Vegas Thrill Win No. 1 Overall Pick in MLV Draft Lottery Ahead of 2027 Return Season

LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Thrill are on the clock, and they could not have asked for a better spot. The Thrill won the No. 1 overall selection in the Major League Volleyball draft lottery, the league announced last week, giving the returning franchise the first pick of the collegiate draft on Monday, November 23 — a foundational asset for a team being built from scratch ahead of its January 2027 comeback at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson.

It is the kind of break a rebooting franchise dreams about. After sitting out the 2026 season to find stable local ownership, the Thrill are back under Henderson entertainment producer Michael Landier, with a new head coach, a new magenta identity, and now the right to choose first from the country’s top college seniors. For a team that will take the court for the first time in nearly two years this winter, winning the lottery is not just luck — it is a head start on everything.

The lotteryHow the order shook out

Five of the top selections went to the league’s newest additions. With the 2027 season bringing five new or returning franchises into the fold, Major League Volleyball ran a weighted lottery to set the top of the board. Vegas drew the No. 1 slot, followed by MLV Los Angeles at No. 2, the Minnesota Forge at No. 3, DC Flight at No. 4 and NorCal Rumble at No. 5. The remaining first-round slots were set by 2026 regular-season record: Columbus Fury (6), Atlanta Vibe (7), Orlando Valkyries (9), Dallas Pulse (11) and Indy Ignite (12), with the Omaha Supernovas holding two first-rounders — their own at No. 10 plus the No. 8 pick acquired in a February 13, 2026 trade with the Grand Rapids Rise.

A separate lottery set the second-round order, where MLV Los Angeles grabbed the top spot and Vegas landed No. 16 overall. The two-round draft will be held in November, ahead of the NCAA Volleyball Championship and MLV training camps. Only players completing their fourth or fifth season of college eligibility are eligible — meaning the Thrill’s No. 1 choice will almost certainly be one of the nation’s premier college seniors, a proven commodity rather than a developmental project.

MLV Los Angeles’ position is a story in itself: the second pick belongs to the new L.A. franchise under head coach Alisha Childress, who led her San Diego squad to the postseason last year. The league is clearly seeding its new markets with talent, and Vegas sits at the very top of that stack.

The rebootA franchise reborn under local ownership

The Thrill first took the court in 2024 in the Pro Volleyball Federation — the league now known as Major League Volleyball after its rebrand — but the franchise hit pause during the 2026 season while the league searched for committed hometown ownership, FOX5 KVVU reported. That search ended in early August, when Michael Landier, founder of Landier Entertainment and a Henderson resident of nearly 20 years, took over as owner. “As a fan of the Vegas Thrill and a longtime supporter of our sports community, bringing the team back is especially meaningful to me,” Landier said at the relaunch.

The reboot is more than a new name on the ownership paperwork. The franchise rolled out a new logo and a vivid magenta color scheme, brought in team president Ruben Herrera and general manager Fran Flory, and hired R&R Partners — the well-known Las Vegas PR firm, LVSportsBiz reported — to push the relaunch into the market. The pitch is local money, local roots: Vegas has watched enough outside ownership groups treat this city as a landing pad, and Landier’s bet is that a hometown buyer who was a fan first can build the season-ticket base the first version never quite cemented.

Home matches return to Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, the $84 million arena that opened in 2022 and also houses the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights. The intimate 5,567-seat building is arguably the smartest structural decision the reboot made: for a league still building its footprint, a loud, full small room beats an echoing big one every time. Ticket details, from individual match tickets to season memberships, go on sale after the full 2027 schedule is released this fall — expected in October.

The coachA fast, fearless blueprint

Rachel Morris is the architect. The Thrill named Morris head coach this summer after she spent four seasons as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Indiana University, where she helped build the Hoosiers into one of the nation’s most dynamic offensive programs. During her four seasons in Bloomington, Indiana produced the most successful four-year stretch in program history, setting school records for wins and Big Ten victories while developing multiple All-Americans and one of the country’s most efficient offenses. Volleyball Magazine named her one of its Under-40 College Coaching Hotshots.

Owner Michael Landier called the hire one of the most important decisions of the relaunch, citing her ability to recruit and develop talent and her desire to build a lasting program. Morris, for her part, promised a team that plays “a fast, fearless style of volleyball” and said the organization is building a squad “that Las Vegas can be proud of both on and off the court,” according to the team’s announcement carried by OurSportsCentral. The league has said several key players for her roster are already announced, with the full roster, coaching staff, schedule and community initiatives to follow in the coming months.

The leagueTwelve teams, two conferences, one rising sport

MLV enters its fourth season in 2027 as a 12-team league, aligned into six-team Eastern and Western conferences with each club playing a 26-match schedule. The five additions in the lottery — Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, NorCal and Washington, D.C. — join holdovers from Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Omaha and Orlando. The San Diego Mojo are sitting out the 2027 season. The regular season runs from early January through late April 2027, with the championship set for early May.

The structure matters because the timing is right. Women’s volleyball is one of the fastest-growing girls’ sports in the country, and the pro game is having a moment: the Aces have made Las Vegas a capital for women’s professional sports — they’re in the thick of another deep playoff run, women’s pro hockey is expanding with Las Vegas among the new markets, and the college game keeps setting attendance records. The Thrill aren’t launching into a vacuum; they’re launching into a city that has already shown it will show up for women’s pro sports when the product is real.

What’s nextNovember 23, then opening night

The draft is the next domino. On November 23, the Thrill will make the first selection — and the intrigue is real, from which college star goes first to whether Vegas entertains trade offers for the pick. After that, the full 2027 schedule drops this fall, tickets go on sale, and the team’s announced roster begins to take its final shape. Then, in early January, pro volleyball returns to Henderson after a year away.

There is a long road between a lottery win and a winning team, and nobody in the building is pretending otherwise. But for a franchise that spent 2026 fighting for its future, this week delivered something it did not have before: the first pick, a real plan, and a date on the calendar. The Thrill are back — and they are starting with the best possible hand.