Court Captains: A Volleyball Podcast

Our fourth and final guest of the 2024 off-season is Morgan Lewis! A southern California native, Morgan started playing volleyball at 9 and dreamed of playing professionally. She played college volleyball as an Oregon Duck, and was happy to be drafted her rookie year by Coach Haneef-Park - to play in her hometown for the San Diego Mojo in the inaugural PVF season.

Morgan talks with us about her excitement to play for the Columbus Fury in 2025, what went into her decision to transfer, and tells us about her current hyper fixation meal that proves to us she’s ready to feel at home in Ohio. We also chatted with Morgan about her pre-game routines (someone get this girl an Alani deal), her on-court jewelry preferences, and her earliest volleyball memory (it’s the cutest story ever).

Hope you enjoyed our interview series! Now let’s get ready for season two 🙂

Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: [email protected]

Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/

Our third guest is M’Kaela White of the Orlando Valkyries! Born just outside of Washington DC, M’Kaela started her volleyball journey at the age of 16. Since then, she’s filled that journey with both natural talent and plenty of extra hours of hard work - after playing her college career at JMU, she went on to play pro overseas in Finland, Italy, and Romania. We talk about the cultures of those places and what it was like to navigate agents and the pro world.

M’Kaela tells us about her first year with the Valkyries, how she got connected to Amy Pauly, and confirmed for us that the vibes of ORL were immaculate - both in team chemistry and in accessibility of quality Puerto Rican food. We loved hearing MK talk about her love of music and clarinet, her family dynamics, and their natural triple threat status! Hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did 🙂

Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet:PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: [email protected]

Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/

And for our second guest: Hannah Maddux of the Vegas Thrill! Hannah hails from San Antonio, Texas, and yes, she has seen Wemby in the flesh. A University of South Alabama Jaguar, we talk with Hannah about her experience getting that “you’ve been drafted” call upon graduating from a mid-major league school and her rookie season that followed.

From playing with Mother to remembering her first ever match in Omaha’s crowded-but-not-heckler-filled arena, her experience with the Thrill left her excited to head back to Vegas for the PVF’s second season. We loved hearing about her big break into the volleyball announcing world, and of course, her favorite musicals.

Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: [email protected]

Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/

Captains… we’re in our interview era.

We’re so excited to have August Raskie as our first guest! Raskie, a Colorado native, is an Oregon grad and five-year pro who began her PVF career with the San Diego Mojo. We talk about her pro experience so far, her reactions to the inaugural PVF season, and her excitement to join the Grand Rapids Rise next year.

August also chatted with us about her life as a lefty and her thoughts on service routines, as well as her life off-court pursuing art, painting, drawing comics, and writing (we love her as the resident PVF Bob Ross). Finally, we ask August about her mantra “Oh to be human” and what being human means to her <3

Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet:PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: [email protected]

Looking to support making volleyball more equitable? Consider donating to Lights Out Volleyball https://www.lightsoutvolleyball.org/

Hey Captains, it’s nice to see ya again!

We had to jump back on the mics to talk through Signing Day / Signing Week / Signing period updates and reactions - our FIRST PVF offseason! Since all players in the league signed on for 1-year contracts in 2024, the signing period is chaos and we’re here for it. Happy to see some of these players sign on for bigger salaries in 2025 (of course, we don’t know who’s being paid what… yet… But we expect a good number of these intraleague transfers are for increased salaries and/or playing time, so get your money, athletes!)

We talk through the confusingly disparate marketing tactics for these teams’ announcements, as well as PVF’s cute little non-announcement announcement that we’ll only see 8 teams in 2025, rather than the previously promised 10. Excited for Indy to get going, and hoping for some good news from Dallas and Kansas City for 2026.

During this episode we talk about an organization that we love - LOV! You can find more about them to get involved or donate at: lightsoutvolleyball.org

Keep track of PVF 2025 signings with us on our Google Sheet, which you cannot edit because you don’t have permissions, but if you could, we’d advise that you not edit them on your phones: PVF '25 Commitments Watch List - by Court Captains

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question or a reaction to the signing period? Email us at: [email protected]

Hey, Captains! It’s the FINAL week of the FIRST regular season of the PVF.

First we talk about what we can expect in the next few weeks in terms of free agency and re-signing timelines. We’ve also got some other-league tea to spill. Then we do our final match analysis from week 16 - a handful of teams got their full rosters in during their last games, which we love.

Finally, we have playoff previews! We talk about our predictions for the semi-final matches, past stats on these teams from their regular season head-to-heads, and what we think each team needs to do to get to the final. Thanks for hanging out with us this season :)  

JOIN OUR WATCHALONG! We’ll be live-streaming our reactions to the playoffs on our YouTube channel, so join the conversation (new YT chat alert!) at youtube.com/@CourtCaptainsPod

Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf!

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question? Email us at: [email protected]

And, if you prefer to listen to us via YouTube, all our episodes will be uploaded there as well!

Hey, Captains! We’re reviewing week 15 (and a teeny bit of week 16) of the PVF. A few updates from the top including our final speculation on VNL departures (we think we’re done with those) and injury updates (from what we’ve heard around the block). Keep your eye out on May 20th for roster announcements from the teams, as that’s the day any unsigned 2024 players will become free agents (and we’ll likely hear about any resignings).

We give our points of view on some listener questions, and then dive into match analysis. This week we had a lot of playoff-implication spice on the court! The 3 and 4 spots have been up for grabs among Columbus, Grand Rapids, and San Diego - we saw some energetic volleyball as teams fought for their ticket to the playoffs. We also saw Atlanta’s final regular season match, plus a double header as San Diego stayed in Grand Rapids for the weekend (weird flex PVF schedulers but okay).

JOIN OUR WATCHALONG! We’ll be live-streaming our reactions to the playoffs on our YouTube channel, so join the conversation (new YT chat alert!) at youtube.com/@CourtCaptainsPod

Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf!

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question? Email us at: [email protected]

And, if you prefer to listen to us via YouTube, all our episodes will be uploaded there as well!

Welcome back! We’ve got a big episode for the Captains this week.

We have many updates on VNL moves and speculations: we talk about potential challenges for PVF teams if players depart for national team duties and who might fill in (one important update since time of recording: we know Morgan Hentz will be present for the remainder of Atlanta’s PVF season!). 

We also talk through recent transactions these teams are making as last-ditch efforts to furiously push into their playoff mojo, as well as answer some questions from listeners! And of course, recaps for the seven matches from week 14. This week we had strong performances from San Diego, an intense post-match interview from Columbus, and continued dominance from Atlanta.

Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf!

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question? Email us at: [email protected]

And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!

Welcome back, Captains! Ian and Kelly are hosting solo this week as we cover week 13 of the PVF. Another seven match week. Atlanta drops a match, but secures their spot in the PVF Championships in May. Thrill, Rise, and Fury each won one and lost one and Mojo barely dropped a tight 5 set match to Omaha. 

Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf!

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question? Email us at: [email protected]

And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!

Welcome back, Captains! PVF had six matches in week twelve, so we review transactions made before the trade deadline (spoiler, no trades were made) and get right into match analysis. We continue to see Atlanta crushing, San Diego going up in the standings, plus the fight for 3rd and 4th keeps getting interesting.

We also chat through some of our experience at our first in-person PVF match, in Grand Rapids against Vegas this past Saturday. Plus, Nikki characterizes the dynamics of each teams’ friendships.

Into data? We love this stats sheet courtesy of r/pvf!

Follow us on Instagram for our commentary and updates: @courtcaptainspod

Got a question? Email us at: [email protected]

And as always, look out for us in the PVF YouTube livestream chat!