On Saturday, I talked my friends Marty and Jenna into driving north from Illinois to catch our first LOVB match. Marty was the first person to alert me to the start of LOVB’s second season, and while we now mostly watch volleyball during the summer Olympics, all three of us were huge fans of the Illinois State volleyball team during our time as students there. Though I have enjoyed watching LOVB on USA Network, and I finally renewed ESPN+, so I can watch even more games, I was eager to experience the game live. Here is what I learned.

LOVB’s Merch is second-to-none

I have always been a sucker for women’s sports merch, which is why it may have been cheating to include buying more merch among my New Year’s resolutions. I have been impressed with LOVB’s hoodies, hats, and scarves since my first time visiting their online shop. The only thing that had kept me from racking up a big credit card bill was that I wanted to see what the in-arena merch situation was before I went crazy.

I also hadn’t decided if I wanted league merch or something that was specific to Madison, which is my default home team until the league expands to Chicago. I wound up going with a LOVB Madison Color Drenched hoodie (more on that later), but there were a lot of options I liked that were reasonably priced. I thought the Adidas Track Jacket looked even better in person, and I am regretting that I didn’t get a LOVB Madison scarf to go with my hoodie.

The workers at the merch table were extremely nice, and when I mentioned that I was disappointed they didn’t have the hoodie I wanted in my size, one of them went in the back to grab one for me and to restock the shelves. If I go to another game this season, I will definitely come home with more merch

LOVB Has the Best Team Colors

I have to give Jenna credit for this observation. It started with her asking me if any WNBA teams have pink in their team colors. After I ran through the teams in my head and realized that none of them do, she pointed out how good the LOVB Atlanta jerseys looked, and that Madison had very nice colors as well. And she was absolutely correct.

There are some WNBA teams with interesting color schemes. If I wasn’t a Chicago Sky fan already, I would be drawn to their blue and yellow. The Golden State Valkyries have the perfect shade of purple, and I love the Liberty’s seafoam. I also like Angel City’s use of pink, which is a bit more subtle than LOVB Atlanta.

That being said, I think all six LOVB teams have great color schemes and have done a great job incorporating them into their jerseys and other merch. It looks like we are getting orange, purple, and red respectively when LOVB Los Angeles, Minnesota and San Francisco join the league next season, and I look forward to seeing what that looks like as well.

The In-Arena Experience is Great

I can obviously only speak for Madison, though if LFG wants to pay to send me to Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Salt Lake City, and Nebraska, I will gladly report back what I find. Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison has been around as long as the Super Bowl, and in some respects, it looks its age. I would love for LOVB Madison to move to an arena with cupholders, and seats that look like they are younger than I am.

That being said, I loved everything else about my experience there. When we walked to the box office, there was a small sign with five different ticket prices. A worker asked us which price we wanted to pay, we settled on $47, and he said “that will be $141.” It wasn’t $47 plus fees and taxes and convenience and all the other garbage we have become accustomed to paying on top of the listed price. Perhaps even more importantly, parking was included with our ticket. That alone makes LOVB one of my favorite sports leagues.

Once we got into the arena, I thought there was a lot for fans (and especially kids) to do in the concourse. There were places for multiple photo ops as well as crafts, games and free stuff. Of greater interest to me were the concessions and the coffee and ice cream stands. I liked the coffee a lot, even if it could have been stronger. After spending over two hours in the car, the coffee and smoothies were welcome treats.

The Game Experience is A Lot of Fun

I had a hard time getting the QR codes on the jumbotron to work, though I suspect that had more to do with my phone and the angle we were sitting at than anything else. I was excited that the one QR code I did get to work was for the light show during player introductions. It would have been more fun if more people participated, or if it involved the Alan Parsons Project, but I thought it was very cool. The in-house DJ played a lot of fun songs in between points, though I would have loved to have requested “C’mon N; Ride It (The Train)” if my phone would have cooperated. The in-arena host was pretty good as well, especially when you consider the limited amount of time for timeouts or between sets.

One thing I was missing in the arena is player stats. It was nice that they flashed the team stats on the jumbotron during timeouts, but I had no idea how many blocks Rebekah Alick had (she was only credited with two but I swear she had at least twice that many) or how many points Tessa Grubbs had (15). Its one thing to have Match Central pulled up on a second screen at home, but I wish I didn’t feel like I had to have my phone out during the match.

I really hope Tessa Grubbs is okay.

I was really impressed with Grubbs when I caught Atlanta in the Match of the Week a couple of weeks ago, and she was Atlanta’s only consistent source of offense through the first two-and-a-half sets. Grubbs scored 15 of Atlanta’s 50 points despite missing the second half of the third set after she landed on a Madison player’s foot. I was impressed with how Atlanta rallied after she went down, but it is hard to imagine they will win much if Grubbs has to miss any time.

One-handed sets are so much fun

There weren’t very many in this match because the passing was so on point, but the few we saw may have been the most exciting plays of the day. I think I like one-handed sets because it feels like the setter is taking a near-disaster and turning it into a real attacking opportunity. Illinois native Lauren Carlini struggled at times and was even benched for a while, but she had a couple impressive one-handed sets that made something out of nothing.

Atlanta’s passing was outstanding

I understand why Atlanta setter Raichel Fairbanks was named Player of the Match, but I thought she got the ball in a perfect position to run the offense nearly every time, even when Madison was serving very tough. Overall, Atlanta had a 56.1 in system percentage, but it seemed even higher than that during the match.

Marlena Hayden is fun to watch

Madison couldn’t get much going offensively, but the most exciting moments came when they brought Hayden in to serve. Atlanta was in system on just one of Hayden’s six serves, and she had one of Madison’s two aces. Every time she entered it game, it felt like when a baseball team brings in a flamethrowing closer from the bullpen.