The 2024 college volleyball season will now begin and end in Louisville.
The AVCA announced Monday that Kentucky, Louisville, Wisconsin and Nebraska will participate in its First Serve Showcase on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the KFC Yum! Center, which will also host the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in December.
The First Serve Showcase begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time with Nebraska of the Big Ten playing Kentucky of the SEC, followed by Wisconsin of the Big Ten playing Louisville of the ACC. The games will be broadcast on ESPN2.
“Louisville is the place to be for women's college volleyball this year!” Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly said in a press release. “We are excited for the new season and this outstanding event will be a great kickoff.”
The event also builds on a season in which television and viewership records have seemingly been set every week. Nebraska played a game at its Memorial Stadium last August and drew 92,003 spectators, while the NCAA title game drew an average of 1.7 million viewers.
“The AVCA is thrilled to bring together four teams of this caliber to kick off the new season,” said AVCA CEO Dr. Jaime Gordon. “AVCA First Serve provides another opportunity to showcase the sport and continue the momentum of the record-breaking 2023 season.”
After a three-day presale, tickets will be available to the public from June 14th.
The four participating teams all finished the 2023 season in the top 10 of the latest AVCA poll and are among the best programs of the last five years.
Wisconsin has made it to the final week of the season in four of the last five years, including winning the 2021 NCAA title. The Huskers were runners-up in 2021 and 2023. Louisville reached the national semifinals in 2021 and 2022, while Kentucky won the 2020 national championship.
They all also have ties to coach John Cook, as they are his current school (Nebraska), his former school (Wisconsin), and programs led by two of his former assistants (Craig Skinner at Kentucky and Busboom Kelly at Louisville).
The NCAA has granted a waiver because the event will take place before the permitted start date of Aug. 30. Teams will also likely request another waiver to move up their first practice date, which may overlap with Big Ten Media Days Aug. 5-6 in Chicago.
The First Serve Showcase is the Badgers' second high-profile early-season event. Wisconsin also participates in the two-day Women's College Volleyball Showcase at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The Badgers and Minnesota will play Stanford and Texas, respectively, over Labor Day weekend. The games will be broadcast on FOX and FS1.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said adding another event and pushing the boundaries is good for everyone in the sport.
“We are committed to doing more events like this – elite teams against elite teams with national television coverage and in big arenas where we can pack them,” he said. “I'm really excited. There were a lot of hurdles to overcome because of NCAA legislation. Jaime Gordon and his group deserve credit for making it happen on very short notice.”
Cook, no joke, gets contract extension
Although his reign as the highest-paid college coach was interrupted for just a few months, Nebraska coach John Cook reclaimed the title after receiving a new contract last week.
Cook agreed to a five-year extension that will keep him with the Huskers through the 2028 season and pay him a base salary of $825,000 per year. His previous contract, which called for a salary of $750,000 and was set to expire in January 2025, expired at that time.
Texas coach Jerritt Elliott briefly held the title after signing a new $800,000 contract that includes a base salary of $500,000 and $300,000 in 2024 for professional services payments. Those payments will increase annually, and he could overtake Cook again in the 2026 season.
Cook said he worked out the new contract with Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen, who was hired in March. Cook said he originally wanted the athletic department to buy him a new horse as part of his compensation. But when they said that wasn't possible, Nebraska added a $70,000 retention bonus to be paid out July 1. Cook said he wanted to use the money to buy a horse from a well-known Nebraska ranch.
“We are fortunate to have John Cook leading our volleyball program,” Dannen said. “He is the winningest coach in the country and one of the best coaches in the history of American volleyball. John expects nothing less than excellence in every single endeavor, and his track record reflects that.”
The contract also includes a deferred compensation agreement. The investment account will be established with an initial deposit of $1 million attributed to Cook's services in 2024. It will be managed by an investment manager selected by NU. The funds will fully vest by Dec. 31, 2024. If Cook moves to another school as coach before the contract expires or is fired for cause, he will lose the account.
News from the Big Ten
Wisconsin adds new floor
The UW Field House has gone soft. At least the court has.
Wisconsin posted pictures of its new Taraflex field on social media last week. The field looks similar to the old floor, with a wood grain print surrounded by a red border. Previously, the Badgers played directly on the wooden field in the Field House.
In recent years, many programs have added a soft surface to a wooden court to reduce the physical strain on players. In addition, the courts make it easier to slide and are gentler on players' bodies.
Timetables coming soon
With the Big Ten football schedule now finalized and being released in sections, volleyball teams should soon know when they will face their conference opponents.
Typically, the league adds volleyball games to its television schedule once all football games are on the calendar. For the past two years, the Big Ten has released its league schedule on June 14. In 2021, the schedules were released on June 12.
This year, the Big Ten has announced all matchups for its 18 members. Each team will play every other team once, with three pairs of home and away games.
Purdue and Minnesota end overseas travel
The Golden Gophers completed a 12-day trip through Europe after playing games in Turkey, Slovenia and Italy.
During the trip, Minnesota played three games in Istanbul, the hometown of sophom*ore libero Zeynep Palabiyik, against Vakifbank TBC, Eczacibasi and Yesilyurt. In Slovenia, the Gophers faced Odbojkarski Klub Nova KBM Branik (Slovenia). Minnesota finished the trip in Italy with games against Busto Arsizio Volley and the Italian Federation U22 team.
Speaking of Minnesota, coach Keegan Cook and his wife Sarah welcomed their second child last Friday. Keegan and Sarah met when he was on an overseas tour at the same venue in Slovenia and she was working there.
Purdue also spent his two-week trip in Italy, Croatia and Turkey.
The Boilermakers went 4-0-1 on the tour, drawing 3-3 with the Italian Federation team in Milan. Purdue didn't drop a set the rest of the tour, picking up wins over OK Pula and Mladost in Croatia, then playing two five-set matches against PSA Fire Ants in Istanbul.
Detering from Rutgers rises
Rutgers coach Caitlin Schweihofer promoted Abby Detering to assistant head coach.
Under her guidance, Rutgers' setters recorded the most assists per set since 2018 and the most kills per set since 2012. Deterring, who played at Florida and Penn State, begins her third season on the Scarlet Knights' staff.
“Abby has experience playing at a high level and has brought that experience to lead our offense,” Schweihofer said. “She has a strong recruiting vision for the future of the program and has led dedicated recruiting efforts to grow the Rutgers volleyball brand across the country and around the world.”
Transfer market overview
Although the transfer portal closed in mid-May, new players continue to be added to programs as the summer begins.
Northwest: First-year coach Tim Nollan continued to build the Wildcats' roster by adding two transfers in the last week of May: middle blocker Sophia Summers and outside hitter Lily Wagner.
Summers started all 31 games for Washington as a fourth-year sophom*ore during the 2022 season, averaging 1.36 kills and .087 blocks per set. She was not on the Huskies' roster for the 2023 season.
Wagner joins the Wildcats after spending her freshman year at Liberty. The 6-foot-1 forward appeared in 18 matches in 59 sets. Her biggest contribution was on defense, averaging 2.02 saves per set. The transfer brings Wagner closer to home, as she grew up outside of Milwaukee. Her mother, Amy, won a Big Ten title at Wisconsin in 1997, where she was also named an All-American.
Illinois: The Illini announced two new additions to their roster on Thursday. Outside hitter Averie Hernandez is not changing conferences or home states when she goes from Northwestern to Illinois. As a sophom*ore last season, she started nine games for the Wildcats and played in 25 games, averaging 2.52 kills per set.
Vivian Campbell played eight games as a freshman setter in Cincinnati. Of her 35 assists, 27 came in her only start of the season against Butler.
State of Michigan: The Spartans are strengthened by the signing of Akasha Anderson from Auburn.
The junior outside hitter was named an All-SEC selection as a freshman and had 356 kills last year, second-most for the Tigers. Anderson had double-digit kills in 22 of her 27 games and eclipsed the 20-kill mark three times.
