PVF Championship and Season Recap

Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley
Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what is going on in
NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host
Sarah Pavan. I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball
world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and
longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach. And
I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international
volleyball coach, and the show's resident stat
guy. Both the NCAA Men's Championship and the
PVF Championship happened this weekend, and there's
a lot to talk about. So we decided to break it
down. We had a ton of fun this weekend. We sat
on our couch all weekend and watched volleyball,
and it was fantastic. We sound like huge losers,
but I feel like some of you probably did the
same thing, so I don't feel so bad. We did move
and played pickleball today. We'll give us that.
Yeah. We got our exercise in. Okay. So what we
decided is we are going to cover the PVF strictly
today to kind of wrap up that season. And then
we're going to release next week's normal episode
early. So in a few days. to cover the NCAA men's
tournament because we want to give each league
its due. The men's final is Monday, so we figured
the early episode would be welcome. So today's
focus is PVF, the final four, the season wrap
up. Some things went the way we predicted and
some things definitely did not. So we are very
excited to break it down for you. So let's get
started. We do have a few weekly happenings.
Housekeeping, if you will. Housekeeping. Following
up on some of the happenings from last week to
cover before we get into the PVF Championship.
So, the noteworthy transfers that we talked about
last week. Kennedy Martin is heading to Penn
State. That's a big pickup for them. My question
is, what the heck is Caroline Jurevicius thinking
right now? She'll be in the transfer portal.
Leaves Nebraska because this happened to her
there with Merritt Beeson coming in. She holds
her own, has a good end of the season in 2024,
and then the same thing happens and Kennedy Martin
gets picked up. Is Jura Vicious capable of playing
left side? I was just thinking that. Can she
pass is the question. Because they lost both
of their left sides. I would imagine. I mean,
she was a big part of their run to the final
and the championship. I would imagine they want
to keep her. I think they were probably looking
for a solution on left side. That would be my
instinct. Jury's out if she can pass in the Big
Ten. Big pickup for Penn State, though. Yeah.
Okay. I'm not sure if this happened. I think
this happened recently, but I'm not positive.
This could have happened back in February, and
you guys are like, okay. You're way behind. But
Molly Wilson, the setter for Washington, is heading
to Louisville. Washington wasn't great. So I'm
curious how that's going to go, especially because
they had a freshman running the offense last
year in Louisville. And they did all right. Well,
and they ran a 6 -2. But when it came down to
it, they ran the 5 -1. Yeah. So there's that.
Logan Wiley, who left Georgia Tech, is heading
to Miami. Not sure how I feel about that because
Miami lost so many players, especially their
best players. So I'm like. That's maybe a lifestyle
choice. I can't see Miami. I mean, Atlanta is
a pretty cool place. Yeah, fair enough. But I
can't see Miami being particularly good next
year unless they make some late additions. But
their team was kind of decimated. Yeah, that
move. Confuses me a lot. I'm not sure why that
choice was made. The volleyball motivation doesn't
make sense on that one. Maybe they paid her.
Maybe. I know she is from Georgia. I'm pretty
sure she's from Georgia originally. So she's
leaving. Yeah. I have questions. Tell me if you
know anything. And we spoke about Valentina Vallette
from Michigan. She's heading to Oregon. They
were also kind of decimated when Matt Ulmer took
the job in Kansas. Yeah, it'll be interesting
to see how all of these teams kind of pan out.
The question mark still, Lola Schumacher hasn't
committed anywhere. There are so many. Here's
the thing. There are so many liberos out there
and so many of them entered the portal in the
first round. So it's not. a highly sought -after
position. You're not Kennedy Martin jumping in
in May. You know what I mean? You're not scoring
points. There's tons of liberos out there. You
didn't have an amazing season either. You're
coming from a good program. You're a good player,
but you're not Lexi Rodriguez. You're not...
We'll see how that pans out for her. I'm not
sure it's going to work out the way she thinks
it's going to work out. All that to say, lots
of questions circulating in our brains right
now regarding this transfer portal, the decisions
that have been made, but very happy for Penn
State for the Kennedy -Martin pickup. They're
going to be good again, as long as they can find
another left side. But they're going to be good
again. Well, Emmy Selman came. She has potential.
Absolutely. Is she there yet? I don't know. But...
They're missing a couple pieces, but they still
could be very good. They did address a big...
Assuming Jervis just goes to the left side, they
addressed a big issue. Yeah, 100%. They're going
to need to be able to pass. You can always throw
the ball back to Martin. She's good for that.
We'll continue following this. We'll see if anything
else spicy comes up. This week, but those were,
we talked about them last week, wanted to circle
back, kind of fill you in on where those players
ended up. We're not going to talk about this,
but let's just say the NCAA men's final is Monday.
The volleyball, the men's volleyball was spectacular
this weekend. It was so much fun. Some of the
quarterfinal games were meh. Some of them were
pretty good. I thought the Penn State game ended
up being way closer than I thought it was going
to be. It was incredibly entertaining. I thought
the Loyola -Chicago -Pepperdine game, I mean...
I want to get into it, but I'm not going to get
into it. Loyola Chicago wants that match back,
is all I'm going to say. And then the games on
Saturday were fantastic. Kind of one -sided,
but very entertaining. Yeah. I mean, I haven't
spent a year following NCAA men's volleyball
ever, and I'm a fan now. I really enjoyed watching
the teams, watching the players. It was entertaining.
Great overall, and I'm super excited to watch
the final on Monday and then to get back and
talk about it. Tune in to that final. We just
wanted to mention who is in the final, Long Beach
State and UCLA. This has been coming. I'm heartbroken
that Hawaii didn't make it. You guys know how
I feel about Hawaii. I'm heartbroken. But these
two teams have held the number one and two spot
for the majority of the season. tune in we're
going to circle back in a few days to talk about
the whole championship so yeah check it out so
you're up to date you know what i mean all right
let's get into it we had three pvf matches this
weekend the championship just ended it was an
entertaining week of volleyball let's get into
the matches all right The one versus four matchup
was Omaha versus Indy. Last week, both Adam and
I predicted an Indy victory. I love being right.
I don't hate it. Okay, Indy won in five. After
the first set, very close. Very close scores.
What are your thoughts on that match? We talked
about... Indy having all of the pieces and maybe
having a higher ceiling. And to a person, the
Indy team played pretty much a flawless game.
Omaha didn't play poorly, I wouldn't say, but
Indy was firing on all cylinders. They were prepared.
Everybody had a good match and they showed up
as a team. And Nunavut had a slow start. Okay,
so our big thing with Omaha, we're like Nunaviller
has proven herself capable of carrying the team
if not everybody is performing. We did say last
week for Omaha to be successful, they need to
pass well so that Nunaviller's not facing a double
block all night. Do you think they accomplished
that? I think they passed all right, but... To
me, what was more impressive was Indy's passing.
They did not miss. Indy was in system all night.
And if I had to pick, I mean, there are two players
that stand out for me for Indy. And granted,
I thought everybody across the board played pretty
well. But I thought that Lydia Martin played.
incredibly well she was terminal Sydney Hilly
set her really well they got her going early
and often and she was fantastic in in many aspects
of the game I thought she blocked well I thought
she attacked well and Nina Chayich was unbelievable
I mean again like I said I thought everybody
on their team played well but those two particularly
were standouts so heading into the match for
Indy we were like Azani Thieler needs to show
up. She needs to continue on pace with what she's
been doing. And then we need to get some performance
from the left sides. And I actually thought Thieler
was their worst player. Agreed. And she wasn't
bad. She wasn't bad, but everybody else stepped
up so much that she didn't have to be amazing.
Nina Czajic was unconscious. Unconscious. Everything
she touched was great. I need to read you her
stat line across the board because it was pretty
impressive. So she got 49 sets, which was more
than anybody else on the team. She hit 347. She
had 21 kills and four errors. Three of those
were blocks. Like, she only made one hitting
error and then got blocked three times. Like,
that's fantastic. She had four blocks herself.
She had nine digs. She was what she needed to
be to win. But her passing. Yeah. I kept being
like, they need to stop serving her the ball.
This girl passed like a 2 -8, I want to say.
It was so good. I made that up, by the way. Yeah.
Well, and Anna DeBeer held her own. She passed
well. She was solid. Her numbers were pretty
good. She got set 41 times. So the left side's
got the majority of the share. And that hasn't
always been Indy's MO. So they played really
well. I thought that Anna DeBeer was really good
in big moments. You wouldn't really notice her.
She was fine. You know, didn't make a ton of
mistakes. Very kind of Anna DeBeer that we're
used to seeing. But there were a couple times
where the game was on the line, the match was
close, she got a ball, and she made... good swings
and she was aggressive. So, I mean, I can't say
enough good things about Indy. We talked about
them needing to put a real team effort together
and every single player showed up. And, you know,
we've been hard on Sydney Hilly about not being
consistent and maybe not or falling off in longer
matches. And I thought she did a fantastic job.
I thought she ran a great offense. She pushed
the middle. She was aggressive herself to hold
the blockers and then open up the right side
ball. I mean, I don't think you could have asked
for anything more out of any of the players who
were on the court for them. It was a great team
win against the number one seed. And they had
three or four options on every single attack.
The back line. of DeBeer, Chayich, and Scott
stellar. They were 61 % positive receptions in
that match. They were just always in system.
And that is, when a team is coming at you like
that again and again and again, it's exhausting
as a blocker to figure out where they're going
to get set as a defense. Nunaviller did not have
the same night. She didn't have the night that...
She needed to have. She was hitting negative
500 or something after set one. So she hit negative
200 on 10 sets in the first set. 500, 200, you
get the idea. Just making sure we're factual
here on this podcast. She hit like negative 1
,000. That's why Adam's here. She ended the night
with decent stats. She got set 54 times. She
hit 204. It's not... It's fine. But did anybody
else do anything? That's the question. It didn't
seem like it. The answer is no. Their middles
weren't bad. Ana Bonjo hit 269 on 26 sets, which
isn't great for a middle. You want your percentage
to be higher than that. I thought Kaitlyn Hoard
played well. She got 15 sets and she hit 533.
She did her job. They didn't block super well
as a team, but again, Andy was in system all
night, so that makes it really hard. For me,
the difference was... Two things. One, they pulled
their setter after the first set. In the first
set? Yeah, towards the end of the first set.
And they didn't switch her out. I thought Pedroza
actually did a pretty good job when she came
in. That's a tough coming in, not expecting a
set in the first and then running it out. I thought,
I didn't think she cost them that match. I thought
the difference, outside of the first set, Brooke
had a slow start. She kind of pulled her way
out. which, to be expected of a player with her
caliber, I thought where things really fell down
was on the right side. They needed somebody else
to score some points for them, and Landau just
didn't have a great night. It didn't pass the
eye test, and the stats were only so -so. She
got 31 balls. She hit 194. That's not good or
bad. You need to elevate. In the playoffs, and
especially when the team you're playing against
is firing on all cylinders. When Teeler's your
worst player on the indie side, you need other
people to have a performance. And they just,
as a team, didn't rise to the occasion. They
switched their setter out. They didn't score
the same way. They tried switching left sides
out. You just couldn't find... They couldn't
match the pressure that Indy was bringing consistently
because even the sets that they won, I think
they ended up winning 25 -23, 25 -23. So the
sets that they won were super close, but they
got beat 25 -17, 25 -20. They lost the fifth,
15 -13. It was close, but Indy kept pushing,
and Omaha just couldn't respond in those big
moments. They always knew where the ball was
going, and so it was always two -man block at...
nunaviller when it mattered overall it was a
pretty entertaining game it went five there was
a lot of back and forth i mean we had kind of
picked a team we were i mean it wasn't heartbroken
given my prediction i wanted my prediction to
come true you know yeah so but i thought i thought
the match overall was competitive and i enjoyed
watching it All right, semifinal number two was
Orlando versus Atlanta. You know, in our preview
episode, I had Atlanta winning. Adam had picked
Orlando, and I hate to say it, but Adam was right.
Dang it. Why did you think Atlanta was going
to win? I thought that Orlando was a little inconsistent
at the end of the season, and I thought that
Atlanta had kind of hit their stride and was
like, doing well heading into playoffs. I felt
that the left side battle would clearly be won
by Atlanta. I haven't really loved Orlando's
outsides and I thought they would win the middle
battle. I thought Morgan Hentz could hold down
the serve receive particularly against like a
foster type of serve. Yeah it didn't go well.
Orlando looked really good in the semi. So where
was that disconnect for you for Atlanta? What
didn't happen that you were expecting to see?
I personally was underwhelmed by Atlanta's left
sides. I thought that van der Weide and Schwan
from Orlando played better than I have seen them
play. They were very good, and I haven't really
seen them kind of step up in that kind of way
yet. But I thought that, you know, Micaiah White
and Leah Edmonds, like they had the experience,
the pedigree, they had proven that they could
play at that level. And I kind of expected them
to kind of really step up. And I didn't expect,
it wasn't that I didn't expect much from the
right side for Atlanta. I thought Orlando would
win that battle for sure. But like the right
sides were very bad for Atlanta. Very bad. Very
bad. I mean, you had Jones hit negative 100 on
20 sets and was pulled. And Beeson hit zero on
12 sets when she came in. So you can't have an
entire third of the court produce negatively.
It doesn't matter which third you pick. That's
a tough stat. Like, you're losing points in that
third. It's just like, let's forget about them.
Yeah. So that's, you needed something. And I
agree. I thought the two left sides for Orlando
were lights out. Like, it was one of those matches
for them that they could do no wrong. Everything
they swung at seemed to score. Well, I think
they passed better than usual, too. Yeah. It's
interesting that passing numbers weren't amazing
on the match, but they looked more in system
than they normally do. And in fairness, I thought
that Shampoo did a fantastic job connecting with
her middles, even when the passes weren't great.
Like, I thought the middles for Orlando were
the reason they won. Kaz Brown came with that
toad, baby. Okay, she was not messing around.
Yeah, it was... She got 18 sets, and she hit
.556, was very good. And Natalie Foster had 20
sets, hit .250. Not as great. Not amazing for
middle. But the thing I liked about her was she
came hard, and she hit. hard a lot of ball she
didn't make any errors she got blocked once but
they had to respect that she was coming so she
held those blockers and the defense in position
because she got so many balls and I thought the
middle connection was the reason the left sides
could find and slime out there in between the
block you know one and a half blocks not well
formed like that to me was a focus for Orlando
you could kind of tell they wanted to push that
and I thought they did a really good job at that
I was glad to see Shampoo setting. To be fair,
I didn't watch Orlando's last couple matches,
but as soon as Shaftmaster came back or joined
the team, they had her starting, and I was like,
is this a great choice? I was really happy that
Shampoo was running the office. I think she did
a really good job. And Abercrombie was back to
her early season form. Like she was very good
this weekend. They set her 61 times in four sets.
She hit 295. I mean, if you're getting that many
balls, those are great numbers. She didn't make
any hitting errors. She got blocked four times,
but who cares? Like on 61 balls. I mean, they're
giving her, she's the garbage can. Like she's
getting. everything out of system like shampoo
is like running to the left side back bump setting
balls out of system to her like those numbers
in for somebody getting that type of being put
in that type of situation is is good you can
you couldn't have asked anything more for her
and you know the left sides were decent courtney
schwan hit 167 on 24 balls like not here i am
like they were amazing but But it's about perspective,
right? You knew that they weren't going to carry
the team from an offensive load, but they didn't
make a ton of mistakes. They scored some points,
they took care of their balls, they didn't make
a ton of mistakes, and they held it down. The
defense was close -ish. Atlanta outdug them 78
-69, but they stayed in the fight. I actually
thought Vander Weide played really well. She
scored some key points for them. Her numbers,
35 balls, hit. 229 that's decent again they're
not the most physical left sides out there you're
not counting on them to hit the garbage but when
they got set you know they scored when they needed
to to kind of shift the focus a little bit I
thought Kaz Brown was the energy player of the
match she was in their face she had seven blocks
I believe and let them know about it you know
she drove that team from an energy perspective.
I thought they had a good team game and they
were well prepared. I mean, I don't know what
to say about Atlanta other than I expected more.
Yeah, they outdug them. They got a lot of transition
opportunities, but their left sides weren't effective
in transition. They were getting, Orlando was
getting massive slowdowns on transition swings.
I didn't think, like Vicini did nothing for me.
Like I, like, was she there? And then Corey Lewis,
I felt, wasn't even a big factor. Players that
I felt were the X factor, I feel like they weren't
used or their presence wasn't felt. Corey Lewis
only got 12 sets. The transition swings and the
transition choices I felt like the left sides
were making were very neutral. They weren't taking
risks. They were swinging straight. And the Orlando
block, like I said, was getting really good touches,
slowing balls down. Like you needed to take more
of a risk or be more creative. And it just, yeah.
Well, I didn't think the transition setting for
Atlanta was very good either. Well, you know
how I feel about the Atlanta setter. I'm not
a fan. Yeah. I mean, it was not a super close
game. No. The third set where they won, we actually
saw a little bit of scoring from Jones. I thought
Mikael White played really well in set three.
She had pretty good numbers overall. She didn't...
It was a little sloppy at the beginning. She
was still scoring. She didn't find her rhythm
until set three, but she had 44 sets and hit
386. She had a good night. I don't think you
could ask for anything else from her. But again,
the sets were lopsided. Orlando won 25 -18. Second
set was close at 25 -23, 25 -18, and then 25
-16. It was kind of back and forth. It definitely
wasn't as close or entertaining as the... first
match. Again, I think you saw in both of the
matches, there was a decent amount of parity,
and it was the team who had the most players
show up to win the match, which I know sounds
kind of obvious when it comes to team sports.
But really, at this level in the playoffs, even
having one more player be more on than off makes
a difference. It gives the opponent something
else to think about. It gives you another option.
And you just had more players from Orlando engaged
than in Atlanta, in my opinion. And the grand
finale, obviously, was between Orlando and Indy.
To be completely transparent, our feed stopped
working after set three. So we missed the final
set, but we watched the majority of it. Orlando
is the PVF champions. They beat Indy in four
and win that million dollars, the million dollar
prize. It's a big win for them. I, coming into
it, I felt like Indy was going to win. I thought
that they were on a roll. I thought all of their
players were playing well and they were a well
-oiled machine. I was like, if they can pass.
The way that they did in the semi, they are going
to win. Yeah. It didn't happen. It didn't happen.
It felt another very one -sided match to me.
Yeah, I agree. Specifically, Anna DeBeer did
not show up for the team. She struggled. I really
like her as a player. I've liked her all the
way through her college season. I like her mentality.
I like her attitude towards being aggressive,
how hard she works. Just couldn't find it in
this match. And, you know, she got set 14 times.
She got pulled after the second set. She hit
negative 357. You know, you have a lot of leaders
on this team, but it seems whatever team she
goes to, people look to her to provide that calming
influence. You don't necessarily have to play
well to be that influence, but you have to play
better than that. She looked uncomfortable, offensively
in particular. It was not going her way at all.
And Chayich, while she still played well, it
was not. at the level that she played in the
semifinal. And to be fair, that level that she
found in that match is incredibly hard to replicate.
You know, as Ani Thieler played pretty well,
I thought they ran Lydia Martin incredibly well.
I still think the middles did a good job blocking.
Martin was set. I thought Hilly did a good job
finding her. But she wasn't effective. They were
ready for her. Like, they set her 17 times, which
was good, but she only hit 118. What? Oh, my
gosh. Watching that match, I'm like, oh, wow.
She's doing great. She had six errors. She was
blocked four times and hit two balls out of bounds.
It happened in set four. It happened in the set
that we weren't able to watch. You know what
I mean? I'm just kidding. I mean, as a team,
they hit 132. That's just not good enough. That's
just not going to cut it. And the thing was,
they passed pretty well. They were 51 % positive
on the passing. The digs were even across the
match, 53 -53, but the Orlando Valkyrie had 15
blocks to Indy's six. And you have Kaz Brown
just elevating in that match. I thought she played
really well again. And Abercrombie showed up
again. I thought Vanderweide didn't play as well
as she did in the semifinal, but Abercrombie
did her job, and they could not stop her. Let
me read you the stat line, because, you know,
everyone knows I love that, and it's quite impressive.
62 sets, and she hit .387 and only made three
errors, two hitting errors and one block. Like,
that's... That's why she got MVP of the PVF,
everybody. Yep. She had a blip there. Like six
matches. Two -thirds through the season where
she kind of slowed down. But to her credit, she
carried that team all season long. And when it
mattered, she showed up and she did her job,
put the team on her back. The next closest person
was Vander White at 22 sets. I think she got
more sets than everybody else on the team combined.
It's insane. And they could not stop her. Couldn't
stop her. I mean, they had Anna DeBeer lined
up with her originally, and I'm like, that's
not a great matchup. Even though DeBeer's a pretty
good blocker. When they subbed Anna DeBeer out,
they put in 6 -3 Baird, which is a better height
matchup at the block, but even still, it didn't
matter. No. And I mean, she got 20 sets and she
hit zero. Yeah. They weren't getting the offensive
production that they needed, and you knew that
they weren't. Like, Teeler played pretty well.
She had 41 sets and hit .244, but she wasn't
going to match Abercrombie. She wasn't going
to match Abercrombie, and there's no way they
were going to let Chayich go off the way that
she did in the semi either. No. They were going
to need to win that middle battle. And my perception
of what happened in the middle is completely
wrong. Yeah, they just did. I mean, again, I
thought Kaz Brown had a phenomenal playoffs.
I thought from a leader standpoint, she was the
one who was calm. She was getting blocks. She
was pumping up her teammates. Like she looked
like she was willing that team to win. And it
almost seemed like, hey, everybody look at me.
I'm going to put the team on the back. Nobody
pay attention to Abercrombie. Just let her put
her head down and go to work. Everybody was paying
attention to Abercrombie. I meant from a team
perspective. Like, I'm going to bring the energy,
I'm going to do this, and we're just going to
let Abercrombie do her thing. I thought her leadership
on the court in terms of how engaged she was,
the energy she brought engaging with her teammates
was very good. She brought that swagger. Absolutely.
She was like, hey, everybody in the crowd, pay
attention to me. Everybody on the other side,
pay attention to me. I got that swagger going
on. I mean, if you look at... from just a straight
hitting percentage standpoint, Indy made 16 straight
-up errors and were blocked 15 times. That's
31 total errors. To Orlando's 15, nine hitting
errors, and they were blocked six times. You
can't win with those numbers. I had really hoped
that I would have seen the Indy team that showed
up. in the semifinal where the serve receive
was dialed in, where, you know, players, everybody
was kind of stepping up, showing up, but like
everybody except Teeler was just like a little
bit worse. Except Lydia Martin. But don't pay
attention to that because that's not right. Well,
I actually thought Caroline Crawford had a better
game than Lydia Martin in that one. She blocked
better. She had better offensive numbers. I think,
They could have won that middle battle, but I
think that Kaz Brown played really well. You
need to neutralize Abercrombie a little, like
stop her a little bit. There were, okay. I was
losing my mind about their defensive decisions
on Abercrombie. Go ahead. What? You're like,
here we go again. No, no, no, no. I have, I have
an opinion about this, but finish and then I'll
tell you what I think. Okay. Early in the match,
Abercrombie, she's a lefty. She's got a really
good angle swing. She can mix it up, okay? But
she's capable of hitting angle. Orlando was bringing
their off blocker under for tips, putting their
position one right beside the attack line. And
they had position six chilling in six. You were
leaving the entire... right side of the court
cross court shot which she is more than competent
at hitting wide open then finally they decided
to triple up in the angle but then they would
leave her a truckload of line I'm like okay the
coordination between the block setup and what
the defense was doing was just completely lacking
there is no I am not trying to minimize what
Brittany Abercrombie did she played unbelievably
well But they didn't make her life difficult
at all. There is no way you can allow a player
to do that to you. This is professional level.
Make an adjustment. They weren't even close.
I think they had a couple issues. One is, Taylor's
not a very good defensive player. She just doesn't
dig a ton of balls. It is what it is. So I think
they started bringing her up for tips because
they didn't think she was going to execute on
the dig. The second one is, I think with the
Anna DeBeer lineup, they wanted to give her the
line to try and funnel her into Scott. They didn't
take away any options with the block. They needed
to either rotate and line her up against Nina
to see if... She could slow her down or yeah,
I don't know. They just didn't have, I didn't
feel like the block took anything away. Well,
and then sometimes the block was committing on
the middle with Abercrombie in the front row.
And I'm like, you need to understand who is in
the front row on the other side. Shampoo is able
to run a fast offense behind block the middle
one -on -one. You cannot miss your responsibility.
If you have Abercrombie on the right. I wonder
if they watched the semifinal game and saw how
well the left sides played and switched their
game plan thinking, if I was going to play Orlando,
I would say, we are going to make life miserable
for Abercrombie. She is going to see two to three
blocks the whole game, and we're going to make
the rest of the team beat us. And I'm wondering
if Indy... watched how well the left sides play
and like shifted their block strategy or didn't
do there's no reason that abercrombie shouldn't
have seen more solid blocks than she did it just
shouldn't have been the case you want to beat
orlando serve aggressively go for it to take
the middle out overload the right side You know
what? Leave the left sides one -on -one a bit
if you need to. You've got Sydney Hilly there,
six feet tall. Azani Teeler, she jumps pretty
well. And Scott digs well into the cross court.
Make those left sides who are not the most dynamic,
who are not clearing the net by very much, make
those two beat you. And if those two are capable
of beating you, congratulations, you did a good
job. But I was so disappointed. I thought the
game plan for Indy was a big miss. Huge miss.
Huge. They could have done so much more. I agree.
And not to say that Orlando still wouldn't have
won. No, but you need to make sure that Brittany
Abercrombie does not hit with a one -man block,
with a hole in the block. She has got four hands
in her face the entire time. You are lining up.
on her body, so she is not aware how much line
she has and has to try to go high hands. Because
let me tell you, she's good at seeing the block.
She's good at hitting around the block. She's
not as good as finding hands and hitting off
of hands. But the number of holes, one -on -ones,
complete truckloads of line that I was seeing
her being given, I was like, this is actually
ridiculous. Listen, Orlando had 50 kills on the
match. Abercrombie had 27 of them. But as a coach,
how are you seeing this happening? Are you just
like, no, she's so good, too bad? No, your job
is to come up with a solution. Yeah, I don't
know if they... When you have players like that,
sometimes it's... You know, they're going to
score their points. It's going to happen. You
know, let's keep going. But I don't, they didn't
apply enough pressure on her. Serve short to
that position. Jam her up. Try and take her approach
away. Serve short to Kaz Brown. Make her pass
and then load up on the outside. I just didn't
see, I didn't see enough trying to throw off
her rhythm. And I, to me, that was a game plan
miss. Again, Orlando showed up. The players that
needed to do their job, they did. They executed.
I was hoping for a better game. I was hoping
for a better match. Going into this, would I
have ever expected Orlando to be the champion?
No. Fair. Absolutely not. But they showed up.
Their best players were their best players in
the finals, period. So congrats to Orlando. And,
you know. Indy expansion team came out, made
it to the finals. You know, they were a fun team
to watch. I think if I had to pick a favorite
team to watch this season, I would pick Indy.
I liked their players. I liked how they played
the game. I liked that they got their middles
involved, you know, as much as they could. They
were overall my favorite team to watch. And I
loved how many rookies they had on the court.
Yeah. Well, and Teeler was like a practice player
last year. So you really... Only had Sidney Hilly,
who had been around the rest of the people on
the court, were rookies, which I think bodes
well for the future. And they arguably lost their
best player. They did, and they still made it.
So, yeah, it was a fun weekend. Wish the ending
could have been a little closer, but the team
that showed up, the team that played the best,
won. The team that deserved to win this weekend
won. Agreed. All right, we kind of did this with
love, so we wanted to do kind of a season wrap
-up analysis for PVF as well because they are
new leagues. I think it's worth discussing the
things that they really nailed and they did great
and the things that maybe could be adjusted if
we were the commissioners, you know. So what
do you think of PVF's mission basically to be...
quote unquote, real pro volleyball and bring
the major league professional vibe to volleyball
as far as trades and salaries and all of that?
I mean, that's what I'm used to having been involved
in the foreign leagues. So I think the mission
is great. I like the idea of having a true, we'll
call it a professional league set up in the stereotypical
way. I wish that there was maybe a little more
activity around trading players, trade deadlines,
that that was a little more. kind of out there
it would be interesting to see you know the top
four teams they trade some draft picks and bring
somebody else in like that's one of the parts
of sport that I really enjoy like leading up
to the trade deadline I think they can do a little
bit more like because they are a pro league with
that team building and how it works like we had
to go looking for that yeah we can talk about
that part of it later but I like I like the mission
I like the idea of team building I like that
you have independent GMs building teams and structures.
I'm a big fan. What are your feelings on the
format? So each team played all of the other
teams four times. At the end of all of that,
the top four make the quote -unquote playoffs
for just a quick semis and finals. So this is
where I would probably make some adjustments.
For me, there were too many dead weeks or games
that were just not engaging. So a couple ideas
that I would do. I really like how the Italian
League does the in -season cup. where you have
an additional competition that kind of means
something that runs within the regular season
and so you have this kind of single elimination
match to bring interest to winning you know a
kind of mini championship within the season I
think that's a good way to bring meaningful matches
into a regular season that maybe gets a little
boring a little bit dull there were weeks where
they would play the same team like three out
of four matches and Those weren't always good
matchups. I just think playing two or three matches
in a week is so much. And they had matches Wednesday
through Sunday, which is also a lot. I don't
know. I understand keeping the interest and having
volleyball available for people throughout the
week. But it just seemed like a lot to me when
a team would play like Thursday, Saturday or
Wednesday, Saturday or, you know, and there wasn't
a consistency to who you were playing. It was
very all over the place, which kind of made it
hard to follow. I am a very like linear thinker.
So for me, it's just like, OK, yeah, run through
the like. gamut however many times, but even
I think four per team is a lot. Yeah. So I don't
like when the schedule is not quote unquote even
because you had, you had some teams play the
same teams. Three of their four matches happened
within three weeks. What happens if that team
gets better or one team gets worse? There's a
little bit of competitive stuff around there.
But even from a rest perspective, it's like some
teams would have a week off. And then some teams
would play one match a week. And then another
team that same week had to play three matches.
But what if in your third match you're playing
a team that only had to play once? That's not
fair. Do you know? Yeah. I also think that...
So I would reduce the number of times you play
each team during the season. I would put in kind
of a mid -season cup, which I think brings some
excitement. And I know we talked about this with
Love too, but I'm a big proponent of having series
in playoffs. They don't have to be best of seven.
You could do a best of three. I would maybe,
yeah, I think I would do... at least a series
for the playoffs because you get to see some
of those adjustments. We had really intense matches.
I would be curious to see if Indy could beat
Omaha two out of three times. Like, was it just
a fluke where all their players showed up? Give
me a little bit of that story for me personally.
And I definitely, it resonates with me what you
said about just like the frequency or like the
timing of when these matchups would happen. It
needs to be spaced out because you need to play
the team. Like, A, we agree, cut down the number
of times you're playing each other. Four times
is wild. But then, like, go through the round,
beginning, middle, end, because teams make adjustments.
Things are different at the beginning of the
season than the end. And if you're playing teams
back -to -back. two three weeks in a row it's
just it's not giving you a good representation
of who the better team is throughout the season
and you look at like there were a couple teams
that went on wild swings like vegas won a whole
bunch of games in a row and then lost a whole
bunch of games in a row i think wasn't it orlando
that one that lost like seven of their last eight
games indy lost seven of their last eight games
coming into the playoffs like there's just i
think with a little more around the schedule,
it's more engaging from a fan perspective because
you can tell what's going on. You can highlight
certain matches of the week and there's other
things to pay attention to. So I would make some
tweaks. Okay, let's talk about the level of play.
The level of play is competitive for the most
part across all teams, which I think is a positive.
I didn't pay a ton of attention to the league
last year, but from what I could see, you had
more players kind of towards the end of their
careers playing last year, and they seem to bring
in more young college players, which I think
for me is the future of the league. I think it's
really hard to just start a league and get all
of the best players to come no matter what you're
doing. You know, nobody understands what you're
bringing to the table, how competitive you're
going to be, what the structure is around all
of that. For me, I think the PVF needs to continue
to get college players in there. It needs to
be an extension of the college game. Volleyball
is a sport where athletes hit their peak on the
female side, 27 to 31, right? I love that the
league. can give these athletes a chance to reach
their potential if they didn't necessarily get
it in college. And I think if they keep going
along and pulling in the Anna De Beers, the Corey
Lewis's, like those players who have come in,
Sidney Hill, I think that this league can get
very good. Currently, you're seeing skilled athletes
who aren't as big and physical as some of the
other top leagues. I thought the caliber got
better as the season went on. But it's not a
top league yet. It's not there. I agree. I think
the thing about volleyball is that when you have
competent athletes who know how to play, if they
are playing against similarly skilled players,
it's very entertaining to watch. If a PVF team
tried to play a love team, it wouldn't be fun.
It wouldn't be fun for the spectators because
it's just like there's a discrepancy in physicality
and skill level. I enjoy watching PVF, even if
the like overall level of the individual athletes
might not be what it is in love or overseas.
The teams are close enough in level skill that
it's fun and it's competitive and it's back and
forth. I definitely think it is a step down from
Love domestically. You don't see quite the same
pace on the serves. You don't see the same hitting
angles. You don't see quite the same player adjustments
because the players don't have as much experience.
And I think PVF should lean into that and build
into that. And I think that it needs to be seen
as like... We're going to develop our homegrown
players and make them and build that league into
something that's respectable. I think that should
be the goal of the league. Okay, moving on to
branding. I personally am a huge fan. I love
what they've done with the teams. I think it's
fun. I think the merch that you see the fans
wearing, it's all you can tell who they're rooting
for. The fans are decked out in hoodies and t
-shirts and the swag from the team. I love that
there's different mascots or logos for the teams.
Say what you want. I know people have it out
for the jerseys or the style or what they look
like. But I like seeing the individuality. And
I love seeing that individuality represented
in the stands as well. I agree. I don't know
where this point kind of fits with our season
wrap up, but along with branding, I think the
communication around the league needs to be better.
Like there were oftentimes I was looking for
things, you know, I couldn't find them. I wanted
to find stats on players. You know, you couldn't
download the game sheets. You didn't always know.
what was happening in the league or the highlights
of the different matchups that were coming up.
And again, there's so much to do when you're
doing a league. They're in their second year.
I think they did a good job, but it would be,
I think that that's one area where they can do
a better job engaging with people who are interested
in the PDF. And our last point, which we were
very passionate about when it came to love, is
the presentation. Two things. I only have two
comments. One, Nobody's better than Paul Sunderland.
He is great to listen to. He has this ability
to criticize athletes during the play in a way
that doesn't sound demeaning, but he's realistic
about what is happening on the floor. And around
the world. That was a huge knock we had with
Love, is how they were just not telling the truth.
And this isn't across the board in PVF. Trust
me, there are some announcers for PVF that we
scratch our heads. But when it came to big matches,
the team of Holly McPeak and Paul Sunderland,
they were on point. They were honest about the
level. They were honest about what is out there
in the volleyball world. Honest about the play.
We heard about the play. Yeah, I think there
were some top moments and then there were some,
I know for PVF, every team is responsible for
kind of acquiring their own commentary staff
or whatever. So some nailed it. Some didn't.
Some didn't. But I will say the information that
was generally trying to be communicated. was
very much in line with what was happening on
the court. It was volleyball -focused, which
was nice. Yes. Two other things. One is... Love
bolt six as well. I love bolt six, but I hate
the automated... Like, for a while, every time
it was within six inches of the line, that just
went up, and it's like... Okay. Let's only show
it for the close ones. Yeah, you need to figure
out how to add in some of those graphics. I thought
some of the timing around when they would cut
to stats and things like that was sometimes a
little janky, like it wasn't polished. The one
thing they did, though, that I really liked was
they showed, especially towards the end of the
season, more of the play from that baseline camera,
and I... personally love watching volleyball
from that angle and I really enjoyed how they
tried to work that in with the different angles
where you could see you know the play coming
together where the blockers were going who was
lined up against who so that part I actually
really liked and I you know as their teams come
together their presentation teams their broadcast
teams I think those things will tighten up but
I think that they can I think there's a little
room for improvement there just to make it like
a true professional sport experience? I mean,
overall, it was their second season. I like the
product that they are putting forward. Again,
some of their, you know, fan -facing media and
information statistics could be improved, but
I think the overall viewing experience is enjoyable.
Again... The level is what it is, but I think
it is encouraging to see the direction that they're
moving in, to see the passion and the fire and
the fight with the athletes. Yeah, I think they
do a good job. Overall, I enjoyed picking the
matchups that were going to be quote -unquote
good and watching those matches. I think they
can do some things to make more of the matches.
desirable to watch but when i watched i enjoyed
the product it's time for listener questions
we've got a few on the docket for you guys today
our first question is sometimes it looks like
players attack from the back row while having
their foot over the 10 foot line are my eyes
completely deceiving me or are there instances
where the players in the front row are attacking
that far off the net your eyes are not deceiving
you I think there are several instances where
players do touch the 10 -foot line when they're
attacking, but they don't catch it. There are
also times where front row players, where the
sets are so bad that it's really hard to tell
whether they're front row or back row, and they're
kind of over the line. So if you're not really
paying attention or you don't know the rotation,
you could think... you know, an opposite hitter
is coming in on a set that's so bad that it's
near the 10 foot line. But they're like the refs
are responsible for calling the foot on the line
and they do miss it. It is challengeable, but
a lot of the time, like the coaches aren't staring
at the foot. So I think there are players who
they get away with it sometimes for sure. If
it's egregious. then it's probably a player who's
in the front row hitting a bad set. We did have
a question about where the heck is Melanie Parra?
This person was like, I think she would be an
immediate impact to any team on the PVF. She
could have been a good left side for a team that
lacks depth in love. Where is she? I don't know
if she was still in school at TCU. I know that
she was present for their volleyball banquet
and stuff. So I want to say that she was there.
Maybe she didn't graduate, but she did recently
sign. She will be playing next season. She signed
with Busto Orsiccio in the Italian A1 League.
So she will be making a comeback and you will
be able to watch her play this fall or this summer
with the Mexican national team. One of the reasons
I love hearing you dissect the game is how real
you are. Is it ever hard to do that given all
the relationships you have? Has a player ever
reached out and been upset about something you've
said? How do you balance breaking down the game
versus trying not to hurt feelings? Nobody has
ever reached out to say anything. So something
that I really value is authenticity and honesty.
And so I am not somebody who will try to sugarcoat
things. I don't think I'm capable of it. She's
not. But it's not hard because I think with sport,
sometimes it's just not good enough. And I think
as athletes, if an athlete has made it to the
point they have in the levels that we're discussing,
they have received critical feedback. It's the
only way that players improve. And so I don't
necessarily feel bad about being honest because
I'm not saying the player is a bad player. A
certain string of points might be bad. Some decisions
might be bad here and there. But I would never
say that an athlete is a straight up bad player
or they don't try or things like that. I try
to keep my feedback very objective and my opinion
as opposed to saying things that are about the
person. And so, no, we haven't received any reach
outs. But like I was a professional athlete for
a very long time. played on a program in college
that got a ton of attention. And were positive
things always said about me? Absolutely not.
I have heard really terrible things said about
me and the way I play and anything that's possible,
I've heard it. But the thing is, is like, does
it change when I was an athlete? Did it change
how I prepared or how I entered a game? No, everybody's
entitled to their opinion. Not everybody has
to think I'm good, but it doesn't change what
I'm going to do. And I just feel like, especially
today where there are so many opinions out there
on social media and otherwise, like I feel like
it's par for the course. Yeah. And I think for
the most part, athletes are generally. harder
on themselves than anybody else could be not
all athletes are like that but that's when you're
playing at that level you have to be able to
be critical about your game and you know like
you said I don't think we try and bury anybody
we talk about what happens and I would imagine
if athletes listen to this you know if we've
said something about having a poor performance
it's probably Yeah, you know, the things they
said are relatively accurate. So a lot of times
when you discuss sports, you talk about the things
that go sideways or the teams that lose because
that's kind of generally the story. But we do
also try and highlight A, when people do a good
job, but B. Also, if we say something about an
athlete who hasn't performed well or we don't
quote -unquote maybe like their decision -making
or style of play, if they show up, we try and
be the first people to say, well, I got that
one wrong, like this person proved me wrong and
they had a good match. And, you know, like you
said, honesty and authenticity. This is an interesting
question. Do certain teams play better on certain
sides of the court? In volleyball, you'll see
a team win a set on the right side of the court,
drop a set on the left side, and then win when
they go back to the right side. Is that a thing?
My instinct is no. There might be certain gyms
where maybe the lighting is bad on one side or
the scoreboard hangs over more on one side. But
I think for the most part, where you're playing
inside unless there is something visually that
really throws you off on one side that you're
not used to it doesn't it doesn't really matter
i mean every team has a side that they like to
start on like the home team they always have
their side that they start on it's just like
how it is does that qualify as being like their
favorite side maybe but i don't think the side
of play really affects that much Unless it's
beach. Yeah. If you're outdoors, it's a different
discussion. I would imagine if you dug into the
numbers, it's statistically irrelevant. That'll
be Adam's project. Last question here for the
episode. What are your thoughts on the Pepperdine
libero? Honestly, throughout the season, he didn't
really do much for me. He was one of those liberos
that I didn't really notice, which maybe that's
a good thing. But I had my group that like really
stood out in a positive way. I had a group that
kind of stood out in a negative way. And he kind
of fell in the middle. As we have gone through
the postseason, however, I have been more and
more impressed with him. The mustache is top
notch. He's good defensively. I have gained a
greater appreciation for his skills and how good
he is. As I've watched them play down the stretch,
would I put him on the same level as my favorite
liberos of Johnny Dykstra or Evan Porter or Choi
from Hawaii? I don't think he's as good as them,
but he's solid. All right, love those questions.
We always appreciate people sending them in,
and we love having these conversations. If we
look towards this week, the only thing I'm thinking
about is the game tomorrow, probably tonight
if you're listening to the episode, but we are
recording on Sunday, 7 o 'clock p .m. Eastern,
Long Beach, UCLA, men's national final. Let's
get it going. You got to watch this. That needs
to be your Monday night entertainment. And that's
the only thing we're going to talk about because
we're going to be back in a few days. to talk
about the tournament, so you don't need to watch
anything other than that, okay? Look for the
next episode either Wednesday or Thursday. That
concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.
There's always something shaking in the volleyball
world, and we hope you enjoyed this little fix.
Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss
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on Instagram or at info at sarahpavin .com. Thanks
so much for joining us and we'll be back next
week. In a few days. Not next week. You know
what I mean. Okay, bye.