International athletes are sprinkled throughout LOVB Pro rosters, adding further talent and experience to the first-year league. Olympians, international champions, and some of the biggest names in volleyball have come to the U.S. for League One Volleyball.
LOVB Houston is a perfect example. Nearly half the team – seven of 15 – are from overseas, and each of those seven have represented their country at the national level. Here are some things you probably don't know about LOVB Houston's international athletes ahead of the team’s January 9 opener when they host LOVB Austin.
Start with 36-year-old Norwegian-born, Cannes-living 6-4 middle blocker Christina Bauer, who was looking for an academic opportunities alongside being an elite-level professional player, and didn't know that LOVB could offer her a pathway to both.
"I was looking for an internship because I'm finishing my studies," she said.
She shared that she was pleasantly surprised when LOVB offered her an internship in addition to being a player. She's a student at a business school in France and close to getting her bachelor's degree.
The mom to 4-year-old Victoria has had an incredible pro career, capping off her national team experience playing for her France at the recent paris Olympics. She first played pro in 2001 for VBC Kingersheim in France, staying there for three seasons. She then went to Mulhouse for five years, earning league MVP honors in 2007-08. For the next seven years, Christina played in Italy and Türkiye – the world’s top two leagues – and won a league title in each country.
Then, she returned to France, winning both a league title and Best Middle Blocker honors with RC Cannes in 2018-19. Christina once again won Best Middle Blocker in 2022-23 with Pays d'Aix Venelles.
"I'm going to be 37 soon," Christina said. "I want to finish my studies so I can think about the next step."
Thanks to LOVB, that's going to happen.
Then there's veteran Finnish setter Kaisa Alanko. Kaisa, 31, has also had a long and interesting pro career. She was 19 when she played her first two years in Finland and two years later, in 2013, signed with Wiesbaden in Germany.
Two years after that, she moved to the German club Munster and the next season went to Schwerin, where she won the Bundesliga title.
In [KS1] 2018, Kaisa played with Nantes in France for two seasons before signing with the Polish team Radomka Radom. She finished that 2021-22 season with Vallefoglia in Italy before going to Paris Saint Cloud for the past two years, where she won a French league title last season.
In Paris, she also played with Slovakian LOVB teammate outside Karin Palgutova.
"I saw all the amazing players who were already signed to [LOVB] and said, wow, that's a great opportunity," Kaisa said. "I wanted to be there."
When she reported to Houston, it was Kaisa's first trip to America.
Houston "is completely another world. I came from Paris to Texas," she said with a laugh.
Italian Raphaela Folie is excited for her American volleyball friends.
"I played with a lot of American players over the years," she said, "and I'm just so happy for them to finally have a professional league in their home because I know what it means to play in your country in front of your fans. I'm so excited for them, and for me, I think it's going to be an amazing experience. I love to be in Houston, where the weather is warm and so sunny."
Raphaela, now 33, played for LOVB Houston coach Massimo Barbolini on the Italian national team when she was 18.
Until now, she had played her entire career in Italy[KS2] , starting with two seasons for Trentino in 2008. Her best run of club success came from 2017 to 2022 when she led prestigious Prosecco Doc Imoco Volley Conegliano to four Serie A1 league titles in five years. In 2021-22, she was the league’s top middle blocker.
She won a similar award in last season’s European Champions League with Vero Volley Milano.
"We have the best league [in Italy], so we have a lot of reasons to stay in Italy as a player, but this offer from LOVB, it's the U.S. I think it's the right time and the right place and I chose to actually at my young age of 33 to leave Italy and make this amazing experience."
Then there's Key Alves, the 5-5 libero from Sao Paulo who has 16.8 million followers on Instagram (@keyalves). Key is a star — no, make that a big star — in Brazil after appearing on the Brazilian version of Big Brother.
"My family went crazy when I was on the reality show. Because of that, I started to get a lot of followers on Instagram."
Key, who turns 25 on January 8, played her first two pro seasons for Sesi Volei Bauru U19 team in Brazil. At the same time, she made Brazil’s U20 National Team and earned Best Libero honors at the 2018 U20 South American Championship. In 2020, she moved to EC Pinheiros before playing the past two seasons with Osasco/Sao Cristovao Saude.
Also these past two years, she's been doing more TV work and modeling while dealing with a knee injury.
"It was during that time that I realized I really loved volleyball," Key said.
The other international athletes on LOVB Houston are Karin Palgutova, a Slovakian outside who played at St. John's; German libero Anna Pogany; and Italian outside Sara Loda, who is a longtime best friend of Raphaela's.
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