Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Exhibition Tour Coming To Penn State This Spring

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

Penn State women’s volleyball will host an exhibition match against a team of Athletes Unlimited pros, including Deja McClendon and Alisha Glass Childress, this spring at Rec Hall.

Penn State is among eight college programs that will host Athletes Unlimited on their campus, joining fellow Big Ten schools Ohio State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Trips to Louisville, Texas, Baylor, and Howard, which the Nittany Lions played earlier this season, are also on the schedule.

In the accompanying press release announcing the spring tour, Athletes Unlimited said it will be switching to a fall season in 2023 for its third iteration of the women’s professional volleyball league, which features an unorthodox scoring system and captain-selected teams each week. Next year, the 30-match schedule will be carried by ESPN’s television networks and ESPN+ during October and November.

The spring tour will begin on March 23 and run through April 21, but the date of Penn State’s match against the 15-player AU roster has yet to be announced. McClendon and Nia Grant played in the first season of Athletes Unlimited volleyball in spring 2021, while Childress joined McClendon for the second season last spring after returning to competition.

Childress was named a three-time AVCA All-American and led the Nittany Lions to three straight NCAA national championships from 2007-10. She’s one of the best setters to ever play for Penn State, tallying 5,800 assists as a Nittany Lion. Childress later helped the United States win the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

McClendon was a four-time AVCA All-American outside hitter who was teammates with Childress on Penn State’s 2010 national championship team during her freshman year. McClendon was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament that season and also helped the Nittany Lions win another national title as a senior in 2013. She surpassed 1,000 career kills and digs in college.

McClendon and Childress were recently named to the five-person Athletes Unlimited player executive committee for the 2023 season.

In addition to the exhibition matches, Athletes Unlimited pros will travel to local club programs, schools, and community events to promote the upcoming fall season and interact with their fans. They will also host clinics to help grow the sport of volleyball, which is already one of the most popular team sports among high school girls in the U.S.

Some of the notable players on the exhibition tour roster other than McClendon and Childress include former Wisconsin and Stanford stars Sydney Hilley and Morgan Hentz. Texas’ Molly McCage, Kentucky’s Leah Edmond, and Illinois’ Ali Bastianelli are also on the roster.

Cassidy Lichtman, who played for Stanford from 2007-10 before representing her country on the U.S. women’s national team from 2011-16, now serves as Director of Sport for Athletes Unlimited. Lichtman came out of retirement and played in the first two seasons of the league.

“The exhibition tour is a great opportunity to reach the many volleyball fans across the country at the collegiate and youth levels, and it will be really special for our athletes to go back to the places and programs that set them on the path to their professional careers,” Lichtman said.