Captains, hello. PVF is here. Are you not entertained? On the pod this week, we give our thoughts on the league overall so far. From the production and announcers to the starting lineups and team performance analysis of every team, we’ve got plenty of thoughts on week one. A few highlights: Ian has the vision, with Indy turning it around and finishing off Orlando in their opener. Kelly thinks it’s really fun to see all these players in new jerseys! Nikki needs the PVF swirling logo to take less time between the reply and the live feed. See you in the YouTube chat! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspodGot a question or comment? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com
Hey Captains! For the first time in PVF history, the second season is about to begin!!! Our season preview is all about the talent! We update you on the latest that’s happened with the league since the draft, and then chat through our top two players of each position in the league that you should keep an eye on during opening week. Then we speculate on who’s making the big bucks, which rookies we think will be able to make an impact this year, and our biggest question marks for what we’re curious to see this season. Finally, we give you our predictions for who will come in at the top of the table this season - but of course, we reserve the right to cheer for every team and support anyone who makes it happen. Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or comment? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com
Welcome to Court Captains! We’re happy you’re here. If you’ve heard about women’s pro volleyball in the United States and you want to learn more, you’re in the right place. We’re here to provide a breakdown of the pro leagues in the US as of the 2025 season. We’ll tell you how each league operates, how many teams and players each league has, as well as league roster rules. We share information that we have on salaries, how the season goes in terms of regular play, tournament play, and playoffs - plus, where you can watch these matches. We also go into the founders of each league and the investment/business structure, so you can learn more about how these leagues came about. Who are we and what do we know? Two of us played volleyball in college and one of us is a volley newbie who loves all the sports. Between us, we’ve been in the volleyball world (playing youth club volleyball, NCAA, coaching club, and playing adult USAV) for over 4 decades. We are a weekly PVF podcast - so we can’t say we’re completely unbiased, but these are our honest opinions of these leagues after months of research! We hope you’ll tune in for our weekly episodes and stay up to date with all the PVF action this season! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or comment? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com
SEASON TWO IS UPON US, CAPTAINS. With the draft coming up on Monday 11/25, we’re coming to you with everything we know about the draft rules and what to expect. NCAA athletes do NOT declare for this draft - so anything can happen! We chat through quick reminders on what each team is working with given the summer signing period: total roster numbers, number of returners, PVF transfers, and new faces. Which rosters are we excited about? Concerned about? Intrigued by? Confused by? Then, friend of the pod Jay Markle joins us to talk about college athletes he’s been keeping an eye on for this draft! We need him, because fall is our off-season, and we do not watch much college volleyball anymore (Kelly and Nikki are LONG retired, can you blame us?) Thanks so much to Jay for educating us and speculating with us! You can find his substack with draft prospects and player interviews at https://pvfdrafthub.substack.com Get your refresh on current signings via our Watch List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YA5wXBUKuG0nPnBxEJVCX4Y12FXHwIUCOmIhqr49JDs/edit?usp=share_link Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspodGot a question or comment? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com
Our fourth and final guest of the 2024 off-season is Morgan Lewis! A southern California native, Morgan started playing volleyball at 9 and dreamed of playing professionally. She played college volleyball as an Oregon Duck, and was happy to be drafted her rookie year by Coach Haneef-Park - to play in her hometown for the San Diego Mojo in the inaugural PVF season. Morgan talks with us about her excitement to play for the Columbus Fury in 2025, what went into her decision to transfer, and tells us about her current hyper fixation meal that proves to us she’s ready to feel at home in Ohio. We also chatted with Morgan about her pre-game routines (someone get this girl an Alani deal), her on-court jewelry preferences, and her earliest volleyball memory (it’s the cutest story ever). Hope you enjoyed our interview series! Now let’s get ready for season two 🙂 Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/
Our third guest is M’Kaela White of the Orlando Valkyries! Born just outside of Washington DC, M’Kaela started her volleyball journey at the age of 16. Since then, she’s filled that journey with both natural talent and plenty of extra hours of hard work - after playing her college career at JMU, she went on to play pro overseas in Finland, Italy, and Romania. We talk about the cultures of those places and what it was like to navigate agents and the pro world. M’Kaela tells us about her first year with the Valkyries, how she got connected to Amy Pauly, and confirmed for us that the vibes of ORL were immaculate - both in team chemistry and in accessibility of quality Puerto Rican food. We loved hearing MK talk about her love of music and clarinet, her family dynamics, and their natural triple threat status! Hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did 🙂 Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet:PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/
And for our second guest: Hannah Maddux of the Vegas Thrill! Hannah hails from San Antonio, Texas, and yes, she has seen Wemby in the flesh. A University of South Alabama Jaguar, we talk with Hannah about her experience getting that “you’ve been drafted” call upon graduating from a mid-major league school and her rookie season that followed. From playing with Mother to remembering her first ever match in Omaha’s crowded-but-not-heckler-filled arena, her experience with the Thrill left her excited to head back to Vegas for the PVF’s second season. We loved hearing about her big break into the volleyball announcing world, and of course, her favorite musicals. Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/
Captains… we’re in our interview era. We’re so excited to have August Raskie as our first guest! Raskie, a Colorado native, is an Oregon grad and five-year pro who began her PVF career with the San Diego Mojo. We talk about her pro experience so far, her reactions to the inaugural PVF season, and her excitement to join the Grand Rapids Rise next year. August also chatted with us about her life as a lefty and her thoughts on service routines, as well as her life off-court pursuing art, painting, drawing comics, and writing (we love her as the resident PVF Bob Ross). Finally, we ask August about her mantra “Oh to be human” and what being human means to her <3 Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet:PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/
Hey Captains, it’s nice to see ya again! We had to jump back on the mics to talk through Signing Day / Signing Week / Signing period updates and reactions - our FIRST PVF offseason! Since all players in the league signed on for 1-year contracts in 2024, the signing period is chaos and we’re here for it. Happy to see some of these players sign on for bigger salaries in 2025 (of course, we don’t know who’s being paid what… yet… But we expect a good number of these intraleague transfers are for increased salaries and/or playing time, so get your money, athletes!) We talk through the confusingly disparate marketing tactics for these teams’ announcements, as well as PVF’s cute little non-announcement announcement that we’ll only see 8 teams in 2025, rather than the previously promised 10. Excited for Indy to get going, and hoping for some good news from Dallas and Kansas City for 2026. During this episode we talk about an organization that we love - LOV! You can find more about them to get involved or donate at: lightsoutvolleyball.org Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet, which you cannot edit because you don’t have permissions, but if you could, we’d advise that you not edit them on your phones: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com
Hey, Captains! It’s the FINAL week of the FIRST regular season of the PVF. First we talk about what we can expect in the next few weeks in terms of free agency and re-signing timelines. We’ve also got some other-league tea to spill. Then we do our final match analysis from week 16 - a handful of teams got their full rosters in during their last games, which we love. Finally, we have playoff previews! We talk about our predictions for the semi-final matches, past stats on these teams from their regular season head-to-heads, and what we think each team needs to do to get to the final. Thanks for hanging out with us this season :) JOIN OUR WATCHALONG! We’ll be live-streaming our reactions to the playoffs on our YouTube channel, so join the conversation (new YT chat alert!) at youtube.com/@CourtCaptainsPod Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And, if you prefer to listen to us via YouTube, all our episodes will be uploaded there as well!
Hey, Captains! We’re reviewing week 15 (and a teeny bit of week 16) of the PVF. A few updates from the top including our final speculation on VNL departures (we think we’re done with those) and injury updates (from what we’ve heard around the block). Keep your eye out on May 20th for roster announcements from the teams, as that’s the day any unsigned 2024 players will become free agents (and we’ll likely hear about any resignings). We give our points of view on some listener questions, and then dive into match analysis. This week we had a lot of playoff-implication spice on the court! The 3 and 4 spots have been up for grabs among Columbus, Grand Rapids, and San Diego - we saw some energetic volleyball as teams fought for their ticket to the playoffs. We also saw Atlanta’s final regular season match, plus a double header as San Diego stayed in Grand Rapids for the weekend (weird flex PVF schedulers but okay). JOIN OUR WATCHALONG! We’ll be live-streaming our reactions to the playoffs on our YouTube channel, so join the conversation (new YT chat alert!) at youtube.com/@CourtCaptainsPod Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And, if you prefer to listen to us via YouTube, all our episodes will be uploaded there as well!
Welcome back! We’ve got a big episode for the Captains this week. We have many updates on VNL moves and speculations: we talk about potential challenges for PVF teams if players depart for national team duties and who might fill in (one important update since time of recording: we know Morgan Hentz will be present for the remainder of Atlanta’s PVF season!). We also talk through recent transactions these teams are making as last-ditch efforts to furiously push into their playoff mojo, as well as answer some questions from listeners! And of course, recaps for the seven matches from week 14. This week we had strong performances from San Diego, an intense post-match interview from Columbus, and continued dominance from Atlanta. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! Ian and Kelly are hosting solo this week as we cover week 13 of the PVF. Another seven match week. Atlanta drops a match, but secures their spot in the PVF Championships in May. Thrill, Rise, and Fury each won one and lost one and Mojo barely dropped a tight 5 set match to Omaha. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! PVF had six matches in week twelve, so we review transactions made before the trade deadline (spoiler, no trades were made) and get right into match analysis. We continue to see Atlanta crushing, San Diego going up in the standings, plus the fight for 3rd and 4th keeps getting interesting. We also chat through some of our experience at our first in-person PVF match, in Grand Rapids against Vegas this past Saturday. Plus, Nikki characterizes the dynamics of each teams’ friendships. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! This week we’re coming at ya with all you wanted to know about the VNL… from people who had never heard of the VNL. We also explain what court captains ARE! Can you believe we’ve never done that? Our namesake! We can’t wait to see you in Grand Rapids! PVF played 5 matches in week eleven. We saw San Diego get some wins and their best attendance turn-out all year against Columbus. Bethania de la Cruz from Orlando received this week’s Player of the Week honors. We also discuss the benefits of playing your bench. TL;DR: Give those women some playing time! Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! This week we talk about how you CAN get good sushi in Omaha. Really! REALLY. You have to believe us. We also chat about some disappearing transactions and Nikki’s idea to make the schedule less grueling. PVF played SEVEN matches in week ten. Atlanta almost had all sweeps, Columbus just couldn’t get that magic they had last week back, and Omaha got some wins at home. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! This week we start by talking about the increased player salary details shared by PVF CEO Jen Spicher in a recent match at Vegas. Then we discuss some waiver/practice squad definitions so you can track movements and make sense of the PVF Transactions page. PVF played four matches in week nine. Atlanta’s 5-match win streak was snapped by Columbus, along with their “undefeated in 2-point sets” record - but they keep the number 1 spot in the standings! Plus, we got to see a Mojo sweep, and we do love getting out the brooms. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! Big trade news in the PVF this past week as Tori Stringer of the Atlanta Vibe was traded to the Columbus Fury in exchange for two first-round draft picks. We review how that looks in the context of current trade policies, and discuss some of our theories / implications. Also this week, a big interview dropped with LOVB’s Director of Operations, Tom Hogan. Nikki listened to the whole hour so you don’t have to, and provides a rundown of the discussion points and new information we have on the second US women’s pro volleyball league to come onto the scene in 2024. PVF played three matches in week eight. Atlanta secured its number 1 spot again with a win over Omaha. “The Blue Teams”, Orlando and Omaha faced off resulting in an Omaha win, and finally Vegas overcame Grand Rapids, in a game that gave us our first setter Player of the Week! Apologies to those who don’t like coughing sounds. It only happens in the first 5 seconds of the episode. Enjoy! Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back, Captains! Ever wonder what a PVF travel day looks like? This week we imagine the insane travel weekend Orlando had, on an extremely detailed level. We also politely request that Grand Rapids’ and San Diego’s bird mascots get together for a little rumble. And: do you know what the Yellow Pages are/were? Ian drops some knowledge. PVF week seven of play brought us five matches, where Atlanta and Omaha stayed on top of the standings, bringing both of their win streaks up to 3. We talk through an impressive Vegas 4-set win over Columbus and a couple 5-set thrillers for Orlando. We’re having a great time in this episode, and hope you do too. Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf! Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!
Welcome back! This week on Court Captains we… had sound issues :( We’re accidentally doing a Goldilocks thing with our audio on this episode (Nikki’s too loud, Kelly’s too quiet, Ian’s just right) so bear with us and maybe keep your volume down - we’re sorry! We’re learning! Week six of PVF action brought us seven matches - at least one from every team in the league. Columbus maintains their win streak with another dub (they’ve won their last 4) and Atlanta & Omaha reaffirm their top-of-the-standings position. We discuss the more recent presence of short serves in the league, Bolt6’s dislike of pancakes, and away Columbus fans at Orlando getting frisky. Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod Got a question? Email us at: courtcaptainspod@gmail.com And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!