The third week of Professional Volleyball Federation motion begins Wednesday when the Omaha Supernovas entertain the Vegas Thrill, who play their first match within the league’s inaugural season.
The Supernovas (1-1) come off a sweep of the San Diego Mojo and can play underneath new interim head coach Chook Kuhn after Shelton Collier was reassigned. Learn our story right here:
The Supernovas had a scare towards the Mojo when main attacker Brooke Nuneviller went down with an ankle damage. She probably is not going to play this week.
Motion continues Friday when the Grand Rapids Rise (1-0) goes to the Atlanta Vibe (3-0). Vibe OH Alli Linnehan suffered a leg damage early in a sweep of the Mojo final week. The final shot we noticed of Linnehan was sitting on the bench together with her foot elevated and her shoe off. On Monday, the staff positioned her on short-term injured reserve.
On Saturday, Vegas goes to the Orlando Valkries (0-1) and Monday, the Supernovas are on the Grand Rapids Rise (1-0) and the Valkries go to the Atlanta Vibe.
All of the matches can been seen on the league’s YouTube channel, and now we have loads about that on this report.
Encouraging first steps for rookie Valkyries
May the “tynamic” Jill Gillen turn into the PVF’s first home-grown breakout star?
Gillen made an eye-popping debut in entrance of an appreciative crowd that appeared to hold on the high-flying 5-foot-7 rookie’s each transfer.
Orlando followers made Scott Skiles, one other feisty large killer, the face of the enlargement NBA Magic within the franchise’s pre-Shaq infancy. Like Skiles, Gillen charges excessive on the “scrappy underdog” scale. She additionally starred at Arkansas, a Southeastern Convention faculty, and despite the fact that UCF’s athletic program has made nice strides, Central Florida nonetheless may be very a lot SEC nation.
Coming to the Valkyries in a 2-for-1 draft-day swap after being chosen by the Supernovas with the primary decide of the second spherical (eighth general), Gillen earned a beginning outside-hitter spot with a powerful coaching camp. In her first match as a professional, Gillen had 15 kills towards 4 errors on 48 swings (.229 effectivity), two aces, 14 digs and 4 block assists. Hitting .229 won’t seem to be a giant deal, however in a five-set thriller towards the Vibe wherein the groups mixed to hit .135, that was the most effective quantity among the many beginning outsides.
The hometown squad might need come up three factors brief within the tiebreaker, however the followers loved their first take a look at an lively bunch fueled by “true rookie” starters in Gillen and libero Georgia Murphy out of Oregon, a whippet-like setter in Puerto Rican standout Wilma Rivera (known as “underestimated” by Valkyries Coach Amy Pauly) and a go-to outdoors in powerhouse Adora Anae, the previous Utah star.
“I used to be actually pleased with Gill,” Pauly mentioned. “We gave her a break within the second set when the passing began to interrupt down slightly bit. However she’s a gamer and he or she bounced again after we put her again in. What impressed me essentially the most was that she is excellent at adjusting and recognizing what’s on the opposite facet of the web.
“She’s at all times had to do this due to her dimension. Gill must be inventive. She has to search out methods to attain. I used to be actually pleased with her for recognizing the scenario she was in, studying the way to play via it and discovering success each early and late within the match.
“Gill is aware of the way to be the most effective model of herself and that’s actually superior,” Pauly added. “I’m so completely happy that I obtained her and Abby (6-foot-5 center blocker Hansen, a UCF product) within the commerce. Gill is my kind of participant, fiery and only a badass, if I can say that.”
Snagged within the second spherical (tenth general), Murphy additionally tasks as a key constructing block for a staff that held on to all 5 of its drafted rookies, three on the 14-player roster and two on the apply squad (center Azhani Tealer of Kentucky and reverse Kalyah Williams of USC). Georgia loved a productive debut with 21 digs, 4 assists and optimistic passing of 67% in serve-receive.
“We wish to construct for the long run,” Pauly mentioned. “Gill and George, they only walked into apply and completely owned it. They earned their spots. They deserved to start out.”
PVF potpourri
Thrill coach Fran Flory made a flurry of strikes to pare her roster to the league limits. Designated for the rookie apply squad have been libero Maddie Schermerhorn (Purdue, the staff’s fifth-round decide) and center blocker Amani McArthur (Michigan State). Earlier, setter Hannah Pukis (Oregon), the Thrill’s first-round alternative, was placed on short-term injured reserve. Flory positioned opposites Holly Toliver (a waiver declare) and Angel Gaskin on waivers …
The Bolt6 expertise used to find out in-or-out line calls and in reviewing performs challenged by coaches has acquired widespread kudos throughout the first two weeks of PVF. The league has eradicated officers on the traces and the digicam system delivers a near-instantaneous computer-generated graphic (just like what followers have seen in tennis) that gives a definitive outcome. The cameras additionally give the off-site replay official entry to video of unbelievable high quality that enables the troublesome “contact, no contact” calls to be made shortly. Two thumbs up, manner up, to the PVF for its funding on this expertise. …
Leah Edmond of the Vibe picked up the PVF’s Participant of the Week award. The charismatic OH ripped 16 kills and hit .407 in three units towards the Mojo, including two aces, three blocks and 5 digs. Her Vibe operating mate, Linnehan, was the PVF’s first Participant of the Week. …
Ex-NBA standout Paul Millsap, a four-time All-Star with the Atlanta Hawks, has purchased into the possession group of the PVF’s Vibe. …
The franchise in Indianapolis scheduled to hitch the PVF for the 2025 season will name itself the Indy Ignite …
We have now heard from dependable sources {that a} handful of present PVF gamers have already signed with League One Volleyball, which begins play in January 2025. LOVB lately added three extra gamers of distinction in American stars Roni Jones-Perry (BYU) and Sarah Wilhite Parsons (Minnesota), and French veteran Christina Bauer. Pin hitters Jones-Perry and Parsons have USA nationwide staff’s expertise.
TV saying fallout
The PVF has picture injury to undo after its nationwide viewers leveled blistering criticism of the streaming feed on the brand new league’s YouTube channel that piggybacked the domestically produced telecast of the match between the San Diego Mojo and the hometown Omaha Supernovas.
We should always notice that for this Wednesday’s match, which is able to once more be produced by Information Channel Nebraska, play-by-play announcer John Baylor returns, this time with former Nebraska nice Nancy Metcalf, who joined him on the primary broadcast of the season.
This previous Saturday evening, along with being plagued all through by technical points, the stay stream rankled out-of-market followers from the outset with announcers in all-out “homer” mode and have become embarrassingly terrible when the analyst — Tonia Tauke Dorn — veered off the rails with a rant on volleyball attire that was deemed wildly inappropriate and disrespectful by quite a few flabbergasted viewers.
The match was produced by New Channel Nebraska, which selected the announcers.
For 2 prolonged durations of the 1-hour, 43-minute presentation, the audio was annoyingly out of sync with the video, forward of it by at the very least two seconds.
Baylor, the longtime voice of Nebraska volleyball, for the whole match misidentified the Mojo’s Lindsay Stalzer (No. 17) as Genesis Collazo Vazquez (No. 77), despite the fact that the title on the again of the participant’s jersey plainly learn “Stalzer.” Baylor additionally referred to Mojo coach Tayyiba Haneef-Park, a three-time American Olympian, as “Parker” a number of instances.
Tauke Dorn, a former Nebraska standout and director of a ladies volleyball membership in close by Lincoln, often used “us” and “we” in reference to the Supernovas and “they” when referring to the visiting staff from San Diego. Which may have been OK on the statewide NCN community, however grating to the ears of a wider viewership. (Apart to those that appeared deeply offended by such homerism: Native announcers extra often than not are homers.)
However the stay chat hooked as much as the YouTube stream exploded with incredulity when the announcers veered off on the next tangent bashing the College of Oregon’s program (a Nebraska foil) and the garb worn by its gamers:
Tauke Dorn: “Can we discuss Oregon for a second since there are 5 gamers on the staff from Oregon? I attempt so exhausting to look at Oregon play volleyball throughout the season, however I simply can’t do it for 2 causes.”
Baylor: “One.”
Tauke Dorn: “One, their court docket is so busy that it provides me a headache.”
Baylor: “Plenty of timber. Two.”
Tauke Dorn: “Their shorts are too brief.”
Baylor: “Actually?”
Tauke Dorn: “Sure. I’ve a rule in my fitness center that if I can see your butt cheeks, it’s too brief. Like, can we simply make {that a} rule in faculty volleyball that there aren’t any butt cheeks allowed? It’s so distracting when you might have a participant and you may see their butt cheeks. Can we simply discuss that for a second?”
Baylor: “No extra mid-’90s vogue is what you’re saying?”
Tauke Dorn: “Yeah, I imply, we make shorts lengthy sufficient. Let’s simply go along with that. However Oregon, they go along with Nike and I don’t assume there’s even an inseam, it’s a zero.”
Baylor: “22-13 Omaha within the second …”
The “butt cheeks” backlash was so fast and so intense that even a Professional Volleyball Federation coach and an announcer who had been commissioned to work the league’s debut match publicly weighed in on the X social-media platform (previously Twitter).
Emily Ehman, a well-known face to VolleyballMag.com readers and a Huge Ten Community analyst, known as the PVF’s first match on January 24, the Vibe on the Supernovas, for its nationwide feed. Ehman tweeted: “Let me simply say that Oregon is a rattling enjoyable staff to look at. And that it makes me actually upset when individuals touch upon what gamers seem like of their recreation apparel or how they put on it.”
Stay streams produce trickles
Strolling again the fiasco from Saturday probably shall be a chore for the PVF, however maybe the one saving grace is that comparatively few individuals suffered via it. Whereas an introduced crowd of 11,403 witnessed the Mojo-Supernovas match at Omaha’s CHI Well being Middle, the height stay views on the YouTube channel’s feed Saturday (February 3) was 7,645.
I’ve saved a viewership log of all 5 of the PVF’s matches and this was the primary wherein the followers within the stands outnumbered these viewing on the stay stream.
Right here’s a breakdown of the opposite introduced attendances as introduced by the PVF and the height live-stream views logged in these matches:
January 24, Vibe at Supernovas — 11,642 at CHI Well being Middle vs. 13,745 on YouTube.
January 25, Columbus Fury at Grand Rapids Rise — 7,805 (an introduced sellout) at Van Andel Area vs. 8,544.
January 26 — Vibe at Valkyries, 5,284 at Addition Monetary Area vs. 7,514.
February 1, Mojo at Vibe — 6,100 at Gasoline South Area vs. 7,183.
These stay views numbers are essential as a result of they supply essentially the most correct gauge of how invested followers are of their PVF groups. It’s stay sports activities, in spite of everything, and real-time viewership is what makes sports activities so extremely prized by TV networks. Shoppers watching stay can not fast-forward via the advertisements that pay the freight.
By means of two weeks of competitors, the PVF has performed an admirable job of placing (lined) butts in seats, a mean of 8,446, and even its least-attended match must be seen as encouraging. However its common peak stay views on YouTube (a free platform with common accessibility) of 8,926 lacks vital mass. That quantity merely doesn’t ship the message that the PVF has cultivated a extremely invested viewers that might be value it to a TV accomplice to pay a difference-making rights charge.
Don’t be fooled by the views quantity you see on the movies of PVF matches which have been round for some time. These are cumulative views, not distinctive viewers, and a view is registered each time a person appears at a clip for round 30 seconds.
For instance, the Mojo-Vibe match from February 1 confirmed 53,000 views on Monday evening. Which may seem to be so much, but it surely tells TV folks that the majority of the viewers most popular to look at it later slightly than sooner (e.i., DVR shoppers), thus being far much less enticing to a conventional linear channel. That video, by the way in which, had generated $99 in income (in response to a well-liked YouTube income calculator), a drop within the bucket even for bare-bones TV.
One other obvious instance of “performed on a budget” manufacturing got here within the debut match on January 24. Fairly than open that historic present with high-energy hoopla and pictures of an enormous cheering crowd, the producers opted to file an intro wherein the primary photos viewers noticed have been of a near-empty area and two announcers sitting at a desk with no one behind them.
The PVF’s rollout stays a piece in progress, and the league’s early streaming efforts did little to ship the message to mildly curious followers that what they watched was particular.
