NCAA Men's Championship & PVF Championship Previews

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. We had a bit of a slow week this week. PVF
was wrapping up their regular season play. And
quite frankly, the games didn't really mean anything
because the top four were decided on Sunday.
They were nothing games. Yeah. And in addition
to that, the NCAA men were preparing for their
championship tournament that is happening this
coming weekend. So I would probably say the biggest
excitement was coming from Istanbul with the
Women's Champions League Final Four, but that's
just my opinion. Which also turned out to be
somewhat disappointing, but we'll get into that
later. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a bit.
But with the PVF and NCAA men having their season
-ending tournaments coming up, we are going to
go through a bit of a preview of each of those.
kind of go through what we're expecting, what
we're looking forward to from those events. So
we're really excited to dive in. So let's get
started. The NCAA Volleyball Transfer Portal
opened again. last weekend and it will be open
for about a month I went through I've been getting
a lot of messages from people about this first
of all so thank you to everybody who keeps me
in the know you know what I mean but I also went
through the like spreadsheet of what they have
going on and picked out some of the the notable
transfers that have decided to enter the portal
so To start off from Michigan, Valentina Vallette
is leaving. She was a starter for them, their
ace leader. I understand Michigan isn't like
a Big Ten contender usually, but she played a
big role for them, so she's leaving. And freshman
middle blocker Logan Wiley is leaving Georgia
Tech. I was really curious what was going to
happen with... Georgia Tech as a program in general
just given we watched some of the coaching interactions
well they have actually like three or four players
that have entered now well no and I know that
that had happened and I was curious were we going
to see all of the fallout all at once was it
going to happen slowly I think that seemed like
a From the outside, it seemed like a volatile
situation last season. So I'm not surprised about
this at all. Logan Wiley was definitely like
the standout of the people on the list because
she was a starter. So interesting stuff there.
Now we're coming up to the three biggest shocks
for me. First of all, Kennedy Martin is leaving
Florida. I am both. I'm both surprised and not
surprised at the same time with this one. Well,
here's the thing. And I don't know any of the
juice. Word on the street is, and I got to thank
my sources for this. Word on the street is that
her NIL agent is trying to get her a million
dollars to go somewhere. He better be damn sure
that he can get her that because you enter the
portal. I'm sorry. As a coach, if somebody enters
the portal, you can't take that player back.
When I get Mary Wise retired, she was probably
a huge draw and a huge reason that Kennedy Martin
went to Florida. I get it. But a million dollars?
Come on. There's only a handful of players making
that professionally in the world. You guys know
how I feel about the NIL money being thrown around.
Other than slightly jealous? A little. Like,
Tori Stafford didn't take near that amount, okay?
I'm sorry. I mean, she, next to Olivia Babcock,
might be the best pure point scorer in the NCAA
right now. Adam, a million dollars. Like, you're
a child. You're, like, what, 20 years old? It
just sets you up to fail professionally, in my
opinion, because it's like you're making that
in college. The percentage of athletes, good
athletes, that make that professionally is so
small. There's a very select group. And it's
like, you're not... Are you going to peak in
college? A lot of people will. I hope along with
her NIL agent, she's got a very good financial
planner. Well, if that happens for her, I am
going to be on the floor over here. No. Anyway,
that's what she's asking for. We'll see if she
gets it. I will be shocked if she does, but that's
just me. Lola Schumacher is leaving Wisconsin.
You had to think that one of the Liberos was
going to leave. Gushikin already left in January.
That's the confusing thing. Oh, I forgot about
that. That was not on the top. Yeah, Miley Chan
is like the one that's left. So Gushikin left
because Schumacher took her Libero spot as a
freshman. She had the spot locked down, but this
is another source that told me. Apparently, Schumacher
was told, yeah, you're not going to play this
year, so you're better off just leaving. Who
do you have coming in? Because, like, I saw Wisconsin
play a lot this year, and I also saw them play
when Guttgen and Schumacher were both out with
injury or concussion. Didn't look great. Well,
they definitely needed to shore up their ball
control. That was a real issue. They better have
somebody hiding in the weeds somewhere. That's
tough. You lose both liberos, and it was a position
of weakness for you last year. Well, not to mention,
apparently you told her to leave. Yeah. Well,
all of that stuff you got to take with a grain
of salt, I think. Well, I'm just telling you
what my sources reveal. You know what I mean?
I don't have any sources. Well, here's the last
one. Mariana Singletary is leaving Texas. The
middle blocker. She was only a sophomore, I think.
When they got her going, she was very good. This
one I'm confused about because Texas has money.
They're a good program. She was good with them
last year. Well, Texas dished out the money to
Tori Stafford. So I'm curious, like you have
to think that, and this is the problem with paying
players in college, right? When nobody's making
any money, you guys are all in the trenches together,
sweating, bleeding, working towards something.
Crying at times. When you now have salaries with
players who come in who you think you're better
than and all of that, like the team dynamics
just shift. If she wanted something and got nothing.
Is that a reason to give the program a screw
you, I'm going somewhere else? These are the
interesting team dynamics that come up when these
salaries start getting out and when your teammates
start showing up in very expensive cars to school
and things like that. And we're not saying that
it is a money -related decision for her leaving.
We understand that there are lots of reasons
that athletes decide to enter the transfer portal,
but this one for me was... The last three for
me, well, again, Mary Wise leaving. Okay, fine.
Yeah, I'm confused by this one as well. Well,
we'll see where they all end up. If anybody has
the juice, you know where to find me. But yeah,
we'll see what comes up as the weeks progress
here because I wasn't expecting this at this
point. So the overseas leagues are wrapping up.
So we just wanted to highlight a couple of the
results from those leagues based on where our
listeners are tuning in from. So in Brazil, Osasco
won the Superliga for women. The men's match
is actually happening as we record. But Osasco
beat Seze Bauru 3 -1 in the final. And actually,
former Nebraska player Callie Schwarzenbach plays
on that team. So a little bit of a... An NCAA
connection there. Resho won the... I said that
wrong, I know. The Toron Liga, the women's league
in Poland. They beat Woods, who we talked about
for some Champions League matches, three matches
to zero. That's a tough look when you qualify
for Champions League. Well, Resho actually made
it to the same level as them, but they got absolutely
hammered by Conigliano. And that's fair. I mean,
the Koenig is a very good team, but to lose 3
-0 in that is maybe a little surprising because
I thought Lodz was decent when we watched them.
Oh, yeah, they were good. They were good for
sure. The men's league is still finishing up,
so we'll see what happens there. Zenit Kazan
won the Russian men's league, and Kaliningrad
won the women's league. Kazan is a powerhouse.
I'm not shocked that they won, but I'm actually
surprised that Kaliningrad won. I expected Kazan
to win that one too. But that happened. And Osaka
Marvelous won the Japanese Women's League. Men's
League is still happening. There's a pattern
here, everybody, okay? Does the women's champions
or international season start before the men's?
Is that why the women's teams wrap up? I want
to say for VNL, they alternate weeks. So it's
like women, men, women, men. And then on the
off week, they like travel and stuff. So I do
think the women go first. Got it. Which is why
they're like a week ahead in their leagues. But
if you've been following the Italian league,
Civita Nova and Trento are tied 1 -1 in that
final. Match three is actually happening as we're
recording this. We watched that match. What were
your, give me your highlighted thoughts. Trento
did not look good. I expected them to look way
better. Well, they got smashed. Smashed. They
got aced so many times by one guy. It was. And
Moni Nikolov's brother actually plays for Chivita
Nova, which was interesting to watch him play.
Yeah, it was a very lopsided game. I was not
expecting that. I was expecting Trento to have
something going on, but it was. It was not a
fun game to watch. It was a lot of errors, very
one -sided. I think I fell asleep, actually.
You might have. Yeah, so that, I mean, they both
have won now. We'll see what happens with the
third match, but I was pretty disappointed in
the caliber of the match itself. I mean, Chivita
Nova's on one. They stormed back against Perugia,
so they're definitely on a roll here. But, like,
Trento has... the consistency throughout the
season. I think their right side played really
well. I think their one middle played well. Their
libero struggled, in my opinion. Oh, horribly.
So hopefully they will get it together when they
go back to Trento, where they are right now.
But definitely tune in to those matches if you're
interested in that. And finally, the Champions
League Final Four for women has been happening
again. The final is happening as we record this,
but in the semis, Corneliano beat Milano in four.
And probably the shock to viewers everywhere
was Scandici absolutely demolished VAC of Bank
3 -0. Okay, so let's talk about these a little
bit. We'll give a brief highlight for those people
who are interested and maybe didn't get a chance
to watch. Conigliano has beat Milano 16 times
in a row, I believe, is the current record. This
was the 16th time, yes. And I haven't watched
all 16, but... We've watched probably... We've
watched maybe five of them. Five, the last five.
This was the closest Milano has come to beating
them. And quite frankly, I think they threw away
a couple opportunities. Milano started incredibly
well. They got leads. Canigliano was a little
sluggish at the beginning. Milano managed to
find leads in almost all of the sets that we
watched. Maybe all of them except one. And I
think the disappointing thing, without going
into too much detail, is I thought most of the
team played incredibly well, minus Iganu. She
was real bad. She needed to be okay. And I think
they win that match given the current state of
things. Oh, yeah. They were so, they were like
pretty close. And she was awful. I don't think
I've seen her play that poorly this season. She
was set 42 times in those four sets. She had
13 kills. She had seven errors and four blocks.
Or she was blocked four times. She didn't get
the block. She almost hit zero. That's, I'm sorry.
I believe she was the highest paid player on
the court. And I mean, she wasn't very good in
the finals of the Italian League where these
two teams played as well. She just looked disengaged.
I totally agree. Tipping balls that she needed
to swing on. And we talked about the setting
in one of the final matches that maybe people
weren't in rhythm, but she started well. She
was very good early. I think she scored four
of their first six points. Correct. So I looked
at her and I watched the beginning of that set
and I thought, okay, she's grooving today. We're
going to have a game. And it just went. downhill
for her real quick and i did not think the setting
was an issue i thought their left sides played
well i thought the naze played well they had
a really good team strategy going they put them
in some trouble they were tipping the hog all
of the adjustments their defensive adjustment
was way better like their defensive positioning
was so much better than in the final it it was
so disappointing because it's like I understand
that she's had a heavy load all season and she
has been the one that's expected to score, but
I'm sorry that A comes with your position and
B comes with how much you're making. Okay? Like,
sorry. Yeah, you're the show. Be it. Yeah, if
I'm the Milano front office, I'm pretty disappointed
at this point because we shelled out for a point
scorer and all of your teammates showed up and...
you couldn't even be decent. And I think the
thing that bothered me the most was she looked
disengaged. Like she started fired up when she
was playing well, and then when things didn't
go well. And when they made a comeback in set
four, she was into it again. Yeah, the things
that you control, you need to be engaged with
your team. You're not going to have an all -world
match all the time, but the attitude when things
weren't going well for her and kind of the disengagement,
like that's... You're in a Final Four. You had
a chance to win against a team that pretty much
never loses. Well, she has such a good history
in the Champions League, too. Like, this could
have been her sixth final in a row. Like, that's
an incredible, you know, career so far. Five
Champions League finals in a row. And she just,
yeah, it wasn't good. But I thought Kazot showed
up. Played really well. Played really well. I
thought Daldorov, like, held her own. The middles,
they ran the middles more, specifically Danezy,
and she was very good. I was confused why Miriam
Silla was on the bench. We talked about that
in the final, because when she came on, she brought
the energy that they needed, and she was passing
decently, she was scoring. I was just really
confused about the decision to start her on the
bench. She barely played. Yeah, and she did a
good job when she came in. I'm thinking maybe
ball control. If Iganu was scoring some points,
then the other left sides were decent. But I
think they needed... That was the one thing.
I think they needed to put her in earlier when
Iganu was struggling to score points because
Scylla's got... She's a little bit more wild,
but she's got a heavier arm. She puts defenses
in a little more trouble than the other left
sides do. And Corleone wasn't bad. But they weren't...
I think their setter struggled. I thought their
setter struggled. Hawk struggled from the service
line. Like, she didn't generate as much pressure
as she did in other matches. I thought Zhu Ting
started slowly. Like, there was some passing
trouble at the beginning. I feel like that's
a pattern with her. She kind of, like, takes
a while to warm up into the match, and then she's
incredible. Yeah. But she cost them early, like,
unsettable balls out of system stuff from her
early, which... And Gabi was not being put in
good positions to score. Like, too far off the
net, too tight. Like, she was getting blocked
and making errors. But honestly, watching, I'm
like, these balls are not in a position. Like,
they just looked a bit out of rhythm. Yeah, I
agree. Now, the thing for Canigliano, and if
it wasn't for their libero in those matches,
she covered and extended some plays. They were
down by four or five points, and it could have
easily been six or seven if she didn't make some
spectacular covers, some great digs. And let
me tell you, most importantly, and you're going
to smile when I say this, her out -of -system
setting to Hawk. Amen. They, Conigliano, got
out of trouble by their libero putting Hawk in
a position to score when there were three blocks
and Hawk delivered. That kept the margin close
enough in a few sets, honestly. She was outstanding.
Where their other players could kind of come
in and find some rhythm. And without her, they
don't win that match, in my opinion. Coming off
of a week where we just talked about how coverage
isn't as prominent in the women's game for Liberos,
she proved me wrong. Moki Dajunaru was all over
the place. Like, so good. And if you're a club
coach... I cannot stress to you enough the importance
of having your liberos be consistent setters.
Train it. Train it all day. Like, obviously,
they're going to learn to pass and play defense,
but train that setting because, man, I can't
say enough good things about liberos who can
set. It was, you know, I think everybody expected
Conegliano to win this match, but Milano made
it interesting and had a shot to win. I enjoyed
watching this one. The game that I did not enjoy
watching so much was Vacav Bank and Scandici.
Going into this, I was so certain that Vacav
Bank was going to absolutely crush Scandici,
and it was opposite day. The complete opposite
happened. If I had bet on this match, I would
have lost so much money. That's how convinced
I was that Vacav Bank was going to roll through
this. Let me toss out the set scores. for a little
bit of perspective here, okay? Scandicci won
three straight, 25 -12. That should never happen
in a Final Four anything. That should never happen
in Champions League, right? 25 -12, 25 -19, 25
-21. It was awful. It was... To be fair, Scandici
showed up. It was a full team performance. Absolutely.
Everybody on the court, you could tell, wanted
that match. They were engaged. They were dialed
in. The game plan was tight. Like, everybody
for Scandici played well. And honestly, nobody
could get going for Vakafeng. Absolutely no one.
It was... I don't think I've seen... such a team
like a complete team meltdown it just they looked
like they just didn't even know what to do they
were so exasperated they were just like i like
what what do we do now yeah it was it was wild
now herbots and antropova antropova for uh scandici
yeah were untouchable all world herbots was set
20 times and had 11 kills on one air And honestly,
it seemed like she got set so much more because
of how efficient she was and her energy. Completely.
And Antropova, her numbers weren't amazing. So
she was set 31 times. She had 15 kills, so she
scored a lot of points. She had five errors and
three blocks. But for me, the thing was, any
time that Vakith Bank kind of generated any momentum,
she was able to score and put an end to that.
Scandici didn't make a ton of mistakes as a team.
Other than that, seven total attacking errors,
five of them from Antropova. Whoa. I mean, she's
the opposite. Right. So Scandici was very clean
as a team, and they needed somebody to take some
risks, and she showed up, and she served incredibly
well as well, put them under pressure. Those
two were fantastic. So the difference for me
in watching, it was Vakavbank could not. get
Scandici out of system. They were not putting
enough service pressure on them. So Scandici
could do whatever they wanted. And Scandici also
completely dismantled VacavBank's service Eve.
VacavBank was setting every ball from like 20
feet off the net. Their passing just completely
fell apart. And that's the difference, ladies
and gentlemen. If you're a kid who plays volleyball,
serve and pass. It might be boring. But serve
and pass all day, every day. It'll help you win.
I loved how they kind of zigzagged the seams.
So the back of the bank libero, I thought, struggled.
Yeah. And they would go from five into one seam,
cutting over one shoulder. Then they would switch.
They would go to the other side, force her into
another seam. And it looked like her responsibility
was to pass both seams, which is fair. Like,
lots of liberos do that. They attacked those
seams. There were a couple times where players
were looking at each other. I thought the game
plan that Scandicci had coming in was incredibly
well thought out and very well executed from
a team perspective. 100%. And Markova, for the
first half, I would say, completely struggled.
Got served off the court. I saw her just swing
at a ball to pass and miss it. Correct. Could
not score. Kira Van Rijk is their other point
scorer. Could not find the court. Like, when
your two point scorers just are nowhere to be
found, plus your serve -receive is that bad,
like, it's not a recipe for success. Well, Van
Rijk hit negative. She had 12 sets before she
got pulled off. She had four kills, four errors,
and was blocked once. And Markova... was set
29 times. She had 10 kills, but she had five
errors and one block, or was blocked one time.
So just not particularly efficient, and they
didn't pass well enough to run the middle, and
just nothing. It just really highlighted what
a difference good serve -receive can do for you,
and good serving, because it was just, I felt
bad for them almost, you know? You've got to
show up and you've got to be ready to play. And
they did not execute. Honestly, if Scandicci
plays the way they did against back of bank,
they could push Conigliano. Again, I could probably
check the score right now. But, I mean, Conigliano,
when they're all playing well, are virtually
untouchable. But Scandicci was pretty flawless.
It'll be hard to replicate that performance.
Well, Scandici's never made a Champions League
final. Final four, even. This was their first
one. Yeah, so making the finals, that's a huge
win for them. I'm curious to see, can they replicate
that performance? I think for them, they have
to make Conigliano match and beat them. I think
Conigliano has more high -end talent. They're
better overall. Their budget is just off the
charts. But, I mean... Good for Scandicci. You
had an opportunity. You came in. You were the
underdog, and you stuck it to him. All right,
so if we look to the NCAA men's tournament, the
finals will be this coming week, but we saw the
play -in match for the seven seed, which in and
of itself is a head -scratcher. I don't know,
man. That happened over this weekend, and we
saw Penn State beat Damon 3 -0. I don't think
that's surprising. I mean, is it? Like, Penn
State? I understand that Penn State, I've got
it out for Penn State this season. We've ripped
them throughout the year, and rightly so. They've
been terrible. But they righted the ship towards
the end of the season, and they're just a more
storied program than Damon. They have better
athletes. They see better competition. They're
more prepared. I can't say I'm surprised with
this result. Overall, overseas is where it was
at this week. A little slower as the leagues
finish up and we start to... head into VNL season,
but some exciting volleyball nonetheless. So
if you want to find it anywhere, YouTube, CEV,
Eurovolley TV, Volleyball World TV, lots of great
options. But, I mean, it's always a good week
when there's some volleyball. All right, so we
are heading into PVF Championship Weekend. So
given the fact there was not a lot going on this
week that was meaningful, What we thought we
would do was we would break down the semifinal
matches, make some predictions, and talk about
the showdowns and the teams going into the Final
Four this weekend. I'm not sure we're allowed
to say that. The championship weekend. I think
Final Four is copyrighted. Probably. Or trademarked.
So we have Omaha and Indy playing in one semi,
and we have Atlanta and Orlando playing in the
other semi. This is based on what we have heard
the tie -break procedure is because Omaha and
Atlanta actually do play today. And if Atlanta
wins, both teams will have the same number of
wins. And so from our understanding, it then
goes to that point thing that they haven't used
and we've been confused about, which Omaha has
a steady lead in that. So if we're wrong and
this doesn't happen and these aren't the matchups,
just disregard. But from everything that I have
been led to believe, if there is a tie in total
season wins, it goes to the points. So I'm assuming
regardless, Omaha's going to finish first. So
that definitely makes logical sense to me. It
makes logical sense, but we have been surprised
before. Okay, so let's look at the team stats
from a high level, and then we can drill down
to some of the players and positions. The season
record between Omaha and Indy is tilted in Omaha's
favor. So Omaha won the first two meetings 3
-0, 3 -0. They won the third meeting 3 -2, so
it was a little closer. But Indy won the last
meeting 3 -0. A little bit of a swing as the
seasons progress. Yeah, so I think that is interesting.
If you lose all four matches to one team, you
don't really have a great mentality or mindset
going in. But having won the last one and having
played them tighter in the one before that, this
is definitely a match that I think Indy believes
they can win. I would agree with that, yeah.
Now, if we look at the statistics across the
teams, are very close. So kill percentage is...
36 .3 % for Omaha and 36 .7 % for Indy. So pretty
much exactly the same. And actually, the stats
across the board for the teams are very close
on the season whole. So kill efficiency, Omaha
has a slight lead. They're 24 .3 % versus 22
% for Indy, but within a reasonable margin there.
And then everything else is pretty close. So
Omaha is 0 .77 aces per set. Indy's at .84, so
they have a slight serving edge, which I think
is going to be important in this matchup. The
blocks are 2 .64 for Omaha, 2 .5 for Indy. So,
again, super close. Again, digs per set, Omaha
is 16 .64 and Indy is 16 .53. This is actually
crazy how close these teams are. Yeah, the teams
are very, very similar statistically. So this
is going to be, and with a one -off playoff,
which is something we've talked about. Not our
favorite. Anything can happen. Who's going to
get hot? Which players are you going to look
at? So I was thinking. Let's kind of just talk
quickly. Let's compare the setters. Let's compare
the liberos. Let's see where we think there'll
be some edges and kind of go from there. So from
a setting standpoint, where are you at? I think
everybody knows my feelings on Sydney Hilly throughout
the season, but I think she's leading the league.
You know, she's big, so she's not a liability
at the net. She's like I said leading the leading
in assists per set I think or just total assists.
She has become more consistent as the season
has gone on and we talked about that with Indy
early as they would always play the set one set
two really well and then just like disappear
but clearly they've like cleaned that up a bit.
So I'm giving the setter heavy weight to Indy.
I agree with that. I think that Valentina is
Valentina Anderson. She's consistent. She works
hard. She's fiery. Yeah. I think the only, you
know, we've talked about Sydney Hilly fading
down the stretch and she has done a good job
of negating that, but does it happen under pressure
in moments, you know, down the stretch? Well,
I would say that that question could kind of
be, opposed to the teams in general because like
Omaha won the whole thing last year Indy's the
expansion team they haven't been here before
granted Omaha has some young players on their
roster who weren't necessarily a part of that
team but they had they have a couple that returned
but like Indy they all are new to that program
so yeah I think that'll be something to watch.
I think that Sydney Hilly definitely has the
potential to outset Anderson in this match. What
are your thoughts about the libero position?
We know Adam's thoughts. His favorite libero
of all time, Elena Scott, plays for Indy. Honestly,
I think Elena Scott's better. Okay, so we've
given the setting and the libero edge to Indy,
and I think that that's probably accurate in
my opinion. I agree. But what about the middle
position? I don't know. I think the middle battle
is kind of balanced. I think the Indy middles
are very strong blockers, but they kind of fade
off in the offensive side. Omaha's middles are
also very good blockers, and I think they're
more offensive, but from what I've seen, they
don't run them enough, so it's kind of a moot
point if they're not going to set them. I think
this game is going to be won or lost in the middle.
I think I agree with you. I think they're both
or all four of them are very good blockers. And
so whoever can hold the middle of the court,
now you can do it by running the middle or by
running the pipe over top. But whoever can make
life difficult for the other team's middles,
I think is going to get an edge in this series.
And that's passing and decision making and the
middle's ability to be. available i think that's
something that is going to be key in this matchup
and now let's talk about we'll talk about the
outside hitter cores so and this is where i think
things get interesting which which group of outside
hitters do you like better and so let's real
quick we have brooke noneveller who's probably
been the league standout in this one So she's
going to play a key role. Regan Cooper, we're
looking at Emily Laundot. They have Allie Batenhorst.
How would you compare that to Nina Chayich, to
Azani Teeler, to Anna DeBeer? I mean, obviously
they're missing Lector Membermena, which is tough
for them. But I think Azani Teeler has really
elevated her performance since Membermena went
down. She's the wild card to me. She has come
on very strong in the last half of the season.
Honestly, as a core, I prefer Indy's core, but
Nunaviller has held things down for Omaha all
season. There have been a lot of inconsistencies
with the second outside position, with the right
side position for Omaha, but she has shown up
consistently night after night. I think as a
group, there's less pressure on one individual
for Indy, but I do think that Brooke Nunneveller
is capable of carrying the load because she has
proven it if her teammates aren't having a great
night. I think Teeler is going to have to be
very good for them to win. And she's definitely
capable, but does she show up? in this specific
match, because she's going to have to score a
ton of their points. You know I like Anna DeBeer.
She's consistent. She's not going to kill you
in the match, but I don't think she's going to
win you the match. Nina is very good, but I don't
think she's super terminal. She scores points,
but she's not getting balls at a system and swinging
to score. Like, Teeler's going to have to do
that, in my opinion. So who do you think is going
to win? I think Indy's going to win. You heard
it here first, everybody. I think they have the
momentum. I think they're kind of the underdogs.
I think there's a lot of uncertainty around Omaha.
What do you mean? We don't need to get into that
here. My one caveat to that will be if Brooke
can single -handedly win the match, and that's
a definite possibility having watched her play
this season. So if Indy can make life difficult
for Brooke, I think they have a very good shot
at winning. If they can get Omaha out of system
and just camp out on Nunavut or on the block,
I think she'll have trouble scoring. All right,
so let's move on to the Atlanta -Orlando match,
which I think is pretty interesting. If we look
at the season history, so Orlando won the first
meeting of the season 3 -0. Orlando won the second
meeting of the season. 3 -2. But then Atlanta
won the last two, 3 -1 and 3 -0. So Orlando started
well, Atlanta finished strong. Which we've seen.
Yeah. And if we look at the team statistics,
again, they're incredibly close over the course
of the season. So kill percentage. As a team,
for Atlanta, it's 36 .4. It's 36 .6 for Orlando.
Kill efficiency is 23 .7 for Atlanta, 24 .8 for
Orlando. They're 1 .16 aces per set for Atlanta
compared to 1 .13 for Orlando. Blocks is 2 .28
versus 2 .15 and Atlanta has a slight advantage
in digs per set at 17 .3 versus 16 .7 but marginally
close across all of the stats across the season
so again this should be a very close and competitive
game. I mean we've seen Orlando kind of take
a dip we've spoken about individual players about
the team in general like they started off so
strong and have kind of petered out a little
bit they caught they righted the ship a little
bit towards the very end but i think the trajectories
these two teams have taken throughout the season
are kind of opposite i would agree with that
i okay so let's kind of go through the same thing
who who wins the setting battle in this one for
you i'm not gonna lie i'm not a huge fan of either
setter i think it's a wash honestly Okay, so
you're rolling the dice on that one? Yeah. What
about from a libero standpoint? Or let's say,
so libero versus who do you think is the better
passing team? Well, I think Morgan Hentz wins
the libero battle. Okay. I think Atlanta definitely
has a stronger libero. Passing -wise, the outsides
for both teams are medium for me passing, but
I would give the edge to Atlanta. Okay. I think
I agree with your assessment on all of those.
I think you see inconsistency. This match for
me overall is about which players rise to the
occasion. I think you have players who have been
good and bad throughout the season, and it's
kind of a question mark as to what happens. We'll
get to that with the outside core. Mind you,
when we talk about passing... We do have your
girl, Natalie Foster, on Orlando who disrupts
a lot of serve -receive systems. So there is
that to take into account. She was going to be
my wild card. Well, so for me, Orlando has two
wild cards. If Natalie Foster goes off and has
a game, and Abercrombie has a game, and both
of those to me are... relatively large question
marks but if those two players have really good
matches this team is going to be tough to beat
well I think Abercrombie is stronger than Beeson
on the right side but I do think that the Atlanta
outside outsides are better than the Orlando
ones well and Orlando has been inconsistent as
to who can find their game at any given time
I mean you have potential but you kind of Never
know what you're going to get with the outside.
Are they going to be all world or are they going
to hit negative? And for Orlando, I think, and
this is a big if, if their top players who they
decide to start play relatively close to their
capacity, I think Orlando is a better team. Their
ceiling is higher, but they don't all hit that
peak at the same time very often. I think even
if we look at the middles, I think Atlanta with
Corey Lewis. I think Atlanta is stronger in the
majority of positions aside from setting, as
I said, was a wash and right side. Again, I am
going to take the opposite stance. If both teams
are playing to their potential, I think Atlanta
wins. So I like that we have a little bit of
a different view on... Which team has higher
potential? If you're looking at one or two players
from each team, who needs to have a good match
for them to win? Who are you watching to see
if they show up? For Orlando Abercrombie, when
she struggles, the whole team is real bad. So
she needs to put points on the board. I think
one of the two left sides, any of them. And I
would honestly say Schaffmaster too. If she is
engaged and she is getting her feet to the ball
and she is being smart with when she chooses
to go on two, that's a good thing. We'll see
if it happens. And for Atlanta? For Atlanta,
I think if they can get Corey Lewis going, that's
huge. I think Leah Edmond, both from the service
line and offensively, is an X factor. I mean,
Hentz is always consistent, so I don't feel the
need. I think, honestly, those two. I think if
those two are solid, I'll say Hentz just for
a ball control perspective. But if Edmond and
Lewis can get going, then I think other players
can be medium and it'll be okay. Who do you think
is going to win? Atlanta. Me too. You were just
saying Orlando. I know, I think Orlando. Oh,
you don't think they're going to? fulfill their
potential yeah i think orlando has the ability
to win but i just haven't seen all of the pieces
i mean shaft master big question mark as to who
you're going to get abercrombie took a huge dip
started playing a little bit better where is
she going to be at you know again you have the
left sides need to show up and play well you
have no idea there's just they have the potential
to win and when they're all playing well they're
a very good team but we just haven't seen that
consistently enough with and then you add the
pressure of a one -off match i just i think atlanta
has been more consistent more often so if you
want to find out be sure to tune in the championship
is happening may 9th and 11th that is friday
and sunday so the semis are happening friday
on cbs so let's see The NCAA Men's Championship
is happening this week as well. They are going
down Thursday through Monday in Columbus, Ohio.
As we mentioned earlier, Penn State beat Damon
for the play -in match, so we've got eight teams
remaining. I'm so excited to watch this. I'm
excited. Well, the second round. But let me...
What are your thoughts on Long Beach State taking
the one seed? Ludicrous. Okay, right? I'm sorry,
you go, Hawaii won. Hawaii won the conference
and beat you two out of three times you played.
I get that Long Beach has been very good. I get
that they have a very good record. No, I don't
care. I'm not agreeing with you. I know, I'm
just like, I'm expressing my frustration at the
whole situation. This is just ludicrous. But
see, the thing that doesn't make sense for me
is, Hawaii slotted at two, but then they get
the play -in match, which generally should technically
go to the one seed. None of this, I mean, I think
it's mostly irrelevant, other than, I mean, Hawaii
has to play UCLA versus playing Loyola or Pepperdine,
but it just doesn't make any sense. No, it's
just like a principle to me. It's like, okay,
Long Beach State's out -of -conference schedule,
I have talked about this at length, was not strong.
It was soft. So soft. If you are incapable of
winning your conference, you should not get a
top seat. I'm sorry. No. I don't agree with that.
I don't think it matters in the long run. Yeah,
it's a bit head -scratching when I saw the rankings
come out. And not to mention, it's like, oh,
hey, all these teams qualified. We are just going
to decide that Four Valley State is the worst
team in the tournament. So we're going to do
the play -in match for the seventh seed. It's
like, what? At that point, just make Fort Valley
State play Damon or something. You know what
I mean? The play -in match should play the one
seed, and the one seed should not be Long Beach
State. Well, and I mean, given how Penn State
started the season, I don't hate that they were
in the play -in match. I mean, fine. But yes,
I understand your point. None of this makes sense
to me. No. At all. It's just a joke. Now, is
there any... I don't know, splitting conferences
or TV schedule or any reason to do it this way
that you can see? Well, honestly, what I would
have done is put Hawaii as the one seed. UCLA
didn't even win their conference. If you don't
win your conference, you shouldn't be a top two
seed. But the way they've set it up is so it's
like a Big West final. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. I don't know. I understand we've got two
teams from the MPSF. I think how it would have
gone down in women's is the two MPSF teams would
have been on the same side of the bracket and
the two Big West teams would have been on the
same side of the bracket just to keep interest
across conferences. Well, I definitely think
the final should be Long Beach State, Hawaii.
I think they are the two best teams, but you
don't see... this layout and i understand it's
like a fraction of the number of teams and women's
but and the strength of conferences is you know
different and like pepperdine beats ucla and
then wins the mpsf and then they're the five
seed i i think hawaii And again, you got to play
all of the good matches, but Hawaii should have
gotten the winner of Pepperdine, Loyola Chicago
in the semi. Like that's, that should have been
the path for them. I still think they're going
to beat UCLA in the semi. We can talk about that
in a second, but I think it's going to be a Hawaii
Long Beach final. I would agree. I think the
final will end up being Long Beach State in Hawaii.
I think the semis we're going to see, like you
said, Hawaii versus UCLA, Long Beach State versus
Pepperdine. I think the best quarterfinal match
is going to be Pepperdine versus Loyola Chicago.
I agree. Which I also think is interesting because
Loyola Chicago, their star is Parker Van Buren
on the right side. Pepperdine, Ryan Barnett has
stepped up massively. So we've got like, I wonder
if they're going to match them up like in the
front row with each other. Or if they're going
to try to let them just run free, not against
each other. This is actually the only interesting
quarterfinal match to me. I think the other ones
are all going to be blowouts. But I'm not sure
that Pepperdine wins this one. You have a bigger
team who has played very well. I guess the thing
for me is, can Pepperdine keep playing the way
they've been playing? So they were very good.
in their conference finals, but they were at
home. They were comfortable. Hartke didn't play
amazing, but their left side stepped up and kind
of, I don't want to say came out of nowhere,
but had a really good conference final. Can you
keep that mojo going on the road after you've
won? I think Loyola Chicago is a very technically
sound team. I think they're going to have a very
good game plan. I think they're going to be ready
to play. Pepperdine is bigger and more physical,
but Loyola is skilled and I think gritty. It'll
be an interesting matchup. I think Pepperdine
is going to have to come in and win that match.
If they're not playing well, I think Loyola Chicago
can win that match. So this one, I'm very curious
to see. To me, this is a pick -em. I think this
is a 50 -50 result -wise in terms of who wins
this one. Well, that's the last match. on Thursday.
The games go all day Thursday, and that's the
last one. So they're saving the best for last,
I think. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to seeing
that one. I think that Long Beach will beat either
of those teams. I think they're just better.
The Hawaii -UCLA semi is interesting. It's interesting,
but I think if everybody shows up on Hawaii,
if everybody shows up for both teams, I think
Hawaii's better. I agree. I'm concerned that
UCLA is inconsistent. They're top players. We've
watched them quite a bit this year. Sometimes
they show up. Sometimes they're motivated. Sometimes
they look a little lethargic. They're young,
kind of inexperienced. I'm curious how they deal
with the pressure. But on the flip side, Hawaii
is different when they're playing at home. This
is my concern for them. How do they travel? Do
they have the same energy and intensity without?
And we've been told all over this week how well
Hawaii fans travel. I'm looking forward to seeing
it in the stands. But again, it's not the same
as being at home. And we've seen them drop a
couple matches on the road that they have no
business losing to. I'm curious, and I'm curious
to see if Trisky is back. Is he healthy? Can
he play? But even if he's not, Carney has done
a good job. Carney has played well. But you,
I mean, you miss. the presence of Trisky there.
A security blanket. Yeah. I'm curious to watch
that semifinal. I think Hawaii's going to win,
but I'm curious to see the little storylines
within that match. And I think that there's potentially
a lot of question marks in that one. So the quarterfinal
between Pepperdine and Loyola Chicago is a match
I want to watch. The semi between Hawaii and
UCLA I want to watch. And then I think the final
is going to be spectacular. None of this happened.
And it's just like a complete mix up in the semis.
And we're like, yeah, so excited for this match.
And then surprise, not even going to happen.
But these are our predictions. You never know.
So if you had to say right now, who's NCAA champion?
Long Beach. Really? Yeah. I think it's really
hard to beat a team multiple times in a row.
I think. I think the neutral site for the final
plays into Long Beach's favor, not Hawaii's.
I've been obsessed with Hawaii all season, so
I'm just going to ride this to the end. I'm just
going to say Hawaii. I love watching them play.
I really like their team. I'm secretly rooting
for them, I think. But I think that Long Beach
is going to come for blood in the final. One
last thing that I do think is worth mentioning
that we didn't talk about in the weekly highlights,
but I want to touch on it because I think it's
important, is GCU cut their men's volleyball
program. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. It just
is so disturbing because the sport is growing.
This was a team that was a Final Four team last
year. They were top 15 in the country this year.
They are consistently showing up and putting
out great seasons. And men's volleyball is growing.
So many more boys are playing volleyball now.
And there's such limited opportunities to play
post -secondary that to take one of the top programs
away is just absolutely devastating to the sport.
So there is a petition going around. Check it
out on social media. Who knows if they'll make
a change, but I think it's important for decision
makers to understand how important. boys and
men's volleyball is in the country again word
on the street is gcu switched conferences to
the mountain west to be able to bring football
into their sport lineup so that is where the
very limited men's volleyball scholarships probably
went yeah it's it's really sad to see because
you hate again a program with history who has
been good just is non -existent anymore potentially
so Hopefully that changes. I'd like to see a
Stanford situation in this case. Bring it back.
Yes, totally. And my heart calls out to the players,
like where are they going to go? And then the
recruits that committed, like now they have to
pivot. I'm also like, do you think the coach
knew that this was in the works and that's why
he left and went to Kansas? Or do you think this
was completely out of left field? I would like
to think that the athletic department would give
their staff a heads up about this so they don't
leave them high and dry. So you think he knew
and just peaced out? Yeah, I think so. That makes
it even worse. I hope that's not the case. People
are fighting for GCU. We need to be aware of,
like, things like this. And it's absolutely heartbreaking.
But on a positive note. We got a celebration
of some good volleyball happening this weekend
on the men's side, so be sure to tune in. It
is time for our weekly questions, and since we're
heading into the PVF championship this weekend,
I think number one is appropriate. In who do
you think is the best rookie in the PVF? I have
two selections, and admittedly, I'm biased. Let
me guess, Natalie Foster. And Alina Scott. So
I, you know, again, everybody's going to have
their opinion. Everybody has their favorite players.
I think that Alina Scott, you know, came in and
earned a spot. She wasn't given it. You know,
she came in and I thought she played really well
at the beginning when she had opportunities and
then took over the spot and really was able to
help her team make the final four. I think she
passes well. I like the energy she brings. There's
a stability to that team. And in general, I just
like the way she plays. So I would pick her for
one. And then I think Natalie Foster has had
a really good season. I think she's unique in
her serving capability. I think she can be a
wild card. I believe she was very close to leading,
if not on top of the league, for service aces
and aces per set. I think she grew as a middle
in terms of how she played. I thought she got
better from an offensive standpoint. I know there's
lots of options. Those are kind of the two X
factors for me that I liked following this season.
I might be completely off the wall here, and
this might surprise people, but I'm going to
pick Corey Lewis. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. I think she
stepped in to a team that was projected to win
the league. So obviously they had the pieces
there, but she stepped in as a rookie starting
incredibly important from an offensive perspective.
She didn't have any back row experience because
of all the subs available in college. So developed
her serving game, had to develop a bit of a defensive
game. You know, her blocking, I think. The product
that she has put on the court and the improvement
we've seen and how much her team needs her, she's
my pick. Fair enough. Who would you guys put
on your list? No, it's not a list. It's one player
or two if you're Adam. Well, liberos and middles,
they kind of make one position. Exactly. They
play the whole game between the two of them.
Okay, question two. If athletes play so soon.
from season to season. So this could be going
from NCAA to lover PVF. This could be going from
pro to playing VNL. How do they have time to
recover? So this is, they don't. Well, it's a
great question. I think one that you are actually
particularly suited to answer, given your experience
in history. The thing I will say is it's not
really about the amount that you play. It's about
the little things that you do day to day to stay
healthy. Are you disciplined with doing a proper
warmup? If you have injuries and everybody does,
do you manage those on a daily basis? Band work
for your shoulders or for your hips or getting
physio or icing? Are you consistent in the gym
or when you're off, are you off? Like it's about.
doing the little things. And again, outside of
acute injuries, which happen, but from a longevity
standpoint, the technology, it's about habits
of staying healthy. And you see athletes who
can play for a long time and the national team
athletes go from pro to national team to pro
to national team with very little break. It's
definitely possible if you're disciplined. I
would say the hardest transition that we see
today is probably the girls who go from NCAA
directly to pro because In NCAA, there's not
as much time available to do the full recovery
stuff because you're going to class, you're doing
your homework, you're studying for exams. There's
a lot of extra stuff that is required of you
from a student perspective, whereas when you're
a professional, it's your job to be healthy.
And when you're not at practice, there's a ton
of time. to then prepare to be able to be good
at practice the next day. And also if you have
a good coaching staff, like they understand load
management and stuff, and they're not going to
just like beat you to a pulp every day. Like
there definitely are some ebbs and flows about
how hard you go in training sometimes versus
like easing off a bit. So from a professional
perspective, it is easier. All right, question
three. This person had a question about jump
serving. So after watching several Love and PVF
matches, I've seen several topspin serves that
were pretty slow. In your experience, do you
think a slow topspin serve is the easiest serve
to return overall? This person refers to like
Babcock and like a Hancock as having very good.
Spin serves, and they do. But if you're not hitting
it as hard as them, is it more predictable and
easier to pass? I would say 100%. 100%. As a
passer, if you give me a nice trajectory spin
serve that doesn't really move or is not coming
with a ton of pace, it's just easy to follow.
I would much rather pass a spin serve than a
good float serve. My ranking of serve difficulty
to pass from easy to hard is like standing float
serve because you can't really put much on it.
Jump topspin serve, jump float serve. Yeah, and
again, you have degrees of difficulty, but if
you're looking at people who are the best at
those types of serves, I agree with you. I would
say if you are not putting... side spin on your
spin serve jump top spin or and or hitting the
piss out of the ball there's no point in doing
it yeah like you need to hit it with a ton of
pace and you need to make it move if you just
hit it straight even if you hit it hard it's
so easy to control So the best spin servers,
and if you watch the match from the end of the
court, you can often see this, particularly in
the men's game. The most successful spin servers
are hitting the ball very hard, and they put
side spin on it so it moves out of the passer's
window. But I would say if you're not doing that,
you're better off jump flow serving. Yeah, I
totally agree. Okay, our last question of the
week is, can you define the specific hitter positions
and how they're different from each other? when
or why is a player labeled as a left or right
side hitter? What does opposite hitter mean?
Like opposite to what? And is pin hitter just
a general term? So this person is asking, are
some specific positions and other are just general
descriptors? Because you do hear on broadcasts
a lot, all of these terms kind of mixed together.
So I can understand why this can be a little
confusing. Yeah, this is kind of a great. volleyball
101 question if you haven't grown up playing
the sport okay so opposite refers to playing
opposite the setter so in volleyball a lot of
the terms have to do with where are you relative
to the setter so when you hear you know rotation
one two three four five six that's where the
setter is currently and so when you hear someone
say opposite they play opposite the setter so
on the right side of the court if you're standing
at the baseline so Opposite and right side denote
somebody who hits on the right side of the court.
Same position. Same position. Outside hitter
refers to hitting on the left side of the court.
So position four. And your left side players
are generally, not always, but generally your
passing players. So they pass on service reception
and they hit on the left side and out of the
pipe in the front and back row. When you hear
somebody refer to pin hitters, this generally
refers to the core of the outside hitters, both
your left sides and your right sides. And they
say pin hitter because they hit out by the antenna,
which is also referred to as the pin. So we've
got some synonyms for the same positions. There's
a lot of terminology, but I think that was a
good breakdown. We love these kind of questions.
Don't feel ashamed to ask these. I can't tell
you I watch some different Netflix shows in terms
of the sport ones. F1, golf. I don't do anything
in those sports. I hear things. I've got buddies
who are big fans. I'm always texting. What does
this mean? Was that important? What about the
tires? I don't know anything about that. But
again, it's specific and it's important if you're
in the sports. So if you hear something on a
broadcast, please shoot us a question. We're
happy to answer them. So hopefully that helped
a little bit. But thank you to everybody who
submits questions. We love them, so keep them
coming. All right. So a bit of a slow week, but
we managed to make this episode just as long
as the other ones. We can't help ourselves. This
coming week is going to be a banger for volleyball.
We've got some of the men's finals internationally
that you can watch. So most importantly, we have
all of the championships coming up this week.
So it's going to be a great week of volleyball.
PVF semifinals start May 9th at 8 p .m. Eastern,
and the finals are May 11th at 4 p .m. Eastern.
All of those are on CBS Sports, so tune into
those. We'll see who ends up in the final, and
those should be very good matches. So we also
have the men's NCAA championship tournament happening
this week. So quarterfinals start on May 8th
at 11 a .m. on Eastern. Semis are May 10th starting
at 5 p .m. Eastern, and the finals are May 12th
at 7 p .m. Eastern. Quarters and semis you can
find on ESPN +, and the finals will be on ESPN2.
So because the finals for NCAA men are Monday
night, We're not sure of this yet, but I feel
like next week's episode could be or will likely
focus on the PVF side of things. And then the
next week after the men's final has finished,
we'll probably address that then. So just to
set your expectations, we're trying to figure
out how to make it work because it's two big
events happening this weekend, but you'll find
out. 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
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be back next week.