Surprising American Pro League Updates, Answering Our Toughest Question Yet

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 Pavin. 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. So it was a bit of a slower week from a
volleyball watching perspective, but the drama
was flowing, particularly on the American pro
side of things. So let me tell you, my sources
were doing a lot of work. Over time. And something
else that I really love is that our listeners
were getting in on the action too. They were
like sending me screenshots and posts and being
like, did you see this? I was in my element.
You definitely were. You love getting those messages.
I really do. But so we're going to dive into
some of the details of what went on in the worlds
of PVF. We'll call it that for now. And love.
We're also going to. attempt to dive in to one
of the tougher questions we've received in recent
months. I've been holding on to this one because
it was intimidating and there was a lot going
on from a playing perspective so I didn't want
to dive into it but I felt like this was a good
week to do it because there wasn't anything like
happening really. There was a lot of back and
forth on some of the Brazil Italy commentary
on the YouTube channel specifically last week.
The Italians and Brazilians were going at it.
And I love to see it. Which was fun to read.
But I think after this little segment this week,
I feel like I'm going to get a lot of messages.
The Italians and Brazilians are not going to
be fighting each other on YouTube. They're going
to be fighting us. And so will everybody else,
probably. So stay tuned for that question. Because,
yikes, I was really, really, not avoiding it,
but waiting for the perfect moment to address
it. I love the opinions, though. So keep them
coming. Yes. That question's its own segment.
So let's dive in. Let's talk about the drama.
See what my sources have been coming up with,
you know. So let's get started. Okay, first things
first. The men's VNL Dream Team was announced.
Love. I know I said it last time. Love that they
do it after the fact. It makes a ton of sense.
So what? Well, I was just going to say there
was some commentary on the women's Dream Team
on the last podcast and conversation around some
choices based off how people played in the first
week. or in the final week versus the whole V
&L and whether the award should be representative
of the whole V &L. And I think that that is true,
but I also think that the final week is weighted
heavier than the first three. Recency bias, whoever's
selecting it. So just keep that in mind as we
go through who won the top awards, that there
is definitely some recency bias around how you
played in the final versus the whole V &L. Well,
I've got a couple questions with this list. Well,
here we go. Okay. The setter, best setter was
Simone Gianelli from Italy. Yeah. Nothing to
say. I have nothing to say. Yes. Finals, whole
V &L, take your pick. He's amazing. And I know
there's always a lot of discussion between Gianelli
and Brizard. Gianelli was just better. He was
better. In V &L. And he played more. Yep. So.
snip snap that's that best opposite was given
to kevin sasek from poland i think this is one
of those situations that was weighted very heavily
for final weight yes because he was unbelievable
specifically in the quarters and semis for poland
like unbelievable so yeah i mean it's nice to
see him play like that and get acknowledged and
get the award was he the best opposite for the
whole vnl maybe not but i would agree that played
a massive role in getting yeah to the final yeah
i don't think they make it to the final without
him the way they played in the quarters and the
semis and if we're looking straight at final
eight he was the best opposite there I know people
could make an argument for Allen. He did play
very well for Brazil, but if we're comparing,
Sasek was just unconscious in the quarters and
semis. And Allen also came out for one game,
and his brother played well in one match, so
it wasn't quite as consistent. So I can get behind
that. I can get behind that. The best outside
hitters were Alessandro Micheletto from Italy
and Wilfredo Leon from Poland. See, this is interesting
because... Mickey Leto, yes. Well, fair. But
I was going to say Mickey Leto didn't play well
in the final. And also it was taken out because
his team messed up. Right. And Leon only played
well in the final. Leon definitely... He wasn't
present in week one. Can't remember if he was
there in week two. Was not... in week three,
in my opinion. Poland wasn't great in week three,
period. No, Poland was pretty bad in week three.
Also, a non -factor, in my opinion, in the quarters
and semis. 100%. Like, this one. He literally,
he literally showed up for the gold medal match
and was like, for now, you sprained your ankle.
I'm sorry. I'll take over. I'll take all the
glory. And we'll get the gold medal. And the
thing is, self -admittedly, he said he didn't
play well either. Yeah, it's true. But who else
would you give it to? I mean, maybe Fornal. Fornal
didn't have a great week three. He played pretty
well in the first couple rounds, and then he
got injured. Yeah. I mean, you could maybe...
You had a turnstile for Brazil on the left side.
Yes. So, you know, where do you go from there?
Klevno was clutch. Until he wasn't. Until the
final eight, and then was terrible. Slovenia?
Yeah. Again, you struggle with the flash factor
for Slovenia. Neither of them are names. They
played very well, but I'm not sure. I don't like
that. Yeah, the name thing, it shouldn't matter.
But it does, right? It does. Well, you could
make an argument maybe for Jant from Cuba. Yeah.
He played really well. All V &L. Lopez, he only
really showed up in week three, so you can't
really give it to him. And he wasn't great in
a couple of their final matches either. I think
you could make an argument for Yant. But again,
you're only going to get it if you're in the
final four. So if we're looking at the final
four, I'm on the fence for Leon. I don't know.
I don't love that. I think Mikio Leto is deserved,
but Leon, I think you could have gone somewhere
else with that. Middle blockers, Jakub Koschanowski
from Poland, who also was given MVP, and Jan
Kozomiernik from Slovenia. Poland's middles held
it down with Sasek, in my opinion, especially
in the final eight quarters and semis, notably.
Both Slovenian middles were also very good. So
I'm okay with this. If you looked at Slovenia,
I would say their middles, were their strength.
They had players step up and play, have really,
really good matches, but the middles were constantly
a factor, I thought, both offensively and defensively.
And Poland was very good in the middle as well.
So I like those picks personally. And finally,
the libero, Mikey Nascimento from Brazil. This
is one of those situations where I feel like
they needed to give Brazil something. Because
they meddled. I thought the Polish libero blew
every libero out of the water. So I went back
and looked at some of the stats and read some
of the comments. And I agree that the Polish
libero was better in the final week. But Mikey,
and I don't understand how we get that pronunciation.
Adam doesn't know how to read Portuguese. That's
true. It's definitely how Brazilians would say
it. Yeah, fair enough. But he played pretty consistently
throughout the whole VNL. So that's an award
that was given for his play over four weeks and
aided by the fact that you didn't have another
Brazilian on the awards podium and they medaled.
And I'm not sure which other Brazilian you potentially
could have given that award to. I mean, like
I said, you could have made an argument for Allen.
He held it down pretty consistently. I mean,
Cacioppo, there's no way. No, he's not as good
as Ginnelli. Sorry. No. Anyway, you cut it. Not
happening. The middles... Again, their middles
are good, but they weren't dominant on that team.
And the outsides played well until the final
eight, but even then, were they as good as a
Micheletto? I don't think so. So, okay, fine,
I get it. I think in the final eight, the Polish
libero was like... Yeah, and that's fair. That
doesn't mean he's necessarily going to get an
award. But he was the best libero for three matches
when it counted in the final, I would say. And,
I mean, going back to the MVP, we saw the women's
MVP, a libero, men's MVP, a middle. I love that.
Quite frankly, middles don't get enough love
in the game, period. And for him to win... We're
not saying that these things never happen. Like
how many comments were there that was like, well,
it has happened. Yeah, we didn't say it never
happens. Happens rarely. It's definitely more
rare for those two positions to be given MVP
over an opposite or an outside or something.
So I think that that was very interesting. I
love that. I love that. So that is the men's
VNL dream team. VNL is officially closed. Worlds
is coming, baby. Well, actually, it's not closed
because they announced the teams who are coming
up in VNL 2026. So the Ukrainian women will be
replacing Korea, and the Belgian men are replacing
Netherlands. Ukraine making a push as a country.
It's good to see. They'll have men and women.
So congrats to those countries, and we're looking
forward to seeing you in 2026. All right, so
we did have some volleyball going on. This past
week, women's U21 World Championships started
last Wednesday, and they are still in pool play.
So Argentina, Vietnam are currently at the top
of pool A. USA and China are currently at the
top of pool B. Brazil and Japan at the top of
pool D. And pool C is messy with Italy has three
wins. Poland, Turkey, and Czech all have... Two
wins. So TBD on where that pool is going to end
up. My question is, where did Vietnam come from?
Is Vietnam, I don't think, are they typically
good at youth stuff? That one apparently stumped
me. Apparently better than Canada. Canada, who
lost a set 25 -5 to Vietnam. That's worse than
the other bait down we were talking about in
V &L with, who was it, Czech? What was that,
25 -4 or something? Eight, I thought. Eight.
Was it four? Regardless. On par. I didn't think
I'd see it again. On par. There we go. Good job.
Good job. So, yeah, we'll see what happens with
that. Canada not doing hot. Vietnam kind of dark
horse coming out there in pool A. All the other
teams that are at the top, though, that's what
you expect. Yeah. Honestly, pool A for me is
like on the eyeball test, like weakest pool by
far. Pool C. Who put these together? Yeah, that's...
That is crazy. Yeah, I'm not sure if you go only
by previous, must be previous rankings at U21.
Well, the teams that usually dominate, and I'm
talking like since the 70s, Japan, China, Brazil,
Italy, those teams are like staples on the podium.
Russia, when they were playing as well, was in
the mix. But... Yeah, Brazil, Italy, Japan, China
are like perennial podium contenders. But like
you're telling me you're putting Poland, Turkey,
and Italy in the same pool. And then in pool
A, you've got like Vietnam, Indonesia, Puerto
Rico. Yeah, I'm curious. And I understand Indonesia
is hosting, so they get the one seed, but still.
And I wonder if how much of that is random and
if it's all seeded. Is it, you know, here are
the top. four teams pull out of a ball, pools
are a little random, or is it totally seeded?
I'd have to look that up. I'm not sure. We have
the top four teams from each pool will advance
to the playoffs, and all of those teams will
have a chance for gold. So we'll see what happens.
I think the tournament wraps up next week. Next
weekend, maybe. Yeah, on the weekend. Yeah, you
can catch that on FIVB TV or VB TV if you're
hankering for some volleyball and get another
week without any. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
it is time to dig into the drama. Are we ready?
I don't know. Are we? So in a surprising turn
of events, and I know that we have made so much
fun of this whole situation. Well, here we go.
It's not going to stop. I was stopped dead in
my tracks this week. So it was announced that
the PVF is merging with none other than the elusive.
MLV in a deal that's valued at $325 million.
Not only that, the league is rebranding as Major
League Volleyball. Yeah, let's try to figure
that one out. There's not a lot of details that
are being presented around this. I'm just like,
what? Yeah, it's a little confusing. The only
thing I can think of is that the PVF. needed
money and the guy or the owner of Omaha who wanted
to start the MLV has that money to put into the
league and this is purely a play about financials
the crazy thing is like hey we're gonna start
a new league no we're not we're just gonna take
what's already been created and just slap our
name on it I don't even know how to start thinking
about this because Now you're not starting from
ground zero, but you had built a presence as
the PVF, and now you're just changing it to MLV.
Which was also already a league in the U .S.
from 1987 to 1989. Thank you so much, Volleyball
Recap, for the history lesson that you gave us
on Instagram. But not only that, it sounds like
MLB. You have to differentiate yourself. This
just doesn't seem like it's about the volleyball.
It seems like it's about one person or one group
of people having control over something instead
of working together to build a league. Stop pretending
you're reinventing the wheel here. You're literally
just taking what was already created and you're
trying to pretend like it's brand new and yours.
Yeah, I mean, I don't... And why not keep the
name the same? It has brand recognition already.
The league has been going for a couple years.
Thanks so much to my sources for this information.
So there was an article in the Sports Business
Journal, and they interviewed the owner of the
Grand Rapids Rise, who, if you remember back
when we talked about this in the spring, there
was like some head -butting, I think, between
Grand Rapids and Omaha, like the ownership. Of
those two teams. So this guy's involved, obviously.
The key takeaways from this article were the
MLV not announcing a schedule like they promised
they would back in January made the deal somewhat
more clear cut. Meaning MLV had no idea what
they were doing. This is how I'm taking it. MLV
had no idea what they were doing. So they decided
to merge or they just wouldn't exist. Yeah. I
mean, we said it right at the beginning that.
Trying to build a league from scratch in, what
was it, eight months or a year was going to be
a massive undertaking. And it wasn't going to
happen. PVF staff will remain as MLV did not
have personnel who would move over. What staff
did MLV have? Listen, this is how I see this
whole thing. Nothing has changed with the PVF
other than... I'm guessing that the org structure
of who makes decisions is different based on
the inflow of new capital to the league. And
so you now have different voices who are in charge,
who put money in, and they have just basically
purchased the PVF. That's how I see this whole
thing. But my thing is, if MLV had staff that
they were working, if they were legitimately
working on building a league, they would have
had staff in place. creating a league is a massive
undertaking so it sounds like you really didn't
have anybody working for you at all and you're
just like we'll just take what was already created
i mean i see it the same way i again purely organizational
restructuring based around capital shout out
to our listener who sent me this article and
these quotes from this article it almost seems
like Almost, or does it seem like? Omaha made
this power move. They thought that people would
get on board. PVF just continued to operate.
It was fine. This league was completely fake.
Nothing was happening. They didn't hire anybody
to manage these teams, workout scheduling, workout
ticketing, get athletes, et cetera. So they just
bought their way back to fix their huge mistake
of talking such trash about the PVF in January.
Yes. Totally. I can't get behind that. I'm sorry.
I mean, you see this all the time between owners
and new leagues and something similar just happened
with women's professional hockey. You have two
leagues who are starting. You have people who
have different ideas as to how things should
be run and how it should be done and all of that.
And at the end of the day, the person with the
biggest checkbook makes the rules. And that's
what happened here. He's got... Or they have
access to the biggest market, volleyball market
in the U .S., in Omaha. And we're going to do
it my way. And that's the way it goes. Cut your
losses. Admit when you're wrong. You don't need
to name it MLV. Okay? You don't. That is probably,
like, a huge ego thing. I'm sorry. But just,
like, keep it as PVF. Do what you want. But,
like. I mean, let's see what the season looks
like. Let's see how things pan out. I'm not sure
we're going to notice any material differences
from last year to this year other than the colors
of the courts and so on and so forth. I believe
each team is still independently owned. Well,
Vegas is no longer a team. Vegas is no longer
a team. But Dallas is becoming a team for the
2026 season. So all the Vegas players had to
sign elsewhere. Yeah. I mean, again. Omaha's
making moves, though. John Cook was just announced
as the co -owner of the Omaha Supernovas. Do
people just not retire anymore? Well, I mean,
again, I think this is all part of the play,
right? So you, I think it's safe to assume that
the owner and the management of Omaha are not
in the good books of most PDF owners. So now
you say, hey, here's what we're bringing because
we're going to do MLV. We're going to bring in
a Titan in the sport. He's going to be involved.
It's going to help. It's going to bring validity.
All of these moves. So do you think he's actually
going to do something or do you think he's just
a figurehead? I think he will coach from his
horse on his ranch. And they will use his name
in the league. Well, Lucas Slob, if that's how
you say his name. He works with the U .S. men's
national team. I believe he was coaching at NC
State in the NCAA. He was named the head coach
of Omaha. So they're trying to bring more validity
there, too. Yeah, and I mean, again, you want
to bring validity to your league. I don't have
any problem with them doing this. And again,
bringing in these kinds of names costs money,
right? You need money to do these things. You
know, they're probably trying to see if they
can. do something like this in Omaha and then
replicate it in other markets. They've increased
the salary cap, right, so you can spend more
money. We'll see what happens. Yes. So the salary
cap for the base salary, there was a minimum
salary for PBF in the last two years. They also
had a max, and only one athlete could make whatever
the max was. I want to say it was maybe $125
,000. And then one other athlete could make like
$100, $105. Don't quote me on those exact numbers.
Now there's a salary cap, but there's no max.
So each team has $1 .2 million to spend. On salaries.
On salaries. So the question becomes, do you
go big with a couple bigger names? or do you
hold on to a little bit of cash for draft day
when NCAA season ends? Yeah, it'll be interesting
to see what the strategy is for some of these
teams. Again, the other thing to note here is
that they removed the minimum salary for players
as well, which... I've heard mixed things about
that. I heard they did remove the minimum, then
somebody told me that they didn't. But I don't
know what the number is. Unclear on that. So
I really hope they didn't. I think it's important
that athletes are able to make a base salary
when they're playing professionally. For me,
I would say that that was important for the athletes.
I hope that that's the case. But again, this
is kind of, to me, a play of one owner who's
in charge, who maybe has more money than everybody
else. wants to be able to buy the best team and
buy a championship. This inherently makes me
want Omaha to lose. I want a level playing field.
I would like to see the leagues grow together
to a point where they can attract top talent,
but not that you can just buy a better team than
everybody else. Well, you see that happening
in the free agency signings that just started.
And pay your staff whatever you want, bring in
good coaches, do that, but I hope... that all
of the other owners and managers are willing
to spend at least close to that cap so that the
teams can be equal. The league will not survive
if Omaha goes whatever and O just because they
can afford to buy better players. That's not
good for the league. Omaha, this whole thing,
it just smells of Omaha just trying to take over.
And then this play with... coach cook with bringing
a national team coach with the players that they've
brought on it's just and i'm fine i hope that
it's like a decently even playing field but like
everything is just like omaha is trying to take
over and that won't be fun for anybody and viewers
will get bored yes I'm fine with wanting to bring
in John Cook to set a culture. I'm fine with
bringing in high -level coaches to make sure
that your athletes are getting training, all
of that. But everybody within reason, and I know
other leagues have big spenders like the Yankees
and then teams who don't spend like Tampa Bay
or whatever. I get that that's a dynamic of ownership.
But when you're starting here and the salaries
aren't super high or the salary cap, you need
some parity. You need the games to mean something.
Major League Baseball. Right. You're not the
NBA. Pretty close. One letter off. One letter
off. Google it. But I, yeah, I hope it's not
a runaway. Let's take a deep breath. And free
agency has happened. Is currently happening.
So we have a bit of movement here already. So
number one, Alicia Glass Childress, who played
for Vegas, set for Vegas. She is now the head
coach of San Diego Mojo. She does have a background
in coaching. She assisted with Stanford for a
while. So she was probably ready to be done.
I like that pickup for San Diego. I think she'll
do a good job. And Kaiba Hanif, who was the head
coach, is now with the U .S. Women's National
Team. So there was some movement there. But we've
had a bunch of signings. The signing period opened
on Thursday. So here are the names of people
who have moved. So Omaha has picked up Morgan
Hentz, Sydney Hilly, and Merritt Beeson. Top
setter from PVF last year, top libero. I don't
personally think Merritt had a good season at
all, but she is well -liked in Nebraska. So those
are their moves. You can already see it happening.
The two skilled positions, as Adam calls them,
have arguably the best players in the league.
Yeah, and I mean, if you want to win, they're
good pickups. I'm on the fence with how Merritt
Beeson will play. but they definitely got better.
Orlando has picked up Charity Looper from Vegas.
That's a good pickup. Atlanta has picked up Raven
Colvin from Grand Rapids and Lexi Almodovar,
who was a star at Dayton and then went right
to Turkey. Indy, very similar team to last year.
Honestly, Orlando brought back their heavy hitters
too. Mia Tuoniga was added to Indy. I'm not sure
she's going to move the needle. She's not replacing
Sydney Hilly, let me tell you. And then Grand
Rapids brought in Lauren Jardine Clark and Sage
Kahana Torres. I like that pickup for them. Yeah,
it's a great pickup for them. But, like, can
we dive deeper here? Maybe we'll talk about this
in the next segment. Because, I'm sorry, what?
I got some questions. So we did see a lot of
people go back to their team. Atlanta has a lot
that went back. Corey Lewis, Leah Edmond. Indy,
like I said, almost the entire starting lineup
minus Sydney Hilly. Omaha made upgrades. Grand
Rapids definitely made an upgrade in the setter
position. That's where we're at so far. This
process will continue. But that was the news
that had my jaw on the floor this week. Rebrand.
Random merger. Four months before the league
starts. No, we don't. All right, moving on to
love. We had the season two rosters announced
this week. I know there have been a lot of questions
about who is coming, who is leaving. How are
the teams even going to be constructed for season
two? Are players going to move? Are they going
to stay where they were at? Well, we have the
answers. But first off... Do not call Love Omaha
Love Omaha anymore. Okay? It's Love Nebraska.
Got to be a little more inclusive. Okay. Well,
and also they probably wanted to get away from
the Supernova Omaha and make it a little bit
different. Fair. Can't say I blame them. And
Jordan Larson is the new co -owner of Love Nebraska.
Is it coincidental perhaps? That one day after
Jordan Larson was named the co -owner of Love
Nebraska, John Cook was named the co -owner of
Omaha Supernovas. Probably not. But, I mean,
both of them. These leagues are fighting over
the state. Let's pick two people who have had
a huge impact on volleyball and the sport and
just use their names against each other. That's
what it seems like to me. Yeah, but it's not
a bad thing. You want people to follow. Nebraska
volleyball gets a ton of fans paying attention.
You need, as a pro league, for those fans to
pay attention post -collegiately and get involved
in the sport to help it grow. And Jordan and
John will hopefully do that. At least I have
to assume that that's the thought process around
that. So we'll see if doing that... Brings eyeballs,
brings people, puts butts in the seats. When
I saw the news about Jordan, maybe it was naive
of me to think that she was done playing. Surprise,
she's on the roster. Okay, so do you think that's
a conflict of interest? I personally don't. Really?
Yeah, I don't really have an issue with it. The
person paying you, the owner of your team, is
also... playing for you as if you're the coach.
Yeah, but you do see this in sport. Jarmer Jager
is currently doing that. He's playing for a hockey
team that he owns in the Czech Republic. You
have, you know, how many different athletes are
Tom Brady's not playing anymore, but he's part
owner. He's announcing like you. You want to
keep keyword is not playing anymore. I understand,
but they love the game. They want to be involved.
Jordan's not going to play forever. She might
be on the bench as a mentor, she might play,
but she's supporting an organization that is
trying to grow the game and she's saying, I want
to be involved. So I think for the growth of
the game and for her as a person, especially
in Nebraska, I understand it and I don't think
it's a huge issue. Okay, okay. Fine, fair. That's
just what I was thinking. It's kind of weird.
You like black and white, though. I like clear
delineation of roles and responsibilities, yes.
I think you see this a lot in these leagues that
are up and coming. Maybe not always owner -player,
but owner -coach. Lots of situations like that.
This will only be a thing for one or two years,
I would guess, and then she'll settle into an
owner role. So that was the news, aside from
the rosters. Hit me with the roster updates.
Let's get into who joined the teams and who left
the teams. So, for Nebraska, coming in, we've
got Karol, the middle blocker from Brazil, and
Boice, outside hitter, Netherlands. Wazielewska,
she is Polish. She is coming from Atlanta. And
Alexis Hart, who... Played collegiately, went
overseas, came back. Leaving Nebraska, Justine
Wong -Arantes heading to Houston. The Stiverin
sisters, neither of whom has signed anywhere.
We don't know where either one of them are going.
Maddie Kubik is out, heading to Austin. Sammy
Francis is out, heading to Japan. And Nwokolo,
nobody knows where she's going yet. Do you think
this team is better or worse on paper than they
were last year? Well, Lexi Rodriguez is going
to get to play, which will make Nebraska fans
happy. I heard there was not nice things being
said to Justine for playing over her, which...
Tough, because she's very good. Better than Lexi.
Yeah, Justine is better than Lexi. Hate to say
it. There's a reason she was playing instead
of her. And she has... Olympic medals. That is
insane to me. Yeah. That people would hate on
Justine so much for playing over her. But Lexi
has Caitlin Clark vibes to her. I don't care.
I understand what you're saying. I understand
what you're saying. But her fans don't care about
who is better. They just want to see Lexi play.
That's what this is about. Then go somewhere
else. Anyway. Maddie Kubik was their... At the
end of the season, their best scorer. Yep. Losing
her, do I think Ann Boyce is a decent replacement?
I think it could be close. I give the edge to
Maddie, though. Yeah? Yeah. I mean, Kettle is
better than Sammy, but you're losing Lauren Stiverns,
too. Yeah. That's tough. But Stiverns was kind
of in a weird... Are you an opposite? Are you
a middle? Because they had that injury. They
had a lot of weird stuff going on. But the players
that we didn't mention are still coming back.
So Drevniak is coming back. They're still going
to have the Dutch setter. Gabby Blossom is going
to be setting. Jaylee Winters is back. You guys
know I wasn't a fan. I feel like they're just
a wash. They're going to be the same. I agree.
On a personal level, I think Sammy Francis going
to Japan is good for her development. I like
that move for her personally in terms of her
potential international career. She'll learn
a ton there. The game is different. She'll definitely
become a better blocker. So I like that move
for her. Okay, let's move on to Austin. Coming
in, we've got Bergmark. Shocker, she played for
Texas. Jurczyk. She was a middle blocker for
Poland in the VNL. Maddie Kubik, as I said, coming
from Omaha. And Brie O 'Reilly, the setter from
the Canadian national team. Leaving, Sage Kahina
Torres went to MLV. Let's look at the setter
comparison. Who do you like better, Brie O 'Reilly?
Brie. So upgrade. Upgrade. Yeah. Harley Lloyd
is coming back. Anna Hawk, who played outside,
is heading to Madison. But Gennari went back
to Italy and Ogbogu is heading to Turkey. Good
for her. I'm very happy for her. Yes, good move.
I think Kubik and Hawk are kind of a wash. Maybe
Kubik is a little better. They're upgrading in
the setter position, losing out. Well, no, Ogbogu
is better than both of those middles. I agree.
For sure. Sage leaving Austin begs a lot of...
A ton of questions. You've got your national
team coach who is traveling you to all these
tournaments coming to Austin to coach. Love is
the higher level in the U .S. currently. Like,
I have heard some rumors that things went a little
sour between Sage and the Austin organization.
No details past that, but I'm like... I'm curious
if that's organizational or at the coaching level
or like what exactly the deal is there. I don't
know if we'll ever get that information, but
this is a tough blow for her career, in my opinion.
Yeah, especially because this all came. so late
like i feel like she could have made a push to
go overseas or something if she wasn't going
to play for austin yeah and now you're playing
for pv like you're taking a step down in level
at a critical time in your career critical time
in your career because you are the one that is
picked as like the backup setter for all these
international events this summer you would be
better off to try and get a backup contract in
italy or turkey and just Go, you know what? It's
unfortunate it didn't work out in Austin, but
this is what I need to do. I would not be surprised
if she left in January. Like before the season
started? Yeah. You know, take a, see what's out
there, go. I mean, she has to think about her
career, especially if things in love didn't go
well. You don't know whether you're going to
get back there. You're probably not going to
get national team looks playing PVF. It's. That's
a tough situation for her, especially if it wasn't
really her decision. Like if she chose to leave
because things weren't good, so be it. But if
she was forced out for whatever reason, that's
tough. Okay, Atlanta coming in. We've got Pascova
from Bulgaria, Julia San Giacomo, Ella Mae Powell,
and then we've got Robinson Montano from Colombia
in Dahog. Leaving, Marta Bekas went back to Italy.
Danielle Coutinho is going to play in Japan.
Rivero is going to play in Italy. Gia Day is
also going to Japan. Hanaline is going to Turkey.
Vazilevska went to Omaha. And Maddie Bug went
to Salt Lake City. This team is totally different.
I don't even know where to start or what to think
about all of these changes. I don't think they
really lost. I feel like their movement happened
in their bench. Kelsey Cook is still back. Mackenzie
Adams, Rachel Fairbanks, Tessa Grubbs, Jimmerson.
Like your core group is still there. So for me,
this was just like bench. Yeah, I'm curious if
they couldn't keep those players. I mean, you're
losing people who maybe didn't play all the time,
but had an impact. Like we saw Maddie Bug play.
We saw Coutinho play. You had players coming
in. Your team dynamics and atmosphere at practice,
it seems like a lot of turnover. You're right,
it's not necessarily starters, but it definitely
changes the feel of the team, in my opinion.
Well, that one was massive. Like, tons of movement.
Do I think it'll affect their output significantly?
Not really. No. Salt Lake is bringing in Alexa
Gray and Maddie Bug. And they are losing Morgan
Miller, who retired, and Matsui, who was the
backup setter to Poulter. She went back to Japan.
I think upgrade for Salt Lake. Alexa Gray is
a big pickup for them. Yeah, agreed. She's going
to be a difference maker. And Matsui and Bug
both are going to play behind Poulter anyway.
Correct. Neutral. Yeah, but Alexa Gray is big.
Really big pick up for them because their outsides,
they kind of struggled, I thought. They had Ronnie
Jones -Perry. They had Danny Drews. I think Alexa
Gray will take Danny Drew's spot. Yeah, they
didn't have enough firepower on the wings, and
Alexa Gray, as long as she's healthy, will give
you that. So it's a good addition, and I think
she'll connect well with Poulter. Well, and Gray
played at BYU, so it's not shocking they sent
her to Salt Lake City. Yeah. Houston, as I said,
is bringing in Justine Wong -Arantes, Jazz White
from Canada, and Lauren Briseño, who played for
Baylor, was an alternate on the U .S. team this
summer. Leaving, Christina Bauer, she retired.
Alves, the backup libero, is pregnant. And Pogani,
the German libero, is heading to Madison. I think
those are upgrades. Yeah, like Justine Wong -Arantes
is probably the best libero in the country. One
of the best in the world, I think. And I don't
say that lightly. We say that every time. I can't
help myself. Upgrade in the libero position,
upgrade in the middle. I thought Pogani was good.
The other two players other than Pogani were
coming off the bench predominantly. So Jazz White,
you have two good libero options and Jazz White
in the middle. They're an upgrade for me. Yeah,
I agree. I like those moves for Houston. And
finally, we've got Madison. This is another team
with a ton of movement, which, as we remember,
Madison struggled real hard early on in the season.
Not the best. Last year. So they're bringing
in Gong, the opposite slash captain for China.
They're bringing in Indre Sorokaite from Italy.
She's a little older. Argentina Ong. played for
Arizona State, finished up her season at Scandici
last year. Mitrovic, Canadian outside. Callie
Schwarzenbach played in Nebraska, was just in
Brazil. Legros, Pogani, as I said, from Houston.
And Hawk, who was coming from Austin. That is,
there are some big names in there. They are having
a full, like, wipe the slate clean. Because they
are, sorry. No, go ahead. Well, because they're
losing Annie Drews, who's not playing this year
at all. Daley Santana, nobody knows where she's
going. Janiska, retired. Sarah Franklin's heading
to Italy. They're also losing Felix Sambothi,
Rager, and the Chinese libero, Wang. Nobody knows
where any of those four players are going. We're
not talking about replacing bench players here.
We are talking about a fundamental... in the
team fabric here. Well, you're losing starting
right side, starting left side. Janiska started
on the left side towards the end of the season.
Sambothe was a middle, starting middle at the
beginning of the season. Wong was your starting
libero. You've got Anna Hall, who is giving birth,
like, in the next month, who is going to try
to come back in time for the season. Like, kind
of... Not a lot of time. Madison's in a complete
rebuild. Yeah. But they brought in some legitimate
players. I really like Gong. I thought she had
a good VNL. Gong is a good VNL. That's a massive
pickup. I mean, Argentina Ung is pretty good
as well. She's not going to play in front of
Lauren Carlini, but yeah. But you have another
option there. Pogani, she did fine. As a libero,
like, I think she's a decent replacement for
Wong. And then Hawk, Mitrovic, Sotokaita, you
can, like, mix them around. None of them is Franklin.
No, but, like, a Yaniska discussion, perhaps.
But I will say, Franklin going to Italy, thank
you. Thank you, really. Like, good decision for
her. You know, she played relatively well in
VNL, and I think this is massive for her personally,
but also massive for the USA national team. So
do you want to see her stay in the U .S., help
the league? Yes, but I think she made the right
decision for where she wants to go and for, you
know, the 2028 Olympics. So I was happy to see
that. So for all of you who are wondering what
the heck was happening in Love this year, those
are all the ins and outs. I'm a little disappointed
that more young athletes didn't make the choice
to explore other options. We see Sammy Francis
doing it. We see, I mean, Ogbagu has already
played overseas, but I'm glad that she's going
back. Katina's older, so she, yeah, that's not
shocking to me. But of the young athletes...
Only Franklin and Sammy Francis are leaving.
I'm very curious to see, over the next three
years, how these decisions play out. What the
consequences are. It will be very interesting.
Very interesting. Overall, in terms of foreign
players leaving, other players going overseas,
who they brought in, do you think that the league
got significantly stronger? Stayed the same?
Not quite as much talent. Where's your head at?
Maybe the league got a little bit stronger. We're
not talking, like, leaps and bounds by any means.
I think the league got slightly stronger. I would
agree with that. I think you had a couple players
choose to come to love who... could have gotten
contracts overseas, like Alexa Gray has played
in good leagues. Her coming here. Cattle. His
big cattle coming. Gong coming. So there were
a couple big draws. I think it's interesting.
Alexa Gray's closer to home, so there's that
draw. I'm not sure that was necessarily a volleyball
decision. Cattle wants to be closer to her partner.
You know, Gong. The Gong one for me is big because
that's a player who could go probably anywhere
she wants to country -wise and has chosen to
come to the U .S. and doesn't have any reason
to other than volleyball. You need to start seeing
more decisions like that from good players, so
I think it's a good start. Which teams are going
to make the biggest jump? Which ones are going
to take the biggest drop? Oh, I think Salt Lake
is going to be significantly better. And they
brought in the least, they made the least changes.
But I think, I think the changes they made address
their core issues. So that one is interesting
for me. Madison, I just, it's a blender. I don't
know what's coming out the other side. So that
one's hard. It's hard. It's hard to check. I
think everybody else kind of stayed the same.
I think Austin got better as well. With their
setter, but they're missing Ogbogus. Really good.
She is, but I think having a good setter with
some of the pieces they have will make a difference.
So, yeah, that's my gut instinct. There we go.
We got a little ways to go before the American
League start up, but we had some big moves happen
in both of them this week, so we needed to address
them. But let us know your thoughts on how you're
feeling regarding both of these things and the
new roster announcements for Love Season 2. Okay,
it is time for the toughest question. This question
was submitted, I want to say, at least a couple
months ago. This person probably thinks I've
been avoiding them. I haven't been avoiding them.
I've been avoiding the question. I never felt
ready. I still don't feel ready to answer this
question. I feel like this is going to stir up
a ton of conversation, a ton of disagreement.
But you know what? That's what we're here for.
That's what we're here for. Why not? So the question
was, can you and Adam rank the top five players
on the women's side for each position? No. It's
too hard. But we tried. And I think I put more
than five in each position because I struggled
with this a lot. So let's just see. And let's
like, I know everybody has their favorite players.
Let's have a cordial conversation. Let's have
a cordial conversation about this, you guys.
No need to get nasty. No need to throw hands
here. I for sure miss people. So let's just dive
in. So just to clarify, Sarah and I have not
compared lists. Except he's like staring at my
computer screen right now. I have not looked
at your list. I wrote mine down beforehand. I
will not change them. but I'm curious to see
how much overlap we have. And for me personally,
I stuck to players who were in the VNL. I did
not. Yeah, so there might be a little overlap
there, which we can discuss. But yeah, let's
dive in and see what happens. What do I do in
the instances that I have more than five? You
cheated. We'll just see what happens. What position
do you want to start with? Let's start with setters.
That was my least favorite category. Really?
Yeah. Okay. I had two off the top who I just
thought were much better than everybody else.
So my top two were Oro and Zhang. I thought they
were the best two. The Chinese 16 -year -old?
I thought she was phenomenal. I loved everything
about what she was doing. Oh, dang. Do I think
that she is like a top five setter in the whole
world right now? She's not on my list. Oro is
on my list. How is she not? She was unbelievable.
We saw her crack hard. One match. In the final
eight. As soon as they got to the final eight,
she crumbled. So for me, she needs to develop
a little more. But she has a huge ceiling. I
had Oro as my number one. Okay, cool. I didn't
rank them. I didn't either. Don't expect us to
rank them. It was hard enough just coming up
with five names, okay? When I looked at the setter
category, Oro and Zhang were my top. too i was
like they're phenomenal if i'm building a team
i'm picking oral but like i think i had to put
zhang on my list because i just thought what
she did at 16 over four weeks i i understand
she had a rough go in one match but i'm not gonna
deny that she had a great four weeks do i think
she's at the level of the setters that i have
on my list no okay who else do you have this
might be controversial because she is maybe a
little over the hill now maya onyanovich She
set for Serbia forever, set for Scandici this
past season. She's in her 40s now. I understand
she has passed her prime, but I cannot deny the
fact that she can still deliver a ball. Okay?
So I had her. I had Volosh. Yeah. You cannot
deny what she has done for Conigliano. And I
understand that Poland was successful without
her, this VNL, but you can't deny how good she
has been. Do I love her location all the time?
No, but she wins a lot. Yeah, so I didn't have
either of those on my list, but I looked mostly
at VNL rosters. So I will agree with you that
those two players have an incredible pedigree,
and yes. Those two are great choices. You can't
go wrong with those. Who else was on your list?
I thought, based off VNL, I really liked the
Japanese setter, Seki. She's good. I thought
she did a phenomenal job. I like her decision
-making. I like how she runs her offense. There's
a lot of complexity around that. I think she
makes good decisions. I know we talked about
her not running the middle enough, but I also
think there's a little bit of a player gap. Personnel
issue. Yeah. But she still ran the pipe over
top of it to hold the court. So I thought overall,
I really liked everything about her decision
making, her delivery, her location. So I thought
she was very good. I also had Macris. I thought
she did a pretty good job for Brazil. Her and
Roberta are still splitting time. I thought she
played better than Roberta over the course of
the VNL. So I liked her as well. And then I was
grasping for straws. For my fifth one, I had
Poulter. It doesn't look great for the U .S.
right now. I don't think a lot of her teammates
can hit her fast sets, but I think she's got
a good serve. She brings a lot of athleticism
to her team. I think the speed at which she runs,
her offense is really good. So, yeah, maybe not
based solely on this V &L, but given the setters
who were playing there, I had her as well. I
actually had Micah Hancock over Poulter, which
might cause some trouble, but I think her overall
game is just better than Poulter's. Yes, Poulter
runs a fast offense, but I like Hancock's hands.
I think she's a better server. I think she's
a better defender. I think she's a better blocker.
Hancock was on the list for me, and then I agree
with Seki as well. Okay. Okay, outside hitters.
Okay. I have seven on my list, so I don't know
what I'm going to do. All right. Let me give
you my five, and you tell me who I missed or
what you think. Okay. Gabi. Same. Woo MJ. So,
yeah. Ishikawa. I didn't have her. Bergman and
Degrotti. What? Dude, no. Okay. Okay, who do
you got? Gabi. Yeah. I had Woo MJ. Even though
she's really young, a girl can hit some angles,
okay? Yeah. Anna Christina. You like her over
Bergman? Yes. Okay. Bergman had a much better
V &L. I know she got hurt, but stats -wise, she
was much better. Okay. Passing and attacking.
Okay. I literally, I don't care about the stats.
Anna Christina's a difference maker. Okay. I
have one. That might cause some eye rolls. Fedorovseva.
She's real young. She's like 21. She plays left
side for Fenerbahce. She's Russian. She's unbelievable.
She's so good. Again, I didn't go outside of
who was competing. She was phenomenal in Champions
League. It's a good pick. I think she's outstanding.
And then I was on the fence between Miriam Silla
and Zhu Ting. Because Silla... Zhu Ting's not
getting off the ground so much anymore. Silla
makes more hitting errors, but is arguably a
better passer. But my four that I was like, I
feel okay about this, were Gabi, Anna -Christina,
Fedorov -Seva. Wu, and then like Zhu Ting and
Scylla was like. I don't think you can compare
Anna Christina and Bergman. Fair. Anna Christina
is the kind of player that you like build a team
around. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to disagree
with you. I like the way Bergman played. I like
the way Bergman plays. Do I think she's Anna
Christina? No. Okay. The other person I did think
of was the French player. Cazotte? Yeah, I thought
she played. She was good. Well, but. She was
good, and I had her on my long list, but I don't
think she's as good as the other players. Yeah,
that was kind of if I needed to throw somebody
out there. Who do you have for middles? In no
particular order, because I'm going to hear about
this, but Farr, Danezy, Julia, Gunish, and Cornelic.
I had a long list for middles. I had Ogbagu on
my list. Who is she replacing from that list
of five, though? I mean, she's a very good blocker.
I also had Kortajic, but I don't think she's
quite at that level. She's a good blocker, but
not quite there. I thought my middle choices
were pretty solid. I mean, Kornelic's a good
blocker. I think Ogbagu could be in the discussion
with any of these, honestly. I don't think she's
as offensive as some of the other middles. I
don't know. I wouldn't take her over Fardanezi,
Julia, or Gunish, though. I mean, I had all those
people on my list. Opposites? Hawk, Iganu, Antropova,
Boscovich, and Vargas. I had all those. I had
Van Rijk as an honorable mention. Because, like,
Boscovich didn't really impress me in V &L. But,
yeah. She only played. One week. Yeah. I mean.
And she was injured. Yeah. But she has to be
on the list. But those five we agree on. Yeah.
Okay. Liberos? I had Dejanero. I thought Jelen
from France played really well. She is good.
I had, I can't, the Polish Libero. I didn't have
her. I can't pronounce her name. I'm not even
going to try. And then I had, those were kind
of my top three. And then Marcel from Brazil
and Pogany from Germany. Pogany. Well, we were
all over the place because I only had one the
same as you. Okay. I mean, I will say, yeah.
I didn't pay as close attention to the Liberos,
probably as I should have, during V &L. I think
my Libero list was my weakest effort. Adam's
brain was burnt out by the time he got to the
Libero list, so he just passed out. On my list,
I had Dajunaro, Fukudomi, and Kojima, both Japanese
Liberos. I had Justine Wong -Arantes and I had
Brenda Castillo from Dominican Republic. I definitely,
yes, Justine is, that's totally fair. She definitely
should be on that list. That was a huge oversight
on my part. I'm sure you guys are up in arms
about some of these decisions, but let's have
a conversation about it. Lay off my libero list.
I'll talk about it. Do you know how hard it is
to think of all? the top players and then narrow
them down. It is not an easy feat. Okay. So let
us know who you would put, who you agree with,
who you disagree with, because dang, this was
a very hard question. Very hard. All right. It
has been a fun day. A little different than usual.
Yeah, it was nice to look at a couple of things
and dive into some interesting questions in terms
of rosters and players. Dive into the drama.
Yeah. You know, just spice it up a little bit.
But we do have listener questions today. So question
one is, is there any reason Isabelle Hawk doesn't
change her nationality to maybe play in VNL or
the Olympics or bigger international competitions?
It's just not that easy to change countries.
I know if you're looking at Turkey, you probably
think it is because they do have a lot of naturalized
citizens. Yeah, but there's a fee to pay. You
have to give up your own, not your citizenship,
but kind of your identity with your country as
a volleyball player, which I think doesn't sit
super well with a lot of players. Well, I don't
think the fee is an issue. The bigger issue is
like if you do choose to change sport nationalities,
you have to sit out for two years, which she's
entering the prime of her career. Do you want
to sit out for two seasons? And honestly, like
she's gone from home so much. Like playing for
Sweden is probably her chance to like connect
with her sister, be with family. I think it's
a huge decision to make to do that. Yeah, it's
a massive, and for what payoff, right? You're
still going to make a ton of money playing pro.
You're not making your money from your national
team. Well, and do you feel like, yes, you want
to play, but there is a huge sense of pride for
representing your country in these competitions.
So going to play for another country just so
you can play, it won't feel the same. Yes, obviously
it's fun to win, but you have to go and she's
very good. So she would probably play for maybe
not Italy, but most other countries, you know,
probably. But you still, again, you have to go
through that process. You have to sit out. It's
not a trivial thing. And if you think about it,
a lot of the naturalized citizens we do see for
different countries are of Cuban origin. Correct.
Which the political. discussion comes into that.
Not the case, okay, in Sweden. You see some marriages
and becoming a citizen through marriage. So while
it does happen and you do see certain athletes
just completely make the switch, I don't know.
It's really not that common. Yeah, and do you
want to sit out? Yeah, because she's still competing
for her country, just not at that level. Not
everybody is blessed to be born in a country
that is outstanding at volleyball. Case in point.
Why do you think I switched to beach volleyball?
When I think about my career, do I wonder what
could have been if I played for a country that
was performing really well at that time? 100%.
Well, and there were discussions of you getting
your U .S. citizenship after playing at Nebraska
and you're Italian. You had legitimate pathways.
Yeah, I am an Italian citizen. I went to school
in the States. I was asked if I had citizenship
to play for the U .S. But it's like, getting
that exposure with your national team, yeah,
it makes a difference. Isabel Hawk, she doesn't
need to because she got exposed at such a young
age at such a high level. Would it have been
nice to have played for a country at the time
that was better? better and able to go 100%,
I wish that would have been the case. But yeah,
that's why I played beach. Question two. You
mentioned players are getting bigger and bigger
as the years progress and more dynamic. However,
the net height hasn't changed since the 60s.
Do you think changing the net height to account
for these changes should be considered? If so,
how would it impact the game and what teams would
benefit or be hurt by it the most? Well, first
of all, I don't think you should change the net
height. It's the same for everybody. I think
the women's needs to go up. Really? Yes. I have
thought that for a while. Why only the women's?
I think the women's athletes have gotten significantly
bigger overall. I even think when I was playing
in college, I was the biggest by far at 6 '5".
And now you're seeing... 6 '5", 6 '4", is like
the norm. Yeah, but again, I guess I look at
other sports. The basketball rim has not changed.
In fact, it's the same for men and women. And
the net height stays the same for all countries,
all athletes. You can jump higher, but the block
is bigger. The defenders are faster. I don't
think... I guess I look at it as what exactly
in the game is broken that you're trying to fix
by moving the net up. We have tons of rallies
on the women's side. In fact, it's probably not
terminal enough. Being terminal decreases if
you move the net height up. And then you have
to think about the ramifications down at the
levels other than just professionally because
you don't really want... you know, your 16 year
olds training on a net height. That's going to
go up once you get to the national team. Like
I, I just don't think that it does anything for
the game. Well, I don't think it needs to go
up by like six inches, but I think like a couple
inches. Well, I, again, I would ask. And I would
say that even for men too. But what does it do
for the game? Like what, what are you? Yes, we're
bigger, faster, stronger than we used to be,
but I don't think there's anything wrong with
the game right now that requires it to go up.
If you were to move it up, you would hurt the
smaller -sized countries. Your Japans, your South
Koreas, some of those countries. But think of
how dominant South Korea was in women's volleyball
back in the 70s. And I guarantee you the average
height of the women was much smaller. Yeah, maybe.
I don't know. Again, answering the question in
terms of which countries, I think you hurt the
smaller, in general, the smaller populations.
But I don't, in my opinion, the net doesn't need
to change. I don't think there's anything wrong
with the game as it is. Maybe I'm just trying
to be spicy. Question three, what's your opinion
regarding Allie Batenhorst transitioning to beach?
I thought this was a joke when this person submitted
this question. I thought that it was like, oh,
do you think she should play beach? Not like
she is playing beach. And then I did some digging
and I was like, wowee, okay. What do I think
about this? I think it's going to be hard. Let
me tell you, as an indoor player who made the
transition to beach and thought that beach is
just indoor outside, it's a process. There are
very, very few indoor players who have become
good beach players. And there's a reason. Yeah,
I don't. I mean, she's playing with Sarah Hughes.
Which is also shocking to me. Yeah, I mean, Sarah's
expectations have to be to medal in LA. I want
to know what her thought was in picking her up.
I mean, do I think Ali has the potential to be
decent? Sure. Do I think Ali is going to be a
medalist in three years in L .A.? It's going
to take longer than that if it happens. at all
i how's your my thing is like how's your setting
how's your passing can you move in the sand i've
seen you attack indoor is that going to translate
what about your blog there are so many pieces
of her game that i kind of raised my eyebrows
out when she was playing indoor that i'm like
how are you gonna do this yeah i i don't want
to say she can't i i think it's going to be a
huge struggle i think it's is she's going to
need to be patient and she's going to need to
have some humility and it will get a lot worse
before it might get better. I was shocked to
see this. Yeah, and if we're talking about winning
tournaments or being in L .A., I think that's
a lofty goal. Question four, who from the U .S.
2024 Olympic team can we expect to be back in
the VNL slash Worlds mix next year versus who
do you think will retire? So the World Championship
long lists have been released. And of the 2024
Olympic team, the players who are on both lists
are Jordan Poulter, Avery Skinner. Morgan Hentz,
Dana Redke, Ogbogu, and I don't know if Coutinho
was on the list or not for the Olympics, was
on the Olympic roster. So we're still missing
the likes of the Justine Wong -Arantes. We're
still missing Jordan Thompson, Kelsey Cook. I
would give Justine Wong -Arantes and Jordan Thompson
a relatively high probability Playing in 2028.
I would expect them to be back, yeah. Who else,
when you look at that list, are you like, yeah,
probably? For some reason, I feel like Kelsey
Cook would be back, but now I'm not sure. I feel
like maybe Haley Washington is done. I'm wondering
about Micah Hancock. We know Carlini's done.
Jordan Larson, done with national team. Plummer,
I think she'll be back. I think she'll be back
as well. I mean, I can't say anything for sure.
But when I'm looking at the team, I would be
surprised if we don't see a return of Plummer,
Thompson, and Juan Arantes. Yeah, and with Cook
being maybe a 50 -50. But I would expect those
other three to be there. Okay, our last question.
I was curious about the 2012 -2013 season final.
Ooh, this is for me. I played in Brazil that
season for Rio. And when you guys were losing
2 -0 to Osasco in front of their home crowd.
Osasco was basically the core of the Brazilian
Olympic gold medal team. What was that experience
like for you? Also, that was the season when
Gubby really started to get noticed. Did you
have any idea back then that she'd become the
superstar she is today? Okay, maybe a little
story time history lesson. And I'm going to throw
in here because somebody asked me, what is it
like playing for Bernardinho? So we can loop
this all into kind of one question. So I guess
I don't talk a ton about my career on here. You
don't talk about yourself ever. So I guess here
we go. A little bit of history with Sarah. History
with Sarah. So that season, Brazil had just won
the gold medal at the Olympic Games. And I was
going to play for Rio, who their opposite the
previous season was Shayla. Legend. So all these
people were like, who the heck is this Canadian
girl? Does Canada even have a team? Who's this
white girl who's playing in Rio? Which was the
story of my life, because Canada's national team
at the time was like... Garbage. Not good. So
I was like, who is this person? She's never going
to replace Shayla. This is a terrible choice.
And I was like, fabulous. Here we go. So the
Osasco team had Sheila, Thaisa, Adonisia, Fegaray.
They were so good. Name any player from the Brazilian
national team, and they were on that team. My
team, however, had Fabi, the libero, Natalia,
left side, and our setter was Fafau. Legend.
Who is also a legend, but she was definitely.
She was at the end of her career. She was on
the half practice training regiment at that point.
Yeah. Our middles were good. Giuselli, Valeschina.
So I played opposite. And then Logan Tom was
our second outside. Gabi came to Rio. It was
her first season kind of outside of her home
state. Bernard Genio asked her to come, learn
from Natalia, learn from Logan. She was really
young, so she had no expectations of playing
much. I think she was 16 at the time. No, no,
she was 18. She was 18? Okay. So Logan actually
got injured near the last third of the season,
I would say. So Gabi unexpectedly had to step
in and start starting. Yeah, we make it to the
final. We're playing basically the gold medalists
from London. We're down 2 -0. We're playing in
Sao Paulo. Over 10 ,000 people there. It was
incredible. Amazing to be in the stand. It was
unbelievable. I can't even tell you what it was
like other than like... You went off. When you're
playing, you don't... Well, for me personally,
I don't ever think I'm going to lose until the
game's over. So I was like, yeah, you're down
2 -0. You have to win three sets no matter what.
Yeah, like you need to win three sets. And I
remember so much of that match. I'm not going
to lie. I did play well. But I think the game
ended and I just sobbed because nobody expected
us to win. All season it was like, who are you?
You're not Shayla. fighting to prove myself the
whole season, playing with these legends on my
own team who I was learning from every day. I
was like, Logan Tom was like my hero growing
up and then playing on the same pro team as her.
I was like shitting myself for the first like
month. And so, yeah, I would just say overall
it was like a very special season and that game
in particular will go down as is. one of my favorite
games I have played of all time. It was absolutely
amazing. And playing for Bernardinho, I consider
myself very lucky to have gotten to play for
him. He obviously took a risk on me. I was young,
and again, nobody had really seen me play internationally.
because Canada wasn't really playing internationally.
And he was the nicest man. I loved his training
style. I loved the quantity of touches I got.
I loved being in the gym and learning and his
patience and the way he viewed the game and his
tactical preparation. I loved it all. He flips
a switch in games. The person you see in a match
is not who he is for the rest of life. Including
practice. Including practice. He is the nicest
person, so calm, so level -headed during practice.
But that's just part of what it comes with playing
with him, for him, is he has expectations, he
expects perfection, he truly believes that his
team can win every single point. Even if the
other team does something incredible, it's like,
no, we could totally stop that. That's when the
shirts rip. And that's when the shirts rip and
everybody needs their like competitive outlet
to flow and he's no different, but I learned
so much from him and yeah, I don't know. I will
say, so I was coaching in university when we
got married and Brazil was one of the first places
you played when we were traveling together. And,
you know, Bernardinho is obviously a very busy,
well -accomplished person. I would always go
to practice and watch because I just love volleyball
and I wanted to learn. He took time with me every
day when I showed up at the gym. I could ask
him questions while the girls were warming up.
He was always so generous with his time and so
thoughtful and willing to engage. He taught me
about volleyball. He let me practice with the
team. He didn't need to do any of those things.
He's just incredibly... generous, and will take
the time with anybody, and I can't speak more
about him on a human level, for sure, regardless
of the volleyball prowess he also has. Did I
have any idea back then that Gabby would become
the superstar she is today? I'm not surprised.
She is so genuine. She worked so hard. She wanted
to learn. No ego. And I feel like those athletes
that have that mindset of just like learning
and growing and having that humility, those are
the ones that make it. And I'm not surprised
at all that she has become what she is today.
It's incredible. So we're still on a lull when
it comes to finding actual volleyball for the
next week at least. The Women's U21 World Championships
continues to happen in Indonesia. You can find
that on VBTV. They're streaming all of the matches.
So if you need to scratch an itch, I would look
there. Women's World Championships are starting
on August 22nd. So if you have any questions,
let us know. be kind of looking at that next
week. Unfortunately, the rosters don't have to
be released until the 21st, so we may or may
not have some or any starting rosters, but we'll
take a dive into that, some of the pools, what
we think is going to happen next week. And then
for those of us local on this continent, NCAA
women's preseason matches are starting that same
weekend. We'll see. some practices, maybe some
red and white matches happening. Red and white
matches are already happening. Yeah, so depending
on where you are and what streaming services
you have, there are some volleyball you can find.
We'll dive into a bit of a season preview perhaps
this week. We'll see how it goes. That's what's
on the docket until next Sunday anyway. 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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info at sarahpavin .com. Thanks so much for joining
us, and we'll be back next week.