Jordan Thompson holds her AU Pro Volleyball Championship medal as gold confetti flies around her.

Jordan Thompson Crowned 2025 AU Pro Volleyball Champion

Siera Jones

Nov 02, 2025

The 2025 Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball Championship belonged to Jordan Thompson from start to finish. In her AU debut, the two-time Olympic medalist seized control of the leaderboard during Week One and never let go.

She finished the season with 3,563 leaderboard points, 548 points ahead of Reagan Cooper, adding a decisive 683 leaderboard points in the final week of the season while securing her eighth MVP award.

Thompson sat in the captain’s chair for three straight weeks and maintained her grip on the top spot from Week One onward while stacking on record-breaking performances.

She recorded 229 kills total across the season and delivered double-digit kill performances in each of her 12 matches. The opposite hitter became the first player in AU Pro Volleyball history to surpass five matches with 20 or more kills in a single season. Her dominant run started with 20 kills against Team Abercrombie in Week One for the second-highest debut offensive performance in league history, and she continued to trend upwards from there.

“This I think, really helped me fall in love with the sport again,” Thompson said of her first AU season. “Professional careers come with ups and downs, so moments like this are really important and so impactful, I think, to keep us going. I’m so thankful to the players, to the coaches, to all the support staff. This is such a well ran organization like I was genuinely blown away and very, very thankful to be here.”

She added another record in Week Two versus Team Hoffman when she tallied 26 kills–just one shy of the single-match record–while setting a new single-set record with 15 kills. That match also marked the first double-double of the season across AU.

After Week Two, Thompson held a 722-point lead over second-place Reagan Cooper, marking the greatest margin between first and second place after two weeks in AU Pro Volleyball history. She continued to hold the number one spot throughout the championship, leaving no doubt of her place atop the field of 44.

“[This season] was a lot of fun in the sense that it challenged me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses…Having people around to kind of help in the areas that I’m not great at, and finding where I can help with their weaknesses, and building a team that ultimately just has fun playing the sport,” she reflected.

To commemorate the victory, Thompson will receive a medal designed and hand-fabricated by Lisa Issenberg, founder of Kiitellä, Inc. Kiitellä is a Finnish word meaning “to thank, applaud, or praise,” and Issenberg creates awards that are innovative, mixed-media, non-traditional works of art, pieces that celebrate accomplishment, humanity, and philanthropy. Kiitellä is committed to being a responsible steward of our environment, with each step in the process from design to fabrication to delivery using minimal energy and material.

Athletes Unlimited will also commission a portrait of Thompson for its Champions Collection, which features emerging artists whose work and approach speak to the mission and values of the organization. The portrait will be created by Poornima Moorthy, a Madison-based artist whose work is in the permanent collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital, and was also an artist in Residence at the Madison Public Library.

Second-place medalist: Reagan Cooper

Reagan Cooper was the rookie who flew under the radar in Week One before making an undeniable impact in Week Two that led to her captaining her own squads in Weeks Three and Four, all while delivering nine consecutive double-digit kill performances.

Cooper claimed second with 3,015 total leaderboard points and a 9-3 record. She earned seven MVP distinctions and joined Thompson and Dani Drews as the only players with five or more MVP awards during the championship. Her offensive peak came in Week Four when she posted a season-high 22 kills against Team Drews, becoming just the fourth player to record 20-plus kills in a match and the 10th in league history to achieve the feat.

Third-place medalist: Natália Zilio Pereira

Natália Zilio Pereira posted 11 kills in her AU debut, and she continued to be a big-time performer throughout the season. She flirted with a top-four finish in Week Two after an explosive 19-kill outing versus Team Valentin-Anderson. Then, broke her way into the top three when it mattered most in the final week of competition, thanks to a clutch MVP 1-worthy performance that helped Team Drews defeat Thompson’s gold squad.

Pereira finished her final match of competition with an MVP 2 nod after another dominant performance for Team Drews that included 9 kills, 9 digs, 3 blocks, and 2 aces, and allowed her to hold on to that third spot on the leaderboard. She finished the season with 118 kills, 110 digs, and 2,706 leaderboard points and collected five MVP awards to round out a statement debut season in AU.

Fourth-place medalist: Dani Drews

Dani Drews made it onto the podium for the second time in her AU career after being a model of consistency throughout the season. The 2022 third-place finisher registered double digits in the kill categories in 11 out of her 12 matches, which was a feat that only Thompson surpassed this fall. She broke into the top four in time to serve as team captain for the final week, where her team earned a 2-1 record.

She finished with 155 kills and 105 digs, and received MVP honors five times, which tied for the third most earned by any player this season. Her season-high offensive performance came in Week One, when she recorded a 20-kill match for team De La Cruz-Mejía.

Defensive Player of the Year: Morgan Hentz

Morgan Hentz further cemented herself in the AU record books as she claimed her fourth consecutive Defensive Player of the Year honors. She reached another career milestone this season when she recorded her 700th career dig. She posted a season-high 21 digs against Team Thompson in Week Four, marking her sixth career match with 20 or more digs and making her one of just three players to reach the 20-dig mark this season.

She served as a captain in Weeks One, Two, and Four, and was the only libero to earn a captain assignment in 2025. She finished the season with 169 digs and led the league in that category while accumulating 2,355 leaderboard points and securing an 8th-place finish.

Blocker of the Year: Molly McCage

McCage repeated as Blocker of the Year after earning the distinction in both 2023 and 2024. She remains AU’s all-time blocks leader with 149 total, and also reached her 400th career kill this season. She remained one of the highest-performing middles all season and was the only middle to captain a team this fall.

She finished 16th on the leaderboard after she totaled 69 kills and 34 blocks over the course of the season and averaged a league-leading 0.94 blocks per set. McCage was second in the league in block assists per set and tied for the most match MVP distinctions among middles with 3 total.

Teammate of the Year: Carly Graham

Setter Carly Graham was voted Teammate of the Year after making a positive impact across the league during her first AU season. The award is given to the player who exemplifies great leadership skills, good character, and serves as a positive influence on their teams, regardless of personal performance.

Graham often entered matches as a serving substitution and served as the backup setter for some of the most successful squads this fall. She finished with 22 set wins–tied for first among setters–and an 8-4 record.

Impact Award: Bethania de la Cruz-Mejía

Bethania De La Cruz-Mejía was awarded the 2025 Impact Award, which recognizes athletes who have demonstrated exceptional civic leadership through their Athlete Cause and community engagement. Cruz-Mejía played the 2025 season for Go Ministries, an organization based in her home country, the Dominican Republic, that aims to create spiritual leaders through sports.