Week 1 Captains Set for AU Pro Volleyball Season 4

© Athletes Unlimited, LLC 2024 / Credit: Jade Hewitt Media
Savanna Collins
Sep 23, 2024

The Week One captains are set for the fourth season of Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball, beginning on October 3.

Brooke Nuneviller, Natalia Valentin-Anderson, Morgan Hentz, and Bethania de la Cruz will draft the first teams of the season.

The Week One draft will be on Monday, September 30 at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. MT with Savanna Collins providing commentary. Kevin Barnett will join for Weeks Two through Five. The Draft will be streamed live on Facebook.

The final leaderboard standings from the previous Championship Season determine the captains for the start of each new AU Pro Volleyball season. 2023 Champion Leah Edmond will not be returning for the upcoming season to take time off after competing in the inaugural season of the Atlanta Vibe in the Pro Volleyball Federation.

Meet the Captains

Nuneviller is the highest-ranked returning player from last season and will captain the Gold squad. In 2023, Nuneviller climbed her way up the leaderboard to be a captain in Week Five and led her team to a 2-1 record. She earned a third-place medal in her first season with AU Pro Volleyball while dominating multiple stat categories. The outside hitter was fifth in the league in digs (156) and only second in the category amongst non-liberos. She also recorded six double-doubles and set the league single-match record for most kills without an attack error on October 15.

Valentin-Anderson has one of the best track records of success in AU Pro Volleyball; she is only the second player in league history to earn a medal in back-to-back seasons. She has a career 12-5 record as a captain and last season was second in the league with 544 assists. She also added 23 kills and 163 digs.

Hentz returns as the reigning Defensive Player of the Year after her fifth-place finish in 2023. She’s won the DPOY honor in consecutive seasons and last year led the league in digs with 212. Hentz also holds the AU single-match record for digs, which she set last season with 25 in a game. She was a captain multiple times in 2023 and put together not one but two teams that went 3-0.

De La Cruz continues to be one of the most dominant forces in AU Pro Volleyball returning for her fourth season. Despite missing a week of games to compete with the Dominican Republic’s national team last year, she still finished sixth overall on the leaderboard. The 2022 Champion holds the single-season record for kills (233) and service aces (18). She has a .633 win percentage as a captain and has served in the role 10 different times.

AU Pro Volleyball returns to Mesa, Arizona on October 3. Tickets are on sale now.

 

Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Twitter @savannaecollins.

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