Youth and pro volleyball is taking over Kansas City this weekend. What to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City hosts Triple Crown NIT and LOVB Classic, drawing youth and pro talent.
- Triple Crown runs Fri–Mon with 600+ teams and 70 convention-center courts.
- LOVB brings pros, youth camps and $100M+ backing with planned expansion.
Kansas City became the center of the volleyball world in December when it simultaneously played host to the Final Four for NCAA Division I women’s volleyball as well as the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s annual convention.
The city is set to receive an encore of volleyball-palooza this weekend.
For the second straight year, KC will host one of the biggest girls volleyball tournaments in the country and one of the country’s professional leagues — League One Volleyball.
The Triple Crown National Invitational Tournament (NIT), which began in 2012, has taken place at the Kansas City Convention Center since 2019, showcasing some of the best rising volleyball players from around the country. This year’s tourney runs Friday through Monday.
The tournament’s move east from its previous location in Salt Lake City was designed to place it more centrally geographically, Triple Crown’s director of volleyball, Jared Rudiger, explained to The Star.
League One Volleyball, or LOVB, is in its second season of existence. The LOVB Classic features three matches at Municipal Auditorium, each showcasing two of the league’s six teams. Those matches are scheduled to take place Friday through Sunday.
The coinciding events weren’t planned in collaboration with one another, Rudiger said. Some youth players may not catch any of the pro games because of their focus on their own tournament, where every team plays a minimum of seven games.
But both entities are excited to have these events taking place together — for the volleyball players, for the volleyball coaches and for the volleyball fans.
“It’s great for the young (girls) to see (pro volleyball) that have an aspiration to potentially be in that pro league,” Rudiger said. “But a lot of the teams are here to compete and get exposure to college recruiting.”
Hundreds of college coaches attend this Triple Crown event each year. Several Kansas City-area clubs will be competing in the tournament, as well.
“We have the captive audience of a great base of parents, youth athletes of all levels and skill-set that we get to take some of our professional athletes out to some of those clubs that are in locations that don’t have a professional team yet,” LOVB commissioner Sandra Idehen said.
LOVB has nearly 90 youth clubs across the country, with a few competing at Triple Crown this weekend.
“So it’s just an incredible showcase of what it means to have that connected youth to pro ecosystem,” Idehen said.
The NIT is introducing a new format for its tournament this weekend. Called “Battle to Bartle,” it pits lower-ranked teams at the Bluhawk sports complex in Overland Park. Winners advance to play at the NIT on Sunday and Monday.
Bluhawk has 16 volleyball courts and the convention center will be running 70, Rudiger said. Age categories for participants will range from 12-and-under to 18-and-under. Many games will be played simultaneously, as more than 600 teams play pool matches and make their way through brackets.
The tournament is a far cry from its inaugural iteration in 2012 in Richmond, Virginia, which featured just four teams.
“This was an opportunity for everyone across the country that maybe don’t play each other all the time to play each other on one really special weekend,” Rudiger said. “It’s just continuously evolved and growing into what we would consider one of the most elite volleyball tournaments in the country.”
What is the LOVB volleyball league?
LOVB, pronounced love, is one of three professional volleyball leagues in America.
LOVB has received more than $100 million in investment from big names like Olympic skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn, former WNBA star Candace Parker and NBA star Kevin Durant.
The league is based in six cities, where teams are named after the locale — Madison (Wisconsin), Austin (Texas), Atlanta, Houston, Nebraska (Omaha) and Salt Lake City. The league intends to expand to San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Twin Cities in Minnesota next season.
LOVB’s second season has seen teams play more matches in their respective home cities, with some neutral-site matches mixed in. The league’s inaugural season was primarily a tour-based model.
The league features several former college and international stars, such as Nebraska alum and Team USA Olympian Jordan Larson; Cincinnati alum and Olympian Jordan Thompson; and former Texas stars Madisen Skinner and Logan Eggleston.
LOVB Nebraska features two Kansas City natives, Truman High and Minnesota alum Lexi Hart and Stanford national champion and St. James alum Audriana Fitzmorris. Kearney High product Callie Schwarzenbach, who played for Nebraska and Long Beach State in college, suits up for LOVB Madison.
LOVB is also hosting camps for the many youth players across the area for the weekend. Several of the above-named players had competed professionally around the world before being able to come back to the U.S. and play as pros in their home country.
“Our top-tier athletes, who, for decades, have had to go far away from families, play in places where they maybe don’t speak the local language or don’t have as much connectivity,” Idehen said. “Our brightest and best stars are now staying home.”
Last season’s LOVB Classic was a tournament for the Kansas City crowd. This season’s iteration will be three regular-season games between the league’s teams. LOVB Salt Lake tops the standings with a 7-1 record but leads Houston and Austin by just two and three wins, respectively.
With the end of the season quickly approaching in April, Idehen hopes fans are ready for tightly contested, high-quality play.
“We’re already broadly considered to be one of the top three leagues in the world. We want to be clearly the number one,” she said. “We want to set the benchmark and the standard for women’s sports leagues here to not just volleyball specifically.”
The LOVB schedule
Here are the matchups and times for LOVB volleyball in KC:
Friday, February 13: LOVB Austin vs. LOVB Salt Lake, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, February 14: LOVB Nebraska vs. LOVB Atlanta, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, February 15: LOVB Madison vs. LOVB Houston, 4:30 p.m.
LOVB tickets can be bought here.
Tickets for Triple Crown can be bought here.
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 6:31 PM.
