First Serve for League One Volleyball is January 8, 2025, when LOVB Salt Lake visits LOVB Atlanta, and LOVB Salt Lake will enter the season with three NCAA All-American teammates who never expected to be wearing the same uniform.
In college, BYU's Roni Jones-Perry and Mary Lake were fierce on-court rivals with Utah's Dani Drews. Their respective schools are just 47 miles apart, and the trio were involved in some epic volleyball battles.
Now they're teammates.
Lake, a libero from Palm Springs, California, went to BYU and never left the area. She and her husband Jeff live north of Salt Lake with their nearly 2-year-old son Thomas.
Mary actually left volleyball after her last season at BYU in 2019, only getting back into it when she played with Athletes Unlimited (AU) last fall.
When she got done at BYU, "I was so tired. And the options for liberos overseas are very limited. Even the best of the best get very small contracts on not-great teams because they have limits on foreigners. I did not want to be living away from all my family and making $10,000. I could make way more money as a CPA.
“If they had leagues here I would’ve done it, but they didn't. I'm happy with my choices."
She went to work for a CPA firm in Salt Lake City, "did taxes for two years, got my CPA license, had my son and decided to stay at home with him."
Mary actually reached out to LOVB, asking if they needed a libero. Getting fit enough to compete was not a concern, but "the real fear was I hadn't played volleyball in four years. That was the hurdle."
Once she had a deal, Mary worked harder than ever.
"I worked out every day and paid people to serve to me," she said. "It was really hard. And I wasn't getting paid, so I had to beg my neighbors to take my son while he napped so I could play volleyball and wouldn't have to pay a babysitter."
She laughed.
"I have an awesome support group and awesome neighbors. And I got in a lot of reps."
Last fall, Mary played with AU and finished 28th out of 44 players in the five-week league that keeps track of individual performances. The other LOVB Salt Lake libero, Japanese Olympian Manami Kojima, finished seventh.
Mary and Roni were BYU teammates for three years.
"Roni's so awesome. She's a really good volleyball player and an awesome person.
"And it's been really fun getting to know Dani."
Jones-Perry finished at BYU in 2019 and has ventured on quite a trail since, first going to Italy then playing for three clubs in three years in Poland before heading to Puerto Rico and then Brazil. She's also had some success with Team USA, winning gold in 2019 in the Pan American Cup and bronze in the 2021 and 2022 Pan Am Cups. She also made the 2023 Volleyball Nations League roster.
Roni is from West Jordan, a Salt Lake City suburb, and played for Club V. At BYU, she was named the 2018 West Coast Conference Player of the Year. And she's not the only one making a homecoming.
Drews, Utah's all-time kills leader, is from the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy and also played for Club V.
"I feel like I've won the lottery," she said about playing professionally at home.
After finishing at Utah, Drews played in Poland, did a season with Athletes Unlimited, went to Italy, then Japan, and played AU again last fall. She, too, played on that 2022 U.S. Pan Am team.
"When I heard the team was going to be in Salt Lake," she said with a big smile, "I didn't have to ask any questions after that. It was just, how do I become a part of this?"
Dani, a rare left-handed outside hitter, is excited to be on the same team with her BYU rivals.
"It's awesome. From competing against them so hard in college, I know they're tremendous athletes and are so talented. I feel really lucky we get to be on the same side of the net for once."
