Volleyball Season 4: Movers of Week 1
For the second year in a row, it was a purple party for the first week of the Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball season.
This time it was Team De La Cruz-Mejía that started a perfect 3-0, just like Team Edmond in 2023. Here’s how each team shook out the win points:
- Team De La Cruz-Mejía: 3-0, won 7 sets (460 Win Points)
- Team Nuneviller: 1-2, won 4 sets (220 Win Points)
- Team Hentz: 1-2, won 4 sets (220 Win Points)
- Team Valentin-Anderson: 1-2, won 3 sets (180 Win Points)
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Deadly duo: Betty and Abercrombie
Turns out it’s brutal for other teams when the most dominant outside in the league has the first pick. That was the case at the Week One Draft when Bethania De La Cruz-Mejía selected opposite hitter and AU newcomer Brittany Abercrombie.
Betty did Betty things in the first three matches; she logged 45 kills on 114 attempts (3rd in both categories), four aces, and had a 61% positive reception percentage.
Adding Abercrombie to those stats made the team unstoppable. She led the league in kills with 46 and only made seven errors on 123 swings. Abercrombie earned an MVP nod in every match and closed the week at the top of that leaderboard category.
The point earnings for both these athletes were very similar in the first three games. They both earned 460 win points as the top team of the week. Abercrombie earned 140 MVP points to De La Cruz-Mejía’s 120 points. De La Cruz-Mejía led the league in stat points with 486.
Abercrombie trails De La Cruz-Mejía by only 16 total points. Don’t expect to see these two on the same team again but do anticipate them duke it out on the court and the leaderboard for the next four weeks.
Block to the top
Kayla Caffey’s defensive performance was the key to her success in Week One and led her to the captain’s chair.
Blocks were her highest-yielding stat points category for 144 points on 12 blocks. This tied the single-week solo block record with Danielle Hart who did it in Week One of 2023. Caffey also had 17 kills and a solid hitting percentage of .343 plus two service aces.
She’s a second-year player and ranks third on the leaderboard; she’ll be a captain for the first time in her AU Pro Volleyball career and will lead the blue squad.
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Milestone moment for Nootsara
Nootsara Tomkom became the second AU Pro Volleyball player to reach 1,000 career assists during Sunday’s match. She is second in the league in assists with 100 through three games this season. She posted 29 digs to contribute to her 253 stat points.
This will be Nootsara’s second time leading a team; she was the Blue team captain in Week One last season and helped the blue squad to a 2-1 record.
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Week Two Schedule
The competition for Week Two starts on Friday, Oct.11 with a doubleheader on Bally Sports and VBTV. Team Caffey will take on Team Abercrombie at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT followed by Team De La Cruz-Mejía vs Team Nootsara at 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT.
Tune in to see who remains at the top and who climbs their way up.
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Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Twitter @savannaecollins.
