Austin vs Salt Lake in LOVB Finals, Men's International & Domestic Dream Teams

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're still cruising, you guys. We're still
cruising. There's so much going on. It's insane.
We say this every episode, but we mean it, okay?
Some playoff stuff to dive into. Leagues are
wrapping up. Some on -court, off -court issues
happening that I'm curious to hear Adam's thoughts
on because he doesn't know what I'm going to
bring to the table today, okay? We are excited,
as always, to chat volleyball with you guys.
So let's get started. MLB season isn't done yet,
everybody. So you know what this means. Was your
fantasy league a highlight or just a happening?
It was decent this week. Neither one of the other.
I think I was mid 300s. Me too. It was fine.
The season is wrapping up. I hit my personal
goal. I stunk this year. One time. Well, that
was all I was shooting for. Now it's like mid
300s. It was a totally fine week. Like a month
ago, we would have been like terrible. Honestly,
forgetting to submit one week killed my ability
to compete. And it was just like tough after
that for me to stay super motivated. I didn't
miss a week. And my poor choices just really
took me out of the ability to compete. I'm not
saying I would have been like in the top, but
knowing you missed one, it was tough mentally.
I needed the bench help early on. I think maybe
that could have rewritten the story for me, but
dang. My bench is carrying me most of the time.
I'm the worst. Honestly, that kind of became
part of the strategy. Like if there were two
players who were close, you would pick the one
slightly above so you could have both. Or if
I'm like, what player is going to be good or
bad on a given team? I would just pick both players
from the same position on the team and be like,
well, one of them is going to play. Anyway, the
best team is still number one. Holding on to
that number one spot. We have only got a couple
weeks left until the grand champion is announced.
So who knows? You could still join and pass Adam
and me. Not a hard task. If you want to get in
on the action or just play the daily grids and
get in on the chat, go to play volley .com slash
volley talk. That's play V O L I .com slash volley
talk. It's a ton of fun. All right. On the NCAA
side, you guys last week in the matches to watch,
I, we were just saying Miva and it did not disappoint
because. Number 16 Lewis beat number seven Ball
State in five. But then they turned around and
lost to number 20 Purdue Fort Wayne three straight.
Then number 17 Ohio State beat number 11 McKendree
in five. And then there were back and forth like
Loyal Chicago was in the mix. Like the upsets
are real in this conference. And is it even considered
an upset anymore? Because like they're all just
very. I don't closely match. Yeah. The numbers
don't mean anything. Yeah. The ABCA rankings
don't matter in Miva. They're just like at each
other's throats. And I think this is setting
up for the tournament to be spectacular. Like
it might be the best conference tournament this
year on the men's side. Do you think that the
NCAA will give Miva one of the at -large bids
or do you think all the at -large bids are probably
going to go to the big West and MPSF? I think
one has to go to Miva. It's been so competitive.
So messed up if they work so hard to include
more teams in the NCAA tournament. And then they're
just like, and we'll just give it to the two
biggest conferences. Thanks, everybody. But you
have a whole bunch of teams ranked in Miva. Yeah.
They may not be UCLA or Hawaii, but they're up
there. They're competing. Personally think the
conference has earned one of the at -large bids.
Oh, 100%. That was not a loaded question. That
wasn't like a test question. I 100 % agree that
Miva should get two, at least two births into
the tournament. As the season winds down and
conference play winds down, I'm really curious
to see what happens there. But in the other conferences,
number 10, BYU beat number four, USC in four.
That's a big win for them. That's a huge one
for them. But then USC came back and won the
next match in five. I honestly, I don't care.
But you know, like this late in the season, you're
a number four ranked team. You're going to BYU
to play the conference tournament. The fact that
BYU won, I think means more than you coming back
and winning in five. If they had come back and
won in three. I think they might have been at
USC, too. Don't quote me on that. I'm not 100
% sure. I still don't think it matters. Because
there is a ranking discrepancy there. And USC
probably should have won both those games. Not
to take anything away from BYU, but yeah. But
even Pepperdine taking a match off of UCLA, they
only moved up one spot in the ranking. They were
like seven and they moved up to six or six to
five or something like that. I expected them
to at least jump USC, but USC, no, like last
week. But yeah, maybe now they will. I would
think you would have to put Pepperdine ahead
of USC this week. Well, we'll find out what's
coming out today, everybody. Number 13, UC San
Diego beat number two, Hawaii in four. Unbelievable.
Whoa. Yeah. There's a lot happening. You could
have just watched NCAA men's this week and been
happy. Well, we went back and we watched the
Pepperdine -UCLA game. Yes. The one that Pepperdine
beat UCLA. I was just curious to watch that one.
Oh, man. Okay. I don't want to take anything
away from Pepperdine. I don't know if you're
going to agree with me on this. like ucla made
so many mistakes and i know you can argue well
pepperdine maybe like force them to make those
mistakes or whatever fair fine but like ucla
was up six two in set five and just it was hitting
error hitting error like and not necessarily
back to back no but when there's a lot yeah when
there's a lot of time left in a set and you're
like making these errors like bit by bit, they
catch up, but okay. So that being said, I guess
you could say that Pepperdine was consistent
after like losing those points. They were consistent
enough to continue to chip away. We talked about
UCLA needing to lose a game. At least I've talked
about that. And I think this is the prime example,
right? You go up six, two and a fifth set. And
there's a bit of an exhale. You're like, We don't
lose. We're up 6 -2. It's the fifth set. No,
teams will push you. And I think to Pepperdine's
credit, I think this has become a little bit
of their identity. They don't give up. They keep
coming. Barnett, I thought, was unbelievable
in this match. Well, I think in the last three
to four sets. In the first set, he was... Yeah,
fair. He came on... I actually, I really liked,
I thought Pepperdine did a better job of responding
to UCLA's pipe with a pipe of their own. With
a pipe of their own and even the way they were
defending it, I thought was interesting. Don't
sleep on Pepperdine. They're well coached. I
think they're well prepared. I really like the
energy and leadership that Barnett brings to
the floor for them. But there's always the wild
card of Hartke. He's an emotional player when
it's going well. He's kind of running all around
the court and he's pumping everybody up. Himself
up. Yes, but the rest of the team kind of comes
back to it. But when he's making errors, he's
kind of an energy suck on the team. So I think
that Barnett is pretty good at driving that and
how they finish will be around how Harky plays.
But not only plays, how he manages his emotions.
I like their medals too. I think that's one of
their names. I thought, again, going back to
how they defend the pipe, I think the UCLA pipe
is, from what we've seen, virtually indefensible.
It is so good. It's an international caliber
pipe. But I found it so interesting. Pepperdine
had their left side full commit with the middle.
The middle full commit with the pipe. Because
like, what else are you going to do? I thought
that that was so interesting. Now, if UCLA, if
they are able to stop it ever, granted, you're
setting up a one -on -one against very good attackers.
Is it stop? Are you going to stop it? Probably
not unless the hitter makes a mistake. But if
it does get to the point that that is the strategy
to stop UCLA's middle pipe combo. You got to
get David Decker going somehow. He's their worst
player. So, I mean, if you're planning a strategy,
have Decker beat you is not a bad mantra. I'm
not saying he can't do it, but he's the most
inexperienced and he's their worst attacker,
in my opinion. I would agree with that. Yeah.
So I like it. But he has gone so much better
since last year. Completely. And he's capable
of beating you. But again, as you're game planning
and you're watching film and you're ticking off
like, okay, who do we have to watch? Who do we
have? Decker's at the bottom of that list. And
I really like having watched Pepperdine. They
won the conference last year. They get better.
I think their coach is doing an outstanding job.
They're prepared. They have a plan. When we talk
about watching a match and being able to understand
what they're trying to do, not that it always
works, but you can tell what their game plan
is, and they're very prepared. Don't sleep on
Pepperdine. That's going to be the title of this
episode, everybody. Okay, our final piece for
NCAA men. There has been a lot of talk about
a certain incident that happened during the UC
Irvine CSUN match. Adam has no idea what I'm
about to show him, but here is what happened.
So I just showed Adam. A video of a certain play
where the announcer or UC Irvine, an athlete
named Jordan Lucas had a reaction under the net
or through the net or whatever after a play.
And Charlie Brand, the announcer's response was,
I'm shocked that Jordan Lucas hasn't been popped
by somebody yet. This is his antics are very
distasteful. Adam just saw the video. I don't
think as an announcer you can say that. I don't
think it's your place. Now listen, I grew up
playing hockey. So the antics that happened on
the ice are way worse than anything you see in
volleyball ever. And maybe that's not a good
thing. But when I watch him on the court, it's
authentic him. It's not malicious. You might
not agree with it. It's not. really in your face.
Would you hate playing against them? A hundred
percent. Would you want to break his fingers
when he's blocking? Absolutely. But for an announcer
to come out and say that. But I don't, I think
the bigger issue is, do you think he would have
said that? So for context, Jordan Lucas is a
gay man and what he does on the court can be
considered more flamboyant. as Adam said like
very true to who he is I think the bigger question
is do you think the announcer would have said
that about a straight man who was you know screaming
through the net or like doing a huge stare down
as opposed to the way that Jordan Lucas goes
about it probably not because you see those things
in men's sports and it's generally acceptable
exactly so like that is like A huge discussion
right now because, well, is it even like the
fact that a commentator is going out of their
way to say something about that and like condoning
violence? Like what? Like you should have. I'm
surprised somebody hasn't popped him yet. Okay.
But let's, let's also not go way over on the
other side. No, I'm not. But like, you wouldn't
say that. Like, trust me, I am all for a stare
down. I am all for. I'm the last person that
will ever criticize somebody for having personality
on the court because, and I've said this so many
times, I feel like volleyball, the women's side
more so than the men's, but I feel like volleyball
as a sport needs more personality. And Jordan
Lucas brings personality and he brings his own
flair and persona to the court. And like you
said, you don't have to like it. For me, it's
about the context of putting it on air. It's
not a professional comment. I can't tell you
the number of times I've played against people
in volleyball where you're like, that guy deserves
to be punched in the face. You might say that
with your teammates. 100%. So my point with that,
though, is that that comment in men's volleyball
is not... outrageous in and of itself within
the context of a team. No, but like, and when
you have people acting like that on the other
side of the net, whether it's somebody like yelling
through the net or staring down or doing whatever
as a team. Yeah. You might get together and be
like, Oh, hate that girl. Or like, Oh, hate that
guy. Whatever. It's not the announcer's job to
like really have an opinion on that. He did issue
an apology, but still, I think. There's not a
lot of money in announcing men's volleyball.
This guy, I don't know anything about him. He's
probably a former player. It's an inexcusable
comment in a professional setting. You should
know better than that. Do you think it's a homophobic?
It's hard to say because you don't know these
people and you don't know the announcer. My instinct
listening to it is he came under the net. He
was right in his face. You have a bit of a visceral...
No, that was what he said, his antics throughout
the match. I understand it, but the comment came
specifically in a play where the other player
came down the net. And it's similar to like if
somebody's coming to chase a ball and you stop
at the side of the sideline and put your hands
out and let the ball drop three inches. No, but
you know who acts like that? You know who else
has antics in NCAA men's volleyball? Honestly,
Skylar Varga. Sure. The stuff that he does is...
Listen, I'm not... Yeah, but nobody would say
that about... I'm just saying I feel like there's
a double standard. I want to be clear. I'm not
disagreeing with you. I'm saying people make
mistakes. He took accountability. He apologized.
Was it okay? No. All you can do when you make
a mistake is understand where that mistake came
from. Maybe there is something there. Maybe there's
not. Take accountability and apologize and be
better. That's it. It happened. It's unfortunate.
I don't agree with it. Act the way you want.
Get yourself fired up. Do what you need to do
as long as it's not personal or you're not attacking
the other team. You know what I mean? You're
not doing something personal against the other
team. That action by him was not out of character.
No, it was not out of character. However, and
I will play the other side here too, is I have
seen videos of him, and I'm not going to repeat
it verbatim, where he turns to the crowd and
says, F that hoe and stuff like that about players
that he's playing against. That, I feel, is taking
it too far. You know what I mean? Act the way
you want. Do what you need to do to get yourself
and your teammates fired up. But when you're
going to say things like that, especially when
there are... Young people in the crowd watching
you and you're going to use that language and
talk about your opponents that way. That I do
think is inappropriate. You can go too far in
both directions. I got a bunch of messages about
this issue, so I wanted to bring it up. But like,
honestly, I could watch a Jordan Lucas mixtape
on Instagram all day because I love it. In MLV,
the big news of the week is that Omaha has fired
their head coach. Pretty sure Adam called that
week three. Okay. I'm going to have probably
an unpopular take here. He always says that and
then it's like, no, everybody agrees with you.
So my first question is, this is the first year
that John Cook has been involved with the team,
correct? Yes. I don't know where this is going.
And he helped shape the roster is my understanding,
correct? I can't speak to that with any certainty.
So when I listened to his press conference, it
was about helping set the culture, player evaluation,
those kind of things. Omaha's expected to win,
right? They have a mediocre season. This coach
comes in and basically at the beginning of the
season says these players aren't as good as they
were portrayed to be at the beginning of the
season. Beeson doesn't play. Your libero demands
out. There's not a ton of compete on the team
compared to what you would expect or what you
would want. Given the history of volleyball in
Nebraska, I would say, you know who takes the
bullet on that and who makes the decisions? GMs
make decisions. Coaches get fired. I don't think
it was a good time to fire him. You now have
an inexperienced coach with a few matches remaining
and you're fighting for a playoff spot. This
to me. feels like a management cover your behind
decision. And if things go sideways and they
don't do well, well, we didn't have a good coach
and I'm not saying he didn't do everything he
should have, but this to me doesn't strike me
as a volleyball decision. This is a cover your
behind decision and management generally has
two or three bullets for a regime and they've
used one. Um, Well, I also wonder what the dynamic
was because you have a really good player who
has a rough season and wants to leave. You have
Nunaviller who has been a top player in the league
for a couple years also have like a so -so year
for her. I'm just wondering like what his coaching
style was and if for whatever reason it kind
of like took some air out of the tires of some
players. I'm not saying. that he was a good fit
or that he did a good job. I'm saying the timing
of the firing gives management plausible deniability,
right? Like you have, you have four games left.
You're in third place. You're 11 and 11. Oh,
they're not in third place anymore. I understand
that. But at the time of the firing, you are
looking at that season going, what is the narrative
going to be guaranteed? They're thinking about
what is the narrative going to be? If we bring
in a coach and it doesn't work, like how do we
address that? They could have made and still
could make the playoffs, but now it's like, well,
we had to get rid of them because of culture
or whatever the reasons were. We had a young
guy in here. It happens with the season when,
quite frankly, I don't think the roster construction
was as good as they thought it was. There could
be a coaching issue, but in my opinion, there's
also a roster issue. Well, they've got a young
guy taking the reins for the rest of the season.
They just got slapped by Dallas 3 -0. Yeah. Not
a great start. And San Diego won two. Yeah. I
mean, San Diego, Grand Rapids beat Omaha on four
this week. Then Dallas smacked them in three.
Then San Diego beat Orlando in five. So San Diego
is up in third place. Who would have thunk it?
Omaha has dropped to fourth. Orlando, I think,
is in fifth. But Orlando has games in hand, if
I'm not mistaken. The most games, I think Omaha's
played the most games at 24. There are several
teams that have played 22. And I believe it's
a 28 -game season. We're in pucker time, as Adam
would say. Indy and Dallas are the only teams
that are safe for playoffs. Nobody can catch
them. Do you think Indy finishes one, Dallas
finishes two? Or do you think that that top spot
is still up for grabs? Given how things have
been going, I think Indy will hold on to it.
There's to lose. But honestly, technically speaking,
no one is out of it yet. Like, okay, Columbus
will have to win out. Okay. And like San Diego
will have to lose out. I'm not saying it's likely.
It's like realistic that everybody's still in
it. But mathematically speaking, every team is
still alive. I mean, Atlanta's on the outside.
Three game win streak puts them right back in
it. Exactly. So exactly. The next couple of weeks
are going to be spicy to see who gets those last
two playoff spots. But we've been saying it for
weeks and weeks and weeks now, like Indian Dallas
are the two best teams in the league. All right.
In the Italian playoffs on the men's side in
the semifinals, Perugia beat Piacenza three matches
to zero. So they're in the finals. Chivita Nova
is currently up two matches to one against your
boy, Micah Christensen and Verona. We did catch
a little bit of the Pruja Piacenza match and
Pruja is just better. Agreed. Honestly. Yeah.
It's Piacenza put up a good fight. Your boy,
Simone is on Piacenza. I believe there's another
Cuban on Piacenza. The outside, I believe. Yeah.
Poro. who I think is Lukaporo's brother, was
setting. Didn't love him. No. You watch the match,
and Perugia's just a better team. They deserve
to go to the finals. It played out the way it
should have. It was entertaining volleyball,
but the team that should win won. Bentaro on
the right side for Perugia was unstoppable. It
was insane. He was a lot of fun to watch. Unstoppable.
Bovalenta for Piacenza did really well in the
front row, but could not figure it out in the
back row. On his attacking. Oh, I thought you
meant defensively, and I was like... No, on his
attacking. He was really only effective in the
front row. Would you think that was part of the
setting issue, or do you think it was just a
little bit of both? I don't know. I am looking...
I don't know. Poro's setting was just like a
little more... It looked more chaotic than we're
used to. We haven't watched them play a ton.
The better team won. They're going to the final.
It's probably going to be Trevizianova. Verona's
fun to watch, though. I would like Verona to
win just because I... They got that swagger.
That's fun to watch. I hope that series at least
goes to five. I'm going to try and catch a couple
of those matches this week. The final will be
very good volleyball. On the women's side, Cornigliano
won match one of the women's finals, three to
two over Milano. I thought Milano had this one.
And I'm honestly shocked. Cornigliano is going
to roll now. And that was Milano's chance. That
was Milano's chance because they were playing
in Cornigliano too. Yeah. You talk about a team
that just knows how to win and respond. Cornigliano
does it better than anybody. They find a way,
man. Backs against the wall. Different players
step up. Zhu Ting rolling back the clock, showing
some intensity, fired up. It was so much fun
to watch. Speaking of intensity, Paola Egonu.
Hello. Where have you been? Nowhere to be found
in set one. And then all of a sudden she flipped
a switch and this woman was like celebrating.
She was fist pumping. She was covering her mouth
during comments because she's like, nobody needs
to see what I'm about to say. I haven't seen
that kind of fire and energy from her. For those
people who didn't watch the game, what did you
think about the coach pulling her in the fifth
set in the front row to put in? I don't know
what her name was. What was it, like 11 -11 or
something? 12 -11, yes. And Iganu was in the
front row, and the coach took her out to put
in this girl who literally hit the back wall
on a swing. And I don't understand. So I think,
if I'm remembering correctly, it was 11 -11.
There was a very long rally. Iganu got set twice,
didn't score, but didn't make mistakes. And the
team ended up winning the point. So they're up
12 -11. And he subs her out. And I just, I mean,
at first I thought maybe a blocking sub. But
then left. It was like 6 -5. Yeah, it did not.
And left her on the bench. For like two points.
And then puts her back. I'm like, what are you
doing? Yeah, you got to stay out of your own
way. I think that was a massive coaching mistake.
Especially when she's feeling herself like that.
If somebody has context around that, if there
was an Italian announcer or something that we
missed, we went back and watched it. I couldn't
pick anything up. I was shocked. You don't take
your best player off the floor. At that point,
especially. That was one of the more head -scratching
coaching moves I've ever seen. I mean, Piva played
well for Milano. Played really well. Brought
the fire. She was fun to watch. Honestly, this
was Milano's chance because watching the match,
I was like not loving Corneliano's setting. Like
Volosh, I'm sorry. Those balls were everywhere.
Isabel Hawk could not get in a rhythm at all.
She struggled to find a rhythm, especially in
the first half of the match. Even some of Dajanaro's
sets, like I am her biggest fan when it comes
to her setting, especially. And even she was
kind of spraying some balls around. Like they
just. They weren't clean. They weren't. Clean,
you're right. But this is, we talk about this
all the time. Winners find ways to win. Winners
find ways to win, even if you're not playing
your best game. And for Milano, this was your
chance to take the series by the horn, like to
go into Canigliano and to beat them. When a team
that is quote unquote better than you isn't playing
well, you have to take advantage of those opportunities.
You have to walk out of there with a win. I wouldn't
be surprised if Canigliano wins this 3 -0 now.
I agree. You had a chance to be the team that
upsets them. You had a chance. Everything was
laid out for you, and you couldn't take it. They're
going to kick themselves, and I think the coaching
staff is going to kick themselves. You make decisions.
It's in the moment. I get it, but that was the
wrong. You live and die by your best players.
She needed to stay on the floor. Okay. Saved
the best for last. Love. Love playoffs happened
this weekend in Louisville. One thing I noticed,
there were barely any fans in the stands. That
part was disappointing. Really disappointing.
It looked empty. And I thought it was a great
format too. I didn't love that it was just like,
oh, the sets don't matter. We're just going to
play a golden set if it's split. Like I didn't
love that because if it was done in the traditional
format, there would have been no need for a golden
set. Well, I mean, we addressed this on the last
episode. I know. I agree with you. But I do like
the fact that the semis were two matches at least
and not just a one set win. You have to give
Love credit. They made some adjustments, which
I think were for the better. Is there still room
for improvement? 100%. But I like the majority
of the decisions they made from season one to
season two. And this was one of them. And I thought
they were going to be able to get more people
there because it was built up to be exciting.
I was very curious to actually, I was engaged
in the two series in what was going to happen.
So I thought it was planned well. So in the first
round, we had Austin beat Atlanta three straight.
Then Atlanta won in five. So obviously had to
go to a golden set, which Austin won like 15,
eight or nine. I watched some of these Austin
Atlanta matches, but I didn't watch them closely.
I watched match one more than the second day.
Well, we couldn't get the one on the second day.
Oh, right, because we are in Canada and ESPN.
Yeah, so that was frustrating because I think
we were ready to watch it and couldn't find it.
Right, you're right. I think I spent about half
an hour trying to hijack ESPN from Canada. It
didn't work. I'm a little surprised at the result.
We don't necessarily need to talk about the games
specifically, but I'm curious. This is the second
year in a row where teams coming in at the bottom
of the standings are performing better. Do you
think... Well, bottom of who is allowed to play.
Correct. That's what I mean. Like you have the
5 -6 last year and the 3 -4 this year. Do you
think that this shows, because I know what the
narrative is going to be, that... the Texas players
and that Austin, they're just gamers and they
win when it matters. And you know, who cares
what happens in the season, the strength of the
league, like anybody can be anybody in love.
Well, yeah, this is, this is the a hundred percent,
the narrative that love wanted, which is fine.
I get you want something exciting, but what is
your thought about kind of that narrative? I
hate it. Okay. I hate it because you know how
I feel about underdogs. I hate when underdogs
win. Do you think Austin is an underdog? When
you look at the series between Austin and Atlanta,
do you think Austin is the underdog? What was
the record? I mean, should Austin have been considered
an underdog considering most of the players were
national team players? No. But when you're looking
at the body of work for the season, yeah, they
technically were. 2 -3 matchup, though, it is
pretty close. I think Atlanta finished 11 -9
and Austin finished 10 -10. Okay, fine. Standing
wise. So, yeah, it's not as bad as last year
when it was like a... I mean, this matchup between
those two teams was always going to come down
to passing and serving. Who could put the other
team under more pressure from the baseline and
what happened with the passing? And again, we
couldn't watch match two, but I thought Austin
was the better serving and passing team in match
one over Atlanta. I know like Carly Lloyd played
really well and people are like singing her praises
right now. But like, I'm just curious why she
played over Bree or Bree O 'Reilly. I think Bree
did a great job all season. Do you want my take?
Yeah, because that's like a genuine question.
I don't know. I'm not. If I was Sullivan, I know
I need my offense internationally to be faster.
That's Bree O 'Reilly. And my hitters in Eggleston
and Skinner struggle with that specifically.
So I want them to work on that. And whether that
affects the outcome in the season, I'm not sure,
but it gets them used to it. Now Lloyd slows
the offense down, puts Eggleston and Skinner
back in a position that they're comfortable with
to go into the finals or in the semifinals when
it quote -unquote counts. There is part of me
that is wondering if they're thinking like that
because that would cross my mind in that situation
given I'm filling both roles. I'm not saying
that's right. I haven't heard anything to justify
it, but watching that change, unless there was
an injury we didn't hear about, that is something
that crosses my mind. And on the other side,
Houston won the first game against Salt Lake
three to two. Salt Lake won the second one, three
straight. And then Salt Lake won the golden set
1917. Now, honestly. Salt Lake had match one
in hand. I believe they had a decent lead in
set five. And then their passing just completely
crumbled. Houston squeaked that one out, stole
it from them, I thought. And then just Salt Lake
dominated match two. The Golden Set, same thing.
I thought Salt Lake was going to give it away
again because their passing just went downhill.
The end of that Golden Set was a comedy of errors,
though. Oh my gosh. There were hitting errors.
There were overpasses. There were sets that were
unhittable. Tentative swings. The Golden set
started with, I think, Jordan Thompson scoring
like six of eight points. They literally didn't
set anybody else. And I get it. She's your go
-to player. But especially at the beginning of
the set, you've got to set somebody else. You
can't ride one player. Well, she's the only player
scoring for them. I know, but... Like I will
say Maddie Rischel did a good job of holding
down the server save because like Salt Lake was
coming at her and she was like nailing those
passes pretty well. Can something be said about
Salt Lake serving pressure? Maybe. But anyway,
she did a good job. But nobody is really scoring
on that team except Jordan Thompson and Amber
IG when she gets the ball. They definitely didn't
use the middle enough. I didn't think. I understand
that Jordan's been awesome, but it seemed like
she was a crutch. that they just stopped running
any semblance of a recognizable offense. It was
like, hey, we're just going to do this. You know
how easy it is? Not easy, but I know how unstoppable
she's been all season, but you can't not have
any other options and expect one player to win
you a 15 -point set. Basically, that's what's
happened. Rachel doesn't do much for me aside
from her ball control and defense. Like she does
her job in the ball control. Like Jess Merzik,
where are you? I didn't think she was very good.
Where are you? Like Plagutova has been playing
for you for like way more than should be happening.
And then I will say Jazz White came in and like,
honestly, you can tell that she knows Alexa Gray
because she had her number. For big stretches
of those matches. I didn't think Alexa Gray was
very good. I mean I'm not going to make friends
with this comment. But like kind of a choke artist.
I'm like you don't know how to win. There was
a play. Golden set towards the end. Swings down
the line out of bounds. One or two plays later.
She gets blocked and recycled. On that play.
Ball goes over. There's a tip that goes into
the pot. She's right there. Passes it like to
the back court. She just. Didn't look. No, but
she also looked tentative taking swings at the
end of the match. It's like, this has been your
role for your national team for how many years?
Like, why are you looking like you're so tentative
to take these big time swings? And like, honestly,
her passing was a big reason that they lost match
one and on almost lost the golden set. Houston
made a huge error. Why are you not serving her
every ball? They let her off the hook a few times
where they served Hoffman or even Kojima took
a couple, like why bury her? Okay. Like that
is how you won match one. Like that was a huge
miss. That had to be an executioner. There's
no way that that wasn't the game plan. I don't
know, but I was just like, I think Alexa Gray's
a fantastic player. She's done some great things,
but like, man, she was trying to give it away.
Agreed. But this is, again, we talk about knowing
how to win and being that player. I don't think
I saw any of that in this match, especially in
the golden set. It was Jordan Thompson did amazing
at the beginning, but not at the end. She's got
set every ball. You're the only person scoring.
You're the only person getting set. Agreed. You
were waiting for somebody to take that golden
set by the reins and it never happened. Well,
Houston did so well. In the second half of the
season, especially. And like, you guys did this
last year too. You were the top team all season.
And then like, what is happening? Anyway, Austin
and Salt Lake are in the finals. I want Salt
Lake to win because you all know how I feel about
Austin. I'm over it. They can't win again, you
guys. Come on. Especially being like bottom feeders
all season and then just like, they did this
last year too. Okay, they finished third. Put
your typing fingers away. I know. They should
have finished fifth. Yeah. Based on our calculations,
they should have finished fifth and not even
been in the playoffs. All right. Never forget
Salt Lake at least third or tied for second last.
So. Salt Lake at least started well. I'm not
high on either team right now, if I'm being honest,
if you haven't picked up on that already, but
let's have a new winner, Salt Lake. Unless Salt
Lake comes out and serves the lights out, which
has not been their MO, I think they're in trouble.
Fair point. Tune in this weekend, starting Thursday.
Those games are in Long Beach, so if you're in
Southern California, go watch live because we
want to see some fans in the stands, okay? Finally...
The Love Season Awards were announced. The coach
of the year was Sonia Tomasovic of Houston. The
MVP and best opposite, Jordan Thompson of Houston.
Best middle blocker, Amber Ijeed of Houston.
Best setter, Kaisa Alonka of Houston. Best libero,
Manami Kojima of Salt Lake. And best outside,
Jordan Larson of Nebraska. I do think Sonja Tomasovic
did a good job. I think it's hilarious. They
went like 0 -5 and then just turns it around.
Like if there's not a narrative for coach of
the year, it's like walked in, we sucked, and
then we finished the best. Like worked in her
favor for sure. Never forget, we're like, she's
not going to be rehired next year. She's doing
a terrible job. I take it back. But you know
what? To coach of the year. To her credit, she
had things that she wanted them to do. She didn't
renege on them when things were going poorly
and they came out and they played well. Good
for her. Like that's what coaching is. And when
you're 0 -5 or 0 -4, whatever they were, you're
going to take bullets and you got to stick to
your conviction. So I do. I think she earned
that one. I think that's a good choice. I think
Jordan Thompson, MVP, best opposite. She was
clearly the best in the league. I can get behind
Amber Ejidi. I thought she was very good. I'm
like the only person that you could add. talk
about other than hers maybe serena gray yeah
fair i still think amber was better like that
would have been my choice kojima basil barrel
yeah hands down the setter there were just so
many injuries in that position and in my we've
talked about this before i think setting is the
deepest position in love but who polter was hurt
for a stretch hancock was hurt for a stretch
The whole season. That's why Alonka won. She
was a backup setter, and then she took the starting
role and took them to number one in the league.
So, I mean, I think she deserved it. Do I think
she wins when everybody's healthy? No. But you
can't give it to Carlini. They came last. Yeah.
You take the opportunities that are in front
of you, and I think that she earned, I think
it's hilarious that Houston won all of the awards.
Almost. And I mean, Jordan Larson, is there the
sentimental vote there? but when you look at
her numbers on the season too, she was statistically
one of the top outside. So I think combining
her stats with the fact that she is retiring,
I think that's a, you couldn't, you couldn't
pick anybody. Yeah. She needed to be decent this
year to win this award. And she was more than
decent. Like her number, she was like top five
in most statistical categories for her position.
Somebody would have had to have a Jordan Thompson
season. on the left side to knock her out of
that. She's earned it. She's at home playing
in her home league. She helped build the league.
She's an owner. She's like, I'm happy for her.
I have no problem with that. Well, it's happening
this week. You guys, we know you have some thoughts,
so let's hear them. We're ready. All right. So
we had a request for us to go over a men's dream
team, NCAA, US and international. So we're going
to do that now. And I will say, Neither of us
know the men's side quite as well as the women's
side. So I'd be curious for feedback on players
that we miss because that's definitely going
to happen. But we will give you our choices.
We'll see where we land. I mean, like you said,
we're not as familiar with the men's side. We've
just been more immersed in the women's game for
way longer. So a lot of what we say is probably...
VNL related internationally for sure. play i
feel like on the men's side especially internationally
there's so much more parody like you can watch
one game and a player will go off and hit like
800 and then we'll be subbed off the next game
it was an interesting exercise for sure specifically
internationally because even thinking about vnl
there were some young players like on the german
team or on the belgian team who were unbelievable
last summer but i don't have any context outside
of that yeah it was fun but Okay, so here we
go. So, like, just bear with us and don't, like,
go crazy. But I would be curious if you're going
to throw your team up there. I'd love to read
it. And then give me, like, a couple reasons
why. I love a good justification. Because we
are the first ones to be, like, the men's side.
Yeah, we're not as knowledgeable. Here we go.
Starting with the NCAA. On the setter position.
No! Yes. Okay. So for me, it came down to Rowan
and Tread. Yeah. And I just go back to several
episodes ago when you made me pick between Andrew
Rowan and Tread Rosenthal and I picked Tread
because of his future potential. Yeah. But are
we going like this moment? Let's go this moment.
If you had to put together a team. I still don't
want to answer. Well, I'm going to pick Rowan
because I think. He just, he runs a better offense.
I've seen him make adjustments in his game this
year already. And no, he's, I think if UCLA wins
even makes the final, I'll say he's going to
be player of the year. That is my bet. Anybody
who runs the pipe as much as he does. It's just,
no, he does outstanding. He's leading his team
in aces. Like tread defensively is very good.
For his size, not as good a blocker as I think
he should be. Fair. And as we've said, he's been
made into a setter. I know I picked Tread in
that last segment we did, but I would also pick
Andrew Rowan as my NCAA Dream Team setter right
now. Okay. So we're agreed. We're in alignment.
Let's go to the left side. This was tough. Okay,
so let's throw out some names that we have in
our pool. Okay, so I had three names. Oh, you
only had three. Well, this is where I know you
have a couple other ones. I think for me, you
give out your names and then I'll tell you who
I thought was the best. Top of my head. Zach
Rama, Sean Kelly, Ryan Barnett, Dylan Klein.
I had Louis Sakonoko on my list. Well, I feel
like if you're putting Sakonoko there, then you
have to put Adrian Rohr on it too. I think second
off was better than roar in my opinion. I mean,
they're different styles of players. Sure. And
then to be quite honest, I haven't paid attention
to the Miva as closely as I should have this
season to, for me to speak coherently on it.
But those are the names that are like in my pool.
I landed on Sean Kelly and Zach Rama. I just
think they're better than. The other left sides
out there now, are they sometimes inconsistent?
Sure. Like they made some hitting errors down
the stretch against Pepperdine. I get it over
the course of a season. Those two have shown
that they're just, they're a step above the other
left sides in the NCAA. I, that's just what I've
seen. Dylan Klein and Ryan Barnett are both like
solid. Sean Kelly will undoubtedly be a star
on the national team. A hundred percent. Rama.
I, when he elevates, nobody can compete with
him in the air. My, my thing with him, if we're
talking, if we're looking internet, like internationally
in the future is like, is he going to bear down?
And is it going to be important? We're not talking
about the future. We're talking about NCAA. And
so do I love Barnett to me is a grit grinder.
He's okay. So are we going to end up just picking
the entire UCLA team? No, that was the last.
That's my. No, you're going to pick Cameron Thorne
too. Well, maybe. But I do think those two left
sides are, in my opinion, the best right now.
I can get behind it, yes. Who are you picking
for opposite? It's got to be between Tatriski,
Cole Hartke. We know Adam's not going to go for
Cade. Cade is now our men's swindler. I'm still
picking Tatriski. You are? Yeah. I don't love.
Hartke's demeanor on the court. Hemantia Jimerson
are in the same boat for you. Hemantia Jimerson
are the same for me. I'm going to go with Hartke.
I know Tatriski has been injured. He's a little
more refined than Hartke. He's also way more
injury prone and has missed so many games. That's
fair. I think he deals with a big double block
better than Hartke does. We can disagree on that.
Hartke's kind of a black hole defensively. Kind
of. Him and Stischak. Watch out. So we disagreed
on that one. Middles. I think Cameron Thorne
should be in the conversation. I had Justin Todd
on my list. From Hawaii. I really like Egan from
Pepperdine. Jackson Sist is having a good season
at Long Beach. I'm going to go with... Todd and
Cameron Thorne. Those were my choices, one, two,
as well. And then I hate picking liberos. For
me, you need to watch a libero play a ton, in
my opinion, to really get a feel for the value
they bring. Passing stats in general are horrific,
so you can't look at those. I already know who
I'm picking. Digs are questionable. You know,
how are they controlled? How do they set out
a system? Do they shift and take passing responsibilities
away from other left sides? Liberos do so many
intangible things that you really have to pay
attention. And so I struggle with this one. But
who would be on your list? On my list? Yeah.
It comes down to Chris Connolly from UCLA. I
mean, Johnny Dykstra for USC is good. I do really
like Jacob Riley and Stanford's Libero. Evan
Porter? Evan Porter. Yeah, those are all good
choices. I'm going to lean Jacob Riley. You're
copying me because I don't think that you originally
picked him until I told you I was going to pick
him. That's not true. That is 100 % true. Jacob
Riley is my pick. He is the best currently, but
I think Connelly at UCLA has made the biggest
impact on his team. That was a major reason for
them doing poorly last year. Doing poorly. Finishing
second. But like when they. No, their libero
was hands down the weakest position on the floor.
Like if everybody else was like a seven or higher,
their libero last year was like a two. That might
be a little intense, but they made the biggest
jump. I highlighted my point. Yes, you did. You
got, you're very good at getting your point across.
Okay. So there you have it. NCAA. Okay, do the
summation here. Setting position, we have Rowan.
Left sides, we have Sean Kelly and Zach Rama.
On opposite, we couldn't decide between Tatriski
and Hartke. In the middle, we had Justin Todd
and Cameron Thorne. And as a libero, we had Riley.
Let's go USA positions. I think we know two right
off the hop. Give me your setter. Micah Christensen.
Okay, no competition. Give me your libero. Shoji.
Okay. I think everybody on the planet can be
100 % with us. No, there will be somebody out
there who is going to be like, you forgot this
person. Outside hitters. And to make this a little
more interesting, I want you to rank them like
one and two. Like who do you think their best
outside currently is? Probably TJ DeFalco. Is
he going to play? Yes. Okay. I say that like
I know. I don't know. You guys, you are the ones
who consume all the social media. and tell me
things. I, to be quite frank, do not really consume
social media unless it's answering your guys'
messages. So I know that he's really involved
with the out -of -system guys and has probably
set his plans. I don't watch that stuff. I don't
know. But I would bet that he's back. So if he's
playing, he is number one, I would agree with
you. Who's your number two? I don't know. It's
hard because we don't... Other than that... I
don't know who would be coming back from Paris.
I know that this is very bold of me to say, but
I feel like Cooper Robinson played really well
as a rookie last year. Is it well enough for
me to put him on the dream team? Maybe a stretch.
He was my number two. Seriously? I think, and
again, we don't know who's coming back, but looking
at the options of who we had, I thought he played
really well. I don't think he's anywhere close
to his ceiling. And even... But are we, we're
not talking about potential here. No, no, I understand
that. But just if I had to pick somebody looking
at like, if we're going to play VNL this year,
I'm having him on the floor. I thought he was
their best left side last year. They did also
take a relatively inexperienced roster. I don't
disagree with you. Okay, so answer me this. Who
is coming back that you think would push him
out? Like, who did they leave behind off that
roster that you're like, nah, yeah, I could see
him coming in and taking that spot? I don't know.
I think he's going to be there. He's big. He's
physical. Ball control is pretty well. I saw
more of a... People who know better tell us who
we're missing. I have somebody in my head, but
I'm not able to articulate it right now. So somebody
help me out. So I would have those two. In the
middle, what are you thinking? Is Maxwell Holt
done? Somebody tell me that. That is a good question.
Or is Taylor Avril done? I haven't seen anything.
Taylor Avril, yes. Agreed. Gendrick, yes. Maxwell
Holt, yes. But again, I don't know. I know Maxwell
Holt's on the older end. I liked... I'm going
to say Gendrick and Avril. Okay. And then on
the opposite, where do you land? Matt Anderson.
He's old, but I'm sticking with him. And if he
doesn't play? The opposite was... It's a little
inconsistent for me. It seems to be playing the
U .S. across the board. I mean, Gabby Garcia
is an option. You could also throw Ensign into
the... Mix. I'm going with Gabby Garcia. That's
my pick. Oh. Anderson first, Garcia second. Oh,
I thought you meant over Anderson. No, I mean,
again. Well, then we only need to pick one. Yeah,
but you have to know if Anderson's not playing.
I don't think that's for sure. No, he is playing.
He's come out and said he's playing. Oh, okay,
then I'd pick Anderson. That I know. Okay, well,
there you go. There's your U .S. team. Libero,
Shoji, Setter, Christensen. Outside hitters,
DeFalco and Robinson. Opposite, Anderson. And
then middle was... Avril and Jendrik. All right,
let's go to the international where you have
lots of options. And this was the hardest one.
Let's start with setter. Who would you pick?
Oh, gosh. Okay, would you go with Christensen,
Janelli, Broussard? I know we have some Moni
Nikolov fans in the atmosphere. I think I'm still
going Janelli. I know this is a similar conversation
to the Rowan and Tread thing, but I think. Very
similar conversation. Janelli is a more refined
setter, obviously, than Tread is. I don't think
you lose. He's not as clean as Christensen. It
doesn't look as good, but his decisions and location
are still good. And his offensive prowess. Correct.
So I, for right now, I'm still going Janelli.
I can get behind it, sure. Libero. Oh my goodness,
this is a tough one. Because I really, really
like the Polish libero. What do you think about
Mikey from Brazil? I think Mikey's good. Do I
think he's the best libero in the world? That's
a tough, that is a tough question. Again, I mean,
you could bring Eric Shoji back into the conversation.
You could bring the Polish liberos. Plural into
the conversation. It was a tough choice. I ended
up on Mikey. You know what? Grabennikov too.
I love him. The French libero. I mean, they're
all very good. Yes. I'm going to go with Mikey.
I'm going with Grabennikov. Okay. We disagreed
on that one, which is fine. Outside hitters.
And there's a plethora to choose from. How do
you pick though? So on, on my, I'm going to give
you four that were on my list off the top of
my head, Mickey Leto. And I think, I think he's,
he's a one of mine for sure. He's a shoe in for
me. Like he's, he's number one, he's on the list.
And then I'm thinking about Yant, Nick Love.
I really like Clevno. For now. You have for now.
I mean, there's just, there's. Well, Engapeth,
I know he's older, but you have to give him a
shout out just because he's Engapeth. Yeah, I
mean, there's so many good outside hitters. I
think that position might be the deepest when
it comes to talent. Can we come back to this
one? Okay, we'll come back to this. Now, opposite
was really interesting. I feel like the opposite
position across the board has taken a nosedive.
I feel like the really big players... are learning
how to pass and want to play opposite. And I
think it becomes harder and harder to find true
opposites that are just dominant, dominant. I
don't love the Italian right side. Rich Litschke?
No, not a huge fan. There's Romano, but I'm not,
like I didn't think either of them were like
standout, standout. You have far from the French,
national team, but he's the backup. Usually he's
the backup usually. And he was inconsistent in
champions league. You have Alan from Brazil,
but from backup each other. Yeah. Yeah. And they're
inconsistent as well. Like sometimes you have
grosser from Germany on the older side. I know
we have Sasek, the Polish guy who had a couple
amazing matches. Also not the usual guy. Also
not the usual guy. So it's just, I feel like
the opposite position was. Then we've also got
Slovenia. Don't sleep on Slovenia. He's up and
coming. I think he was 19 or 20 years old. I
honestly, I don't know who to pick. I flat out.
I don't have. I feel like I don't have a defensible
choice. I feel like for outsides, there's too
many good ones. And for opposite, I don't know
who to pick. I think that that's if I'm being
honest, if I picked an opposite, it would just
be to pick one. I can't. Look at that list and
go, I think this guy is definitively better than
the other ones. And here's why. I think based,
this is hard. I think based on the team's recent
success, I'm going to go with Romano. Keurig
is also an option, but he's like on the older
end. Then he got injured. I think Matt Anderson
is still really good. Hasn't been seen him recently
though. So you don't know exactly what you're
getting. To be consistent with our opposite opinions
across the board. I feel like people are going
to have a lot to say about this stuff. And I
hope so. I'm curious. But also, don't just pick
your country just because it's your country.
Okay? Like, let's back this up. Let's back up
your choices with some evidence. Help us out.
This is hard. I'll leave you with Romano. We
can leave it. We can leave it at that. Middles.
Okay. We've got Jastrzewski from Poland. Yep.
We've got... Semenyuk. From Ukraine. You've got
Simone from Cuba. Yes. We've got the Germany.
Crick is pretty good from Germany. Digressing
a little bit. We've also forgot about Japan.
Would we put them as top in the world? I don't
know. But it's worth mentioning because we do
have a lot of Japanese listeners. Yeah, I agree
with you. It's hard to separate the Japanese
players from their system. Yes. Because they're
so good. As a team. And they're so good at making
each other better. That on a one -off choice.
It's a tough selection. We've also got the Slovenian
middle. Who I think is very good. Why are these
so hard? The parity. There's so much parity.
And again you see matches. Where some of these
players will dominate. And then other times they're
getting subbed out. In different matchups. That
is honestly one of the things that makes men's
volleyball so entertaining to watch is that you
just players can just go off and dominate a match.
I guess part of it comes into who do you like
to watch. I like watching Simone play. I think
he's got. Oh, I think he's so interesting. His
serve. I watched him the last match I watched.
It was a Champions League. No, it was the Piacenza
match. He's got a bomb of a serve. He comes out
at the beginning of the game. Roll shot. I say
roll shot. A short serve. first serve when everybody's
waiting for him to bomb the serve ace. Just the
volleyball IQ and the control to be able to do
that and then rip a monster after that and how
he blocks and reads the game. I really like him.
I think he's fun to watch. He would be on my
list. I don't like this game. Too hard. The international
conversation is interesting because there's so
many good players. Let us know who you would
pick. Okay. I'm just going to go Yastrzemski
and Simon. I know that's a controversial choice.
And for my left sides, I'm going Mikhail Edo
and Nikolov. There we go. Done. Janelli, Grubennikov,
Simon, Yastrzemski, Mikhail Edo, Nikolov, and
opposite Romanov. Okay, everybody, let's dive
into our listener questions for the week. Question
one, can you talk a little bit about the importance
of the digging versus passing in a libero? Obviously,
both are important, but at the college level,
we see liberos with varying strengths and weaknesses.
For example, Choboy at Nebraska is better at
defense, weaker at serving. Olivia Mouch is a
stronger passer, weaker defender. Likewise, Lola
Schumacher gets a lot of hype for her big defensive
plays, but Simon from Wisconsin is more consistent
on the first contact. Does it overall depend
on the passing and defensive strengths of other
players in the lineup in determining how the
liberos will be used? Oh, good question. I do
think it's important to look at how your team
is going to score points. You have to look at.
Does your setter run well off the net? If they
can still run tempo from around the 10 -foot
line and they can still run the middle, then
your passing can be a little bit worse and you
still have three options and you can load up
with a defensive libero. If you need to be in
system and you have a ton of offensive weapons
and maybe your left sides aren't as good as passers,
then you want to have somebody shoring up the
serve receive so that you can run your offense
and take a little pressure off. I do feel like
the libero position is kind of like you fit it
into the team. You don't really build around
the libero necessarily, but you look at what
your team needs to succeed and kind of pick your
libero from there. But it's also like, are you
going to use a double libero system and use one
as the passer, one as the defender? Are you going
to use one of your liberos as a DS and wait,
like not waste, but like burn through some substitutions
that way? I hate to say it because it's such
a specialized position. The fact that there are
so few liberos who excel on both sides of the
ball like that is crazy to me. That's why it's
so critical. Like when you see a libero who can
do it all, who can serve, receive, who can set
out a system, who can play defense, it's just
like, chef's kiss. Thank you so much. It frustrates
me that a position that, focuses so much on just
a few skills, you still don't often find players
who are excellent at those skills. If you wanted
a simplified answer, I think you would say passing
liberos allows your team to win consistently
and defensive liberos lets you win championships.
You know what I mean? Defense wins championships,
baby. So if you're picking up balls, like you're
turning, that's the thing is. You can side out.
Side out in volleyball is the expectation. Turning
those defensive points is what helps you win
championships. So I would say if you're trying
to pick and you have to choose, choose a defensive
libero. I think one other thing, and this is
maybe a little more high level, when your libero
can set, you know, how many teams look at, hey,
if we're in trouble, we're going to put this
ball to the setter. And then we're going to get
like a bad setback or we're going to get a free
ball. If your libero can set, then you lose that
kind of free out to the setter because you're
still getting attacks in. And it puts pressure
on the other team to do something more with the
ball. So there are all kinds of nuances like
that that make a difference. And again, I make
that statement, but it's just like. Easy for
me to say when I don't know a structure of a
team. Like if you have people that can hit a
slower offense or a setter that can set really
well from off the net, that's great. Yeah. Prioritize
a defensive libero, but it all depends on the
team really. Okay. Question two, Sarah, you've
played in China and Brazil professionally. Can
you give us any insight on how the training was,
how their specialties, how competitive the leagues
are? I'm curious as a Canadian fan, since Van
Ryk and Hillary Johnson play in these leagues
right now. Oh, you can probably speak to this
too because Adam was there. So Brazil, I would
say the training is very high volume, very high
tempo. You don't have a lot of time to necessarily
think like the balls are coming at you very quickly,
whether it is like a serve receive drill, like
you are just getting a ton of touches. The balls
are being served to you rapid fire. you are getting
a ton of reps and you are getting in very good
shape because it is just fast paced. Move, move,
move, move, move. Well, the other crazy thing
about Brazil was they lift like four or five
times a week in season while you're playing.
So those athletes, they're strong, they're physical.
And your body as a foreigner coming into that
league adapts with the workload, which was, I
think, kind of crazy for you. Cause you had never
experienced anything like that. And I showed
up there in the Brazilian summer, which as a
Canadian girl, watch out everybody. Wow. Ring
out those clothes after practice. Their training
kind of makes, because it's so high volume, so
high tempo, it makes the movements and the execution
of the skills second nature and doesn't require
you to think a lot about what you're doing because
it's just like becomes muscle memory. China,
they train a lot. I would say the training is
slower tempo, but they work more on ball control
and faster offense. At least the team that I've
played for, combination plays, serving very aggressively
to be able to set up their defensive systems.
It wasn't as high volume. Length of the practices
and the number of practices were higher, but
the tempo of the training was slower and it was
more six on six type stuff and team system as
opposed to heavy number of reps. Would you agree
with that? Yeah, I think that's a good. summary
of it the Brazilian coaches that I've worked
with so you played for Bernardo so I was in the
gym talking with him and then I also coached
on the men's side and it was very kind of structured
in terms of you know Monday Tuesday were more
individual we looked at what had happened in
the last match trying to identify what we needed
to work on for that next kind of set of matches
so Monday Tuesday we were fixing our own team
And then you started moving into competitive
and preparation from that way. It was very structured,
very data -driven from a league standpoint, I
found. At least, again, with the coaches that
I was working with. No wasted reps. Like there
was nothing empty about practice in Brazil for
my observation. I would agree with that. I would
say that the decision -making and the training
was much more deliberate. There was always a
purpose behind the quote -unquote. chaos again
and game planning was very specific maybe the
Chinese game plans were more specific than I
found out because I was working through a translator
so maybe the information that I was getting in
China for the game plan sounded more basic because
it was like filtering through different languages
whereas I could just understand what was being
said in Brazil But I would say that China was
much more, we are just going to rely on our athleticism
and team identity. We will do the preparation,
but not as in -depth and specific as it was in
Brazil. Now, when you talk about how competitive
the leagues were, when you were there and when
you were there, the Brazilian dollar was doing
better than it is now. So there were more. foreigners
there and more of the top Brazilians were staying.
Yes. They were able to bring in better foreigners
because they were competitive price -wise. Well,
the Brazilian national team was all there. They
all stayed. I don't think the Brazilian league
has as many kind of star players in it as it
did when you played. I don't know if you would
agree or disagree with that. Brazilian national
team, less now. Yeah. But the league when you
were there was very competitive, I thought. I
would say the top. five or six teams were very,
very strong. In China, the number of teams was
smaller, but I would also say when you get to
the top teams, it was very strong. Because the
times that I was playing in both Brazil and China,
they had both won the Olympics separately. I
was in Brazil when Brazil was the best in the
world. I was in China when China was the best
team in the world. And their players stayed home.
Exactly. from a quality of play standpoint, it
was very good. Okay. Question three. Do you think
there's anything I said that I, I picked this
question before I knew who was in the finals
of love. Do you think there's anything that Eric
Sullivan is or isn't doing in regards to Jordan
Thompson completely owning Austin this season?
He has the national team outside and Eggleston
three VNL middles. And a really good setter defender
in Bree. Yet Thompson continues to dominate them.
Thompson dominated everybody in love. I understand
that the majority, a large part of the national
team is on Austin, but let's not kid ourselves.
The players who are playing for Austin are not
like prolific defenders by any means. Like, yes,
Bree is a very good setter defender, but like
Eggleston, Maddie Skinner, like the middles,
they're not prolific. I'm guessing this question
is more about blocking. How can the national
team coach not figure out how to stop one of
his own players? Yeah, it's twofold. One, I think
it speaks to how well Jordan Thompson played
this season, who she's playing against, being
able to see those holes and swing by hands or
take the ball where she needs to, knowing when
to tip, which I think was effective. She mixed
up her shots really well. And I think... More
so than Sullivan not having a good game plan,
I think it speaks to Jordan Thompson's ability
to read a defense and exploit those weaknesses.
Watching Tomascovich prepare her team and play
this year, I thought her team got continually
better. It was clear that they had offensive
game plans and they knew where they wanted to
go and how they wanted to execute. So I think
that combination of the preparation going in
and then Thompson's ability to see and read the...
Defense is why she was so successful. I don't
think this is a Sullivan thing, to be honest.
But it's also like in situations like this, like
the offensive player always has the advantage.
A similar question could be asked. How can nobody
stop Paola Egonu after all these years? How can
nobody in the Italian League figure out how to
stop Bella Hawk? Yeah, it's a similar question.
It's just like you don't stop good opposites.
You limit. their ability to score against you.
I mean, we just watched the Houston Salt Lake
semifinal, and I think JT scored like six points
almost out of the gate in that golden set and
then didn't really score again after that. So
it's about like they're going to score. How do
you keep them from scoring in the big moments
or, you know, turn one or two points when you
need to? I know that we haven't always been the
biggest Sullivan fans. This question is not fair
to him, I don't think. Okay, question four. Rumor
has it Love is trying to convince Kami Minor
to come, which would probably be to LA since
she's from Redondo Beach or San Francisco, which
is near Stanford. Is it better for her to be
a starter in Love or stay on the bench in Italy?
I think she should stay in Italy, and I don't
think she's going to necessarily be on the bench.
In Italy? Yeah. On the same team, she's not going
to start ahead of Bossio, but she could go to
another Italian team and probably set. For me,
there's something about... learning in a different
system. If she comes back to the US, she is going
to play US volleyball, which is not a bad thing.
But I think if you watch the best players in
the world, they have aggregated information and
been in situations where they've learned from
volleyball experts around the globe. And I just,
I think that in and of itself is important. Question
five, can you explain the structure of beach
leagues? I've learned a lot about how indoor
leagues work, but I don't know anything about
how beach works. So I clarified with this person.
They were curious about the FIVB World Tour and
AVP. Basically, beach volleyball just operates
on a point system very similar to tennis. If
you're familiar with tennis and how the rankings
work and the higher you finish in a tournament,
the more points you accumulate and the points
decrease based on like your finish in that event.
And then for beach, they typically take your
top three point finishes out of the last four
events you played or a combination of something
like that. Those points that you get, you and
your partner. Both have your own individual points.
Whoever you play with, your points are combined
to give you your total. You enter a tournament.
You say that you're interested in entering a
tournament. You register. And for Beach, like
let's say it's a top level tournament. They're
taking 24 teams currently, I think. Top 16 get
in. The eight spots remaining are given to qualifier
teams. Basically, you want to finish. As high
as possible, as consistently as possible, so
that your point total is staying high and the
events that you're replacing are also being replaced
with high finishes. Because when you register,
you don't want to have to qualify because anything
can happen in a qualifier. Those are single elimination
situations. You usually have to win two matches
internationally to get in, sometimes four in
the AVP to get in. That's basically how it works.
In international, you have pool play and then
single elimination playoffs. AVP, you typically
have a double elimination. So if you keep winning
all the way up to the semifinals, then you're
safe. If you lose in the winner's bracket, you
go to the loser's bracket. But as soon as you
lose two matches, you're out. Now, it makes sense
to kind of... That was very quick and that was
very all over the place. Adam will break it down.
No, that was a good explanation. I was just going
to say the U .S. is trying to run a league right
now. So there is a little bit of a... AVP league
is different. AVP league is different. So if
you've heard about that, they have teams qualify
for that. I believe there's three or four events.
Before the league that you can play in. To try
and qualify. The top teams automatically get
in. And then it's more of a circuit. I think
they play two sets to 15 or something. Or one
set to 15. And they basically travel around.
And play like league matches. But I kind of consider
that separate. From AVP tournaments. Agreed.
I wanted to throw it out there. Because I know
people have been kind of asking about it. And
it's a new thing that they're trying to do. To
make the sport work financially. Just wanted
to acknowledge that that is an option outside
of the standard tournaments they run. Just to
break it down, yes, AVP League is a thing. They're
assigned to a team, men and women. One men's
team, one women's team represent one city. And
then they play against each other. That's a very
short little thing. But the AVP tournaments are,
yeah, double elimination, points -based, etc.
FIVB or World Tour, you have the elite tournaments,
which are where you see the top, top teams in
the world. Then the challenger tournaments are
the mid -range teams. And then futures tournaments
are up and comers who are trying to build a foundation
of points, but don't have enough to get into
the tournaments that are higher level. They've
broken it down like that so that people can tend
to play against teams of their own level. It's
very rare that you will see an elite level team
play a challenger level. It's very rare to see
a challenger level team do well in an elite tournament.
It's just there is a large difference in the
level. All points based. You want as many points
as possible and then you go from there. Question
six. Why don't setters dump way more often? It's
such a high percentage attack and even if it
doesn't score, it often creates an out of system
ball or opens up the block since they have to
respect the setter as a threat. How much do you
think a setter would dump each set in an ideal
situation? Obviously, we wouldn't expect them
to hit as many balls as hitters, but even setters
who are labeled super offensive only dump like
three times in a whole match. That doesn't seem
like very much. I mean, it's effective because
it doesn't happen very often. You have to remember
that the contact point for most setters is not
coming from particularly high. So, you know,
we talk about big middles not having to jump
to get their hands over the net and touch the
ball. The same thing with a setter. If they're
going to dump, most of the time you don't have
to go up very high on the block to at least get
a soft touch on it. So the setters are looking
like, when is the block cheating? Most setters
are thinking about keeping the block honest versus...
necessarily scoring points. I'm not saying there
aren't some offensive setters who are looking
all the time, which if you're capable, go for
it. That's the fastest offensive option. But
once teams are aware of it, it's very difficult
to score if teams are prepared because you don't
have full power. It's more of a sneaky attack.
And that's why it has to be so well -timed. It
needs to be well -timed, for sure. And doing
it... Every now and then you're right. It keeps
the block honest, helps open things up for the
other hitters. But most setter, like unless they're
doing a little side set over the net, they're
doing it when they're in the front row. So there's
two attack options in the front row, a back row,
right side, maybe in college, rarely and a pipe.
If the middle is running behind the setter, it
is very easy for the left side to go with the
slide, the middle to stay with the setter, and
then they can react to the pipe if they have
to. So it's really easy to have at least one
blocker on everybody if the setter is going too
much. If the middle stays in front of the setter,
the left side can easily take the setter middle
on middle. It becomes very predictable, and a
lot of setters aren't hitting the ball. I think
there are setters that could dump more often.
Agreed. It's a good question for sure. Well,
I also don't think it's taught as a mindset.
Like most of the time when you're teaching young
setters, most coaches aren't like, hey, dump
the ball. It's an afterthought or, hey, if it's
tight, you can do this. Whereas I agree with
you. I think a good mindset should be if they're
going to give it to you, take it. Right. And
then take it until it's not available. But I
don't think that conversation happens. Because
at the end of the day, especially for young setters,
delivering a good set is the most important way
to win. When you're picking on what you're going
to work on with your setters, setting a hittable
ball is more important than dumping. And then
it kind of evolves from there. And defenses can
adjust really easily if a setter is dumping too
often. Like even if the block isn't the offensive
option to take it, it's easy to adjust your floor
defense to cover for a setter dump if they're
doing it a lot. A setter dump is nice to be able
to reset the defense to make them be in the position
you want them to be in. But you don't want a
defense to focus in on you because it's just
not a high percentage. percentage enough attack
when the blocking defense is focused on you.
Okay. Question seven, as someone who watches
love, but also international, it can maybe be
fun for both of you to explain to listeners how
much more a intense and be intricate international
gameplay is compared to the major leagues in
the U S and why, when you say Jordan Thompson
playing love, isn't that great when it comes
to VNL and even Olympic competition. Well, I'm
not going to make any friends. Finally. It's
not going to be me. He's probably still going
to be really nice, so everybody watch out. Well,
I think, quite frankly, we were able to watch
a decent amount of volleyball this week, and
we watched Italian League finals, Milano, Conigliano.
We watched a little bit of quarterfinal Champions
League, and then we watched MLV and even the
love. semi -finals we watched as well and there's
not a comparison in what these players are playing
for in terms of the intensity and the prestige
of what they're doing and I think that that shows
on how engaged the athletes are I was watching
Zhu Ting is usually pretty deadpan when she plays
like if you ever watch her during the season
she just she goes about her business she was
fired up for the finals Well, Egonu was fired
up, okay? She's usually pretty deadpan. To be
fair across the board, if you're in a circle
with volleyball players and you say, I won the
Italian League, or you say, I won the Love League,
there's no comparison. It doesn't have the same
level. So yes, I mean, if you win Italian League,
you're getting paid for your next contract. That
matters. Whereas in Love, and I know it shouldn't
be about the money. But it is. You watch any
pro sports, athletes always play better in a
contract year. And overseas, pretty much every
year is a contract year. But in love, you know,
you're relatively safe. And it makes a difference.
As much as it shouldn't, I think it makes a difference.
So I think that is one of the biggest differences
in love versus some of those other leagues. I
mean, you want to talk about intense? Listen
into a Champions League timeout. That would be...
that person would be sued or fired for doing.
And again, people are going to be like, why are
you condoning? No, I'm not condoning it. It's
just like everybody's job is on the line here.
The coaches jobs are on the line. The players
jobs are on the line. Like management runs the
show and they're intense, but you look at the
players and they are listening to the words that
the coach is saying and not the volume or the.
intensity they are listening to the words and
it is business yeah everybody in the u .s leagues
are so nice and just the information being disseminated
is nice like we've got this like you can do it
stay calm but it's the ball yeah It's just a
different level of feedback and information and
even how the players are responding. And we have
said, yes, Amber IG, Jordan Thompson have brought
the fire, brought the intensity. Look at Kansu,
the setter for Vakaf Bank. Okay, she got a red
card the other day because she was so intense.
Egonu covering her mouth celebrating because
she knows what I'm saying with my teammates right
now. It might get me in trouble. But, you know,
it's like that teammate fire, keeping it in -house,
you know, that kind of thing. And as far as intricate
play, you don't even just watch how these teams
are serving at each other and you'll be able
to tell a difference. Internationally, Champions
League, they are bombing serves. They are very
high era. We've talked about this. It's been
a criticism of Salt Lake, who is in the final.
So what do we know? Keeping the ball in versus
going for it, bombing serves. Seeing, again,
even the intricacy, the feedback that is being
given is moving the pieces, X's and O's, as opposed
to cheerleader. You know, I look at how the golden
set finished in the Salt Lake Houston match.
We had Matty Rischel in the net, JT, Crossed
the line on a back row ball. Then there was Gray
hit the ball down the line out of bounds. There
was an overpass and then a block. There was a
bad set that was at the attack line, which should
have been a front row ball. And then a line swing
error by Gray again. It's error prone volleyball
versus take it volleyball. And I know that that
is, I'm using one example, but even watching
overall. This week, I was struck by how many
times the ball had to be tipped and not because
they wanted to, because they had to. Sets over,
missed assignments, just little things. And we're
at the end of the season. Things should be buttoned
up. You should know what you're doing at this
point. And I saw it in MLV and I saw it in Love.
Rallies were long because there were missed executions
along the way. and people were swinging not to
make mistakes versus swinging to win. I think
that might be the biggest takeaway I had from
watching volleyball this week was I'm going to
put this game away versus I'm not going to be
the one who loses this game. I watched Gabby
over three swings go high off the hands down
the line out of bounds, straight through the
middle of the block deep to six, and then an
angle swing inside the 10 -foot line. Three swings
back to back. She spreads the court. But that's
not to say that she doesn't make errors. Gabi
gets blocked. 100%. It happens. But the thing
is, is she comes back the next. She's not making
the same mistake twice in a row. And she's going
for it. And she's going for it. I think those
would be some of the observations in comparing
those leagues. And then I can say from being
involved in on the coaching side. The level of
preparation that I've seen, and we kind of alluded
to it in Brazil and in Italy, is fanatical, quite
frankly. And I haven't been in those situations
in the pro leagues in the U .S., but from watching
the defensive execution, I just don't think it's
the same. Alexa Gray scores high 1 -6 seam. You
guys, that is her. I can't tell you the number
of times I have seen Alexa Gray make that swing
and score with the defense. nowhere close to
it. What are you doing? Yeah. What are you doing?
That is where she wants to hit the ball. Come
up with a plan. Make athletes uncomfortable.
Make them do what they don't want to do. Yeah.
That's all we have to say. Great questions. I
feel like we got pretty fired up. Wow. Let me
just like have a glass of water here because
I'm worked up a sweat. All right, we are still
in peak volleyball watching time. So here we
go. This is what you should be looking forward
to. Wednesday, 2 .30 p .m. Eastern, Italy A1
Women's Finals Match 2. Match 3 is on Sunday.
Thursday, 7 p .m. Eastern, MLV Omaha versus Orlando.
That game counts. Thursday. That's all. Thursday
at 10 p .m. Eastern, NCAA men's UCLA versus BYU
and Pepperdine versus USC. Thursday and Saturday
at 8 p .m. Eastern, Love Finals, which will be
on YouTube. Or go to if you're in Long Beach.
Go watch. Go watch it. Friday at 10 p .m. Eastern,
NCAA men's UC Irvine versus Long Beach State.
Saturday at noon Eastern, Italy A1 men's Verona
versus Civitanova. Match four of the semifinals
and match five will be on Sunday. That team will
forever be a tongue twister for us. Just get
used to it. And then Sunday at 3 p .m. Eastern,
MLV, San Diego versus Orlando. That game also
counts. It's in Orlando's hands, you guys. They
are playing the teams that they are competing
against. They really blew it against San Diego.
this past week. So maybe they can get it together
this week. 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
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discuss, you can reach out on Instagram or at
info at sarahpavin .com. Thanks so much for joining
us and we'll be back next week.