San Diego’s experiment with women’s professional volleyball is ending after just three seasons.

The San Diego Mojo will play one final home match on Thursday night before heading to Dallas for the Major League Volleyball playoffs. The club announced Tuesday that it will not return for the 2027 season.

The club posted to Instagram that it was “heartbroken to announce” that Thursday marks the final home game in franchise history.

Owner Gary Jacobs said in a statement that he wanted the Mojo to take the 2027 season off while building a long-term plan for the franchise, but that “the league believes a different direction is required.” MLV remains committed to San Diego and will “lead the effort to identify potential new investors” in the club, the Mojo said.

The Mojo are offering free tickets to fans who want to attend Thursday’s match at Viejas Arena. Fans can claim up to eight per person by visiting the team’s social media profiles and clicking the attached link.

The timing is particularly cruel. The Mojo (14-12) have thrived under first-year coach Alisha Childress, winning 13 of their last 19 matches and qualifying for the MLV Championship, a four-team tournament that will determine the league champion. The Mojo will play either the Dallas Pulse or Indy Ignite in the May 7 semifinals, with the winner advancing to the championship match.

The Mojo debuted in 2024, with a high-profile owner — beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh-Jennings — and a roster that included a mix of native San Diegans and international stars. Walsh-Jennings sold the club to Jacobs following the inaugural season, and the PVF merged with Major League Volleyball in January.

The Mojo’s shuttering is another blow to professional sports in the heart of San Diego.

Major League Rugby’s San Diego Legion moved north following the 2025 season, rebranding as the California Legion. The San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League and the San Diego Strike Force of the Indoor Football League both relocated from Pechanga Arena to Oceanside’s Frontwave Arena when the new, smaller venue opened in 2024.

Nellie Bartusch

OBITUARY

Nellie I. Bartusch, 86, passed away peacefully on April 15, 2026, in San Diego, California.

Born on June 19, 1939, she spent part of her early years in Grygla, Minnesota before returning to Chicago, where she became a mother to five boys. Later, moving to Arizona in the ’80s before making San Diego her home.

She was a gifted artist who loved every medium, from quilting, gemstones, glassblowing, gardening, and crafts. Her paintings were displayed in galleries and her talent was featured in newspapers. She could be found frequenting thrift stores collecting pieces of art, and books that she displayed in every inch of her home.

She was exceptionally bright and earned her master’s degree from San Diego State University. Eventually working, and dedicating her professional life to SDSU, where she retired.

Nellie was a woman full of warmth, kindness, and generosity. She had boundless intelligence, and an endless thirst for knowledge. Her legacy of education and learning will be carried forward by those who had the privilege to be loved by her. Her life will be a testament to the power of resilience and determination.

She is survived by her sons Greg, Glenn, and Paul Bartusch; her grandchildren Greg, Andrew, Caroline Silva, and Katelyn Marie Amrhein and her family; her great-grandson Sol Silva; and her brothers Dave and Lee Ortlepp.

In her final act, she chose to donate her body to science, often saying, “Why give my body to the worms, when it can help to cure cancer.”

She will be deeply missed and forever remembered by all who knew her.

It felt like the San Diego Padres’ game all day, in large part, because it was.

Michael King twirled six innings of two-run ball, sporting eight strikeouts and only one walk. He exited the game with a 7-2 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was over in a hurry.

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The Padres’ bullpen (uncharacteristically) gave up the game in a loud way. David Morgan and Bradgley Rodriguez combined to give up six runs — including a Tim Tawa grand slam — in the bottom of the seventh before Ron Marinaccio and Wandy Peralta gave up four more runs in the eighth to give the D-backs a five-run cushion.

San Diego tried to come back multiple times but couldn’t answer once, ending in a disappointing loss after what had started off as a promising game. Three home runs, two from Manny Machado and the other from Luis Campusano, had buoyed the Friars for most of the game until the relief blowup.

On most days, if the Friars scored seven runs before turning it over to the bullpen, there’d be no worry of giving the game up. But yesterday that was not to be.

The hard truth for the Friar Faithful is there will be games like this. It’s not an indictment on the bullpen, it’s just a long, long, season and leads will be blown sometimes — no matter how good the club is.

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That being said, San Diego will return home tonight hoping to best the similarly-hot Chicago Cubs. Their offense will be back in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco Park so they’ll need to bet on a bounce back performance from the relief corps.

Taking the mound

Matthew Boyd (CHC) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

That being said, Boyd (although feared in the past) has not been pitching like himself lately. He gave up six runs in his first start of the season before being placed on the injured list for two weeks. He’s been better since returning but still sports a 5.79 ERA on the year.

Boyd has also yet to go a full six innings in a game (5 2/3 at most). That’s good news for the Friars, who will hope to get to the Chicago bullpen quickly. They’ve been mostly solid but have struggled to a 3.95 ERA to start the year, and are without closer Daniel Palencia.

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Vásquez, on the other hand, has been San Diego’s ace to open the season. He’s tallied a 1.88 ERA and 1.08 WHIP to go with 30 strikeouts across 28 2/3 innings. He’s been a beast on the mound for the Padres and has only given up more than one run once.

Helping Vásquez significantly is his history facing Chicago. The righty owns a .194 opponent batting average against the Cubs’ lineup. If he can limit them similarly (like he’s done to opponents all season), Vásquez will have no problem tonight.

Batter up!

After some early tweaking by manager Craig Stammen, the lineup has been more or less set lately. It seems likely that continues tonight against Boyd, looking something like this:

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I’m hoping that Song makes his debut at the plate tonight. It’s possible that he debuts in a pinch-hit opportunity or DH-ing) as opposed to starting the game at second. But it seems possible he takes the start over Jake Cronenworth after Cronenworth’s slow offensive start to the season.

Tatis is still searching for his first homer of the year. It has been — by far — his longest drought without one. Hopefully he’ll hit one while being cheered on by the Friar Faithful tonight.

Relief corps

Like I said, the San Diego bullpen looked rough yesterday. But that’s hardly an indication of a downhill turn for the group. They’ve been dominant this year, ranking third in the majors with a 3.03 ERA.

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The high-leverage guys (Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller) have continued to be dominant — showing no signs of stopping. Miller took the franchise record for scoreless innings pitched this weekend and will look to extend it tonight if San Diego has a lead in the ninth.

Behind those three is Kyle Hart, who will surely be first out of the ‘pen if Vásquez doesn’t perform as well as he typically does. Hart can cover several innings well for the Friars with his history as a starter, though he hopefully won’t need to so long as Vásquez pitches a gem.