 clubs across 27 states, supporting over 19,000 athletes.
LOVB Austin’s Chiaka Ogbogu has been a force at the net all season long as she’s led in blocks, while Salt Lake’s Manami Kojima – one of the best liberos in the world - has turned what should be impossible digs into routine plays, the kind of player who extends rallies that should have ended seconds earlier.
Omaha has leaned on volleyball royalty and four-time Olympic medalist, the GOAT, Jordan Larson's all-around ability, a player who does everything well, while Madison’s experienced Olympian Annie Drews Schumacher has been a non-stop offensive force, using her powerful left-handed swing to rack up kills and keep defenses on their heels. And it will be especially sweet for University of Louisville graduates - Claire Chaussee and Anna Hall - who are returning to their stomping grounds to compete now as professionals.
For fans who want to witness history firsthand, tickets are available now, with three-day Finals passes and single-day tickets on sale now at LOVBFinals.com.
Learn More about LOVB today.
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Over three days in Louisville, the LOVB Finals will crown the league’s first champion. Quarterfinals begin April 10 on ESPN+ at 4:30 pm ET and 7:00 pm ET, followed by the semifinals on April 11 (ESPN2 & ESPN+) at 6:30 pm ET and 9:30 pm ET, leading to the championship match on April 13, live on ESPN2 & ESPN+ at 4:00 pm ET.
The LOVB Finals running alongside the JVA World Challenge, one of the country’s top youth volleyball tournaments, is no coincidence. Thousands of young athletes will compete during the day, then watch their idols at night—seeing, for the first time, a direct path to a professional career in the U.S.
With a national broadcast partner in ESPN, a built-in youth pipeline, and a Finals weekend designed for defining moments, LOVB is building professional volleyball’s future. For young athletes in the stands, it’s proof that the path exists. And for the sport as a whole, it’s the most important step yet.
