2025 AU Pro Volleyball Championship: Movers of Week 2
Although Jordan Thompson never budged from the top spot on the leaderboard while her team went 3-0 in Week Two of the Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball Championship, there was some major shuffling happening on the leaderboard below her.
While Natalia Valentin-Anderson remained in the top four, just moving from second to third, and Reagan Cooper and Molly McCage jumped up to captains’ positions, it was Natália Zilio Pereira who made the most significant jump up the leaderboard in Week Two.
Although she made a statement in Week One with 11 kills in her opening match with Team Kingdon Rishel, Zilio Pereira didn’t have the win points to raise her position higher than 22nd on the leaderboard.
All of that changed in Week Two when she exploded with a 19-kill performance to close out the week against Team Valentin-Anderson. Her consistency also stood out in the match as she recorded a .440 hitting percentage. The complete match performance earned her 410 points, allowing her to sneak into the top five on the leaderboard with a total of 1,257 points.
She climbed 17 places after receiving MVP 1 honors for the Monday match, and was just 17 points below her teammate McCage.
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Three Crucial Steps for Cooper
Members of Team Thompson dominated the leaderboard this week, but Team Hentz’s AU rookie Reagan Cooper still managed to break into the top three Week Two performers, and that was thanks to three stellar offensive showings.
Cooper posted her season-high 17 kills in Thursday’s match versus Team Valentin-Anderson, and she reached even higher in her second contest of the week with 18 kills versus Team Thompson. She kept up that impressive pace on Monday with 16 kills and hit .410 for her highest hitting percentage of the week.
She closed Week Two with two MVP 1 awards. After jumping from sixth to third on the leaderboard, she earned the chance to draft her own team for Week Three.
Leaps and Bounds for Bell, Kingdon Rishel, and McCage
Khat Bell, Madi Kingdon Rishel, and Molly McCage each rose 10 places in Week Two. Bell went from 27th to 17th, while Kingdon Rishel moved from 24th to 14th. But McCage’s jump was the most significant as it put her in the top four for a shot at a captain’s role in Week Three—the first time in her AU Pro Volleyball career. It’s a rare sight to see a middle blocker in the top four.
She recorded 7-, 5-, and 8-kill performances in Week Two, and hit .500 or higher each time. She also came up big defensively, especially in Game 2 versus Team Hentz with six blocks, tying her career high. She has a league-record seven matches with five blocks or more and will take that momentum into Week Three in Madison, where she’ll have the first pick of the draft.
Madi and Maddie Make Big Moves
Madi Bugg had a pre-arranged absence from the first match of the season in Week One, and the captains drafted their setters with that in mind—meaning that she wasn’t needed much even when she returned. But it was a different story in Week Two as runaway leader Jordan Thompson called on her to lead the offense.
Bugg’s starting assignment for the dominant Gold squad allowed her to make up 16 places as she went from last on the leaderboard to 28th. And if she continues to trend upward, she’ll be sure to break out of the middle of the pack. Her 582 points and 120 assists ranked first among setters in stat points for the week.
Maddie Haynes was also drafted onto Thompson’s gold squad alongside outside hitters Natália Zilio Pereira and Alexa Gray. Nonetheless, she still managed to break into the lineup after proving her worth in the first match of Week Two with a team third-best six kills and tied for a team second-best 13 digs versus Team Hoffman.
She saw less time on the court in the second match of the week, but was back in the starting lineup to help her team close the week versus Team Valentin-Anderson. Haynes posted a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs in that match, raising her position from 36th on the leaderboard to 22nd overall. She also went from a Week One score of 237 to more than doubling it in Week Two to raise her season total to 819.
Up Next
Week Three play shifts to Madison, Wisconsin, where Team Valentin-Anderson will start the week versus Team Cooper, followed by a matchup between Team Thompson and Team McCage.
The 2025 AU Pro Volleyball Championship features 44 of the world’s top volleyball players in an exclusive, high-stakes tournament to determine the ultimate champion of the sport. These elite athletes, handpicked from the best domestic and international pro leagues, will face off in the nation’s premier volleyball hubs in Omaha, Nebraska, at the Liberty First Credit Union Arena (October 1-15) and in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Alliant Energy Center (October 22 – November 3). Tickets for both locations are now available here.
Siera Jones is the digital media reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Instagram and X @sieraajones.
