CHICAGO — The Big Ten volleyball coaches and student-athletes agreed that the sport’s future is bright, despite not knowing what exactly that will look like.

Even with so much uncertainty surrounding volleyball, including conference realignment, booming attendance and television numbers and the pending House settlement, everyone expressed optimism for its direction during Big Ten media days Tuesday.

“It’s on a rocket ship right now, all women’s sports. It’s pretty exciting to see,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.

College volleyball is coming off a season in which teams set records for viewership for the regular season and the championship match, which was broadcast on ABC as the most-watched match. Nebraska filled a football stadium with 92,003 people to watch a match last season, and Wisconsin attracted more than 17,000 people to a regular-season match.

This year is poised to build upon that momentum with a pair of early-season events. Nebraska and Wisconsin will play Kentucky and Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, site of December’s NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship.

Wisconsin and Minnesota will play Texas and Stanford at the Fiserv Forum…

CHICAGO — The biggest storyline of the 2024 Big Ten season wasn’t even in the building on Monday as the conference had the first of two media days.

At the third annual Big Ten Volleyball Media Days, most of the coaches were asked about the four newcomers to the league: Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington. Their addition stretches the conference to both coasts of the country and complicates schedules and travel.

Those four new schools will meet the media here on Tuesday.

“It’s going to be new for everyone. It’s the first year, so there’s going to be a learning curve,” Rutgers coach Caitlin Schweihofer said.

Each Big Ten school will play each West Coast team once this year. Central and Eastern Time Zone schools will either travel to play Oregon and Washington or spend a weekend in Los Angeles taking on UCLA and USC. They will host the two schools they do not travel to.

Michigan State coach Leah Johnson doesn’t view the travel as an obstacle but as just another road trip. Because the Spartans haven’t played the new members before, they will treat those matches more like nonconference opponents and learn about their different styles.

“We’ll play that…

Oluwadamilola Awojobi — Dami for short — is a rising senior at Howard University in Washington, D.C We asked Howard coach Shaun Kupferburg if one of his players would chronicle their team’s trip May 16-27 to Botswana and Zimbabwe. Luckily for us, Dami, a 6-foot-1 pin hitter from Hempstead, New York, took it on:

 

 

 

My team and I were blessed with an incredible opportunity to be part of an 11-day trip to the continent of Africa! We went to Botswana as sports diplomats, coaching volleyball clinics and playing in an international tournament. We also met with members of the U.S. Embassy, went on four safaris, and visited Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe! I’m honored to be able to share the details of our recent adventure.

After a year of, planning, uncertainty, fundraising, and more planning, our trip finally became a reality. 

What does one take to Africa? Well, bug spray for sure. 

On Thursday morning, May 16, we made our way to Dulles International Airport to embark on a journey we’d never forget. The plane ride was, well, let’s just say long. Really long. Did I mention long? After 20 hours of movies, crying children, sleeping, a sunset, and a sunrise, we landed in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. 

As we walked down the plane’s stairs, the air was hot,…

Two of the new members of the Big Ten conference go from the frying pan into the fire for their first Big Ten volleyball road trips.

USC and UCLA will play their respective first league road matches at Nebraska during the last week of September to kick off the 10-week conference schedule. Those two Southern California schools and two from the Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon, not only expanded the league to 18 teams but created a whole new set of travels situations to work out.

Second-year UCLA coach Alfee Reft said they worked with Big Ten officials to make the integration seamless and all the cross-country flights more manageable. He’s looking forward to the challenge of opening conference play in Lincoln, where Nebraska is not only the defending B1G champion but NCAA attendance leader, 

“I think opening up anywhere in the Big Ten for us is going to be exciting,” Reft said during an interview on the Big Ten Network. “Certainly, heading out to Nebraska is a real fun way for our Bruin squad this year to enter and have our inaugural match in the Big Ten.”

While the Huskers will host the West Coast teams during the first week of league play, the four other Big Ten 2023 NCAA tournament qualifiers will face off on opening…