PRO VOLLEYBALL
League One Volleyball makes its debut in San Marcos this weekend with the LOVB Austin team set to play two games against LOVB Omaha and LOVB Madison.
Carli Lloyd, LOVB Austin’s founding athlete and a 2016 Olympic Medalist, is excited to bring the team to San Marcos, considering the community’s strong support of volleyball.
“[San Marcos has] a great volleyball following here with a high-level college program in the area and good attendance,” Lloyd said. “The state of Texas has a great volleyball fanship. We hope that us coming there will increase that and we can just have a fun environment for those two matches.”
LOVB was founded in 2020 with the league’s first season being played in 2025 with the goal of establishing a professional volleyball league here in the United States. The league currently has six teams along with LOVB Austin, LOVB Atlanta, LOVB Houston, LOVB Madison, LOVB Omaha and LOVB Salt Lake.
Playing professionally overseas for over ten years, LOVB approached Lloyd about establishing a team in Austin and helping grow the league.
“It’s sort of a special thing,” Lloyd said. “It’s been a slow but really meticulous process for the league being built here. For almost 5 years, … [there has been a lot of ] time and attention to detail to try to make this thing really special. And one of the key components, when they called me four years ago to see if I would be willing to just help build the pro side as an athlete, [was that] I’ve played overseas for a long time.
“I [asked], ‘What’s your vision?’ When they were talking about this vision of a community, bringing youth volleyball and pro volleyball together and creating something longterm for future generations of volleyball in our sport, I was like, ‘I’m all in.’” For Lloyd, having the opportunity to play in a professional volleyball league state has been a long time coming.
“This is what we’ve been wanting and needing for so long,” Lloyd said. “We didn’t have the option to stay here for so long, so I had played for 13 years all over the world. And then they’re wanting to build this awesome league. There’s this emphasis on youth volleyball, an emphasis on pro and there’s an excellent community with just incredible benefits. All these things [are] wrapped up in that. Obviously the goal is to have the highest level of volleyball played in the world here in the United States, and I think that that could happen shortly in the next few years.”
LOVB Austin enters the weekend with a 5-8 overall record and currently sit in fourth place in the overall standings.
Despite all being teammates for the first time this season, Lloyd is happy where the team is heading.
“We’ve got a pretty healthy mix of young energy and then some older players that have been playing for a long time,” Lloyd said. “With that comes some challenges, but also a lot of beauty and learning moments for both sides. We have a ton of talent, [faced] some challenges and we had a coaching change not too long ago midseason. With change there can be some adjustment.
“We’re doing a good job of managing it. We definitely see that we still have so much room to grow and get better. These last three weeks were really getting clear on what those improvements are and how we’re gonna go about it intentionally every day.” Lloyd is hopeful this weekend will show the full potential of what LOVB Austin will be.
“This team loves each other,” Lloyd said. “A lot of the girls were teammates at Texas and some of us are first-time teammates, but there’s just a healthy level of respect, wanting to just treat each other well and be good teammates. We have untapped potential; still, no one’s really seen our best yet, and I’m hoping that in the next three weeks, we can find that.”
On playing in San Marcos, Lloyd is hopeful to see a full crowd at Strahan that will not only be loud and excited but also have the same appreciation for the sport of volleyball as she does.
“What I love … when I play in gyms is having a healthy gym [crowd],” Lloyd said. “That energy is just so fun, being in front of a full crowd of people. But what’s really awesome is playing in front of fans that know the sport, and they appreciate high-level volleyball. Having them engaged, cheering, being loud and enjoying it because it is a pretty special opportunity to have professional volleyball here on US soil.
“The more we can get people to understand that this is a cool opportunity, and show up being there celebrating that with us, which means being vocal and cheering, is really unique. Being the inaugural year, it can be hard to fill gyms, but the more people we can get there that understand what we’re trying to do and the opportunities that League One is trying to create for future volleyball players, I think it’s awesome.”
While playing in San Marcos, Lloyd and her team hope to influence the next generation of volleyball players and see the possibility of playing professionally close to home rather than traveling across the country like she did.
“I love seeing a bunch of young club athletes in the gym cheering for their favorite players getting autographs,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t experience anything like that growing up, so the fact that we’re doing that now is wonderful. It’s just such a cool opportunity for those young girls to be able to meet us, engage with us and see that this is a possibility for them in their future.”
LOVB Austin will play at 7 p.m. Friday against LOVB Omaha before playing LOVB Madison 9 p.m. Saturday at Strahan Arena.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
