League One Volleyball (LOVB), an American league, revealed the new players on the 2nd, Korean time, with the news that it has "recruited seven more outstanding players on the professional team list." The list included the name of Giovanna Milana (registered name Jia), who played for one season (23-24 seasons) in the Korean league's articles of association.
Last season, Jia joined Jeonggwanjang with the fifth overall pick in the foreign draft. Jia, who is the only team among the seven teams to have teamed up with Mega, the only Apogit Spiker, to advance to the spring volleyball league for the first time in seven seasons. Based on the 23-24 regular season, she played in 129 sets in 34 games, and achieved a cumulative 690 points and overall success rate of 43.95 percent. She ranked first overall in offense by time difference with 64.81 percent, and second overall in offense with 44.27 percent.
However, her career in Korea ended with only one season. Jia is scheduled to play in the third professional league LOVB in the U.S., starting in November, after heading to the Indonesian league after finishing the season.
Dali Santana, who played for IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, has also been confirmed to enter the same league. LOVB said on its official SNS in March, "Dali Santana, who was a member of the Puerto Rico national team and played in the Korean V-League in the 22-23 season, has joined the LOVB League." On top of that, Andrea Drews, a former member of the U.S. women's volleyball team and a gold medal member at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was officially transferred to the LOVB League on March 22.
The LOVB League opened as a club league in 2020 and transitioned to a professional league this year, wiping out aggressively compliance resources ahead of the first championship in April 2025.
In addition, Willow Johnson (San Diego Mojo), who played for Heungkuk Life Insurance, was selected as the "Player of the Week" by showing good performance in the PVF League.
Willow Johnson is the daughter of Randy Johnson, a legendary pitcher of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). In the U.S., he received the National Excellence Award of the Association of Volleyball Leaders (AVCA) in 2018, and has played in the Turkiye League and the Astletts Unlimited Pro League. He applied for a V-League tryout for two consecutive seasons, 22-23 and 23-24, but was not selected at the time, but joined Heungkuk Life Insurance as a substitute for Yelena Mrazenovic, making her mid-season debut.
After a short stint in Korea, Willow returned to the U.S. to join San Diego Mojo in his PVF season. Apart from the LOVB league, PVF began on Jan. 24 this year and is currently playing his first season. Currently, San Diego Mojo's setter Nootsara Tomcomb, who played with Kim Yeon-koung (Heungkuk Life Insurance) at Fenerbachche, is starting the game with Willow.
In addition, setter Ponpoon, who played for the Thai national team and IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, announced his advance to the United States and withdrew his tryout, which became an issue.