One of my New Year’s resolutions was to watch League One Volleyball, and I was excited to watch the First Serve match between the defending champion LOVB Austin and the team they swept in the championship, LOVB Nebraska. It was a fun back-and-forth match, and if it is indicative of the rest of the games, LOVB will have a great second season. Here are my takeaways from Opening Night of LOVB.

1. I like Austin’s home court. I’m not exactly a court connoisseur. I mostly like the NBA’s weird courts during the NBA Cup, but I’m usually content with a plain court. Austin’s court was understated, but I thought it looked good on television. The purple bordering the court made it relatively easy to see when balls were in and out, and it didn’t distract from the game.

2. We need more stats. Overall, I thought the commentators did a great job calling the game. They explained the game in a way that was easy for a relatively casual fan like myself to understand. They also did a good job of providing background information on these players, including their collegiate and international careers. I just wish they used more statistics to tell the story of the game.They did a better job as the match went along of telling us that Kimberly Drewniok was leading the game in points or that Asjia O’Neal was hitting .600, but I thought there were a lot more opportunities to tell us the stats or even display them on the screen.It almost makes it worse that the LOVB.com Match Central has a bunch of really interesting stats. I went there during the game to try to find out how old Jordan Larsen is (more on that later) and was very impressed with their in-match stats.

3. Is this the only league that does challenges well? You would never know it if you watch the NBA, MLB, NFL, EPL, or NHL, but it turns out challenges don’t actually need to take three minutes every time. If a team or the referee challenged a call they would show a couple of replays, make a decision and then move on with their lives. I’ve never understood why it takes a dozen replays for officials in other sports to make a decision. One of the best parts of professional volleyball is how fast the game moves. Often, there isn’t even time to show a replay of the previous point before the next serve. It was a refreshing change of pace from watching other leagues, and the quick challenges played an important part in the pace of play.

4. Please tell us how old these players are. They don’t have ages or birth dates on their player pages, so maybe it is a conscious effort by LOVB to not dwell on anyone’s age. And just because every other league provides that information and media discusses it all the time, doesn’t necessarily mean that is the only way to do it. I just feel like I would know these players so much better if I had any sense of who the veteran players were. Who’s fresh out of college? Who is hoping to make their first Olympic team in 2028, or is hoping to hold on for one more? Its great to know that Jordan Larsen has played in four Olympics but she was LOVB Nebraska’s best player for large swaths of that match at 39-years-old. How are they not making a huge deal out of that?

5. I love watching the setters. There is no denying that they aren’t as exciting as the outside hitters, but I was so impressed watching how both setters could take passes that were low or away from the net or on the other side of the court and somehow set the ball exactly where it needed to be, almost every time. I knew the outside hitters would jump high and hit hard, and they certainly did, but it was so fun to watch the setters turn points around with one good set. Someone obviously agreed with me since Austin setter Brie O’Reilly was named the Player of the Match.

6. Logan Eggleston was really, really good. I don’t want to make too many declarations about the players in this game before I’m able to see the other teams. If both of these teams go out and lose at home on Sunday, I’ll feel differently about them than I do now. That being said, Logan Eggleston was noticeably bigger than everyone else on the court, but she didn’t move like it. I thought she did reasonably well with the fact that Nebraska served to her nearly every time, but she looked like she was everywhere at the net on both offense and defense. Between Eggleston, Asjia O’Neal and reigning LOVB Finals MVP Madisen Skinner, it is hard to see how any team slows down Austin’s offense this season.

7. The slide is the most fun play in volleyball. I’ve always felt this way, but this game just reinforced it. It’s probably not nearly as effective as it looks, which is one of the reasons neither team used it a ton, but something about the middle blocker going around the outside and stuffing the ball just looks pretty. Maybe I just like it because it is easy for my untrained eye to identify.

8. I’m even more interested to see a game live. It sounded at times like the crowd was very into the game, especially when Austin made its comeback in the fourth and fifth sets. It's hard to tell sometimes because the fans are so far away from the action, but it certainly seemed loud in the arena. I just think it has to be so much fun to see a game live. Both teams had some crazy athletes, and I can only imagine what that looks like up close. I was excited to drive up to Madison for a game anyway, but seeing this game on TV only made me want to go to a game that much more.