Athletes Unlimited will tip off its third season on Friday with a 44-player roster that includes six members who are part of the USA national-team program and scads of names that very familiar to volleyball fans the world over.
“I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but the AU system makes volleyball new and exciting,” said former Oregon star and first-time AU player Brooke Nuneviller, who joined the program in Mesa, Arizona, about two weeks ago. “Especially when you’re a professional athlete, it starts to be more of a job.
“So when you have all of these new rules and point systems, it’s just different. That lends a new, exciting twist to the game.”
The league has mainstream TV exposure: Each match during AU’s five-week season can be seen on the linear ESPNU cable channel or the streaming ESPN+ platform that numbers 25 million subscribers.
The kicker is that Athletes Unlimited is just the start of a wave of women’s indoor professional volleyball set to break across the United States.
The first-week schedule
Friday, October 6
Team Nootsara vs. Team Valentin-Anderson, 7 p.m., ESPN+
Team De La Cruz vs. Team Edmond, 9:30 p.m., ESPN+
Sunday, October 8
Team Edmond vs. Team Valentin-Anderson, 7 p.m., ESPN+
Team Nootsara vs. Team De La Cruz, 9:30, ESPN+
Monday, October 9
Team Edmond vs. Team Nootsara, 7 p.m., ESPN+
Team Valentin-Anderson vs. Team De La Cruz, 9:30 p.m., ESPN+
Week one draft
Athletes Unlimited last held a season in the spring of 2022 in Dallas and will compete for the next five weeks in Mesa, Arizona. The first-week captains, based on how AU finished last time out, are defending champion Bethania De La Cruz (an outside hitter), Natalia Valentin-Anderson (setter), Nootsara Tomkom (setter) and Leah Edmond (OH).
The first-round picks in the draft for this week’s matches held on Tuesday were outside hitter Alli Linnehan (by Edmond), OH Yossiana Pressley (by Nootsara), OH Brooke Nuneviller (by Valentin-Anderson) and setter Alisha Glass Childress (by De La Cruz). Plucked in the second round were opposite Willow Johnson (De La Cruz), opposite Saskia Hippe (Valentin-Anderson), middle hitter Molly McCage (Nootsara) and middle Danielle Hart (Edmond).
De La Cruz, a member of the Dominican Republic’s national team, set the AU points record with 4,652 the last season, after finishing second in the…
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