LOVB Salt Lake tips off Wednesday. Here's what to know about Utah's newest pro sport

SALT LAKE CITY — Close to six years after wrapping up her AVCA first-team All-America career, Roni Jones-Perry rode volleyball to a career across the globe.

The 27-year-old outside hitter from West Jordan who starred at BYU has racked up frequent flyer miles, playing in Italy, Poland and Brazil, in addition to time with Team USA that included a spot on the gold medal-winning Pan American Cup squad in 2019 and bronze medal winners two years later. She also earned a spot on the 2023 Volleyball Nations League roster.

But when Jones-Perry steps on the court at the 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta later Wednesday night, she'll do something she's never done before: play in a professional volleyball match on home soil.

Jones-Perry is one of the 15 rostered players with League One Volleyball's (LOVB, pronounced "Love" for short) Salt Lake franchise that opens the franchise's inaugural season Wednesday night (5:30 p.m. MST, ESPN+).

"I feel an enormous amount of gratitude for this league and the people that have put it together," said Jones-Perry, who prepped at Copper Hills High and starred for Club V, one of LOVB's grassroots partner clubs. "There are a lot of athletes making big sacrifices to try to make this league work. Now my family that got to watch me in college, who were stuck on crappy streams before, can come watch me in person — and it's amazing.

"It's really special," she added.

Volleyball the 'next major league'

After opening on the road in Atlanta followed by next week's "Weekend with LOVB" in Madison, Wisconsin, LOVB Salt Lake will open the home slate Wednesday, Jan. 22 against LOVB Houston at Salt Lake Community College's Bruin Arena (7 p.m. MST, LOVB Live).

That will be the franchise's home venue for most of the season, save for Salt Lake's "Weekend with LOVB" host Feb. 7-8 at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.

It's all part of a move to grow the game of volleyball into North America's "next major league." LOVB is one of two upstart professional women's volleyball leagues in the United States trying to make a dent on a sport where the country's best college stars have routinely moved overseas to Europe, South America and southeast Asia to play professionally.

Pro Volleyball Federation launched last year with teams in Atlanta, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Omaha, Orlando, San Diego and Las Vegas.

But volleyball has a passionate fan base in LOVB's six anchor markets of Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Omaha and Salt Lake City, and a group of investors in the "bottom-up" league that partners with more than 17,000 players on over 1,500 teams at 58 club programs across the country — including Club V, where Jones-Perry got her start.

"I think there are a lot of people who are really passionate about the sport," Jones-Perry told KSL.com, "and I think Salt Lake can do really well."

The club features star players like founding athletes and Olympic gold medalists Jordyn Poulter and Haleigh Washington, international standouts like Japanese libero Manami Kojima, and a trio of former Utah college stars playing on the same team for the first time in Jones-Perry, former BYU teammate Mary Lake and former Brighton High and University of Utah star Dani Drews.

Many of them are returning to the United States after playing overseas, or in the single-site Athletes Unlimited in the states. That includes Drews, who wrapped up her All-American career at Utah and played in Poland, Italy and Japan before returning to AU last fall.

Now the left-handed outside hitter from Sandy is back in her hometown.

"I feel like I've won the lottery," Drews told the league website.

Still others are making a return to the sport they play in college, like Lake, who finished her career as BYU's all-time leader in digs before putting her accounting degree from the university's Marriott School of Business to work with a CPA firm in Salt Lake City — something she admits boasted a much higher salary than entry-level pro volleyball rookie — and starting a family.

But four years after initially setting the volleyball down in everything but occasional pick-up games and amateur tournaments, Lake reached out to LOVB to see if the Salt Lake franchise needed another libero.

"I worked out every day and paid people to serve to me," she said. "It was really hard. And I wasn't getting paid, so I had to beg my neighbors to take my son while he napped so I could play volleyball and and wouldn't have to pay a babysitter."

Here's the full roster of LOVB Salt Lake:

• Jordyn Poulter, S, Illinois
• Tamaki Matsui, S, Japan Women's College of Physical Education
• Morgan Miller, OH, Cal
• Maddie Haynes, OH, Cal
• Skylar Fields, OH, USC
• Tori Dixon, MB, Minnesota
• Sophie Fischer, MB, Georgia
• Serena Gray, MB, Pittsburgh
• Roni Jones-Perry, OH, BYU
• Haleigh Washington, MB, Penn State
• Manami Kojima, LIB, Aoyama Gakuin University
• Dani Drews, OH, Utah
• Mary Lake, LIB, BYU
• Claire Hoffman, OH, Washington
• Heidy Casanova, OPP

Every game will be broadcast through the ESPN family of networks, streamed on ESPN+ or broadcast through the league's website at LOVB Live.

Related topics