Jordyn Poulter never dreamed of getting to set to her idols, let alone being named the best setter of the Tokyo Olympics and winning Team USA's first gold medal in women's indoor volleyball.
"I was playing with athletes like Jordan Larson, Kelsey Robinson, Kim Hill, girls that I had looked up to for a long time," Poulter said when asked about how it felt to compete internationally. "Now, there's a fun level of comfort in the sense of these women are some of my good friends and people I've built really strong relationships with."
Like Larson, Robinson, Hill and so many others who have competed for Team USA in women's indoor volleyball, Poulter started at the club volleyball level and made a name for herself as a top high school recruit.
Poulter joined the Fighting Illini as the top setter out of high school and the No. 3 recruit in the country. Her impact on the court was immediate after being named Illinois Female Newcomer of the Year and a member of the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
Jordyn Poulter was a four-year starting setter for the Fighting Illini and led them to a national semifinal appearance in 2018. (Photo by Timothy Nwachukwu / NCAA Photos)
"I have nothing but very fond memories of my time in college," Poulter says reflecting on her career at Illinois. "And I feel grateful that the path I had at Illinois brought a lot of different people into my life."
With every season, Poulter flourished, becoming the quarterback of the Fighting Illini's offense and leading the team to a national semifinal appearance in 2018. She was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America First Team her senior year and Third Team her junior year and co-owned the title of Big Ten Setter of the Year her senior year. Though she gathered multiple individual accolades, volleyball at its core is a team sport, and Poulter attributes her collegiate success to her coaches. One coach, Alfee Reft, continues to push her now as the assistant coach of the U.S. women's indoor national team.
"My senior year, Chris Tamas brought in Alfee Reft, who I think also made a huge, huge impact on me," Poulter said. "So alongside the women that I got to play with, I think just the amount I learned under various coaches was invaluable to me."
Once her collegiate career ended, like many of the top stars in the U.S., Poulter traveled overseas to compete in the multiple professional leagues that are scattered across Europe and Asia. With the popularity of volleyball rising in the United States, marked by the recording-breaking 92,003 fans that packed Nebraska's Memorial Stadium, professional volleyball is finally taking root in the nation.
League One Volleyball, or LOVB, will have its inaugural season in 2025, making it the third professional women's volleyball league in the United States along with Athletes Unlimited and the Pro Volleyball Federation. Poulter will compete for LOVB Salt Lake City. For her, the opportunity is about more than just getting to compete in her home country; it's about continuing the growth of the sport in the communities the league plays in.
"I really believe in the mission of the league," Poulter explained. "The kind of grassroots effort of being connected to the community and the clubs in your city and being able to grow from that."
But before the groundbreaking season starts, Poulter looks to Paris to repeat Olympic gold and come back from a devastating knee injury that took her out for the entire 2023 professional season. Though tearing her ACL, MCL and meniscus was a setback she wasn't expecting, she's learned to view the sport through a new perspective.
"I'm hard at work every day trying to maximize the time that I have. … I've been waiting for a long time after this knee injury. So my approach is a little different in the sense of I feel pretty secure in myself as an athlete," Poulter said.
Regardless of whether Team USA is successful in its quest to repeat, Poulter and Team USA will come home and continue to be pioneers, not only for volleyball, but also for women's sports.
"We're hoping to be at the forefront of some change because I think we see how much this country can get on board with women's sports and enjoy watching them."
Poulter made her Olympic debut during the Tokyo Olympics. (Photo by Toru Hanai / Getty Images)
