But this is not to say any of the athletes are just waltzing into the championship games: Even though  Austin won last year, team member Madisen Skinner knows there is a battle ahead.  

“I really haven’t had a chance to actually sit with that idea,” she admitted of the prospect of Austin being back-to-back champions. “We still have a lot of volleyball ahead of us. If that’s what happens—amazing, and I think we’re going to be super stoked. But we have a great Salt Lake team ahead of us, so making sure we’re locked in on the volleyball side of it and not getting too far ahead of ourselves is key.”

Because these athletes all know that this is when history is being made—especially with LOVB in only its second season. 

“For me,” said Austin’s Zoe Jarvis, “joining this league in year one, I wanted to be on the ground floor of something that I think is going to last for a long time, and to be able to tell my kids about this cool thing that I was part of.”