Volleyball made headlines this week, with Sportico reporting on Monday that a merger will see the two-season-old Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) join with the incoming Major League Volleyball (MLV) for a joint 2026 launch.
Though originally separate ventures, the eight-team PVF will now adopt MLV branding, setting up a unified league valued at over $325 million.
Investors include owners from the NBA and MLS, as well as three-time US Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings.
With an anticipated 10 teams set to hit courts for the inaugural 2026 season, MLV already expects to add franchises in Washington, DC, and Northern California in 2027, with further expansion to 16 total teams planned by 2028.
Likely spurred in part by the previously planned MLV defection of the PVF's marquee team, the Omaha Supernovas, the volleyball merger keeps both the 2024 champions and the 2025 title-winning Orlando Valkyries in the same league.
Other established PVF teams in Atlanta, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, and San Diego will reportedly join Omaha and Orlando in continuing play under the new MLV banner, as will 2026 PVF expansion side Dallas.
Besides keeping top talent in-house, the consolidation of the two leagues also partially addresses the increasingly crowded women's volleyball landscape — one in which four different leagues aimed to compete in the upcoming year.
As for the remaining pro leagues — Athletes Unlimited Volleyball and 2025 debutant League One Volleyball (LOVB) — they'll continue to stand alone.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame announced their Class of 2025 on Tuesday, with this year's iconic cohort headlined by tennis titan Serena Williams and track legend Allyson Felix.
Alongside four-time Olympic gold medalist Williams and seven-time gold medalist Felix — the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history with 11 total medals — four other women and one women's team snagged spots in the 2025 class.
Joining the pair are gymnastics icon Gabby Douglas, a two-time team gold medalist and the first Black woman to take individual all-around gold in Olympic history, and three-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Additional inductees include the gold medal-winning 2004 USA women's wheelchair basketball Paralympic team, five-time Paralympic gold medalist in track Marla Runyan — the only US athlete to have competed in both the Paralympic and Olympic Games — and multi-sport specialist Susan Hagel.
Hagel competed in six Paralympic Games across three different sports — archery, track and field, and wheelchair basketball — picking up four gold and two bronze medals along the way.
Barrier-breakers honored as Class of 2025 Legends
Also earning Hall of Fame honors are two trailblazing Black women, named as the Legends of the Class of 2025.
Renowned volleyball player and 1984 silver medalist Flo Hyman — whose work to bolster Title IX as well as her role helping Team USA to their first-ever Olympic medal in women's volleyball were crucial to growing the sport in the US — will be posthumously celebrated.
Honored alongside Hyman will be 1976 Olympic bronze medalist Anita DeFrantz, the first and only Black woman to medal in rowing.
DeFrantz, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first-ever woman member, is still helping to make Olympic history, casting the deciding vote to elect the IOC's first woman president this past March.
The Class of 2025 is the 18th overall group and first since 2022 to enter the Hall of Fame.
Following their July 12th induction, the US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame will bloom to 210 individual and team members.
In a bid to return to the Olympic women's beach volleyball podium after failing to medal in Paris last year, Team USA hired three-time Olympic medalist April Ross as the Beach National Teams’ new head of coaching on Monday.
Ross will be responsible for supporting the professional development of all USA beach volleyball national team coaches, with the goal of enhancing training, competition preparedness, and performance prep.
The 42-year-old, who retired from professional play last November, aims to help return the US to the sport's elite echelons following an uncharacteristic 2024 Olympic performance where both USA pairs fell in the tournament's first two knockout rounds.
That Paris podium was the first without a US team since the 2000 Sydney Games.
Despite the uphill climb she faces, Ross is particularly equipped to lead the US contingent, having battled her way to a career-capping gold medal alongside teammate Alix Klineman at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Prior to earning gold, Ross first made the Olympic podium with teammate Jennifer Kessy at the 2012 London Games, snagging silver behind the USA's three-time gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings — the latter of whom Ross paired up with to take bronze at the 2016 Rio Games.
"April brings a unique combination of elite-level experience, deep technical knowledge, and a passion for mentoring," said USA Volleyball's director of beach national teams Sean Scott. "She's competed at the highest levels and understands what it takes to succeed."
"She is a true champion," echoed USA Volleyball CEO and president John Speraw. "We are confident that her expertise will continue to elevate US beach volleyball on the global stage, especially as we look ahead to LA 2028."