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January 27, 2025
The second Athletes Unlimited professional volleyball season begins Wednesday in Dallas.
This year, the players won’t be in a COVID-protected bubble, nor will American star Jordan Larson be competing, but much else will look the same. Four teams play a weekly round-robin and the rosters of those teams change from week to week, chosen by captains who gained that status based on their individual performances from the week before.
The player who finished second last year, Bethania De La Cruz of the Dominican Republic, returns. So does former Florida standout Aury Cruz, who finished fourth, and the fifth-place finisher, UCLA’s Karsta Lowe. Deja McClendon, the former Penn State standout, also returns after finishing sixth.
NCAA volleyball fans will recognize most of the players, from the veterans, like Cruz, who last played at Florida in 2003, to many recent competitors, like three-time NCAA-champion Morgan Hentz of Stanford, Nebraska’s Lauren Stivrins and Dayton’s Jamie Peterson. Newcomers include Olympians include Carli Lloyd and Alisha Glass Childress.
A complete list of players and the schedule follows.
The first player draft is Sunday and can be seen at 1 p.m. Eastern on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AthletesUnlimited The captains for the first draft have yet to be determined.
AU doesn’t have coaches, per se, and calls them facilitators. The four this season are Joe Trinsey, Michelle Chatman-Smith, Deitre Collins-Parker and Laurie Corbelli. Trinsey was on staff last year for AU. Chatman-Smith was a standout at Florida. Collins-Parker was a 1988 Olympian, and Corbelli was a 1984 Olympian.
Returning play-by-play announcer Kevin Barnett, the former Pepperdine player and USA Olympian, returns, but his analyst, Salima Rockwell, has since left broadcasting to become the coach at Notre Dame. So Barnett will be joined in the booth by veteran volleyball analyst Heather Cox, the former Pacific player. Katie Carter is also part of the broadcast team.