Hawai'i Takes Down Long Beach State for Big West Title, Conegliano Wins 7 in a Row in Italy

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 little hiatus last week as Adam
and I headed back to Canada to visit family for
the holiday. If you're watching on YouTube, we
also have a bit of a different setup today. And
even if you're listening on a podcast app, it
might sound a little different as well because
we got locked out. of our regular recording location.
So we have hidden ourselves up in our loft. With
some borrowed equipment. Hoping that this will
work. So this is hopefully temporary. So we apologize
for the last minute setup here. But aside from
our own difficulties, things have been quite
busy. It was a good week. And we've got a lot
to unpack, particularly on the NCAA men's side
of things. The conference tournaments all happened
this past weekend. So we're going to dive into
a bit of that. All of the pro leagues are finishing
up their seasons. So you know what that means.
International season is upon us, everybody. We're
very excited for that. I thought you were going
to say Champions League final. Well, yeah, I'm
excited for Champions League final, but international
season too. Like, come on. We can all cheer for
our countries. Tell me where you're from. We
are so excited to be back with you after our
little break, and we are ready to talk volleyball.
So let's get started. Alright, first things first.
The NCAA women have been happening. We can't
escape them. We don't want to escape them is
more like it, okay? But we did get several questions
about the spring season, so I did want to touch
on it in our highlights. The NCAA women have
been playing their spring season over the last
few weeks. So we got numerous emails and questions
about the Penn State pit match. and how that
was on TV. So one question that kind of summarizes
everything was, did you and Adam watch it, first
of all? And what were your thoughts? As a player
at Nebraska, did you have spring matches? And
did you like them or find them useful? So here's
the thing. We did have spring matches. They were
a thing even when I was in college too long ago
to talk about. I don't remember if I like them
or not. I'm repping Nebraska with my t -shirt
today, though. We did have them, but back then
they were not televised. They were very much
exhibition feel, just like very low -key. We
didn't really travel far for them. We always
hosted our spring matches. We would go somewhere
for spring break, and so we would travel for
those. Like, we went to Hawaii or San Diego or
Florida or places like that because, like, let's
get out of the Nebraska winter. But we would
host, like, local programs, like D2 schools in
Nebraska, the other D1 schools, Wichita State,
like people who were close by. Very low -key.
Not a big deal, but they have definitely gotten
more popular. I guess I still see spring season
as what I experienced, like teams testing out
their potential rosters after graduating players,
after losing players to the portal, after bringing
in their freshmen who graduated early. So I see
it as very experimental. There's no rankings.
Yeah. So that is 100 % what it is. So we didn't
watch because I kind of still have that attitude
toward them. But Pitt and Penn State played.
I saw Nebraska played Kansas yesterday. So if
you are missing NCAA women's volleyball, you
can check out the updated rosters and see how
people are looking. But we didn't watch them.
And even as a player, it was nice to kind of
get those competitive juices flowing again after
a few months off. But would I consider them like
super useful? Not really. I mean, if you're starting
every match in the season and you're playing,
then yes, probably not useful. For athletes who
have worked on something or didn't get a chance
to play, I'm sure it's nice to get on the court
and do some of those things. So it's a useful
tool, I would say, for the coaches. And I mean,
back then, you didn't even have players graduating
high school early to get an extra semester in.
Like, if anything, you would see girls come in
May and spend the summer there. Like, that was
the, like, new thing back when I played. So it's
like a completely different landscape now. I
understand why. With no real transfer portal,
like, it would have just been more of an opportunity
for your... young players red shirts to come
in and 100 yeah 100 so that's happening check
it out if you're interested they have the games
posted on youtube as well we noticed yesterday
so check those out i mean if you're watching
any volleyball this past week it should have
been the men's ncaa because there were some fantastic
matches on the italian side because you know
how much we love to talk about the italian leagues
Corneliano swept Milano three matches to zero
in the A1 Italian women's final. It wasn't even
really. Not even. Corneliano's just like light
years better. They're so good. So that's their
eighth title, seventh in a row, by the way. So
in the Turkish league, Vakif Bank won. So we'll
be seeing all three of those teams in the Champions
League. semi -finals final four in a few weeks
but on the men's side we were thinking things
were cut and dry we were wrong perugia was up
two matches to zero on chivita nova next thing
i blinked and chivita nova took the series three
to two this is why you do playoffs as a best
of three or a best of five right here honestly
though that wasn't upset i know good for chivita
nova because they had to show up But upsets are
fine if you've got to earn it. Like, it's not
a mistaken upset if you win three of five or
two of three. I mean, like, you're a good team
at that point. Like, you've proven that you can
do it. So we've got Chivita Nova taking on Trento.
At the time of our recording, you know, we record
on Sundays. Match one is happening. So matches
two and three are going to be happening this
week. So lots of excitement in Europe as well.
On the love front, we got a ton of feedback from
those of you who would, I think, call yourself
casual volleyball viewers. Because Adam did ask
a very specific question. I did. And to be honest,
I thought we were going to take, I thought there
were going to be a ton of negative comments.
And I thought people were going to disagree with
us wholeheartedly. I don't think I saw one person
kind of disagreeing with what we were saying,
at least online from what I could saw. And I'm
on the Facebook, you're doing more of the Instagram
stuff. But I was surprised to see the same feedback
from people. And I do appreciate everybody who
reached out to us and gave us your opinions.
And I hope that... the love league is getting
some of that feedback because i think there's
a ton of potential there and it'd be great if
they made some of the adjustments that some people
were were talking about but i enjoyed that dialogue
so thanks for everybody who took the time to
write in and engage to give us that perspective
absolutely because we're like okay if you are
a casual viewer if you live with a casual viewer
please let us know what your experience was and
yeah You guys agreed. So thank you for that feedback.
We thought we were out in left field. Well, we
just weren't sure if we shared, given our volleyball
background, the same opinion as people who haven't
been in the sport at the same level. So that
was really interesting to read. I really enjoyed
that. In other love news, Eric Sullivan has been
named the head coach of Austin. He was also recently
named the head coach of the USA Women's National
Team program. I think this is a curious move.
I got so many messages about this. So my initial
thought was it's a very shrewd move by love because...
it's going to allow them to keep some of their
young players playing in the league, I think.
And I think that was the motivation behind it.
Now, lots of coaches go overseas to coach when
they're not with their national programs. This
allows Eric to be in the U .S., to see more players,
to be close to the national team. It makes a
ton of sense for him, I think. It also allows
Love to align closely with the national team
program. And I would imagine that some athletes
are going to feel comfortable being there and
allowing them to see him versus going overseas.
So I think it was a shrewd business move on Love's
side. My knee -jerk reaction to this was to scream
from the rooftops, conflict of interest. I haven't
taken more time to think about this in the last
several days. So the reason I thought it was
a conflict of interest is because We have had
so many conversations about who's going to be
the starting outsides for the national team,
who's going to play opposite. And when you've
got a Madison Skinner, for example, who was playing
for Austin, to have her in front of Sullivan's
face every day, and I understand she played college
for him as well, I just felt like it would give
her kind of an unfair advantage or look. That
is why I, that was my gut reaction. And as Adam
mentioned, and a lot of people I realize don't
know this, is a ton of national team coaches
do coach professionally. You often see it in
Europe, in Brazil, like the Brazilian coaches,
they coach club teams and stuff too. The thing
though that I have noticed is the club, The national
team coaches don't really have a say of which
of their national team players come with them.
They do, however, have a say when it comes to
the low price players, the bench players. So
they will often take a young developmental player
from their national team who they know won't
start, but they need to get practice. And they
will take those players with them overseas to
get extra training. But the national team coaches
are often coaching like super high -powered teams
in really good leagues. So the budgets are huge
and the management doesn't care who you coach
on your national team. They just want to win
championships. This move is not the same to me.
It's not the same. For me, I see this as love
being like, we need a way to keep our players
in the U .S. And I wonder... Honestly, this just
came to my mind. I wonder how long this was in
the works because Chialka Agbagu was taken off
of every VACF bank post. So I'm wondering if
she left her contract that she recently signed
to stay when she found out that Sullivan was
going to be in Austin. Well, I mean, absolutely
that was Love's intention behind it. But I don't
see it as... It's a win -win -win for a lot of
different people. Now, whether it works out long
-term for the U .S. national program, that remains
to be seen. But Love wants to keep U .S. athletes
here. Eric Sullivan will be a draw for that.
If I was coaching a national team, I would want
to coach my players. I want my players to play
with and against the best every single day. I
totally, I don't disagree. I don't know if I
take the same stance as you on that. I can't,
as if I'm Eric Sullivan and I'm staying in Austin,
I can't offer my potential national team players
the level of day -to -day competition and training
that another... Like a top league can. Fair.
And I would want them to go get that experience.
But if they're going to stay anyway. What if
they're staying for you? It's like a chicken
and egg discussion here. Like, why are they staying?
So Madison played in Austin last year anyway.
She probably could have gone overseas. Right?
If she's going to stay again, you get a chance
to work with her. It's the athlete's choice.
They all know what's going on. I mean, I definitely
see why Love was doing it. But as a young, impressionable
athlete, you are inherently going to feel more
pressure to stay there because you want to make
a good impression. I don't think you're going
to necessarily have the foresight. to look elsewhere.
You're going to feel so much pressure to stay,
to like try to make that impression. I don't
know. I mean, it also, that also, it depends
on what Eric's messaging is too. Maybe it's like,
Hey, I get to coach a whole young developmental
team and I'm trying to push my top player. Like
we don't know what those conversations are. It's,
it's an interesting move given how love operates
and what Eric's goals are with the national team,
which has to be a gold medal in 2028. So. I'm
very curious to see how this plays out. It's
an interesting experiment. In other love news,
several of the athletes have gone to Indonesia
to compete in the remainder of the Indonesian
Pro League after the love season wrapped up.
So that includes Jess Merzik, Maddie Rischel,
Kelsey Cook, and Jordan Thompson. What do you
think about that? Well, given the fact that during...
The semi, they were talking about how Jess Marczyk
is going to go to Indonesia but not play national
team. I was like, what? Like, why? Maddie Urschel,
she's played there. Just make some extra money.
Like, she's not really a national team athlete.
Kelsey Cook has said that she's taking the summer
off. So maybe her and her husband went to have,
like, a nice vacation after. Like, play for three
weeks and just chill. I don't know. It's like,
do you need to supplement your income? Like,
why? Yeah, I mean, this kind of defeats the purpose
of a local league to me. You want the athletes
to be able to stay home to make a living, but
then they feel like they have to go overseas
to make more money. Like, and how much it was
rammed down our throats of, like, these athletes
so happy that they're playing at home. And they're
like, thank you so much. Now we're going to go
overseas. And, I mean, I get it for Maddie and
Kelsey. Do what you want to do. That's fine.
Jordan Thompson, if she's playing national team,
that surprises me a little bit. And the league
isn't even good. Yeah. It's not like you're going.
You're going purely for money. What are they
even paying? Because in my experience, I never
played in Indonesia, but from what I understand,
it's not a great league. It's pretty bad. And
they don't like paying a ton of money. Yeah,
maybe vacation. I don't know. I thought it was
curious. Just take a vacation after your season.
I don't know. It was confusing. And we also saw
that Madison Skinner and Amber Ejidi both alluded
to coming back next year and continuing to play.
So it'll be interesting to see where that goes.
And then we also are kind of up in the air with
what Obagu is going to do. Next year. She was
supposed to go to Vacath Bank, but she's nowhere
to be found on their website now. And she was
removed from all of their social media posts.
My assumption is that she's coming back to love.
I feel about that. We'll see what happens in
all of those situations. On the NCAA men's side,
it was the make or break weekend. Let's call
it that. Ever won their conference tournament
gets the automatic qualifying bid to nationals.
There are only two at -large bids up for grabs.
So we have seven conferences here. There was
a lot of weird stuff that happened. Okay, so
we've primarily on the podcast been following
the three biggest conferences, the MPSF, the
Big West, and MIVA. For the conferences outside
of those three, the automatic qualifiers were
for Valley State, Belmont Abbey, Damon, and Penn
State, which we had so many concerns about Penn
State this season. Thank God for them that they
play in that conference and not me, but because...
I think they were 0 -8 at the beginning of the
season. Oh my gosh, it was probably worse than
that. They were limping. That's generous. Crawling.
Like, willing. I don't know what they were doing,
but it was not looking good. But somehow they
miraculously managed to win their conference
tournament and beat Princeton in the final. I'm
very curious to see what they look like at Nationals,
because I haven't watched them since those early
debacles. I'm not hopeful. But anyway. In Meva,
we ended up having a one versus three matchup
in the final. We had Loyola Chicago, who finally
beat Lewis in the semi after losing both matches
to Lewis earlier this year. Ohio State beat McKendree,
and so... Ohio State wasn't ranked high enough
for McKendree to beat. That's true. Ohio State
was ranked under McKendree for a long time, so
McKendree's like, meh, we only beat people ranked
ahead of us. But we watched the Loyola Chicago
game against Ohio State, and Loyola Chicago crushed
them 3 -0. This week, I think I watched one of
the most entertaining volleyball games that I've
seen in a long time. And this one might have
been one of the worst games that I've watched.
Ohio State was nowhere to be found. It was like,
I was kind of embarrassed watching it. It wasn't
easy to watch. It wasn't even close. Loyola Chicago
wiped the floor with them. Shane Wetzel has been
Ohio State's go -to guy all season. Did nothing.
Absolutely nothing. Nobody could put the ball
down. It was hard to watch. Well, the scores
were 25 -10, 25 -17. And the third set was 25
-21. But they scored a bunch of points at the
end. At no point did you ever think Ohio State
had a chance of winning. Absolutely not. Well,
here were their hitting percentages. So as a
team, in the first set they hit negative 077.
In the second set they hit 156. And in the third
set they hit 250. Which is respectable, but it
doesn't count when your opponents hit... 455
in the first set, and then 500 as a team in the
next two sets. It was all credit to Loyola. They
played well, they served well, they were in system
on literally every pass. Blocked them every ball.
Yeah, I think they passed a 5 -0 on the match.
There was op and shards. Yeah, they had 12 blocks.
It was so lopsided it wasn't even worth watching.
I was kind of sad that I spent time watching
that game because it was so bad. Loyola Chicago
100 % deserved to win that. Absolutely. So they
are the Mevo representative at Nationals. And
I'm actually really curious to see how they do.
And this is the thing. Teams, whatever happens
in the preseason, but they've had their season
to develop. They're not necessarily as big and
physical as some of the teams from the other
top two conferences. But they are very skilled,
so I'm very curious to see what those matchups
look like. On the NPSF side, we had some offsets
to get to the final, everybody. Stanford upset
BYU in one of the quarters. I mean, Stanford...
We thought they packed it in weeks ago. I mean,
we said at the beginning of the season, they
played some good matches. They were a team that
were super young. You thought that they were...
consistent and that teams had to beat them. And
I was hopeful for them at the beginning of the
season. And then the wheels fell off in the middle
of the season. They couldn't win a match to save
their lives. They looked terrible. And then they
come back and upset in the conference finals,
which as a team, like you want to play well in
the conference finals, but that was a bit of
a shock to me. Failure shock. was on the other
other side of the bracket pepperdine upset ucla
in the semi although pepperdine was hosting yes
but is that as an excuse i don't think so we
didn't watch that game but we did watch pepperdine
play usc in the final and they were very good
well okay let's qualify that are we gonna get
into this sure we'll just touch on it their left
sides were very good and I think that's all I've
got to say their left side right Barnett was
unstoppable I kept being like how can he literally
not stop this guy he was unconscious every single
thing he hit from anywhere on the court he could
have hit balls from the baseline and he would
have he could have passed balls over the net
and scored like that's kind of what it was like
everything he touched he just scored on and I'm
like this is ridiculous he had 45 attempts and
he hit 333 against the best blocking team in
the NCAA, if I'm not mistaken. It was absolutely
wild to watch. And this is the one thing that's
often interesting about men's volleyball, specifically
in the college space, is that there's a lot of
physical players who can do a lot of different
things. And if somebody gets hot who hasn't done
anything all year or you haven't game planned
for, sometimes there's nothing you can do. Quite
frankly, both their left sides got unconsciously
hot at the end of the season. Well, somebody
tell me where this number seven came from. Haver.
We had George Dyer playing left side for the
whole season. And then all of a sudden I tune
into this game and Haver is playing. Who is this
kid? I think he had seven points in the first.
Where did? Okay. Somebody tell me where he came
from and what the deal with that is, because
I was so confused because you guys also know
how I felt about George Dyer all season and how
he just wasn't it. So like great job by number
seven, but as. impressive as the Pepperdine left
sides were, I was equally unimpressed by Caleb
Blanchett on USC's side, the setter. I didn't
think USC played poorly. Like, watching them
play, I wasn't like, wow, they are just not in
it today. The only person I felt with that, and
it's a critical position, was Blanchett because
I have loved him all season. How he's forced
the middle, how he's run his offense really nice
and quick, blah, blah, blah. But he was not good.
None of their hitters looked like they were in
rhythm all night. It was tough. Their middles,
who normally do a great job, I didn't think were
utilized enough. And I thought they passed pretty
well. And he was just off, and the team could
not get going. Because I don't think they should
have lost that match. No, I don't think so either.
And the interesting thing was they're normally
a very good blocking team, and they blocked really
well against Cole Hartke, who had a rough night.
I think he hit negative. So he got 42 sets. He's
the right side for Pepperdine. He got 42 sets,
and he hit negative on the night. And so you
have to think that USC's game plan was probably,
we're going to shut down Cole. He gets the majority
of their sets, and we're going to make other
people beat us. Because they just played Pepperdine
a couple weeks ago, and Barnett was really good
against them then, too. Like, hello. Yeah, I
mean. They shut down the big right side, but
the left sides killed them, and it was. I was
expecting more of the USC middles as well, to
be honest. Well, they weren't getting the ball
nearly as much as they usually do. Like, I'm
sorry to say, like, I don't want to lay this
on one person's shoulders, but, like, Branca
didn't do his job. Yeah, fair. If you look at
the middles for USC, Dennis only got nine sets,
and Tompkinson only got 11. And... I thought
that had been a strength of USC all year. And
I thought they had the edge in the middle against
Pepperdine, or should have. And it just didn't
connect. They didn't use them. And to me, that
was on the setter. Well, USC's hopes at Nationals
are gone now, I think. I agree. I don't think
they're getting an at -large bid. So Pepperdine
is coming out of the NPSF, which only leaves
the Big West. We're going to talk about this
match in more depth because as head -scratching
as some of the other matches we watched were,
this one was so entertaining. And Hawaii beat
Long Beach State 3 -1 to earn the Big West bid
to Nationals. One of the most fun games I have
watched in a very long time. It was really good.
It was so fun. Super entertaining. And I will
say before we wrap up that if you put money on
Pepperdine to win the conference championship
at the beginning of this year, you will be very
rich at this point. Because I don't think anybody
saw either one of USC or UCLA not coming out
of this conference. I was going to say for Big
West, I'm pretty satisfied because I've been
a fan of Hawaii all season. And I'm like... so
happy that they put it together when it really
mattered because I was like, they have the potential.
This team is so good. But anyway, the automatic
qualifiers are set. The biggest question that
remains is who, which two teams are going to
get the at -large bids. Well, I think it has
to go to Long Beach and UCLA. That is my instinct
of who's going to get them. If you listen to
the Big West broadcast, they think that they
should get both. No, it's not happening. The
Big West thinks that they should get both at
-larges. Long Beach and UCLA held the 1 -2 spot
for the majority of the season. I would be shocked
if it wasn't those two teams. UCLA also played
a tough schedule. Much tougher, in my opinion,
than the non -conference schedule. Much tougher
than Long Beach State's. So I think that needs
to be in consideration. They are my two picks.
I think that those are picks. And I think they're
safe, right? You're not going to ruffle any feathers.
They're the top two teams that didn't make it.
And I would be shocked if that's not the case.
Looking to the PVF, which is still ongoing, Vegas
has managed to get a couple wins in the last
little while. Woo! So that's good for them. They've
kind of righted the ship. I'm not sure if it's
going to be too little too late, but we will
see how that works. They still have a chance.
They still have a chance, but things have got
to work in their favor at this point, and they've
got to keep winning. Atlanta finally beat Omaha,
which is good to see. I'm not sure if Omaha is
still caring as much. I think they've locked
up the seat, but... They've walked up AC. Yeah.
Maybe not first. They need to keep winning. Yeah.
We'll see what happens, but that's a good win
for Atlanta. Grand Rapids beat Indy again, so
that was interesting. Entering the last week
of regular season play, Omaha, Atlanta, and Orlando
are all safe. They're going to be in the 14 playoff.
The fourth spot is still up for grabs. Indy has
a good cushion, but... grand rapids and vegas
still have a chance if they continue to win and
they lose a few matches so it's like they have
the points but they don't seem to play a role
in how they do the rankings but like indy's a
couple games ahead of them but their points are
so much higher so i'm like are they is that the
tiebreaker is that what they're going to use
if the other teams get those two wins like i
don't know yeah And I couldn't find anything
online in terms of what the tiebreak procedures
were. You'd have to think they mean something.
So Indy should be safe. But if we're looking
at straight win -loss, Grand Rapids and Vegas
still do have a chance if they win out. Yeah.
But they control their own destiny. So we'll
see what happens there. And then playoffs will
get started. And we'll be deep in the PVF playoffs
once they start. We had a lot of opinions mixed
into our weekly update. So we're not just results
today, everybody. Well, with the men's playoffs,
we watched a few of those matches. I think we
needed to talk about them and give them a little
bit of airtime. Nothing happened in love on the
court, but we still have opinions, okay? Well,
they're still drawing people in and there's players
that we're following and it'll be interesting.
I'm curious to see what the PVF playoffs look
and feel like. We didn't watch them last year.
But I like how they've laid out the league. I'm
curious what we're going to see. So I am looking
forward to watching those playoffs when my regular
season is done. All right, so we're going to
talk about two matches in full. Full breakdown,
I guess. Well, how much... There's not a ton
to talk about with our first match. We just kind
of... We wanted to talk about it to give it a
nice little bow on the season. Well, and I think
it may... Like, Kunigliano is... We're talking
about the Italian League final. Yes. And Canegliano
is probably the best women's team out there,
hands down. I would be shocked if they didn't
win the Champions League. Adam just jinxed them,
basically. I don't believe in that. They're just
so good. They're fun to watch. If you haven't
had a chance, I think they have highlights. You
might be able to find the game on YouTube. But
they're just so good. They're just... I expected
this series, not necessarily, I didn't think
Milano was going to win this series, but I was
like, you know what? They could potentially take
a match off of them. Like, mind you, Corneliano's
lost one match all season. Yeah. So was that
realistic? Was that naive of me? Maybe. I mean,
you think you've got to be on for three games
in a row. You know, you have the ability for
one team to push. We watched them in the Coppa
Italia. It was close -ish, at least in a couple
sets. But this one, they ran through 25 -22,
25 -20, 25 -21, and it never really was close.
I mean, I think that Canigliano is just better
all around, almost in every position. And if
Milano was going to have a chance, Iganu was
going to have to outplay Hawk. That didn't happen.
I will say, I thought Lugano served better than
Hawk. She dug more balls than Hawk, but Hawk
doesn't dig any balls. Hawk is just there to
score points. Her defense leaves a little to
be desired. She scores so many points, who cares?
But Hawk attacked and blocked. She was the difference
in the match. It was impressive to watch. She
was very good. She was very good. But the thing
is, though, I feel like... Hawk is able to do
that for Corneliano because of all the other
pieces around her. Their middles, Kirikella and
Farr, like, they are run just enough to keep
the middles on the other team honest. And they
are, when they get set, they are almost unstoppable.
Yeah. So they don't use them often. It's just
like the outside core of Corneliano and Gabi,
Zhu Ting, and... hawk are so good that they kind
of carry the load but the middle you can't sleep
on the middle so you just see so many opportunities
being created and the way that they are able
they're running their back row in the gaps i
was gonna talk go ahead off of the middle who
isn't even run all that often it's just like
impressive so hawk is a star Don't get me wrong.
But the team in general and the ball control
generated by Moki, Dagenaro, and Gabi allows
them to run just an in -system offense. And then
their middles you have to respect. And then their
outside score. And then Hawk is pretty much guaranteed
to... It's just a pleasure to watch them. It's
just so well executed. They were in -system all
night. They pass so well. And the thing that
impressed me was just how they attack the different
zones. Like you mentioned, the middles will run,
the middles will run a slide and they'll move
the right side in or the middles will run a quick
and they'll run just over top or the 30, like
they attack from all different zones and the
setter runs an offense where there's always an
empty hitter versus a split block. And she does
such a great job of finding them. They're just
a, they're so well oiled and there's no gaps
in any position. It's, you want to watch, the
best high -level volleyball, this is it in every
regard. The thing about Milano, though, and Egonu
is one of the best opposites in the world, hands
down. I think her job is made substantially more
difficult because they don't have the same pieces
that Conigliano does. Like, Anna Dinesi is an
incredible blocker in the middle, but... They
weren't running the middle much. No. And their
left sides do not bring enough offensively to
take any type of attention away from Egonu. She
needs to be scoring just lights out for them
to have a chance. I think they are a really good
team, but it's just... Conigliano has people
scoring in every single position, and it's much
more inconsistent on Milano's side. And it makes
Egonu not scoring every single ball that much
more obvious. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong.
She was still very good. She hit 290, and she
got set 37 times. But to me, the difference,
you almost, Milano needs a hawk. So when a hawk
swings, generally the play ends. Somebody's scoring.
Like, she is scoring or the play ends. There's
not a lot of middle ground with her. Iganu, when
I watched, she's not as aggressive. She tipped
a lot. And I think that she looks like she's
more error adverse. And she'll keep a play going.
And that's tough when you always have two blocks
when the rest of your teammate isn't open. In
Milano, when you don't have as many other point
scores, you have to be a little bit more terminal.
I'm not sure that her style of play professionally,
and I haven't watched her enough to say, like,
this is always how she plays, but in general,
that team makeup needs a more aggressive right
side, in my opinion. I think she tipped too many
balls, even though she was good and she didn't
want to make errors. Like, Hawk made eight errors,
I believe, on the match, and Iguanu only made
three. They needed a few more points out of her
if they were going to win. Well, and also, I
am an Alessia Oro fan, the setter for Milano.
I didn't think she set the best game I've seen
her play. I do think some of her sets were trailing
tight. I think out of system, they were kind
of setting Egonu a little too far off the net.
So was it Oro's best match that I've seen her
play? Absolutely not. I think she's better than
that. Also, Miriam Silla wasn't playing. Like,
she came off the bench in every set, but I'm
like, was she struggling throughout the series?
Like, we watched match one, she started. We just
mismatched, too. They needed her to be better.
They needed her to stand out in that series.
I don't know. And she's just, like, an energy
boost on the team, too. Like, even if she's not
playing her best, like, she is the energy on
that team. You're not getting it from Danese
or Egonu or people like that. Like, she is it.
And in the hostile environment, like, they were
playing away. Like, you need somebody to keep
people together. I don't know. At the end of
the day, Corneliano was just better. Yeah, it
wasn't as entertaining a match other than the
fact that the volleyball was a super high level.
And I did look up the stats as we were chatting.
Hawk only made three errors, so disregard where
that A came from. She was pretty lights out.
I misread that. Yeah. One, she got... three errors
and was blocked once and Nagano made three errors
and was blocked twice. Ahaka's just pretty fantastic.
She was very good. I did enjoy watching just
to see the level of volleyball but from a competitive
standpoint it wasn't super competitive. It was
such like a joy to watch such talented athletes.
You know what I mean? Of course, there are errors.
Of course, we can pick it apart all we want,
but it was just so good. If you could draw up
how you would want your team to play, Kunigliano
executed that match. Check it out. Highly recommend.
Or if you don't want to check it out and you
want to wait for Champions League, this is actually
going to be a rematch. It's going to be a semifinal.
These teams are playing again. In a neutral location
this time in Istanbul. So maybe that'll have
an effect. Who knows? Well, it's always hard
to beat a team multiple times. And they beat
them in Coppa Italia. And they beat them in the
league. And they beat them in the playoffs. In
Supercoppa. Yeah. Like in every single thing.
Can they put the sweep on? I want to say yes
because I love excellence. I just like, I feel
like teams that have proven themselves to be
excellent, just, it breaks my heart when they
don't see it to the finish line. Well, the one
thing I think Milano can do, I mean, there's
obviously lots of things, but I think they need
to engage Hawk in her defensive position. They
need to tip the ball to her. They need to swing
cross court. They need to... drive their offensive
play to that side of the court. She doesn't dig
tips. Well, to make her play defense and also
to take her out of. Like, they tipped a few times
and she had to come to the ground and then you
can load up your block. Like, I think there's
some things that they can do against Conigliano
so that they're not always firing on all cylinders.
In listening to the timeouts, they seemed overly
preoccupied with their defensive positioning
and their defensive strategy. On Hawk, I didn't
hear them talk much about their offensive strategy.
But even so, they weren't doing what the coach
wanted them to defensively. I was listening to
this being like, you guys, what? But yeah, Volosh,
the setter for Conigliano, was definitely a liability
at the net. You've got Hawk digging behind her
down the line. Trust me, as somebody who has
dug behind many a small setter, you don't want
to be at the attack line, so you have to be deep.
Otherwise, you're getting pelted in the face,
which you're exposing yourself to tips. You need
to yo -yo Hawk back and forth on defense, like
Adam was saying. They can definitely do more
than they did, but that means... setting their
left side yeah and the left side needs to do
something or run your pipe and attack that side
of the court they do not run the yeah that is
another thing they need to use either move and
go new more in the back row or get your left
sides going on the pipe because you it's pretty
good yeah so i'm curious to see if they make
any of those adjustments i will definitely be
watching that game but yeah i'm glad we chose
this one to watch Alright, we got some serious
flack for not covering this matchup. And rightly
so. Rightly so, but we had a lot to cover with
love. I appreciate you guys holding us accountable,
though, for not covering Long Beach State and
Hawaii in the Big West season. So, we did not
want to disappoint you guys today, okay? We got
up extra early to watch this because it was past
my bedtime last night. Wow. This... This might
be one of my favorite matches definitely this
year that I've watched. It was so entertaining.
And right off the bat, one of the things that
I found the most interesting was that both teams
were missing their starting opposite. Yeah. Which
is just a fascinating dynamic because that's
generally your highest point scorer. In this
case, both very good players, although I did
think... Going into the match that it would hinder
Hawaii more than it hindered Long Beach. I agree.
I personally have not been a huge Herstinovich
fan. I feel like we're going to have some controversial
statements come up during this segment. So just
like hang tight for those hot takes. I'm sure
I'll get some feedback. But I personally have
not been a Herstinovich fan through the season.
I thought Tetriski would be a huge loss. Although
they did beat Long Beach State without Tetriski
in Big West play. And I was like, who is this
Nato Dickinson coming in? Let me tell you, he
shut me up so fast after he literally flayed
the defense on the first few swings he took.
I was like, watch out. This kid was unbelievable.
He detonated balls. i i mean it was wild for
him to come in and take that role and play the
way he played in a championship match to go to
nationals knowing you're the backup i mean kudos
to him he had 33 attempts and he hit 485. it
he was unconscious he was so good that's a pretty
good stat line and i was actually really looking
forward to it because the right side for hawaii
started the first set and was all world i think
he had he went seven for nine in the first set
i think is finnigan finn carney yeah finn carney
that was so i thought they were going to go back
and forth now finn kind of fell off as the match
went on but dickinson was amazing And one thing
I do want to bring up, Hawaii's fan sign game.
Might be maybe the best in the world. Maybe the
best in the world. There is this mother -daughter
duo in particular. I watched a lot of Hawaii
volleyball this season. There's this mother -daughter
duo who come with like a stack of these signs
and they are so good. Very clever. So good. But
like the Hawaii fan base in general, these signs
are, they add to the viewing experience. Let
me tell you. My favorite, I think, was the no
beach dot dot dot access. I put up when they
got blocked. Oh, that was one that was like so
long. Dot dot dot beach. It was a lot of fun.
The atmosphere in the gym was great. And I will
say, it got a little chippy. Which I love. I
love that too. And the ref came back and told
the players to calm down. Let's be honest, okay?
You need, the trash talking is fun. There's a
net in between both teams. And quite frankly,
and I'm including myself in this, we're volleyball
players. There's not going to be any violence
on the court. Like, let them go. Let them trash
talk. It's fun. I was disappointed with that.
But the game itself was incredible. Man, I'm
all about that. The little prolonged stares.
Vargas hitting one ball and landing in a squat
position, watching it hit the ground. I actually
thought he was... He wasn't super efficient on
the night, but he played really good defense.
I thought he blocked pretty well. He passed very
well. He was under pressure. I liked his game
last night. I think when Long Beach ran the middle,
they were very good. And a little freshman middle
came in. High pressure environment. And I thought
he did great as well. He did send one free ball.
probably 30 feet out the baseline which was a
bit of a head scratcher but other than that i
thought he did great so let's i have two questions
for you overall because the matches were all
pretty close the sets were yeah i always do that
the sets were very close what do you think was
the difference like if you have to sum up kind
of what happened because it was very it was very
often 2020 2019 like coming down the stretch
it was close and then Hawaii would pull at well
I think we would always see Long Beach State
make a couple back -to -back errors after 20
we would see like a service error followed up
by an attacking error followed up by a net call
or like some combination of that they would hold
it together and then there would be like two
or three errors in a row and like that was the
difference and I think honestly Hawaii played
a full team game. Their left side, Sakonoko and
Roar, have been a little up and down throughout
the season. When we saw them early, they were
outstanding, but they've kind of been okay some
games, excellent others. They were outstanding.
Louie hit a couple of the biggest balls I think
I've seen all season. He went up and detonated
on a few, one down the line and I think one out
of the back row that were just spectacular to
watch. And brought them back into set four. Hawaii
was down 13 -7 in set four. Yep. Brought them
back into it when he was serving to bring it
to 13 -13 and then went on another run at the
very end of the set. Yep. Roar got player of
the match, like MVP of the tournament. Yep. He
was very good in the match before. Oh my gosh,
like... It was a full team effort. Like Hawaii
as a unit showed up and everybody did their job.
Whereas, and Long Beach State wasn't bad by any
means. It was just like they made untimely errors.
And here's probably the biggest hot take that
we've got. And I agree with you. I think Tread
Rosenthal outset Moni Nikolov. And quite frankly,
if I'm being honest, which you know I am, duh.
Nikolov, when things are going sideways, he often
tries to do too much. And I know people, like,
are obsessed with this kid. Totally fine. I truly
think, and I was an athlete like this, he is
a very good... all -around skilled volleyball
player who was made into a setter. I don't think
he's a natural setter. And I think he needs to
spend more time focusing on... Getting his hitters
hittable balls as opposed to trying to have all
the attention of the defense on him by making
fake moves, by swinging as hard as he can. And
quite frankly, I'm very convinced he doesn't
see the block at all. He just closes his eyes
and hits it as hard as he can. I think he needs
to focus more on delivering a solid, consistent
offense as opposed to being trying to do everything.
I agree with you. I think he's a very, very good
setter when he focuses on just doing that. But
how often does that happen? Well, yeah. There
were a couple instances. There were some very
unhittable balls. Yes. So when you see him kind
of jump fake set and then try and deliver a ball,
some of the left side balls got tight. There
was two instances that stick out in my mind.
Dickinson was so good all match. It didn't matter
if Hawaii knew where the ball was going. He just
needed a hittable ball. And there were a couple
times, two in particular, where I saw him jump
and turn to hit and then flick it back and it
was unhittable. And they lost both of those points
and they were both in critical moments. And that,
knowing when to do that and when it's going to
hinder your ability to deliver a ball to your
team. I don't think he did a great job of that
in this match particularly because there were
at least six or seven balls where he tried to
do that and it didn't work out in his favor.
And I don't think it was gaining him as much
as he thought it was. And I get you want to do
that if you're thinking about playing at the
next level or for the national team and you want
to have that in your toolbox, totally fair. But
this maybe wasn't the match to do that. Because
when he just sets, location's good, he makes
good decisions, I have no issues with it. But
he had a couple runs where those balls were not
hittable, and they should have been. And before
everybody gets all mad, I feel like I personally
am uniquely qualified to speak to this. Because,
little known fact about me, I was a setter. Okay?
Until my team just was like, no, we need you
to hit more. I set for our youth national team,
our junior national team. I was a setter until
I was 16 years old, okay? I understood the strategy
and how to isolate hitters and how to put hitters
in a position, and I had good vision to be able
to run an offense at the junior national team
level. Was I a true setter? No. So I see a lot
of similarities between myself at that age. when
i was setting and nikolov now like he is very
good he understands the game he can make incredible
athletic moves and not a lot of people can but
he needs to just i don't know i i don't think
he's a true setter i like watching tread's hands
more than his fair i think that if he he only
went on one real serving run and his team needs
him to serve if he Could have just focused on
setting and serving and maybe not worried about
everything else. I think there could have been
a different outcome because Long Beach had leads
in the third set and in the fourth set. And when
the team gets tight, you see him thinking about
too many things. Like, how can I score the point?
Yeah. And it's like, that is very much a hitter's
mentality. Yeah. As the level keeps getting better,
you're not going to be able to get away with
that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Even in the
set that they won in the third, they had a massive
lead. Yeah. And they gave it up. And you're up
13 -7. And kudos to Louis. He served a couple
bombs. But you can't give up a 13 -7 lead when
you need to win the set. And yeah, I think Irie
Tread out -set him. You look at the Hawaii middles.
Justin Todd was 7 for 9, hit 778. And you had
Nuster went 6 for 9, 556. Those aren't massive
point scoring numbers, but they kept Long Beach's
middles engaged. He ran it just enough and then
ran the pipe over top. They owned the middle
of the court. They opened up the wings for that.
I just like the way Tread manipulated that game.
And normally my criticism of Trent is the exact
opposite of what I just said about Nikolov, in
that, like, for his size, he is not as offensive
as I think he could be. I think he struck a good
balance this match, though. Like, he was able
to, like, read how the game was playing out.
And, you know, his left sides were scoring. His
middles were doing well. Like, Carney... Was
holding his own. He trailed off as the match
went on. But, like, he didn't necessarily have
the need. He took the swings when he had good,
solid opportunities. Dumped the ball for match
point. He took 11 attempts. He took his opportunities
when he had them. And normally, I am like, you
need to be more aggressive. Yeah. Well, it's
interesting. Both of them took, had 11 attempts
on the match. Nikolov had seven kills and two
errors and Rosenthal had five kills and two errors.
But watching the match without looking at the
stats, it felt like Nikolov tried more and that
Tread was more successful. That's how it definitely
felt watching the game. His timing of decision
making was better. It felt like that for sure.
The other thing is they straight up set Nikolov
as a right side hitter when he digs or something.
He doesn't get off the net to get an approach.
He just kind of like chills there halfway through
and just does a step close. He is straight up
being used offensively if he digs the ball. True.
Whereas Tread isn't. Yeah. I mean, it was a great
match. It lived up to the hype. I thought you
had ebbs and flows. You had pushback. You had...
challenges and plays at the net. These guys were
going for their serves. And like, I didn't have
that same feeling of like, we are leaving everything
we have on the court. When I was watching the
Miva final, when I was watching the MPSF final,
like in the big West final, I was like, these
guys are giving this everything they've got.
And if they go down, they are okay going down
swinging. It was a heavyweight fight. Yeah. And
both teams came out. The passing, I thought,
was incredible. Given the serving pressure, and
yes, there were some aces. Yes, Long Beach missed
a whole bunch of serves. Long Beach was out -acing
Hawaii 8 -0 going into Step 4. Yeah. Louie brought
that back a little bit more. Louie brought that
back to 8 -4. So it ended up being 20 errors
and 8 aces for Long Beach and 11 errors and 5
aces for Hawaii. Those totals don't dictate.
The serving pressure was intense, but the passing
was even better. It was a fantastic match. If
you didn't watch it, go back and watch it. Either
on YouTube or ESPN Plus or something. I can't
tell you the number of times I was just stunned.
That might be a national final if it lines up
that way. Both of those two teams, if they play
the way they can play, I think they're going
to be hard outs. That was so fun to watch. I
mean, congrats to Hawaii. And that's a tough
environment for Long Beach to play in, for sure.
I'm very curious to see. That crowd is amazing.
Maybe only second to the Nebraska crowd. I'm
like, they are the Nebraska, the men's version
of Nebraska women's volleyball. Now they're a
little bit louder, I think. A little more boisterous.
Well, Nebraska, you've got like a lot of young
people in the crowd there in Hawaii. I feel like
Nebraska, it's like young girls with their parents
and then like, I don't know, fans who have been
fans forever. Do you know what I mean? It's not
like the rowdy, you know, 30 -year -old crowd
where you see like that in Hawaii a ton. It's
a very different vibe, but I would say that they
are like the men's equivalent. Yeah, that's fair.
So I'm curious to see if they meet again in a
neutral site, what that looks like. Do the Hawaii
fans travel as well as Nebraskaville fans? Yeah,
we'll see. That's a lot further to go. Like Hawaii
to Ohio, that's tough. It was a very good match.
If you have a chance, go back and watch it. All
right, we're going to jump right into our listener
questions because we went a little wild on the
weekly highlights. I enjoyed the men's volleyball
this week, okay? No, we had a lot to talk about.
I have zero regrets, don't get me wrong, but
I want to dive into these listener questions.
So we got some good ones this week. Question
number one is, can you spend some time talking
about the NCAA men's liberos? How much do they
add to the game compared to women's liberos?
And who is on your radar this season? Oh, so
the essence of this question is great. You see
more rallies in the women's game than you do
in the men's game. And so the liberos can be
a little bit more noticeable. I think in that
regard. On the men's side, the ability to pass
the ball for the libero and cover a decent amount
of court and service reception is massive. And
I think you see the biggest kind of effect on
the game there, and maybe not from necessarily
an execution standpoint, but from alleviating
some of the service pressure from some of your
other passers. So, for example, If you play with
a libero who goes, hey, I've got both seams,
then as a passer, you're like, hey, I can just
take this seam and I can hit out of that. And
generally, both your left sides are hitting front
row, back row. So if they only have to pass a
little bit of court and then can come in and
run their offense, that makes a huge difference
on other players in the match where you don't
necessarily see that as a fan, but it's a huge
effect. And playing with a libero who can pass
that court on the men's game is really important.
And I mean, in the women's game, you see them
tip the ball a lot more because, I mean, men's
players are, I mean, typically faster. So the
tips aren't always as effective. But like because
the tips and stuff are so much more involved
in women's volleyball, you get to see the liberos
make those spectacular diving plays to dig them
and stuff, which because it's not as much a part
of the men's game. It kind of gets taken away.
I would say in the men's game, it's harder to
notice a good libero, but it's easier to notice
a bad one. I totally agree with you. And I think
that one other thing where libero on the men's
side is on block recovery. So if you're in there
and you make a good read on a block and you can
dig a bowl and extend a rally, I've seen... really
good plays like that it just allows your hitters
to take a little more risk if they know that
you're there covering them so i think that's
also super important it's important in the women's
game as well underappreciated skill i would yes
the men's liberos their block coverage you don't
see that same thing in the women's game i would
say well it generally again your hands yeah yeah
so i think those it's it's different and they
don't have maybe as much of an effect on the
stat sheet as in the women's game. You're not
seeing liberos making 22 dig. 25 dig. Yeah. Like,
no. But they have a huge impact. And if you have
a good libero, it makes a difference. So I know
who my standout liberos in the season were. Do
you have any? I'm terrible with names. I think
the libero for Stanford is very good. Evan Porter.
I also think the libero for... USC is very good.
Johnny Dykstra. Yeah, those would be the two
that stick out. Okay, my third. I had three on
my list. My third is Choi from Hawaii. That was
going to be... He extended some rallies in that
final, and he actually made a few spectacular
digs that I thought were very good. Like, those
three, I watched a lot of all three of those
teams this season, and those three, I consistently
was like, I really like this guy. And those were
probably the only three liberos that I was like,
yeah. One, I think, you know, if you look at
a team who struggles at that position, it's UCLA.
They switch their liberos back and forth. I don't
think, like, the passing libero kind of gets
them in trouble. very often and you have two
outsides there who are pretty good ball control
players but if they could focus a little more
on passing and getting outside to hit I think
that would really help UCLA that that to me is
a libero that I have noticed in a negative way
exactly great question great question all right
this is a long question let me bring my computer
closer because you know my eyeballs are getting
old okay so this one's about serving I understand
that you want to serve tough to get the opposing
team out of system, but when you're giving the
game or match away on constant missed serves,
doesn't it defeat the purpose? What ace to error
ratio would you want your team to aim for? Because
this person is basically asking, why would you
not just try to get the ball in and rely on your
block defense as opposed to just missing? This
is a very nuanced question. I like this question.
I'm going to poke a little fun right at the beginning.
What if your blocking defense isn't very good?
And so you, different teams will have different
styles and different strategies. So let's say
you're a really good blocking team and you like
to play, you know, a triple block or blocking
out of system is your strength. But if you're
in system, your middle doesn't make good decisions
and, you know. you don't get many stops getting
a team out of system is then more important because
you're not getting stops if a team is in system
like a lot of this defensive structure and serving
pressure is kind of calculated on a per team
basis based on what your strengths are now if
you play really good block defense as a team
then yes you would take some of that error out
and go we're okay if the ball's in play because
we're getting chances And it differs between
the men and the women's game because you have
to look at the other team as well. Are they a
super high side out team? Like Long Beach is
not very good at defense. They must put serving
pressure in an attempt to get blocked. Get their
block involved. Because they don't generate a
ton of points defensively from Diggs, right?
You see Vargas. You see... Nikolaevic. Nikolaevic,
yeah. They're not... That's not their team strength.
And so your serving and the type of serving you
do needs to play into your team identity. But
conversely, you don't want to just get the serve
in against Long Beach State because they have
so many weapons. And if a team has three or four
options on an attack, you're basically missing
a serve anyway. That's kind of the thought process
of this team is so good that if I just get the
serve in and give them almost a free ball, it's
basically the same result as missing a serve.
So you're definitely playing the percentages
and who is in the front row, who's on offense.
If you have the setter in the front row and their
middle's not good, Yeah, it's easy to just serve
the left side short, keep it in, and then overload
over to the left side. But, like, there's so
much evaluation that has to take into account.
I do agree with you. It is very frustrating to
watch a match that is just missed serves. That
is not fun to watch for anybody. But there's
so much to consider when weighing your risk to
reward. In response to the part of like what
ACE to error ratio are you looking for? For women,
if you're float serving, I think you're typically
looking for one to one. And if you're spin serving,
like one to 1 .5 or two. On the men's side, it's
a lot higher. So I would say if you're spin serving
on the men's side, if you're doing one to two
and a half ACE to error, you're doing pretty
well. Two other things to think about. One of
them may not come intuitively is if you put an
easy serve in and the team gets a good side out,
that team builds rhythm. They build connection
with their setter. The hitters feel good. They're
getting kills. The passers feel good. Exactly.
If you go miss serve, miss serve, you don't touch
the ball, you haven't passed, there's no rhythm,
and then you get bomb, bomb, bomb, and you're
a little bit out of system. it works that way
too so keeping a team out of rhythm while it
may not be fun to watch also plays a point in
that and then teams will also have certain rotations
so you mentioned if the setter's in the front
row and teams know they're just going to set
their left side and go over top of your setter
for those three rotations you look at your servers
and go you have the green light to just hit this
as hard as you want because we're probably not
going to score anyway and teams will look at
certain rotations and go okay when we have these
three guys in the front row we're really going
to work to keep it in because we turn a lot of
points so there are not only do you have team
philosophies and things that you're good at but
you also have rotational philosophies depending
on what your matchups are and who your server
is yeah like nikolov always has the green light
to just go as hard as he wants yeah because he
gets a ton of aces yeah great question great
question question three is as an attacker, how
many times do you swing with a trajectory in
mind and hope to avoid the block versus being
able to see the block before you attack? Similarly,
when attackers intentionally aim for the top
of hands, do they typically see the position
of the hands or are they just predicting where
the hands will be? I think we might have different
answers. So there are definitely some players
who see the block and some players who don't
see the block. Well, I know why you're laughing.
So it's really interesting. When I played on
the right side of the court as a right -handed
opposite, I often found it hard to see the block.
Just because the ball's coming over your shoulder,
you're trying to find it. That was just something
that I struggled with. There are lots of really
good hitters in this position who don't struggle
to see the block. However, when I moved to the
left side and my approach opened up and I could
see the whole court, it was definitely, you could
definitely see the block and the defense coming
into play. So it depends on what you're looking
at, your angle of approach, what the situation
is, and then your kind of innate experience with
that. But definitely good hitters see the block.
I would say if you're playing at a high level,
you see the block. Even when I'm a lefty on the
left side, for me, when I would have to hit left
side, I would always position myself and line
up my approach angle to be able to see the block.
If a set got off the net or something happened,
it was very rare and very uncomfortable if I
was in a situation where I couldn't see the block.
You can tell, actually, when players can see
the block or not just based on the decisions
they make. There are some players who can see
the block and see the entire defense behind the
block as well. That is much more rare. I would
say the majority of high -level attackers for
sure see the block, but there's an elite separate
group that can see everything. In response to
your question about aiming for hands, I honestly
think a lot of it depends on the hitters. size,
jumping ability, contact point. Like a smaller
hitter, it is much easier to see the hands because
you're below them. A bigger hitter or hitter
who plays very high above the net, when you're
hitting, so that was me as a bigger attacker.
My contact point above the net was very high.
I was often... higher or taller than the blockers
so you see the the bodies you see the arms but
because you're kind of above the blockers it's
harder to see the fingertips as a smaller hitter
the fingertips are above you so it's much easier
to find that so that's why you see like smaller
hitters or players who don't jump very well are
usually very good at finding the hands so yeah
you do want to be able to see yeah the other
thing about this is that once you've done it
enough there's a certain amount of pattern recognition
and automation that happens as a hitter so you're
in system you're coming up you're doing your
approach you know you see maybe the middle bites
with your middle you know that you have one blocker
and you'll be able to see their body and kind
of know where their hands will be because of
that you see the blocker close you know and you
know you're gonna have four hands solid so you
have different options so it's not always a cognizant
decision but because you've played so much and
you watch film and you prepare some of those
cues kind of allow you to make those decisions
very quickly well that's why sometimes you see
this more on the beach because it's a one -on
-one block but like when you see one -on -one
block situations The reason a lot of the time
that the hitter does get blocked is because they
see the blocker's body, but if the blocker makes
a really big move and the arm position doesn't
line up with the body position, that is where
the disconnect comes in. Because as a hitter,
your brain tells you where the body is, the arms
will be straight. But when you see a body and
the arms go really big in one direction, that
is where the disconnect comes in and how one
-on -one blockers are able to make those plays.
Our final question of the week is referring to
sort of a blurred line in the skills of opposites
and outside hitters. This person, as we've talked
about, there's usually one outside hitter that
is predominantly a point scorer, maybe a little
weaker with ball control, and the other that
their strength is ball control, and they're not
relied upon as heavily to score points. So this
person is like, isn't an opposite similar to
the outside that scores the points? Like, isn't
their skill set very similar? How do teams determine
which player plays opposite and which player
plays the point scoring left side role? And the
athlete they were referring to in this question
was Logan Eggleston. So the very first one is,
can you pass or can you not pass? That's generally...
For the point scoring left side, oftentimes their
passing leaves a lot to be desired. And it's
usually still better than the opposite. You're
not wrong. I mean, we kind of made fun of Hawk
for not being able to play defense. She, I don't
know this, but if I was a betting man, I would
say is not a very good passer. Well, no. And
the person referred to Logan Eielson because
we have said that her defense isn't great. Passing
is like... up and down so it's like well why
wouldn't madison skinner just play that position
and then eggleston plays right side yeah like
that's the essence of it yeah well so there's
a couple things so one is a lot of times if you
were a middle you will transition to the right
side first so that you can kind of feel the flow
of the game from a different position and then
maybe you move to a left side or you learn to
pass that is that's a very common progression
that happens i think the other one too is You
know, sometimes you just have super physical
athletes who are even better than your top left
side because you... You don't always see a team
with a true P1 who scores a ton of points. Or
gets set out of the back room. Exactly. So there's
a couple things. Some players attack better on
the right side of the court than the left side
of the court. Is your hitter left -handed? Some
right -handed hitters can drop their shoulder
and hit down the line. Some really struggle with
that. Are they semi -competent at passing and
defense? If the answer is no, probably a right
side. Yeah. Are they very powerful from the back
row? probably want to use them on the right side
well and blocking comes into play there as well
some people block better to the right they have
a better stronger hand outside like there's lots
of factors as to why athletes would be on the
right versus the left and some of those maybe
you grew up playing club or on your pro team
and you were you could have played the left side
but you were the third best passer and they wanted
you on the floor so you played right side there's
all kinds of scenarios like that which determine
whether you end up on the right or the left Great
questions this week, everybody. Yeah, very good.
Love those. All right. So, we have another great
week of volleyball for you to watch. It's a little
less packed. Less going on. But still lots of
good games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Men's Italian
League Finals are happening. The second match
is on Thursday, and the third match is on Sunday.
Both of those you can watch on VBTV, and they
should be very competitive matches. We also have
PVF matches this week. Vegas, Indy, and Grand
Rapids are fighting for their lives. They need
to keep winning in order to give themselves a
chance. Grand Rapids has got Orlando at 7 o 'clock
Eastern on a Wednesday. That's on Roku. And Omaha
at 7 p .m. Eastern on Friday. That's on Fox Sport
2. Vegas has got Orlando at 10 p .m. Eastern
on Friday. That's on Volleyball TV. And Columbus
at 9 o 'clock Eastern on Sunday, and that's on
CBS. You should check all of the websites out
because that's a lot of different places to watch
games. So many different ones. Finally, Indy
is playing Atlanta at 7 p .m. Eastern on Thursday
and San Diego at 9 o 'clock Eastern. Both of
those are on Roku. So there's lots of... I'm
not even sure... I think both, all three of these
teams have got a challenge match and a winnable
match. You know what I mean? Yeah. One kind of
ranked team or one team that's ahead of them.
Like a match that'll really, they're going to
have to show up and one that like, obviously
they're still going to have to show up, but like
winnable. Do you know what I mean? Well, and
this is, I mean, this is obviously, outside of
playoffs, the most fun time to watch. Which teams
rise to the occasion? Who crumbles under pressure?
What happens when you have to win? I love watching
sports at this time of the year. Give me the
meltdowns, baby. Yeah. It's always fun. 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.
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