Houston entered a new era on Jan. 9, 2025, after League One Volleyball Houston (LOVB) played their first game. In a city packed with championship-winning sports teams and billion-dollar franchises, Houston doesn’t get many “firsts” anymore. But LOVB Houston is something genuinely new: the first professional volleyball team for our city. In a place where women’s sports rarely get the spotlight they deserve, LOVB Houston doesn’t feel like just another team; it feels like the beginning of a city-wide transformation.
Houstonians already love our most popular sports, supporting teams like the Astros, the Texans, and the Rockets. However, women’s sports often sit on the sidelines of our city’s attention. LOVB Houston offers a fresh angle for female athletes at the center of the conversation and challenges the idea and past events demonstrating that women’s sports can’t draw major support in a major sports city.
The full scope of Houston’s influence in high-level volleyball throughout the US is oftentimes overlooked. Home to some of the best clubs in the nation, like Houston Skyline, Houston Juniors, and Texas Advantage Volleyball, Houston creates athletes destined for stardom and high-level gameplay. Volleyball is a fast-paced and dramatic game, capable of grabbing anyone’s attention. Knowing this, and having had the opportunity of watching amazing athletes at those very clubs, I could feel the emptiness in our city from the absence of volleyball. Now, we finally have a professional team worthy of creating that kind of legacy.
Our local team has players who have dominated the volleyball world. LOVB Houston is stacked with a 15-player roster, all having played professionally for the United States or their home countries, with four Olympians leading the way.
LOVB’s model emphasizes the development of young athletes in a way American volleyball has never seen before. In the past, youth volleyball players didn’t have much of a future in volleyball beyond college. However, LOVB’s “club-to-pro” pipeline, sponsoring competitive volleyball clubs throughout the nation, offers kids a real future in volleyball. For the first time, a young player in Houston can grow up in a local club and eventually play professionally in their home city.
The Houston Texans recently became part owners of LOVB Houston. This new ownership will produce a lot of attention for LOVB as well as show the legitimacy of this new league. Additionally, Kim Kardashian’s iconic brand Skims introduced its first athletic line in collaboration with LOVB. Major partnerships with Nike, Alo, Lululemon, and Vuori have also begun to emerge, showing that top athletic brands see LOVB as a rising and dominating force in women’s sports. When an NFL franchise buys in and big brands make partnerships, it shows that this isn’t simply a novelty; it’s an investment in the future of Houston’s professional women’s sports. Hopefully, with the support of the Texans behind their backs, LOVB Houston will flourish and become a new major winning team for our city.
Local players are already feeling the impact. Lauren Getz, a varsity volleyball athlete, shared that she is “very excited to know that my hometown is partaking in League One Volleyball,” describing her sense of pride in finally seeing a pro team represent our city. Another varsity player, Mia Powers, added that LOVB Houston will popularize women’s sports because “lots of people play volleyball, and even more love to watch it.” Getz, having played club volleyball for four years, added that “it’s very important because there are so many girls, especially in volleyball, who have been able to look up to athletes from their own states, but players in Houston haven’t really had that opportunity.” She points out that seeing professional female athletes either from or living in their home city can give young girls real and local role models, and she is excited to have this as a possibility in the future.
