The second season of Athletes Unlimited Volleyball begins Wednesday night, and there is plenty to be excited about as athletes new and old take the court in Dallas.

Bethania De La Cruz, the runner-up to Jordan Larson in last year’s inaugural AU Volleyball season, returns for a second shot at the title. She’ll be up against many exciting newcomers who could challenge for the top spot. Here are the key storylines to follow as the season gets underway.

Can Bethania De La Cruz win it all?

De La Cruz is AU’s top returner and the favorite to earn the crown in Season 2, especially with Larson missing the season while playing overseas in Italy.

De La Cruz, a native of the Dominican Republic, will have competition in the form of powerhouse returners Karsta Lowe, who finished fifth last season, and Aury Cruz, who finished fourth. Lowe led the league in kills with 230, and De La Cruz was third with 193. A mere 108 points separated Cruz and De La Cruz on last year’s leaderboard, while Lowe finished just 16 points behind Cruz to make it a tight race at the top.

Newcomers like Carli Lloyd and Alisha Glass Childress will also look to disrupt the leaderboard. Glass Childress was recognized as Team USA’s best setter during their run to the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and has come out of retirement to join Athletes Unlimited. While it might take some time for Glass Childress to back into game shape, she’ll undoubtedly be hungry to win as she returns to the court. Lloyd, a dominant setter in her own right, was named MVP of the 2015 Pan Am Games MVP after helping lead Team USA to a gold medal. A 2016 bronze medalist along with Glass Childress, Lloyd most recently played with professional club Pomí Casalmaggiore in Italy.

How will the inaugural draftees fare?

Of the nine athletes selected in the inaugural AU College Volleyball Draft in December, two have signed on to play in the league’s second season: Lauren Stivrins and Dani Drews.

Stivrins joins the league from Nebraska, where she won a national championship as a redshirt freshman in 2017. In the national title match against Florida, she tallied nine kills on a .316 hitting average. A three-time AVCA All-American (2018, 2020 First Team; 2019 Second Team), Stirvrins finished her five-year college career with 1,236 kills and 547 total blocks.

To make an impression in her rookie season, Stivrins will look to outperform other middle blockers on the AU roster. That group is headlined by Lianna Sybeldon, who finished 11th last season, Taylor Morgan, Jenna Rosenthal and Ronika Stone.

Drews, an outside hitter, finished her career at Utah as the program’s all-time leader in career kills (2,268). As a fifth-year senior in 2021, Drews led the Pac-12 with 5.24 kills per set and 5.80 points per set and finished the season with 545 kills, 32 aces and 273 digs. She is the only player in school history to reach 2,000 career kills and 1,000 digs.

Drews will be up against a competitive group of outside hitters that includes De La Cruz, Cruz, Leah Edmond, Lindsay Stalzer and Deja McClendon, who finished sixth on last year’s leaderboard.

AU Volleyball’s second season gets underway Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on AU’s YouTube channel.

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

Hailey Van Lith is reportedly on her way to TCU, says Talia Goodman of The Next Hoops.

The former Louisville star joined LSU for the 2023-24 season, but a disappointing run in Baton Rouge saw her enter the transfer portal once again at the season’s end. Van Lith opted to use her fifth year of eligibility versus declaring for the WNBA draft.

Van Lith was admittedly less effective as a Tiger. Her field goal percentage decreased from .411 in 2022-23 with Louisville to .388 at LSU. She also went from averaging 19.7 points per game to just 11.6, due in part to a change of position from shooting guard to more of a point guard role.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

At an end-of-season banquet last week, LSU coach Kim Mulkey used her speech to wish Van Lith well, calling her "one of the hardest working players that I’ve ever coached."

"Her aspirations were to get drafted this year," Mulkey said, according to NOLA.com. "And she realized, 'I need another year, and I need to go back to a place where I can relax and get back to my normal position.'

"And what do you do? You hug her, and you wish her well."

The decision to commit to TCU may come as a surprise after Van Lith paid a visit to Mississippi State last weekend. The Horned Frogs finished out the 2023-24 season 21-12 overall, coming in 9th in the Big 12 and scoring an average of 69.5 points per game. The program also made headlines in January when they held mid-season open tryouts in response to an onslaught of sidelining injuries.

For the first time in the NWSL's 12-year history, fans can now buy their own goalkeeper jerseys. And while replica goalkeeper jerseys representing all 14 NWSL teams hit the market on Wednesday, some didn't stick around for long. 

Fans across women's soccer have long vocalized their discontent over the position's lack of availability on social media, often comparing the shortcoming to the widespread availability of men’s goalkeeper jerseys. And as the NWSL has grown, so has demand — and not just from those in the stands. 

"To have goalkeeper kits available for fans in the women’s game as they have been for so long in the men’s game is not only a long-awaited move in the right direction, it’s just good business," said Washington Spirit goalie Aubrey Kingsbury in an team press release. "I can’t wait to see fans representing me, Barnie [Barnhart], and Lyza in the stands at Audi!"

just went looking at #nwsl goalkeeper kit stock out of curiosity — Alyssa Naeher's $145 kit already sold out S-XL (league announced GK jerseys on sale 3 hours ago)https://t.co/8bYA7tlwcx

— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) April 17, 2024

Business does, in fact, appear to be booming. Alyssa Naeher’s Chicago Red Stars kit sold out less than three hours after the league's announcement. Jerseys for other keepers like DiDi Haračić, Abby Smith, Michelle Betos, Katelyn Rowland, and Bella Bixby aren’t currently available via the Official NWSL Shop, though blank goalkeeper jerseys can be customized through some individual team sites. Jerseys start at $110 each.

"This should be the benchmark," said Spirit Chief Operations Officer Theresa McDonnell. "The expectation is that all players’ jerseys are available to fans. Keepers are inspiring leaders and mentors with their own unique fan base who want to represent them... I can’t wait to see them all over the city."

Decorated gymnast Simone Biles took to the popular Call Her Daddy podcast this week to open up about her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, revealing she thought she was going to be "banned from America" for her performance.

After Biles botched her vault routine due to a bout of the "twisties," she withdrew from the team final as well as the all-around final in order to focus on her mental health. She later reentered the competition to win bronze in the individual balance beam final.

In her interview with podcast host Alex Cooper, Biles admitted to feeling like she let the entire country down by failing her vault attempt.

"As soon as I landed I was like 'Oh, America hates me. The world is going to hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,'" she recalled thinking. "I was like, ‘Holy s---, what are they gonna say about me?'"

"I thought I was going to be banned from America," she continued. "That’s what they tell you: Don’t come back if not gold. Gold or bust. Don’t come back."

Widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles has hinted at a desire to join her third Olympic team in Paris, though her participation won't be confirmed until after the gymnastics trials in late June. She holds over 30 medals from the Olympic Games and World Artistic Gymnastics Championships combined, and if qualified, would be a sure favorite heading into this summer’s games.

Caitlin Clark is reportedly close to cementing a hefty endorsement deal with Nike.

The Athletic was the first to break the news Wednesday evening, commenting that the deal would be worth "eight figures" and include her own signature shoe. On Thursday afternoon, the publication tweeted that the deal would top $20 million, according to lead NBA Insider Shams Charania. Both Under Armour and Adidas are said to have also made sizable offers to the college phenom and expected future WNBA star.

The new agreement comes after Clark's previous Nike partnership ended with the conclusion of the college basketball season. She was one of five NCAA athletes to sign an NIL deal with the brand back in October, 2022. 

Considering Clark's overwhelming popularity and Nike's deep pockets, the signing's purported value doesn't exactly come as a shock. New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu’s deal with the brand is reportedly worth $24 million, while NBA rookie and No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama’s deal is rumored to weigh in at $100 million. And in 2003, LeBron James famously earned $90 million off his own Nike deal. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Clark’s star power continues to skyrocket, with the NCAA championship averaging 18.9 million viewers and the 2024 WNBA Draft more than doubling its previous viewership record. Following the draft, Fanatics stated that Clark's Indiana Fever jersey — which sold out within an hour — was the top seller for any draft night pick in the company’s history, with droves of unlucky fans now being forced to wait until August to get their hands on some official No. 22 gear.

In Wednesday's Indiana Fever introductory press conference, the unfailingly cool, calm, and collected Clark said that turning pro hasn’t made a huge impact on how she’s conducting her deals.

"If I’m being completely honest, I feel like it doesn’t change a ton from how I lived my life over the course of the last year," she said. "Sponsorships stay the same. The people around me, agents and whatnot, have been able to help me and guide me through the course of the last year. I don’t know if I would be in this moment if it wasn’t for a lot of them."