Pro Volleyball Federation: Just one team coming on board; free-agency signings galore

The Pro Volleyball Federation opened its free-agency player-signing period last week, and while plenty of notable transactions occurred, free agency applied to coaches and franchises, too.

PVF, scheduled to have 10 teams in its second season in 2025, will now have eight: Indy is in;  Dallas and Kansas City are not.

And Atlanta, which never publicly announced that first-year coach Todd Dagenais was out, hired former Nebraska great and Olympic libero Kayla Banwarth as its new coach.

Eight teams, not 10

PVF played its first season with teams in Atlanta, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Las Vegas Omaha, Orlando and San Diego.

The plan was to add franchises in 2025 in Indianapolis, Dallas and Kansas City. Indy is up and running and will be called the Ignite. The others? In a news release last week, in which PVF looked forward to 2025, there was no mention of Dallas or K.C., but it noted that there will be eight teams in 2025. 

We asked PVF CEO Jen Spicher for a statement:

“We continue to work on expansion,” she said. “In addition to our team in Indy, we look forward to working together with other ownership groups as well as new markets to bring teams to the courts in Pro Volleyball Federation.”

The Ignite will be coached by George Padjen, who was an assistant at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for 21 years. During that time, Concordia won nine NCAA women’s Division II titles, the last in 2017.

Kuhn no longer interim, Banwarth to Atlanta

Omaha won the first PVF title and Laura “Bird” Kuhn led the team as the “interim head coach” almost the entire season. She was an assistant and took over after just two matches when the Supernovas “promoted” head coach Shelton Collier. 

Omaha went 17-7 under Kuhn, including its PVF semifinal win over San Diego and championship-winning victory over Grand Rapids.

Atlanta finished 19-6 and lost in five sets to Grand Rapids in the league’s semifinals on May 15. Dagenais, who came to Atlanta after a successful run at UCF, was let go shortly after.

Kayla Banwarth, who since the 2016 Rio Olympics was an assistant at Nebraska and head coach at Ole Miss, actually was on the Vegas Thrill preseason roster.

Ole Miss improved from 1-19 in 2020-21 to 21-9 in 2021 when the program made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010. But her tenure there ended with 11 matches to go in the 2022 season.

Six of the eight teams are now coached by women, the two mentioned here plus Cathy George at Grand Rapids, Amy Pauly at Orlando, Tayyiba Haneef-Park at San Diego and Fran Flory at Vegas.

Signings galore

The PVF free-agency period opened June 30 and there has been a lot of shuffling. 

Many PVF players are headed to the new rival league, LOVB, which starts its first season in January. LOVB had already signed the majority of USA Olympians and players in the national-team gym. LOVB will have six teams in 2025. Read more about LOVB here.

ATLANTA VIBE: The Vibe re-signed eight of its players, including league MVP Leah Edmond, national-team libero Morgan Hentz and setters Marlie Monserz and Whitney Bower. The Vibe also kept middles Shelly Fanning and Karis Watson in the fold, along with defensive specialist Kamaile Hiapo and outside hitter Kacie Evans.

Atlanta has also inked middles Jenna Rosenthal and McKenna Vicini, outsides Jenaisya Moore and Pia Timmer, opposites Aiko Jones and Courtney Buzzerio.

Atlanta will have no shortage of powerful attackers in 2025.

COLUMBUS FURY: The Fury lured diminutive outside Jill Gillen from Orlando and also signed opposite Morgan Lewis and middle Janice Leao.

GRAND RAPIDS RISE: The Rise picked up a couple of veteran hitters, outside Carli Snyder and opposite Sherridan Atkinson. Snyder, who is from Michigan, has been playing in France. Atkinson was the Greek league MVP.

INDY IGNITE: The new franchise got off to a strong signing start, making a big splash by adding Supernovas setter Sydney Hilley. Hilley was named MVP of the PVF playoffs. 

The Ignite also signed Atlanta outside Leketor Member-Meneh, former Pitt middle Chiamako Nwokolo, and Vegas libero Kylie Murr. They signed three former Purdue standouts, middle Blake Mohler, opposite Grace Cleveland and libero Maddie Schermerhorn. Also in the fold is Orlando middle Azhani Tealer. former Kansas setter Ainise Havili, former Michigan star Carly Skjodt, who has been playing pro beach and is from Bloomington, Indiana. 

OMAHA SUPERNOVAS: The league champs got the face of the franchise, outside Brooke Nuneviller, back in the fold along with setter Natalia Valentin-Anderson and middle Sophie Davis. 

Omaha lured outside Reagan Cooper, who had a breakout season for Columbus. The Supernovas also picked up former Nebraska middles Briana Holman, Kayla Caffey and Kaitlyn Hord. Also in the fold are opposite Kelsie Payne, who has been playing internationally since her time at Kansas, setter Mac Podraza, and international outside Jovana  Mirosavljević.

ORLANDO VALKYRIES: The only announcement from the Valkyries is that they re-signed libero Georgia Murphy.

SAN DIEGO MOJO: The Mojo reported three re-signings, middle Ronika Stone, outside Kendra Dahlke and libero Shara Venegas. San Diego also middle Rainelle Jones, who played for Columbus.

VEGAS THRILL: Five players re-signed, setter Alisha Glass Childress, outside Hannah Maddux, middle Berkeley Oblad, opposite Saskia Hippe and middle Layne Van Buskirk.

The Thrill also picked up five newcomers, two who played at Rice in setter Carly Graham, who play for Orlando, and one of her favorite former targets, middle Anota Adekunle. Vegas also got Willow Johnson, the lefty who played the latter part of the season for San Diego, former Mojo teammate outside Grace Loberg, and libero Teegan DeFalco.

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