In Its Second Season, League One Volleyball Builds a Professional Pathway for Athletes

By Destiny Lewis

Photography By Destiny Lewis

Reporting Texas

 

League One Volleyball’s Austin franchise, one of the league’s inaugural teams, is now in its second season after winning the first championship in league history behind MVP Madisen Skinner — a three-time NCAA national champion and former standout at University of Texas.

The league launched last season as an effort to build a sustainable professional pathway for women volleyball players in the United States, connecting youth development directly to the professional game.

“We are launching our professional league from the grassroots up, built from our foundation of junior volleyball clubs and led by the world’s best professional players,” the league said in a statement outlining its mission.

For Austin, that vision carries added meaning. Several former Longhorn athletes now suit up for the city’s professional team, linking one of the nation’s most successful college programs to a still-emerging pro league.

As women’s sports continue to expand nationally, LOVB Austin has become a local test of whether professional volleyball can take root in a city that has long embraced the sport at the college level.

Whether that model can survive long term may depend as much on visibility as on competition. Diondra Lockett, a women’s sports fan who studied sports marketing, said the league’s timing could work in its favor as women’s sports draw increased attention nationally, fueled by the growth of leagues like the WNBA and the NWSL.

“I believe it has the potential to become great because of the attention on women’s sports right now,” Lockett said. “For new leagues to be successful, it really comes down to how they market themselves to the media.”

League One Volleyball was founded in 2020 as a network of youth volleyball clubs across the United States before expanding into the professional level in 2024. The league was created by Peter Hirschmann, a tech executive and entrepreneur; Katlyn Gao, a former brand strategist for companies including Lululemon and Sephora; and Kevin Wong, a former Olympic beach volleyball player who now leads player development for the league.

Built to create a long-term pathway for athletes, the organization connects junior club programs with a national professional league. LOVB now includes 86 clubs nationwide, with three based in Austin — Austin Junior Volleyball Sand, Roots and Austin Junior Volleyball — making the city a natural fit for one of the league’s inaugural professional teams. Ownership groups serve as both team operators and equity holders in the league, a structure intended to promote long-term stability and sustainability for women’s professional volleyball.

Nico Harrison, the former general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, serves on the league’s advisory board, while Kevin Durant, a University of Texas alumnus, is among the prominent athletes investing in the league. Combined with Austin’s youth volleyball infrastructure and college legacy, the city has emerged as a testing ground for the league’s long-term vision.

Success came quickly for Austin in the league’s inaugural season. Entering the postseason as the fifth seed, the team went on to win the first championship behind Skinner, who earned league MVP honors after scoring 73 points across three playoff matches. The title run helped establish the league’s competitive credibility and positioned Austin as its early standard-bearer.

Austin plays its home matches at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, which also hosts the Austin Spurs of the NBA G League and the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League.

During recent matches, the atmosphere has been lively, with crowds made up of families, local volleyball fans and University of Texas supporters wearing burnt orange apparel to cheer on familiar faces from the Longhorns program.

While the league does not release official attendance figures, the stands have consistently drawn several hundred spectators — an early sign that Austin’s college volleyball audience may be beginning to follow the sport into the professional ranks.

That momentum carried into the current season with a five-set win over Madison on Wednesday night. Austin defeated Madison 3–2, sealed by a fifth-set kill from Skinner, who was also named match MVP. The victory moved the team to 6–5 on the season, reflecting both the competitiveness of the league and the challenge of defending a championship.

“A really good character trait of a team is how they play when everything’s on the line,” assistant coach Rob Browning said during Wednesday’s post-game press conference. “In that fifth set, we played great — really cohesive, aggressive, loose and having fun.”

Skinner credited the league’s level of play for the team’s frequent five-set matches, also speaking during the post-game press conference.

“It’s a testament to how competitive this league is,” Skinner said. “We’re working on our consistency and trying to come out the same way and maintain that throughout the match.”

Skinner pointed to offensive balance as a key factor late in the match.

“As the match went on, our setter did a great job of getting our middles involved, and that opened up space for everyone,” Skinner said. “It’s a team effort.”

A year into its existence, LOVB Austin already has a banner to defend and another season to prove that professional volleyball belongs in the city it now calls home.