Friday I'm in LOVB #1
League One Volleyball’s second season opens with Austin seeking to defend its championship
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first issue of a brand new series we are rolling out here at Point Texas, ‘Friday I’m in LOVB.’ If you’re new to the pro-side of women’s volleyball in the United States, you may have not heard of League One Volleyball (LOVB) yet. LOVB is one of a few young leagues that have popped up in the states over the past couple of years, and perhaps most intriguing to supporters of the burnt orange, the league features a team right here in Austin.
If you’re a little shaky on the name of this series, LOVB is officially pronounced as ‘love.’ So yes, this series is a play on The Cure’s classic song (for our younger readers, both Phoebe Bridgers and Olivia Rodrigo have done pretty good covers of the 1992 hit). As the Longhorns’ season officially ended in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament (and a certain team from the east disgustingly went on to win the championship), Josh and I stepped back and took a few weeks to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Now, it is time to get back to work, especially as LOVB officially launched its second season this past Wednesday.
So while things are quiet in Gregory for the college offseason, this series will provide weekly analysis on LOVB Austin with high-level looks at the league as a whole. Now why might you, the esteemed Texas Longhorns fan, be interested in stuff at the pro-level? Besides LOVB Austin playing just up 183 at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, the team boasts eight (8!) former Longhorn players with former long-time Texas associate head coach Erik Sullivan serving as Austin’s first-year head coach. I’ll speak a little more below on the current players that orangebloods might recognize on the 2026 Austin squad as well as the loss of two former Longhorn players from last year, but if you want a bit of a primer on LOVB Austin’s team, I started off my writing career at Point Texas with some articles on our professional program in this recap of their 2025 championship winning season as well as the hiring of Coach Sullivan in this past offseason.
This will be a shorter version of this series compared to what you may see in the future as more information develops on overall team trends, roster dynamics, matchups, etc. For now, we’ll catch you up on Austin’s current roster, the results of the season opener for Austin and other LOVB squads, and quick previews of matches over the next week.
For our die-hard Texas fans, no worries - while I carry this series and LOVB coverage over the next couple of months, we’ll still be providing content on Texas’ upcoming beach volleyball season as well as news related to the court team as we ramp up to our season preview articles this summer. Point Texas will continue to be an excellent source of information and commentary for all things Texas volleyball.
In the meantime, consider trading the Hook ‘em hand-sign for a love one, and enjoy donning some purple during the winter months (don’t worry, it’s a much better shade than TCU’s). Welcome to ‘Friday I’m in LOVB’!
2026 LOVB Austin
Current Roster
1 - Khat Bell - Opposite Hitter - Texas - 6’2
2 - Leah Hardeman - Outside Hitter - Coastal Carolina - 5’10
3 - Carli Lloyd - Setter - Cal Berkeley - 5’11 Founding Athlete
4 - Madi Banks - Outside Hitter - Nebraska - 6’3
5 - Molly McCage - Middle Blocker - Texas - 6’4
6 - Madisen Skinner - Opposite Hitter - Texas/Kentucky - 6’2
7 - Asjia O’Neal - Middle Blocker - Texas - 6’3
10 - Zoe Jarvis - Libero - Texas/UCLA - 5’7
11 - Bella Bergmark - Middle Blocker - Texas/Cal Berkeley - 6’3
13 - Juliann Faucette - Opposite Hitter - Texas - 6’2
15 - Kotoe Inoue - Libero - Japan - 5’3
17 - Brie O’Reilly - Setter - Trinity Western - 6’0
22 - Bailey Miller - Outside Hitter - Arizona State/West Virginia - 6’3
33 - Logan Eggleston - Outside Hitter - Texas - 6’2 Founding Athlete
95 - Magdalena Jurczyk - Middle Blocker - Poland - 6’0
New this season: Bailey Miller, Madi Banks, Brie O’Reilly, Magdalena Jurczyk, Bella Bergmark.
Out this season: Founding Athlete and Texas alumna Chiaka Ogbogu (playing in Turkey), Washington Alumna Carly DeHoog (playing for LOVB Atlanta), Swedish player Anna Haak (playing for LOVB Madison), Texas alumna Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres (playing for MLV’s Grand Rapid Rise).
Coaching Staff
Erik Sullivan - Head Coach
Tayyiba Haneef-Park - Assistant Coach
Rob Browning - Assistant Coach
Shannon Slater - Director of Volleyball Operations
Virginia Pham - Technical Director
Match One: Nebraska 2 - 3 Austin (Wednesday, January 7th)
Austin’s season opener and the overall opener for the league’s second season was a rematch of the Finals Championship that saw Austin bring home the first ever title for the infant league. That match saw Austin sweep Omaha (recently rebranded to LOVB Nebraska to better represent the entire state’s volleyball culture). That came after back-to-back reverse sweeps in the two preceding matches in the tournament that saw Austin clawing victory out of the jaws of defeat.
To the dismay of other fan bases, that Finals matchup was between the two bottom seeds in the playoffs, as both Austin and Nebraska had struggled to secure wins during the regular season before going on improbable runs in the postseason tournament (I cover the regular season woes in that season recap article I mentioned earlier). There was no doubt that both squads wanted to start this year off with a resounding win to silence any doubts from last year, but happily, it was Austin that took the ‘W’.
Similar to Jerritt Elliott’s 2024 Longhorns squad, last year’s Austin team suffered from blown leads both within and across sets in spite of a stellar roster. The inability to close led to Marco Bonitta stepping down as head coach in the middle of February and the ouster of interim head coach Chris McGown in the offseason despite the Championship-winning run in the postseason.
Late in Wednesday’s first set, it appeared that Coach Sullivan may be facing the same issues. Some unforced errors and an inability to find offensive consistency saw Austin lose the lead and drop the first set, 25-22. Luckily, Austin dug its heels in between sets and refused to let the momentum swing farther towards Nebraska. Austin’s middles began to find improved blocking angles while Eggleston and Skinner began to find gaps in Nebraska’s defense from the left and right pins, respectively. Austin managed to develop a comfortable lead in the second half of the set and took the second, 25-20.
Nebraska too appeared to have improved on inter-set adjustments and made necessary adjustments offensively, including speeding up their offensive sets. Nebraska began to find holes in the Austin defense that improved their attack efficiency. These scoring lanes kept Nebraska in the lead throughout the set. Austin fought hard, keeping the score within striking distance on a late rally but couldn’t quite close in on Nebraska. Austin found itself in a 2-1 hole as Nebraska took the third set, 25-22.
Logan Eggleston led the offense in the fourth as Austin was determined to not drop its second season opener in as many seasons. Austin began making huge blocks that slowed down the Nebraska offense, and Brie O’Reilly got Austin’s offense into a smooth tempo, feeding Eggleston in what ended up being an 18 kill campaign for the outside hitter. #TeamMadi (hashtag courtesy of yours truly) helped shore up the offensive effort, with Madi Skinner and Madi Banks both finding scoring opportunities at the net. Despite a late push by Nebraska that mirrored Austin’s own rally just a set before, Austin took the fourth, 25-22, to tie up the match and take it to a deciding fifth set.
As the fifth opened, it quickly became clear that the momentum had fully shifted to Austin’s side of the court. Austin found itself up early with a 6-1 lead, as the blocking game continued to be efficient. Nebraska would find some holes for scoring, but never really found themselves close in the final set. Austin won 15-9 and notched a win in the first match of the LOVB 2026 season.
Along with Eggleston’s 18 kills, Skinner posted 17, and Banks added 16 herself. Overall, Austin hit .348 on 72 kills for the match. The team registered nine blocks and the middles were able to attack efficiently under O’Reilly’s quarterbacking of the offense. O’Reilly was named Player of the Match, in large part due to attackers hitting .408 off her sets and her surgical spreading of the ball across the entire front line.
Next Up for Austin
Austin hosts Atlanta at the H-E-B Center this Sunday (11 January) with a 6:30p Central start time. Austin will then travel out to Atlanta for an immediate rematch on Wednesday (14 January) at 7:00p Central at the OTE Center.
Other Results
The only other mid-week match was between Salt Lake and Houston on Thursday, January 8th, at the Berry Center in Houston. Salt Lake swept Houston with 27-25, 25-19, and 25-20 in three sets played. Salt Lake fell into a rhythm and posted a .383 team attack efficiency and 51 total kills in a match that was never in doubt following a close first set. Middle blocker Serena Gray put on a master class for Salt Lake that may end up one of the top performances of 2026 by season’s end, notching 14 kills on an all-time LOVB record of .824 hitting percentage (minimum 15 attacks). Salt Lake looked efficient and in mid-season form in their first match of the year.
Other League Upcoming Matches
Saturday, January 10th: LOVB Salt Lake at LOVB Madison - Alliant Energy Center, Madison - 4:00p Central
Sunday, January 11th: LOVB Houston at LOVB Nebraska - Baxter Arena, Omaha - 3:00p Central
Thanks for checking out our first article of ‘Friday I’m in LOVB’, and we will see you next Friday to cover all of the action across the league, including what will hopefully be a 2-0 start for Austin!