2026 NCAA Men's Final Four is Set, Vakifbank Takes Champions League Crown

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. Playoffs, baby. What a week. Heartbreak
left. right center emotions are flying no good
predictions i don't even know what to do we have
got so much to talk about this like i have no
idea how long this episode is gonna be three
hours this is gonna be the longest episode we've
ever done ever is my prediction i'm gonna be
editing for 48 hours but we have like yeah so
much stuff went down this week can't even believe
it There's more to come this week that we have
to look forward to, obviously, but we are very,
very excited to also announce our volley winner.
So let's get started. All right. It was the last
week for the MLV Volley Talk Volley Fantasy League.
How did you finish? 168, I believe. Oh. Yeah.
Not much better. I went out with a whimper. I
was fizzled. I finished 74th. Also not much to
be proud of there. But our winner. Heavy hitter
is our grand winner. You'll be getting a prize
from us and the volley staff very shortly. I
just want to say thank you to everybody who chose
to participate and join us in the fantasy league
this year. I, it was a ton of fun. It was so
much fun. They did a great job with the app and
all of the interactivity, how you pick the players.
I thought it was just, it was really well done
and a ton of fun. I was. Way more engaged in
the league this year than last year. And I think
that was a big reason for it. And honestly, I'm
so excited as it expands to other seasons and
other leagues. You didn't get a chance to join
us this time around. We will always be posting
a league. So be sure to join us in future seasons.
Thank you so much again to everybody who participated
and for the Play Volley staff for creating such
a cool app. Other than the volley fantasy, which
is an incredibly important highlight happening
thing for the week happening for us highlight
for heavy hitter. You know what I mean? There's
not a lot happening because we're going to talk
about everything pretty much in our segments.
How can you not? We will be doing all these leagues
of disservice if we didn't touch on them. So
we have to, there are segments for everything.
The one thing that we are not doing a full segment
on is the Italian a one men's finals. They've
played two matches. Perugia's up two matches
to zero on Chivita Nova. They won the first match
three straight, second match in four. So this
could all be wrapping up on Wednesday. We would
also be remiss if we did not mention that UCLA
won the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship this
past weekend. They were the four seed going in.
They beat the number one seed Stanford in the
final. Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it's
UCLA's fourth beach volleyball championship.
Huge congrats to the Bruins on that huge accomplishment.
That's what's happening this week in the world
of volleyball. Other than, of course, teams have
been announcing their VNL rosters, wide rosters.
We'll get there. We'll get there. Not this week.
Not for a while. Okay. We've got a lot to unpack
here. Let's move on to some of our juicy updates.
Okay, so we wanted to do an MLV preview coming
into the finals this week. So I want to go over
each of the teams. We've had a whole bunch of
questions about what are the strengths and weaknesses?
How would you approach beating this team? What
are the keys to success? And I've done a little
bit of digging on some of the stats for the season
so we can kind of go over those as well. I mean,
let's just start top to bottom. Let's start with
Indy. I think at this point, everybody who's
paying attention knows pretty much who the starters
are. Yeah, because we've all been making our
fantasy rosters. Give me what you believe their
strengths and weaknesses are as a team. We'll
talk about some of the stats, and then we can
go over strategies on how you would beat them.
I think they're a pretty good serving team. Agreed.
So they have the top aces per set ratio in the
league. They're the only team over one, so they're
hitting 1 .1 aces per set. And I think their
middles have had a good season. Yes, they don't.
They set them a decent amount. They're not super
efficient. None of their middles are above 300.
I would say they probably have the second best
middle core. Okay. I think the pin hitters are
undersized, which is like, I know it's a negative,
but I feel like they are among the top. In the
league, particularly Member Mena and Azani Teeler.
Overall, I think Elena Scott's a good libero.
I think they're a well -constructed roster despite
being undersized. I had the same thing. I think
they're the most skilled. As pure volleyball
players, I think they're the most consistent
and they're the most skilled. I also think one
of the big separators for them is their mindset.
They are aggressive on the serve. If they make
a mistake, they come back and swing. They're
a team that... Make you beat them, but they're
still able to do that by taking big aggressive
swings Obviously, they finished top of the league
their stats are pretty good team efficiency was
second overall at 254 They were the best at holding
opponents to the lowest score So that's always
important third overall and digs which I found
a little surprising and out of the four teams.
They were the worst Blocking team which isn't
surprising because again, they're not they're
not super big. You know what you're gonna get
when you play against them and you've got to
show up. And I think that those are the things
that work in their favor. Okay, so then how would
you go about beating them? So when they're in
system because all of their pin hitters can swing
and they run the middle a decent amount, they're
pretty hard to stop. But because they're athletic
but they're not very big, I don't think they're
great at a system. So you have to serve tough.
I would do a lot of crossing serve patterns.
So moving across different people, I wouldn't
let Elena Scott pass. I would really try and
target their left side hitters and try and get
them hitting at a system. Because if you can
get a solid block up on them, they start to get
in trouble. And I've seen teams have success.
They just haven't been able to sustain it. So
for me, getting them at a system is probably
the only way to beat them. Let's go ahead and
look at Dallas. Interesting for them, they run
the middle the least number of sets overall,
but their middles are the most efficient. All
of their middles are hitting over 300. And the
other piece that I think is missed in all of
this is I think they run the pipe the most. In
my opinion, one of their biggest strengths is
they own the middle of the court better than
any of the other teams, whether that's through
running the middle or running the pipe over top.
I think that's one of their biggest strengths.
I think their outside duo of Maldonado Diaz and
Collier are, I would say, the best outside duo
in the league. I would also agree with that.
I love how they've used Mimi Collier, especially
as a rookie. I think their setter in Valentin
Anderson and the experience that she's brought
to that roster is incredibly valuable. I mean,
one of the reasons that their middles are so
efficient is because they're getting set so little.
Like the fewer times you get set, the easier
it is to be efficient. So would you say that
the team is, are they a bad passing team? That
is where they get into trouble. I think both
Mimi and Maldonado Diaz have the ability, maybe
ability is the wrong word. They have stretches
where they can struggle to pass. You got to serve
tough against them. It's not about being in system
or out of system. It's just you can put them
under duress and take them out of their rhythm.
That is where they run into some issues. Now,
they're the most efficient team as a whole in
MLV. So they hit 265 on the year. They are the
number one blocking team. Out of the four teams,
they have the lowest digs per set and they're
third for aces per set. If you can extend rallies
on them and get past their block, you have a
pretty good shot at scoring. And I don't think
they put teams under enough pressure. If we see
a Dallas Indy final, if Dallas wants to win that
match, they're going to have to be better from
the service line than I think they typically
are. They're going to need to take a few more
risks. Let's talk about San Diego. We can spend
a little bit more time talking about it because
we had somebody write us and say... Why have
you guys hated on San Diego? Why do you always
expect them to lose when they've gotten a lot
better? Okay, so let's address that first, and
then we'll talk about them as a team. At the
beginning of the season, they had a ton of roster
turnover. Almost nobody was back. And Grace Loberg
has had an unbelievable season. But she only
played half the matches for Vegas last year.
She wasn't that good. She hasn't done anything.
She has not done anything. So she has stepped
up and done really well. None of these players,
like Rekalcevic, you didn't know what you were
going to get from her. She's played for a very
long time. Sambuthi was in. Love last year. Concussions.
Montserrat, as we talked about, I thought really
struggled at the beginning of the season. We
weren't big fans. She's gotten a ton better.
If you look at them, there are no stars on this
team, in my opinion. That's the thing. Looking
at this roster, yeah, they started real bad,
but then I was like, yeah, of course they did.
Looking at the roster, I'm not like, wow, I'm
surprised that this person isn't lighting it
up. Because when have they lit it up? So I think
that's why at some point it just became a running
joke throughout the season. Like, no, Montserrat,
blah, blah. Like they did get a lot better. A
hundred percent. But I just didn't let it go.
I would say out of all of the teams that are
here, they have exceeded the sum of their parts.
Like they play really well together. So if we
look at them, they're the second best at holding
opponent efficiency down. Right. So they're hard
to play against. And I think you see that. When
you watch them, they don't let the ball hit the
floor. They're second in aces per set. They're
second in blocks per set. They're first in digs
per set. They're gritty. They're a blue -collar
team that works, that gets touches. The ball
hits them. They put it over. But out of the four
teams left, they're the least efficient siding
out. They want to extend rallies. They want to
get into the trenches with you. Make the other
teams make mistakes, basically. Which is that
the most effective way to win? And it's not pretty.
Like when you watch them, sometimes it's not
pretty volleyball, but they found a way. And
I think that for me is that's become their identity.
We're going to be scrappy. We're going to do,
you know, all of those things. That would be
kind of why I think you have that impression
of them and why it's been that way throughout
the season. I mean, given the fact that they
have the least, the lowest hitting percentage.
I think you need to serve them strategically
and or aggressively. If you're not able to be
served with aggression and be precise, then at
least be precise. Do you know what I'm saying?
Like hit a target, take an option away, take
an option away because take the, we already know
that they're the least efficient team in the
final four. Taking an option away will only exacerbate
that. I think you just need to stick. with your
serving strategy and i think you need to be patient
with them you need to understand they're going
to extend rallies you need to make weird plays
yes they're significantly higher in digs per
set than any other team so the ball is coming
over and you have to run the middle you have
to overload you have to find hands and you have
to know that i might have to swing two or three
times in this rally to score the point there
are the other teams are more skilled than they
are But if they get frustrated, that's where
I think San Diego surprises teams and comes up
with wins. All right, so now let's dive into
Omaha, who finished fourth, squeaked into the
playoffs, had high expectations coming into the
season. What are your thoughts about them? Strengths,
weaknesses? You guys, I can't even tell you.
I don't know. I don't know. I feel like their
middles are kind of a question mark. It's so
hard because all these players that were so hyped
up at the beginning of the season, I feel like
have kind of ended up being disappointments.
Shockingly, I feel like Londot has been a bright
spot for them, which did I ever think I would
say that? No. I'm stumped. I don't know. Okay.
Here's what I have. Well, let's do the stats
first. So out of, again, the four teams, they
were third in team efficiency. They hit 232.
They were third in aces per set at 0 .82. They
were last in holding down opponent efficiency
against. They were third in blocks and they were
second in digs. So not great compared to any
of the teams. Correct. That are in the final.
Now here's what I think. One, I think Kira Reinhardt
did a great job this year, but I think their
second middle is a huge question mark. They don't
really know. Like a revolving door sometimes.
And this is my biggest knock against them is
I don't think they have a starting lineup. Right,
Beeson's starting now over Londot, even though
I thought Londot did a pretty good job all year.
You don't know who's, I mean, Nunneville is playing.
And Cooper came in for a second, then Parsons
came in for a bit. Like, I don't, it's like,
who is ever going to play? And I don't know.
Sidney Hilly and Nunneville are the only two
who you can beat. Well, I guess, and the Libero.
So Ogilvy is playing. But that position was,
they had somebody leave the team this year. Roster
turmoil, I think, is a negative. for them individually
they have a lot of good players but they haven't
been able to put it together so in the case where
everybody on their team has a good to great night
they're a good team they can be a good team we
just haven't seen it consistently so i think
that's one of well i think the person running
the offense has a lot of experience has she had
a great season no but Worth mentioning. They
definitely have the potential to be an upset
team. And if they ended up winning because they
played two great matches, would I be horribly
shocked? No, I wouldn't be. Because I think in
a vacuum, if you look at their players, they're
skilled. And they're pretty deep. Like if they
go into the match and Parsons isn't playing well,
Reagan Cooper can come in and have a good match.
If Londot starts and doesn't play well, I'm less
certain that Beeson would come in and play well.
She didn't have a very good season. But you have
an option there. You have options in all positions.
So that, I think, is one of the strengths for
them as a team. One of the question marks for
me is they have a very young coach. He's inexperienced.
How are you going to make decisions? What are
you being told? How much freedom do you have
to make decisions in the moment? I think all
of those things make it very hard to be successful.
but at the same time alleviates pressure. And
that was the brilliant move about switching out
the coach. You can point out, well, we got a
24 -year -old coach. We're not expected to win.
And I think that in that market specifically
can be a big deal. I will say they don't run
the middle a ton, only 16 % compared to other
teams, and their middles aren't very efficient.
Very few of their players were efficient, obviously.
They have the lowest team -hitting efficiency.
out of the four teams there. If you come and
play and you get what we have seen from Omaha
all year, I don't expect them to beat Indy. I
don't think they're going to be able to be that
consistent for the whole match against Indy.
Those are kind of the four teams, an overview
of strengths, weaknesses, how we would approach
playing each of those teams. Give me your quick
predictions on the weekend. So we have Indy Omaha
in one semifinal, we have Dallas San Diego in
the other semifinal, and then... Tell me who
you think the winner is going to be. I think
Indy will beat Omaha. And I honestly think the
Dallas -San Diego match will be a really good
match. I think Dallas will win. But I think that
that one will be the tighter match of the two.
That is the one I'm most looking forward to watching.
I think it's going to be good volleyball. I'm
excited for that one. So you have Indy Dallas
in the final. Who are you picking? I agree with
you with your predictions, by the way. I'm going
to call a Dallas upset. Because has Dallas beat
Indy at all this year? I feel like no. I feel
like Indy's owned that series, but I'm just feeling
like something magical will happen maybe. I had
the instinct that Dallas was going to win as
well, and I think they're going to be able to
win in the middle. That's why. Now, my caveat
stands. If they can't put service pressure. I
think Andy will win. But if they get any kind
of service pressure, I think Dallas wins. Well,
as we're going to see in our upcoming segments,
our predictions have been blown apart recently.
So don't put any stock in anything we're saying.
It probably won't come true, but it's fun trying
anyway. Watch the matches and find out. On Ion,
wherever that is. Over the weekend, we had the
regionals for the NCAA men's championship. Four
locations, the four top seeds got to host, and
they also got buys into the regional final. On
Friday was the regional semifinal. We saw Pepperdine
beat Fort Valley State 3 -0, Loyola Chicago beat
St. Francis 3 -0, USC beat Belmont Abbey 3 -0,
and UC Irvine beat Penn State in five. So just
a couple of things. We didn't watch these ones,
but I was curious and I went in and looked at
some of the stats. So the Fort Valley Pepperdine,
that was pretty straightforward, as was the USC
Belmont Abbey. But the Loyola Chicago St. Francis
game was really close. 30 -28 for Loyola Chicago,
29 -27 for Loyola Chicago, and then 25 -20. Close
match. Loyola Chicago was pushed for those. Wanted
to give a shout out to a couple of St. Francis
players who posted really good matches. Brady
Stump hit 371 on 35 attempts and then Cole Dorn
hit 389 on 18 attempts. So those are the two
biggest attackers for St. Francis. Always want
to shout out players who show up in big moments.
Looking at the match breakdown, I think St. Francis
just didn't run the middle at all. In a set where
you need one or two more points, that's what
you need to do. Shout out to those guys. Looks
like they had the outside hitters for St. Francis
played really well. The UC Irvine -Penn State
match was interesting. Again, I just kind of
dove in looking at the numbers and some of the
breakdowns and team comparisons because I was
curious because I did not expect this to be this
close. The sets that UC Irvine won were pretty
big. So 25 -18, 25 -17. Penn State won one set
25 -19. And then the other two were Penn State
beat UC Irvine 29 -27. UC Irvine pulled it out
15 -13 in the fifth. That one could have gone
either way, and that would have been a huge result
given what happened in the next round. Looking
at this, just a couple things that stood out
to me. Penn State had 27 hitting errors to UC
Irvine's 12. That's a big difference. That's
a big difference. UC Irvine hit 390. As a team
on the match. That's efficiency. Not kill percentage.
To Penn State's 240. Two hitting 240 with 27
errors. Is still pretty impressive. I know. They
either scored or made a mistake. There were no
continues in this match. It was a terminal match.
And then UC Irvine had 24 blocks. To Penn State's
15. Well there's a difference. So there's a couple
big discrepancies there. Which kind of makes
sense. Given that. UC Irvine blew them out in
a couple sets. I think there was some controversy
in this match. Somebody who watched it or was
there tell me because I heard that the UC Irvine
setter got hurt or something and took a really,
really long time in the locker room and like
the UC Irvine head coach went there. I don't
know if it stopped. play and like Penn State
was like just being gracious or something but
like somebody tell me because do you think that
impacted the result of the match if you watched
and saw what happened I'm curious what set that
would have happened after but one other one player
I wanted to shout out from Penn State Tristan
Hassel hit 355 on 31 sets for Penn State so again
standout performance you know given the result
they were almost there And then we move to Saturday.
Oh, boy. Wowzers. I will just say I went one
for four on my predictions. That is not good.
Adam did not have a good. If this was his bracket,
he would have imploded. It would have been poof.
AI Adam was hallucinating for these predictions.
Oh, my gosh. I went two for four, which isn't
much better. But I mean, okay, I'm honestly,
how many people picked Ball State over Pepperdine?
Because I think maybe a lot of people. Really?
I think maybe like watching them. I will full
disclosure. I watched the UCLA match and I watched
the Ball State Pepperdine match. I'm going to
watch the USC Hawaii match tonight, but that
doesn't help us for now. I will say there were
probably a lot of people who thought Ball State
really had a chance. I say that after the fact.
I was not one of those people. I mean, Long Beach
State beat Loyola Chicago three straight. Hawaii
beat USC in four. Do you have anything you want
to talk about before we get to the two matches
that I messed up in my prediction? And maybe
everybody messed up in one of the two or both.
Looking at the USC and Hawaii stats, there were
a couple things that needed to happen, in my
opinion, for USC to win. First thing we talked
about, or I talked about at least, was that Hawaii's
outsides, we hadn't really seen the three of
them put together really good performances altogether.
I think what everybody wants to know is, did
Cade play? Cade did not play from what I could
see. I'm going to read you a couple stat lines
from this match. Trisky hit 220 on 41 sets. Sakamoko
hit 258 on 31 sets. And Adrian Roark hit 458.
on 24 sets and they ran the middle 19 % out of
that. And their middles were relatively efficient.
I will pat myself on the back and say, if Hawaii's
outside core all play to their potential, they're
very hard to beat. And that looks like it happened
here. Again, like I said, I'm going to watch
this one, but numbers wise, they showed up and
played well, which I mean, makes sense as to
why they won. Well, it's a good thing that we
didn't watch this match live because as Adam
said, Roar always plays bad when we watch live,
and he posted the best numbers of all the outsides
for Hawaii. Stats for the match, and we said
USC would have to serve well, and they had been
blocking incredibly well. Here are the match
stats that stood out to me. Hawaii had 61 kills
to USC's 51. They were exactly the same, 19 hitting
errors apiece. Hawaii's hitting efficiency was
.328 to USC's .294. In the grand scheme of things,
pretty even. Pretty close. Now, Hawaii had nine
aces to USC's four, but they also had 27 serving
errors to USC's 15. I mean, that's a one to three
ace to error ratio, which in men's volleyball
is not ridiculous. Well, and USC strength is
their middle. Like their middle attackers are
generally very good. So keeping them out of system
or applying a ton of service pressure was good
because. USC needed to block well to beat Hawaii,
and they were outblocked 18 -17. So it's close.
Well, what was USC's serving numbers? So USC
had four aces to 15 errors. Okay, so virtually
one to four. Yeah. So they served worse. Worse,
and didn't put as much pressure on them. But
we knew that USC would have to block well and
run the middle in order to beat Hawaii because
their outside core is just not as good as Hawaii's
when they're all clicking. Well, their middles
and like their blocking is a big strength. I
mean, Hawaii did the things they needed to win.
And I mean, the sets were close. Hawaii won 25
-22, lost 24 -26, and then won 25 -23, 32 -30.
Like that match could have gone either way, which
is why I'm excited to watch it later. I think
that was a good match and Hawaii played well
enough to win when it mattered. Okay. Let's start
with Ball State Pepperdine. I watched this match.
Quite frankly, I feel like if you didn't watch
it, just skip the whole thing and watch set five.
Because it was wild. As I was watching the beginning
or the majority of the match, I was like, you
know what? I underestimated Ball State. I was
very impressed with their block defense. I feel
like their floor defense was a lot cleaner, and
they picked up a lot more balls than we tend
to see in the MPSF or the Big West. Hawaii's
a good defensive team, but you know what I mean?
So I think their defensive system as a whole
was very, very good. They weren't necessarily
as a team hitting their serves with the same
pace that we often see in MPSF and Big West.
But I would say it seemed a little more consistent.
And their attackers weren't, they were solid.
They're a solid team. Well, their hitting efficiency
as a team was much better than Pepperdine. So
they hit .347 on the match. Well, because they
blocked Pepperdine like crazy. That's what I'm
saying. Their defensive system was so good. They
blocked really well. They were digging well.
Yeah, watching the match, it was just very back
and forth. Like I said, I felt like both teams
were pretty evenly matched. Ball State was getting
a ton of touches on Hartke. Either straight up
blocks or getting really good touches on him.
Barnett was hot and cold. He had moments of brilliance,
moments of not so brilliant play. The middles,
Edie in particular for Pepperdine was good as
always. Honestly, the Swiss middle, like their
middles were very good. So I don't really have
a ton to say about the match as a whole except
set five. Holy moly. The most clutch finish to
a match I think I've ever seen. So this, it was
all point swings. If you're going to go watch
it, turn it off here. Spoilers are coming. Pepperdine
goes up 4 -1. Then it's 4 -4. Then Ball State
is up 11 -7. And I'm like, yikes, this is game
over. Then next thing you know, Pepperdine's
in the lead. Okay. Pepperdine is up 14 -12. One
of their players goes up, hits a serve almost
in the bleachers. I'm like, wow, okay. They still
got a chance. This kid, Pat Rogers, I believe,
was serving. Senior, okay? His career is on the
line, everybody. He goes back to serve, and in
my head, I was like, dang, I would really hate
to be serving right now. This kid goes up and
absolutely hits the snot out of the serve. Like,
it's 0 -0. Round of applause just for that. I
was like jaw on the floor. I was like, wow. They
set Cole Hartke roofed 14 -14. Pat Rogers is
like, I got more where that came from. Proceeds
to get two aces to finish this match. The game
ended and I was just stunned. I was like, what
did I just witness? Anyway, very exciting. Go
watch set five if you didn't watch it. I watched
the replay on YouTube and I kept looking. I'm
like, dang, it's 14 -12. How is there only like
a minute left of this? That's why nobody touched
the ball. Were they clean aces? Shanks. By who?
I think Gomez. Oh, boy. I think. It was happening
too fast. I couldn't focus. Oh, my gosh. So bow
down to Pat Rogers for that just incredible show
of mental strength. I might go back and watch
that two minutes just to see those serves. I
do have a question for you. So you mentioned
the Pepperdine middles. And digging into the
stats of the match, Will Patterson, who is a
middle for Ball State, stood out to me. He got
18 sets, which was more than one of the outside
hitters for Ball State. And he hit 667. What
was your impression of him during the match with
numbers like that? So here's the thing that I
was thinking watching the match. I was so impressed
at how the ball state setter Machado ran the
middle from everywhere. He's Brazilian. Yeah.
Like he'd get pulled behind the 10 foot line
and he would run the middle. And I was watching
this being like, okay, this isn't something we
see every day. It was, it was really cool. Like
how much he was forcing it. So even though like
Pepperdine was trying to rip serves, even if
the passes were pulling off the net, like they
were forcing the middle, which it's a huge size
mismatch for their left sides going up against
Hartke. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good plan. Yeah. I
saw those numbers and I was like, man, he got
a ton of balls. And so my assumption was they
pass pretty well, but I love when a setter pushes
the middle and they work on that connection.
I think it's a. highly underrated skill that
is so valuable, especially as matches go on when
you have to honor the middle, it makes such a
difference. So I was, I was really curious and
that's, that's a really interesting point. Was
the match entertaining? Like was the volleyball
good? Like what was your, what were your impressions
after the whole thing was over outside of the
fifth set? To be honest, it wasn't my favorite
match to watch. But the fifth set was worth the
price of admission. And I'm just kind of annoyed
because there were a lot of challenges. A, that
went wrong for the most part. But B, the down
official slashed like at least three or four
of them. Meaning he didn't see what happened.
That's kind of, that sucks. You know what I mean?
So that was kind of annoying. I know you have
lots of thoughts on this next match. But I want
to read you. a couple stats and i want you to
tell me nine times out of ten if you think these
stats are good enough to win your outside hitter
your p1 hits 435 on 46 sets your p2 hits 366
on 41 sets and your opposite hits 250 on 24 sets
you run the middle 16 percent of the time And
your one middle hits 500. 100%, yes. Those are
UCLA's numbers for this match. You hate an underdog
more than I do. You guys know, if you've been
with us for a while, you know I detest when underdogs
win. My heart is broken. Not because I particularly
have a personal tie or a vested interest in UCLA's
success. Watching them all season, they are,
and I say are, present tense, the best team in
the country. They're outstanding. Like, they're
the best team in the country, and they should
be in the Final Four, and it breaks my heart.
I'm like, I am unwell about them losing this
match, and they're hosting the Final Four, which
makes it even worse. And the way it went down
is just tough. It's so questionable. It's just
tough. But again, statistically, they did. Are
UC Irvine's numbers better? UCLA got more kills
than them. Now, I will say UC Irvine had six
aces to UCLA's four. UCLA made 22 service errors
to UC Irvine's 18. They outdug them. UC Irvine
outdug them 48 to 39 and outblocked them 15 -11.
So in all of the stats outside of hitting percentage,
they did have an edge. Do you want to know why
I think they had an edge? Sure. Because they
had nothing to lose. Well. They had absolutely
nothing to lose. And watching the match, I turned
to you and I was like, UCLA isn't even playing
bad. UC Irvine is just literally playing so free.
They are just absolutely going for everything.
They know that they have to just throw it all
into the wind and see what happens. So UCLA obviously.
I think William Darcy is generally UC Irvine's
best attacker. Would you agree with that? The
Aussie opposite? No, I know. Or one of, right?
Because you have a couple other young outsides
on that team, right? They're a decently young
team. I think their middle, Clark, is very good.
I think Micah Goss has gotten a lot better. Like,
I don't want to just, like, stomp all over UC
Irvine and be like, meh. No, but if you're...
No, their middle... Particularly Clark, very
efficient. And played well, 400 on 30 sets. Wow.
Micah Goss has improved since his freshman year.
His serving is very good. Very good. The two
young left sides. Andreas Brink was unconscious.
Brink had the match of his life, I think. Darcy
is hot and cold for me. What do you think Darcy's
stats on this match were? Honestly, I wasn't
really paying attention to him because I was
just like, this Brink kid is like having a day.
Darcy hit zero on 22 sets. Brink hit 483 on 29
balls. This kid, and this is one of the things
that you either love or hate about men's volleyball,
is that anybody can have a match on any given
night. Yeah, that's Adam's tagline for men's
volleyball. It's true. And this kid, he's a beach
player. He doesn't even play a ton of indoor.
He's a freshman. Did the French kid get freshman
of the year for the Big West? He didn't even
get it. If you're doing game prep against UC
Irvine, Brink is probably the third outside hitter
that you're worried about. We talk about, hey,
if you're going to play UCLA, you're going to
make Decker beat you. You're going to make Brink
beat you. And he was like, challenge accepted.
100%. He made swings, and some of the swings
were like rattlers between the block and scored.
There were some balls he had no business scoring
on, but he found a way, and it was impressive
to watch a freshman come out and play like that.
He was fearless. Fair. My heart is still broken.
No. I can't believe it. I'm in denial. I feel
like we didn't really see a ton of... emotion
and firepower from UCLA side until the fifth
set. It's like they, and I don't know this for
a fact, but watching it, it's like they kept
being like, okay, it's going to happen now. Yeah.
It's going to happen now. We're going to figure
it out. And so they just stayed very like, which
is what you want. Yeah. Even, but UC Irvine just
would not go away. UC Irvine one sets one and
three, 25, 23. So they made plays at the end
of those sets. And UCLA won two and four, 25
-19. Like, they weren't close. No. They built
a lot of momentum going into set five, too. Can
we talk about what happened at 14 -12? One thing
I noticed before we get there, and I don't know
if this was strategic or game plan based off
who the UC Irvine Middles were, but I didn't
think they ran the pipe. as effectively or as
much as they had all season, and I thought it
was one of their best weapons. I agree with you
for the first two sets. I think they started
using it more as the match went on, but I don't
think they used it as much as they should have
throughout the entire match. I feel like, I mean,
UCLA often comes under a lot of criticism for
how many serves they miss, but they as a team
typically just hammer serves. So it is more risky.
I didn't feel like they put enough service pressure
on UC Irvine. It wasn't the UCLA serving team
that we're used to seeing. I agree. I thought
UC Irvine put more service pressure on UCLA than
they did. So those two areas of the game, which
I think UCLA normally dominate in, running the
pipe and service pressure, I don't think those
two things in particular were clicking as well
as they normally are. And I think those are the
reasons that they didn't pull this off. You get
two more good serves, a little bit more service
pressure. Like I said, they were able to run
Clark 30 times in that match. If you can apply
a little bit more pressure, I think that was
the difference looking back on it. Now, let's
talk fifth set. UCLA's up 14 -12. Brink goes
up, hits a ball into the rafters. UCLA storms
the court. They think they win. And then UC Irvine
calls a challenge, which I'm sorry. I hope that
they had super telescopic cameras for the down
ref because every single angle they showed on
TV did not look like a touch at all. So I'm like,
this ref better have seen something definitive
because the number of. slash calls i saw in the
ball state game it's an option do we know if
the camera systems are as good for the men's
games as they are for the women's i don't know
i don't know but can you imagine the exhale you
take and the like release of emotion that you
let go after that point only to have to pack
it all in and refocus after that i can't Because
I don't think they can either because then we
saw two uncharacteristic hitting errors. One
by Cameron Thorne who my heart is broken for
him because that was an unreal swing. It was
a great swing. Just over rotated, missed the
sideline. Do you know that was his only error
of the match? Adam, why do you have to tell me
that? That makes me feel like I have goosebumps
in a terrible way. Like my heart is clenching
in pain thinking about that. Like, and that's
his last swing as a UCLA, as a college athlete,
then match point. Zach Rama goes in. It's a decent
pass goes in with tempo for whatever reason.
The set is a fricking rainbow to the stratosphere.
And he's completely out of rhythm, which I don't
know why the heck that set was so flipping high
because the pass wasn't that bad. And he misses
out the sideline. That's his last swing as a
college athlete. Like you have, there is so,
I think I have PTSD or something or like I'm
projecting my own issues on this match because
watching that, like I can't handle it. I mean,
I think you and I have both missed swings for
matches in various degrees of finals and it is
not. a fun feeling and those stay with you and
I could you could just feel the emotion from
both of those players in that setting like I'm
almost crying thinking about it right now I don't
wish that feeling on anyone I liked Rowan's decision
to run Cameron Thorne on that first ball he'd
been unstoppable it was a good swing he just
missed like I'm fine with that but I think he
said him again in a rally and you needed to go
to Rama. I think you needed to go to Sean Kelly
on the pipe. I don't, I think the decision -making
in those last couple rallies. And again, it's
easy to point fingers and it's easy to coach
from the couch, but he's just, I've loved his
decision -making all year. And I think in that
moment, it wasn't right. Yeah, he waited too
long to go to one of the outsides in that moment.
Yeah. 100%. You got to trust your big guns to
get the job done when you need to. And like you
said, the set was not right for the last one
for Rama or at the very end. I was stunned when
that happened. I felt sick, honestly, when the
game ended. But we are guaranteed. A big West
team in the final. We've got three big West teams
in the final four. One Miva, which I'm like happy,
honestly, that Ball State made the final four
because I think that this is so important for
the growth of men's volleyball. Just to have
a team that's not from the West Coast to be in
the final four. I think it's huge. We need to
continue to see. teams from MIVA and other conferences
like make those pushes into the final four so
I love that Ball State is going but we've got
Hawaii against Long Beach State and then in the
other match it's UC Irvine against Ball State
what are your predictions well we know my predictions
aren't going to be any good I actually think
Ball State has a good shot of beating UC Irvine
so do I listen I love standout performances but
Brink will maybe never play that well again He's
going to be like, watch me. Well, you know what?
There are matches where everything just goes
your way. Do you think the fact that they're
playing in LA will lean in Long Beach State and
UC Irvine's favor? No, I don't think so. You're
not playing in your home gym. You might have
fans there, but there's not a ton of more familiarity
or anything else with that. For me, that's a
non -factor. I'm going to say... Ball State in
five. I think that match is going to go five.
Let's get the Indiana crowd down to LA. Escape
your spring weather. Go hit up the sunshine for
a bit. Cheer on Ball State. All the Ball State
fans are like, I wish he wouldn't have picked
us. Because that means I'm not going to win.
I am going to stick with Hawaii winning. You
know, rematch of the semifinal from last year.
Some unfinished business for Hawaii. Because
they lost to Long Beach State last year, obviously.
So I'm going to say Hawaii. And then I want to
say Ball State. I think Ball State's block defense,
if they are able to handle UC Irvine's service
pressure, I think that they will be fine. I think
they're going to struggle against UC Irvine's
middles. But I like if... With how disciplined
they play defense against a young -ish outside
hitting core, I think they could make life difficult,
but they're going to have to slow down the middle
because if Trevor Clark is getting 30 sets and
hitting 400, when a middle's that good, it just
throws off your defensive structure because you
need to start cheating, you need to pinch blockers,
it opens things up. Their middles are going to
be the key to them winning, so we'll see what
happens there. I'm taking Hawaii to win it all.
I think that that is a fair assessment. We'll
come back next week and it will be completely
wrong, but we can't wait to talk about it. So
tune in to those matches. I need to recover.
I'm glad I have a few days to kind of process
what happened this past weekend. Sarah's going
out to get an emotional support animal. It was
really fun to watch regardless. All right, our
last segment in a very busy week is Women's Champions
League. The final four was this weekend in Istanbul.
We remember back to when we had the playoffs.
It was Vakavbank playing Conigliano and Azazibashi
playing Scandici. Way back when. My prediction
was a Vak of Bank -Fenerbahce final with Vak
of Bank winning. Obviously, Fenerbahce didn't
play in the final four, so here we go. So before
we get into the different matches, I have two
statements for you. I want you to tell me if
you agree or disagree with these statements.
Okay. Statement one, Boscovich is back. From
set three against Conigliano on, yes, she is
back. It was really great to see. This one's
a little more controversial, but I'm curious.
Markova is now the best player in the world.
It's so hard to say that because, like, is she
a great passer? Is she the best passer in the
world? No. Has her passing improved tremendously
since last year? Yes. Oh, I don't know if I can
say that she's the best player in the world,
but she has really made a case for herself to
be in the top five at least. Okay. We might have
to do a segment of top players in the world and
see where we end up with that. And then one other
thing, I think just for context for listeners
who maybe don't. pay attention to Champions League
quite as much. Where do you think winning this
tournament ranks in terms of the most difficult
things to win in volleyball? So off the top of
my head, you have Olympics, you have World Championships,
you have VNL, and probably Champions League would
be kind of the four big volleyball to -dos. Where
do you think this ranks? on that i want to say
champions league it can be a little more forgiving
in the preliminary rounds in the sense that you
have a home and away chance to kind of like play
a team whereas in the olympics and world champs
it's like you have your pool play then it's single
elimination playoffs champions league the home
and away until you get to the final four makes
me think that it's That is a big factor for me
because single elimination, it is like you need
to be on. There's no messing around. You cannot
make mistakes. When I think of level of play,
I think that this is the highest level of play
that you see in the world. And just kind of from
a pride or swagger standpoint, somebody goes.
I won champions league or I have an Olympic gold
medal, which one is more impressive? Oh my gosh.
I mean, both. Fair. I don't know. It's hard for
me to answer that because I played for a country
that was like, never had a shot at the time.
Like really bad. Yeah. And like, even now, like
would Canada's, even though Canada is a lot better,
do they have a shot of winning Olympic gold?
Probably not. So it was really hard for me to
say that because I was never in that position
Olympic -wise indoor. I did play in a Champions
League Final Four, and it is something that I
am very proud of in my career. I'm not sure I
can answer that due to where I'm from. Okay,
fair enough. I was just curious, and I think
the context is helpful for people who aren't
maybe as immersed into the whole process. you
know, as we are and other people. So, okay. Having
gone through that, where do you want to start?
I mean, final matches. Which one? Let's do Azubashi
-Skandichi. Well, here are the scores. So, the
sets, quite frankly, were never really close.
You either had one team, yes, it went to five,
but one team won generally with a pretty good
margin in this regard. So Scandici 25 -20, then
25 -20 the other way, 25 -17, 25 -21, and Azazibachi
winning 15 -8 in the fifth set. What were your
takeaways from this match? And who did you think
was going to win? I know that certain fans get
so upset when I say this, but I don't love Azazibachi
as a team. I just don't. I thought Scandici was
going to win my Champions League swindle, Stishak.
She was unreal. Unbelievably good. Not defensively.
Offensively. I did see her get hit by a few balls.
She dug one. You guys, I'm joking. But she was
unbelievable. You know who really impresses me
from Azazibashi is Sinead Jack Kisal. Stishak?
put up unbelievable numbers but she might be
my mvp oh my gosh like i she was pretty good
in vnl last year um for those who aren't familiar
she's originally from trinidad and tobago married
a turkish man and now represents turkey internationally
so she was pretty good in vnl but like man this
past season i am so impressed she was she is
so good but like stishak wow I have not seen
her play like that ever. She hit 475 on 40 balls
and had 30 points. That's crazy. I think that
might be her best match ever. She was unbelievably
good, and they don't win that match if she doesn't
play like that. Now, on the flip side, Skinner
and Bossetti were not very good. I thought that
Scandicci became a one -dimensional team. Well,
that has been a criticism people have had of
them leading up to this, too. It's like the Antropova
show. Like, Katarina, her ball control is top
-notch. But Avery Skinner throughout the season
has done a really good job improving. She's struggled
this match, though. Camilla Weitzel has really
come into her own this season. Onyanovich, like,
Brenda Castillo. Like, they are a solid, solid
roster. But when Antropova is not... scoring
at will it's challenging well i mean she hit
417 on 49 balls she she was she was very good
to be fair i didn't see a ton of this one i saw
a couple sets adam saw pretty almost the whole
thing yeah so but the sets that i saw my statements
about his ozzy boshy stand so skinner hit 179
on 28 sets and bocetti was 187 like you just
you need one of your other outside hitters to
be better than that. I think the thing that impressed
me the most was is Ozzy Bocci ran a very balanced
offense. They set all of their players. They
ran the middle 19 % of the time. They moved the
ball around. Like even when you look at the distribution,
the number of sets that different players got,
it was much closer than what you would kind of
typically think as a Kara Kurt Stasiak team.
And the other thing I will say is I thought they
did a good job utilizing their bench, bringing
in players in different roles to score in certain
places and in certain situations. So I was impressed
with them this match because I thought if Skinner
played the way we had seen her play average throughout
the season, I thought Scandicci was going to
win. I just didn't love the offense Scandici
put forward. I didn't think they moved the ball
around enough. I didn't think they ran the middle
enough. It almost looked like it was just, hey,
we're going to ride Antropova to the finals.
And it probably would have worked if Stisiak
would have been average, but she elevated her
game and was the difference maker. She scored
at will. It was very impressive to watch. All
right. The match, for me, that arguably had the
top two teams playing, I thought this should
have been the final. And not just because of
the teams. The match itself was. Just the quality
of play, too. So, Vacavbank versus Conigliano.
We already spoke about some serious heartbreak
in our NCAA men's segment. It continued for me
watching this game. I had Vacavbank picked to
win, you guys, okay? But just the way that Corneliano
managed to lose this game has my heart just,
like, ripped out of my chest. Corneliano went
up two sets to none in set three. This match
went five. In set three, Corneliano was up 22
-18. They were up 24 -22 receiving. And the last
player that I ever in a million years would have
expected to overpass two balls in a row did it.
Moki Dalgenaro. You guys. Though my favorite
libero in the whole world, she overpassed two
balls in a row. And then Isabel Hawk couldn't
score. They had the match in their hands. They
were about to sweep Vakif Bank. You need to put
up a remotely settable ball here. The shock I
experienced watching this. I have no words. So
a couple things. They definitely dominated set
one and two. Like the first two sets weren't
really close. Hawks struggled, but... I thought
a large portion of that were the sets that she
was getting. Oh, 100%. I did not think Volosh
played very well down the stretch. No, I was
thinking that about Volosh in sets one and two,
too. I was like, she is not putting up the most
hittable balls. Hawk was inside a lot and has
a right -handed opposite. That's a really tough
place to be. Against a 6 -6 wall in front of
you. I went digging for this match because I
thought it was interesting. Here is the percent
sets that Hawk got starting at set one and going
down. So on set one, she got 28 % of the balls.
Set two, 32 % of the balls. And then set three,
it was 40. And set four, it was 42. And so I
thought this definitely happened as the match
went on, is Bullish stopped running in offense.
Again, it was the same thing that we saw from
Scandici. Far... So she got two sets in sets
one, three, and four. One set in set five, but
she got six sets in set two where they dominated
25 -18. Well, Volosh underset Sarah Farr a couple
times in set one. Like, Volosh just seemed out
to lunch to me, was not putting up good balls.
And for anybody, Farr a couple times was like
swinging from her shoulder trying to hit these
balls. It was not good to watch from an execution
and a decision -making standpoint. And their
hitters are so good that most of the time they
were able to figure it out. But I thought she
really sewered Hawk. Well, and the fact that
she just started setting her progressively more
and more and more and more and not giving her
good balls is just like, Hawk, yeah, is a great
security blanket. Don't get me wrong. The girl
can score pretty much whenever she wants. Yeah,
that tells a lot. To me that it almost smells
like panic. Like you're not sure. I don't know
of a team that's that successful. Like they've
had their backs against the wall before. I don't
know if you can say that it's panic when you
won. I understand. You know how to win. I understand
that. But it wasn't the normal decision making.
There was something that was either she didn't
feel comfortable setting the other players. Or
it was just we're going to go. We're going to
go. I'm going to try and get her going because
we need her to play. And the execution just wasn't
there. I actually thought Zhu Ting scored the
best out of all of their outside hitters in that
match. I thought Gabi struggled to score points
for stretches. There were definitely times when
she stepped up and scored a bunch in a row, but
it wasn't as clean as it normally was. Well,
I think it's worth saying that they were playing
with a backup middle. Kirikela wasn't there,
so they were playing with their backup middle,
Lubion. But again, we're making it seem like...
Poneano just gave it away. Vacav Bank was very
good. They are very good, obviously. Yeah, well,
and Boscovich was Jekyll and Hyde in this match,
and she, quite frankly, was the reason they won.
So I went in and looked at her. These numbers
are outrageous. First set, she hit 286. They
lost. Second set, she hit 300. They lost. That's
still decent. Yeah, those numbers are still fine.
Third set, she hit 611 on 18 balls. That's the
set that they won 29 -27. She then proceeded
to hit 474 and 444. Like, that's incredibly good.
So on the mat, she hit 460 on 63 sets. Yeah,
I mean, that's what we're saying. After set two,
she became the old Boscovich. Like, we haven't
seen her for a little bit. Which is crazy to
think about because she almost didn't get a chance
to do that. Like, they were almost out of...
The tournament before that happened. Now, the
other thing that happened in this match that
I thought was really interesting was their left
side got hurt. The Serbian. The Serbian left
side went down. And Kazut comes in at the end
of the third set. It was not pretty. And she
struggled. I think there were two. She got an
overpass and hit it like into the bleachers.
That's an exaggeration. You're sitting there
going, oh, man. Like, you're coming in after
you've lost the first two sets. You're cold.
You're playing one of the best teams in the world.
Like, I felt for her. I felt so bad for her because
you could see the coach and everybody else being
like, are you kidding me? And the thing was,
Vagabang had a pretty big lead in the third set
when she came into play. And that lead disappeared
very quick and pretty much on her errors. But
I was super impressed with how she came back
and managed to settle herself into the match.
And quite frankly, I think her defense won them
set five. She was outstanding down the stretch.
She was patrolling in zone six. She was digging
so many balls in set five. I mean, and not only
the defense, she took some big swings in that
match and scored, used the block a few times.
I mean, she wasn't obviously Boscovich or Markova,
but... Her resilience and ability to come in
under the most amount of pressure off the bench,
like, might have been the most impressive performance
of the match. At the end of the day, though,
when you've got Boscovich and Markova, and then
the middle duo of Zara Gunish and Ogbagu, who
are very good offensively, but also prolific
blockers, like, come on. And they all played
pretty well. They did all play pretty well, but
they just ride their two hitters. Like Boscovich
got 63 sets. Markova got 60. And the next highest
person was Gunish at 11. Okay. I think they could
definitely set their middles more than they do.
And we are like throwing back this offense 20
years, you guys. Okay, the balls that Markova
and Boscovich are getting set, I turned to Adam
and I was like, these are balls that I used to
get set as like a 6 '5". When that was uncommon.
Yeah, I was like, dang, okay, put me in. I love
these sets. They are setting these two to the
ceiling and they are just going up and beating
the crap out of the ball. Markova's contact point
and her angle, it's... Impressive to watch. She's
going over top a double block of two 6 '6 players.
On balls where she can't see the block because
the sets are so high. She just trusts her ability
to make contact at such a high point and get
it in the court. Even over top of those blocks.
I haven't seen out of system hitting like that
in a long time. I wouldn't even call it out of
system because they set her that high in system.
It's just like a high ball offense. But the thing
is, is I haven't seen anybody hit that much sharp
angle since me. Honestly, I was like, give me
the angle and give me sharper angle. Forget the
line. This girl just like loves the sharp angle
and I'm all about it. It is so good. Yeah. Anyway,
this match was outstanding. From top to bottom,
again, one of the best matches I think we've
seen in Champions League and probably the best
two teams in the world right now. We'll talk
about this quickly. Panigliano beats Candice
3 -0. We didn't watch it, not gonna lie. We didn't
watch it. The first set was not close. The next
two, Panigliano won by two. I think it was overtime.
Might throw that on at some point, but we didn't
get a chance to watch that one. But we did watch
the... Vaketh Bank is Azibashi final. What were
your thoughts? I only managed to watch the first
three sets. It only went to four. So I watched
three quarters of the match. I'm impressed that
Azibashi found a way to pull out set three. I
think the better team won. I would have been
sad if Vaketh Bank hadn't won because I think...
They are just the better team, not even from
a skill perspective, but from the outside looking
at the team as a whole, they just seem like super
unified. They're built the same way, right? They're
built around two players, an opposite and a left
side. And Boscovich elevated and was better than
Stisiak and Markova was better than Karakur.
And that's, I mean, really that's what it came
down to. Boscovich was amazing again. She hit
604. On 48 sets. And Markova was 390 on 41. She's
like, I better be getting a contract extension.
Thank you so much. Well, that's her first Champions
League win. Yeah. But going back to that comparison,
Karakor hit 363 and Stishek was 167. Karakor
was more tame than usual. I heard that she's
working hard at becoming nicer on the court.
But it's very difficult. Do you think that matters?
I mean, she does get a lot of criticism for how
she acts on the court. And honestly, like watching
her, I have made comments about how it's difficult
to watch. I understand from an outside perspective,
but there's two things. Like when you're playing,
you want to play within yourself. So if it's
not hindering your performance, and I might argue
that it does, but if you get along with your
teammates and they feed off of it and they don't
care, then screw everybody else. No, I know.
I'm just saying. No, and that's fair. But you
could see, Them trying to get her going in that
match. Like setting her over and over. Trying
to find a way. The reality of it is they need
her to be great. The way they're built. For them
to win. And she was good. But Stischiak was nowhere
near. What she was in the semi -final. And that
was the difference. You're opposite going 167
versus 604. You're just. You're not going to
win. And quite frankly I didn't think the game
was. Particularly entertaining. Vakith Bank.
beat them in blocks 15 to 8. They were team efficiency
of 415 to 277. I thought Azazibashi served better
than they did, seven aces to two. When you're
running a high ball offense to those players,
it doesn't matter how you pass. They're still
going to sign up. They just need to be settable.
So it wasn't, it didn't really feel close. And
honestly, I didn't expect it to be close. Like
you said, the final for me as far as quality
and entertainment was the semifinal. I think
it was good for the Turkish fans and the fact
that it was hosted in Istanbul and it was two
teams from Istanbul in the final. I think that's
cool. And just to see the two, you know, like
fan bases kind of represented there. The atmosphere
in the gym was great. Yeah, it seemed really
awesome. But yeah, I 100 % think the better team
won. We love Champions League. I might even go
so far as to say that Champions League is my
favorite pro league event in the world. I can
get behind that. So we're sad it's over, but
the men's is still happening. May 16th weekend.
So we've got one more chance to see best volleyball
in the world. It is time for listener questions,
everybody. Question one, Adam. What is your fearless
forecast on Eric Sullivan's coaching this year?
I know his love stint is not an accurate measure
for his national team coaching skills, but do
you foresee a better coach session outing this
coming VNL? I mean, I'm not sure why you would
just suddenly be better in national team than
you are in love. You kind of do what you do and
it should be consistent in the same all the time.
what level you're at, no matter what you're doing.
At least that's my personal view of how you should
coach. Like there's no reason that you would
do it one way here and not the other way. You
generally have a philosophy, a way you prepare,
a way you train, all of those things. So I don't
see it being much different. I think what we
can expect is how the staff works together. Have
they buttoned down their processes? Are they
making better or different? roster choices. I'm
assuming we're going to see more or less who
they believe will compete in the 2028 Olympics
on this roster. Nobody else has taken the year
off and then showing up next year. That's just
not happening. For me, this is going to be what
I would consider a make or break year in terms
of seeing them take a step and competing with
the top teams because the mandate has to be to
win a gold medal in LA. I can't see them being
okay with anything else. This is your do it year
for him. He had a chance to look at athletes,
to get his feet wet internationally, to run the
show, to play whoever he wanted, to kind of get
a feel. Now you got to start winning. Now you
got to show that you're competitive. So is that
going to change? No, but he has different players.
He has, you know, a year of training. you would
assume that they were doing some of their own
system stuff. You should see a better product
on the floor this summer, or that's not good.
I mean, I think that he was talking more and
giving more feedback during the love season,
at least in the latter half of the season. Mind
you, his coaching staff were also not big talkers,
but he was talking more in timeouts than he did
in the 2025 VNL season, I thought. Was it always...
What I found to be useful information, not always.
But last year in VNL, he was barely saying anything.
So that was a step in the right direction. Okay,
question two. What is your opinion on the ridiculous
amount of serving errors at the men's level?
So the person who submitted this question also
sent in some stats. For example, the USC versus
UCLA match that happened a couple weeks ago.
Like in one set, USC missed nine serves. Okay,
so over a third of the points in that set, but
we're getting so many blocks. So the question
basically was like, is it worth missing so many
serves? Like, are you basically saying that your
block defense isn't going to turn two to four
of those nine points that you're giving away?
I mean, against UCLA, probably not. Okay, just
as an example and a context for the question.
I understand what you're saying, but it incredibly
is dependent on who you are playing and what
your opponent is doing. UCLA is an incredibly
efficient side -out team, so you have to serve
tough against them or you're not going to win.
You saw the same thing in the Women's Champion
League semifinal against Conigliano and Backeth
Bank. They were bombing serves. They missed quite
a few. When you play against a team... that is
incredibly efficient inside out when they're
in system, you have to serve tough or you're
not going to win. Now, ideally, you can serve
tough and not miss so many, but you're going
to have to find a rhythm. Some players are not
feeling it that day and they've got to find it.
It's not what you want, but sometimes it's required
to beat your opponent if they're that good on
side out. I mean, it has historically been a
knock on men's volleyball how many missed serves
there are. And like, yeah, does it? kill sort
of the flow of the game absolutely but as you
were saying like if you're not walking that tightrope
of errors and aces or errors and like complete
out of system passes the percent chance that
you will stop a really efficient team with three
or four attack options is very small in men's
volleyball they because they're hitting the ball
so hard I think the ace to error ratio is lower
so I think an acceptable ace to error ratio in
a men's game is like one ace to like three errors
probably when you're getting up to like 12 errors
in a set that's a little extreme but like you
also see what happens we saw this happen when
UC Irvine played UCLA UCLA is historically a
very very aggressive serving team who does make
a lot of errors I thought that they scaled back
their serving a little bit against UC Irvine
and wasn't serving as aggressively but UC Irvine
on the other hand had nothing to lose were just
absolutely detonating serves and you saw the
difference that that made in that match. In that
example specifically UCLA started missing a ton
of serves so they dialed it back to not make
so many and then couldn't find it. I think the
other thing that a lot of people unless you've
played don't realize is that when as hitters
when you get a chance to hit in system and in
rhythm, you find your groove. If you're only
hitting out of system or you're hitting out of
system more often than you're in system, it's
really hard to manage that situation. So your
block defense becomes even more effective when
a hitter doesn't feel that rhythm. So even though
you miss, the hitter on the opposing team is
also not feeling good because they're getting
clean side outs. So there's multiple layers to
that. Okay, question three. This is in reference
to our discussion slash comment on Gulcey Gulchkin
going from Tennessee to being on the Fenerbahce
roster and actually splitting libero duties in
that role. So do you think Ipar Kurt, who plays
for Stanford, will have an opportunity to play
at this level too since she's from Turkey? I
just love seeing players who weren't big names
when they were in college but are very successful
now, especially Markova. Yeah. So I think what
happens in, I'll use Turkey as an example, and
if Turkish fans out there, if this is wrong,
please correct me. But my understanding is that
from a very young age, we've talked about this,
the club system filters up to the top pro teams.
So you have like the Fenerbahce youth, you have
the Fenerbahce like second team, et cetera. So
these players that we often see come to play
NCAA or play in the States have been a part of
like the VAC of bank youth team or the Fenerbahce
youth team, et cetera. Then they're released
to go play NCAA. So when they come back, they
are still part of that club system, which is
why I think we saw Gucci can come in and be on
the roster right away. I don't know who Ipar
Kurt grew up playing with, but I would not be
shocked if we saw her post -graduation go back
and be on the roster of whatever team she was
a member of as a youth player. by foreigners
necessarily. So there is ample opportunity to
kind of step in and do that if you've continued
your progression from your youth days. Okay,
question four. Do you think if someone is the
top recruit in the nation and they never become
an All -American that this would be considered
a miss or disappointment for the team they play
for? And then they were like, yes, I'm thinking
about Allie Batenhorst and Lindsey Krause. They
were considered the top recruits in the nation
but never materialized into All -American players.
Correct me. They weren't All -Americans at all,
or they weren't first -team All -Americans? I
believe they were not All -Americans. You know
the college game much better than I do, so I'm
going to go first, and then you can fill in afterwards.
I would say, in general, if you're the top recruit,
yes, you should be an All -American at least
once at some point. That seems like a reasonable
expectation. I will say, however, that at Nebraska
specifically and other teams that are very well
-balanced and don't rely necessarily on one stud,
you don't always get recognition that maybe you
would get on another team. And I'm not saying
this applies to these two players specifically,
but it is something to think about and to understand.
I understand what you're saying, but both of
these players were starters as freshmen. So it's
not like they weren't given an opportunity in
a stacked program. No, I don't think that they
realize the potential of a first. round, I'm
going to say draft pick, but of a top recruit.
But I'm saying there are cases where that might
happen. I think it's a miss. I think if you're
the top recruit in the country, you 100%, the
expectation should be that you are an All -American.
Fair. Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying.
Because neither of these, okay, maybe people
are going to be up in arms, but neither of these
players particularly impressed me when they played
college. And honestly, I didn't even know that
they were considered the number one recruits.
But when I read this question and I saw that,
I was shocked. Like, what? If you're that good
when you're 16, 17, the expectation or the idea
is that you're going to continue to improve playing
against better competition. So, yeah, I think
that's a completely fair thought. And question
five. Can you explain the difference in the rules
between NCAA men's and women's volleyball? It
seems like men's is closer to international volleyball
rules. I mean, that's true, but I think the only
reason it's true is because of the substitution.
So I think the substitution rules are really
the only major difference, as far as I'm aware,
between men and women. So men have the same substitution
rules as the international rules play, so they
get six subs per set. But I believe everything
else is pretty much the same. And then the women,
for reference, get 15 subs per set. We're keeping
the listener questions a little shorter this
week because we had a ton of stuff to talk about.
But keep submitting your questions. When we get
to a little bit of a lull in between seasons,
we'll ratchet it back up and get back to 9 or
10 a week. All right, so we've got a couple big
things coming up this week. On Wednesday at 2
.30 p .m. Eastern, we have the Italy A1 men's
final match three. as we discussed, could be
the end of the series, so stay tuned for that.
That will be on FIVB TV. Thursday at 7 p .m.
Eastern, MLV semifinals are on ION. What the
heck is ION? I don't know. Why do we need 17
streaming services to watch volleyball? Money,
money, money, money, money. And then on Saturday
at 3 p .m. Eastern, MLV finals are on, also on
ION. Stay tuned on where you can find ION. And
then Saturday at 6 .30 p .m. Eastern, NCAA men's
semifinals are happening on ESPN+. The finals
are going to be on Monday. We aren't sure if
our episode will be released by then. If you
don't see it on Monday, we've waited until Tuesday
so that we can wrap up the men's season. 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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you can reach out on Instagram or at info at
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and we'll be back next week.