Tech volleyball fans have a new team to root for: LOVB Atlanta, one of six inaugural League One Volleyball (LOVB) teams. LOVB (pronounced ‘love’) is the newest professional volleyball league aiming to set up volleyball athletes from youth to professionals on an unprecedented scale. While most associations attempt a trickle-down method, starting with professional-level play and hoping to inspire the youth, LOVB began with junior clubs throughout the nation in 2020 and has built its way up since.
Kaitlyn Gao, Peter Hirschmann and Kevin Wong co-founded LOVB with one goal: champion the sport and athletes of volleyball. In the next five years, they constructed the largest community of junior clubs in the U.S. with 58 junior clubs, 1500 teams and more than 17-thousand athletes across 26 states. One thousand of those athletes play for Atlanta-based LOVB junior club, including A5 Roswell, the No. 2 youth club in the country.
The first season of LOVB is adapting the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) 2024 Rules of Play and Match Protocol with an emphasis on innovating changes to international rules while retaining similar rules to aspiring Olympic athletes. The league has implemented many rules from other professional sports associations. For example, their 15-second serve clock is akin to the pitch clock in Major League Baseball to hasten the speed of play. Further, the LOVB Classic is a money-incentivized tournament that takes place during the regular season and matches the National Basketball Association’s In-Season Tournament. The LOVB Classic will debut the weekend of Feb. 14 in Kansas City, Mo. concurrently with the Triple Crown NIT, the United States’ premier youth volleyball tournament.
The LOVB game quality is the premier viewing experience for volleyball enthusiasts. LOVB Atlanta hosted LOVB Salt Lake on Jan. 31 in the closest three-set match fans could ask for. Atlanta’s team stars three-time Olympic Medalist Kelsey Cook, Atlanta native Tia Jimerson and the team’s second and third points leaders, Tessa Grubbs and McKenzie Adams. Salt Lake’s team features two-time Olympic Medalists Jordyn Poulter and Haleigh Washington, Olympic teammates with Atlanta’s Cook when they took home the Silver medal from Paris in 2024. Poulter and Washington are on the League’s Athletes’ Council to aid in the development of LOVB for athletes and fans alike. These two teams were part of Atlanta’s First Serve of 2025 where Salt Lake stole a win in four sets.
The first set displayed LOVB’s replay system — the league utilizes high-definition cameras focused on each boundary line such that upon a coach’s challenge the officiating staff can verify or reverse a call within 20 seconds. This replay system is much like the National Football League’s instant replay, where the audience can see the call on the jumbotron, and it led to cheering for LOVB Atlanta on successful challenges.
Atlanta won the first two sets against Salt Lake with the same score of 25-22 off momentum from a collection of aces by Cook and Grubbs. The crowd would celebrate in the ace cheers taught during warmups before reveling in a devastating kill by Adams. The third set was won 25-20 off of Grubbs’ third block of the night, where the crowd made sure to perform Atlanta’s block cheers before erupting into applause for the team’s first home win.
Adams led the match in kills, good passes and digs: 13 kills on 17 attempts, 24 of 26 successful passes and digging out 13 balls alongside a single block and ace. After the match Adams was awarded the Player of the Game with this incredible effort and spoke directly to the crowd in the on-court post-game interview. Atlanta now sits atop the LOVB standings with a 4-1 record while on a four-game winning streak.
The local Atlanta junior clubs of A5 Roswell, Georgia Beach and Rio Volleyball Club were recognized in the pre-game announcements as part of the crowd, the ball crew and the court moppers. More than anything, Atlanta’s match against Salt Lake emphasized that LOVB would be nothing without the supporting relationship between the league and the youth: the next generation of great volleyball athletes will certainly develop throughout LOVB.
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