Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what is going on in NCAA and international volleyball.
I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska
Cornhusker and longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach.
And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach, and the show's
resident stat guy.
I'm just gonna say there's a lot less drama this week.
Thanks on the volleyball baby.
But still a lot of volleyball happening.
So I promise that all of our passion will be directed to actual games.
Okay, just a heads up.
We did have some movement happen in the men's NCAA rankings and both love and PVF are rolling,
enough so that we have an incredibly early lay of the land as far as rankings go.
So we are very excited to talk volleyball with you all this week.
So let's get started.
Okay I swear this will be the last transfer portal update.
Will it?
Until the spring, I hope.
But this is just a baby one.
Oregon setter, Kristen Klein, has followed her former head coach, Matt Ulmer, to Kansas.
Is this shocking?
No, a lot of players do develop connections with their coaches, oftentimes setters.
So she will be joining her head coach at Kansas.
Internationally and close to home for Sarah and I, Canada has hired Giovanni Guedetti
as their women's national team head coach, Shannon Windsor, who I will say has done a
fantastic job with the program, moves into the position of director of high performance.
So we'll see if that tandem can get them over the hump for the Olympics in 2028.
What do you think about that?
I'm a little surprised to be honest.
I thought Shannon did an incredible job turning around the culture and the mentality of the
program.
I'm hoping this was her decision and that she either didn't want to travel as much or
wanted to be close to her family and was looking for some stability.
I hope they didn't push her out to bring in an international coach.
Listen, the Canadian program has had several international coaches of very high standard
and it hasn't gone well in terms of their expectations, their culture, how they interact
with Canadian athletes.
I hope that Shannon has prepared the girls enough to be in that environment because this
could go horribly wrong.
With the U.S. getting an automatic birth in 2028, this is their best shot to qualify for
the Olympics.
He's a great coach.
I just hope it doesn't go sideways.
I mean, he had a really bad season on Serbia last year.
I think I personally would have stuck with Shannon, but if she wanted to move on, then
you have to replace her with somebody.
I thought about reaching out to her and just like inquiring, but if it wasn't her choice,
I felt like that would be super insensitive.
So I'm on the same page as you.
Like she has done such an amazing job with that program and has helped elevate them to
be top 10 in the world right now.
If they pushed her out just for a big name, that bothers me because she has like built
that.
Well, hope it goes well.
As Adam said, this is Canada's chance.
So let's make it up.
In NCAA men's volleyball.
So based on a recording schedule, UCLA and Ohio State were playing as we were recording.
We thought it would be straightforward.
It wasn't.
Ohio State beat UCLA in four.
So that loss pushed UCLA from number one to number three in the AVCA rankings, which meant
that this week we had a new number one in Long Beach State.
So with that shuffle this week, number two UC Irvine beat number five BYU in both of their
head to head matches.
The first one in five, the second one three straight.
Number 16 UCSB upset number 10 Grand Canyon in the first match of their back to back three
straight, but then Grand Canyon got it together on Saturday winning in five.
So not sure what that is going to do to the rankings of those teams.
And UCLA righted the ship after their loss to Ohio State last weekend.
They beat Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego both in four this week.
So I'm assuming the rankings will stay as they are, but we might have a little bit of
a mix up in the like 10 to 15 range.
Moving on to love, the head to head match was Salt Lake beating Houston in four and
on the weekend matches Omaha defeated Madison also in four and then lost to Austin three
zero while Atlanta beat Madison in five.
So there were some close games.
Madison's going through it.
Madison is struggling and I was not expecting that to be honest.
I thought they were going to be one of the top teams.
I had to answer some questions for an Italian publication about love.
And one of the questions was like, who do you think will be like top three in the league?
Let me tell you all the teams that I picked are bottom three of the league.
So what do I know?
I expected Madison to be so much better.
Obviously, it's still early in the season, but like, come on.
There are four matches in.
So here are the current standings in love.
We have Omaha leading the league, then Atlanta, Salt Lake, Houston, Austin, and Madison.
I thought Texas as a state was going to be high in the standings.
So did I.
I had obviously, as I said, the bottom three teams, Houston, Austin, Madison as my like
top.
I thought Atlanta would be the worst.
And Omaha, there's something we'll talk about this later, but there's something to be said
for ball control and balance.
We'll just say that on the PVF side, the San Diego Mojo handed the Indian night their first
loss of the season on Friday.
So Indy Atlanta, Omaha and San Diego are in the top four of the standings right now.
But there's still a lot of parity.
There needs to be a lot more games played for those middle group of teams to kind of
separate themselves from each other.
But one thing is certain Columbus is alone at the bottom.
They are the only team that has yet to win a match.
So hopefully they'll be able to turn things around here soon.
That might have been our quickest weekly highlights ever.
Look at that.
Just the straight facts, just volleyball or just results, facts, standings.
We made it quick today.
That's what happens when there's no drama.
We had a bunch of matches.
There was some good volleyball.
We'll get into some of the match statistics and analysis, but with no drama, those are
the stats.
The one thing I do want to ask you listeners is we are totally interested in NCAA men's
volleyball.
But and I know we covered a match in depth last week, but the majority, the vast majority
of the feedback and conversations and things that are happening are around the women's
matches that we're sharing.
So please let us know.
Do you want us to continue covering men's matches as part of our feature match section?
Or would you rather us just keep you informed, keep them in the highlight section, but then
focus on the women's matches?
So please, please let us know.
All right, our first feature match of the week is love Omaha versus love Madison.
I had a lot of fun watching this match and it was kind of like a soap opera for me because
it did not happen the way I expected it to.
I was pretty surprised.
My initial impression was Stivrans was unstoppable and Madison's left side defense was atrocious
overall.
That was that was my initial takeaway.
I want them like please on some replays show us from the end line because I was wondering
what the heck are Madison's left sides doing on the block.
We all know Lauren Stivrans is the queen of the slide, but like I think she was hitting
a thousand percent at one.
We're not even getting touchless.
We're exceeding a hundred percent here.
We're a thousand percent.
Okay.
Because it was wild to watch.
I'm like, yes, she is good, but like let's coordinate our block defense here, Madison.
I wanted to see where the Madison left sides were lining up and because from the sideline,
the side view, you can't really tell the end view.
You get such a better picture of the defensive scheme.
I was like girls, get your lineup together or something, please.
So one of the kind of overarching themes for me watching that match was Omaha was connected
defensively.
Their block took away something and their defense took away the rest of it and they
did out block them, but they also got a ton of touches and slowdowns.
Their block was disciplined and their defense played around it.
Whereas Madison watching them play defense, they felt like a bunch of individuals.
The blockers were trying to get blocks and missing and then the defense didn't know what
they were doing or where to fill in.
It never seemed like they were trying to funnel the hitters into a zone or take away a space
and play around it.
Well, yeah.
And I was getting confused too, because like they would get a couple digs and then all
of a sudden the defender would completely change their position, but the hitter hit
the exact same angle they had been hit.
And I was just like, who's making these decisions?
Or yeah, like you said, or are you all just deciding what to do on your own?
I was shocked how much deep angle they were leaving open for Drevniak.
The position six defender was completely shifting over to the line seam.
Carlini was shifting over into the sharp angle and then randomly would jump into her left
and get beat, but whatever.
The whole deep corner was open.
I'm like, what are you doing?
It seems their defense for the Madison right sides was completely reactionary.
So something would happen and then they would shift and try and take that away and open
up something else.
You have Carlini, who is a fantastic defensive player.
When she's in the back row digging, take your block, take away the line, funnel it towards
her.
You can't set afterwards, but at least you're going to get some transition opportunities.
Especially because their libero wasn't doing much for that match.
So it just, it didn't seem coordinated or well thought out from a Madison defensive
standpoint specifically on the right sides.
Switching topics real quick, talking about Lauren Carlini taking the first ball.
How many times is this woman going to have to pass a free ball?
That was mind blowing.
This isn't the first match that we've noticed that though, either.
You know what?
Front row, middle, right side, step in and pass the free ball.
Your setter should not be taking it.
Libero.
Okay.
Somebody.
It's wild, but that was just a side point.
Okay.
Continue.
I think that was a real indicator of how the match went because points were pretty hard
to come by in general.
Like Omaha kept some rallies going.
There were lots of extended rallies in this match.
Madison actually dug more balls than Omaha, but they never seemed controlled or like they
were able to get really good transition opportunities.
Whereas Omaha didn't need as many digs.
They were getting good touches.
They were in system.
They were able to deliver an attack and transition.
So that to me was a big factor in the match.
I was surprised at how often Madison was running Shousei out of the back row.
I felt like looking at the final match stats, Franklin did get a decent amount of sets,
but like watching it in real time, it felt like they were not setting her at all.
I felt like so many balls were being set to Shousei even when Franklin was in the front
row.
Well, and especially in the first two sets, I watching the first two sets of the match,
I thought Sarah Franklin must've had a shoulder injury or they were trying specifically not
to set her overall.
Sarah Franklin got 31 sets compared to Thomas Ilarra's 35 and Claire Shousei's 40.
And I don't know.
Go ahead.
Shousei got yanked in like set three or something.
Correct.
It just, it seemed like they were trying to save her shoulder at the beginning to me.
And then when it wasn't going the way they planned, then they tried to set her and get
her going later on in the match.
The last thing that I have for Madison before we can talk about Omaha is Anna Hall was in
the lineup for Madison for the first time.
She got subbed out in the third and Bia was put in the Brazilian middle blocker that we
have seen play for them.
What were your thoughts on her?
Before we talk about her play, and I thought she did some very good things.
I'm curious about the glasses situation.
I don't know if anybody else noticed this.
She wore her glasses only in the front row and then took them off to serve.
And I'm curious if she needs them to actually see or if, cause playing defense though being
able to say seems tough.
I'm like, what are these bifocals?
But also if you're worried about getting hit in the face, it hurts more to get hit with
glasses I think than without glasses.
And if you've gotten blown up in the face or you're, you have an eye injury and that's
why you're wearing your glasses.
No offense, but as a middle, put those glasses on in the back row.
You know what I'm saying?
Like protect those eyeballs because I feel like the middles are the most likely to get
hit in the face.
On defense for sure.
Probably walking too.
Anyway, that was aside from her play, that was just a curiosity that I noticed during
the match and I was wondering why that was happening, but I thought she did a pretty
good job.
She worked hard.
She made herself available in transition.
I thought laterally she moved pretty well to take up space and balked well.
I thought overall they didn't run their middles enough, but I thought she was fine.
She was very dynamic, very quick off the ground, jumped really well.
I was surprised that Carlini wasn't setting her more.
It was interesting to see that switch though.
Yeah, I didn't think their offense, it just didn't seem like they had a plan either offensively
or defensively.
Madison in general seemed to reacted in that match to me.
Interesting that Annie Schumacher was dressed for this match, but still didn't play and
they chose to play Thomas I.
Laura instead.
I found that very curious.
And I will say again, watching this match and I wasn't, this is not fair for her, but
I didn't think she was scoring enough.
You were hating on her so much and I'm like, she's scoring points, dude.
It just, it didn't look good to me, especially at the beginning.
She got better as the match went on and she finished stats wise very well.
Also look how many digs she had.
Again, like I said, this was one of those performances by her where the eye test for
me just, it wasn't there.
And then I looked at the stats afterwards and I thought, man, she played really well.
What was I watching?
But she had the most points on the team at 17.
She hit 314.
She had 15 digs, like kudos to her.
She found ways to score.
It just, it didn't, it didn't look good to me.
So I, yeah, I was wrong.
Okay.
On to Omaha.
We had not watched Omaha play until after we recorded last week.
I did not think that they were going to be a threat in the league.
I will be honest.
I just didn't think they had enough firepower, but they have proven that if your block and
defense are working, you will eventually score points.
Ball control in Jordan Larson and Justine Wong-Arantes, like they hold it down in the
back row.
So that is a great place to start.
Your setter does not have to do much running to get the offense going unless Jaylee Winters
is passing.
Come at me with that.
I don't care.
She's not a good passer.
It's kind of wild, but yeah, we talked about Stiverance being great on the slide.
I think that that I'm not a fan of the six two that I feel is a very good use of it.
Absolutely.
I mean, Stiverance is a dynamic athlete and you want to get her on the floor and involved
as much as possible.
I like her running the slide.
I think long term, she's going to need to learn to hit out of system on the right side
for them to use her.
So it's a great use and it plays into Omaha's strength because they're a really good ball
control.
So they can, they're in system a lot in general, so they can utilize that slide.
But as an opposite, as you know, you want that player to be your outlet in transition.
So obviously she's three weeks into playing on the right side.
I'm sure she'll figure it out.
She's big, she's athletic, but transitioning between hitting that slide and then being
an outlet in transition, I think will be important for their long term success.
Yeah, they're definitely avoiding setting her out of system.
I think I saw her jump off of two feet one time in the match against Madison and it did
not go well.
I was going to say, was it on the block?
No, one time on the attack and it was a little wonky.
So they do have her in the front row with Winters, which is not by accident.
I think, you know, Winters is definitely the outlet when things go sideways in that lineup.
But yeah, as an opposite, you do need to know how to hit out of system.
And so that is something that she can try to add to her arsenal.
I personally am very impressed with Drevniok, the opposite, the German opposite.
She is fun to watch.
She has she hits multiple angles, good out of system.
She keeps taking rips, even if the sets aren't there.
I like her.
She knows her role in the team.
I think overall, Omaha has maximized their rosters, skills and personnel incredibly well.
Good ball control.
You can you put Stiverns in and use her.
Drevniak has a good out of system swing and you can use her to score points.
I think she's solid all the way around.
Good fundamentals.
I agree with you.
They have been very deliberate in their lineup.
As I said, their passing and defense in Larson and Juanerontes is solid.
They have Drevniak and Larson in the front together.
Drevniak is getting fed the majority of out of system balls.
And then as I said, we have Stiverns and Winters together.
So it's very clear where they want to set the out of system balls at any given time.
But the player who impressed me the most was Candelaria Herrera.
She was outstanding.
She played very, very well, both from a blocking perspective and an offensive perspective.
I love how fast this woman loads her arm on the attack.
Her window is so big.
And Laura Dikema, she has had a great career.
Do I think that she's the best setter in love right now?
Absolutely not.
She's missing sometimes, but because Herrera's elbow is loaded so early, she's able to fix
so many questionable sets that most middles maybe struggle with.
Well, and she is off the ground fast and early so the setter can see her, which makes her
easier to set.
I thought she personally, I would have given her player of the game.
Oh, Dravnjak got it.
Dravnjak got it and well deserved, statistically very, very good.
But what Herrera did for them, I thought was incredibly valuable.
And then finally, what I'll say about watching Omaha was, and this is a byproduct of again,
I think them leaning into their team strengths, their set distribution as a team was incredibly
balanced.
They had Winters had 47 attacks.
She's getting a lot of out of system balls.
Then you have Dravnjak next at 37.
So that makes sense that they're the two highest because they're also getting the out of system
sets.
But then you had Larsen 26, Herrera 18, Stivrans 22, Theta 9.
Overall though, a pretty balanced attack.
And that may be one thing that led to Madison's issue blocking was that they were able to
go to three or four options at any given time, which obviously helps your offense.
This may be a controversial statement, but my take on Omaha is that their middle blockers
and opposites are kind of making up for their outside hitters.
Not making up for that's maybe not fair.
But I feel like the strength of their middles and opposites makes life easier for the left
sides.
Do you know what I'm getting at here?
So if we compare Madison and Omaha specifically in this match position by position, I would
say the Madison left sides were taking passing into this.
The Madison left sides were better than the Omaha left sides, but Omaha's middles, right
sides and liberos were better outplayed them.
So, and I mean, again, it comes down to knowing your personnel, right?
What are your strengths?
You know, is Larson ball control very good, understands the game, she sees so well that
she can get out of trouble, but she's not blowing anybody up at this point in her career,
right?
You can't rely on her to get you out of trouble offensively.
And Winters played well, but she's also, if Winters, in my opinion, having watched not
enough matches, if she's going to see a solid two man block all match, I think she's going
to struggle.
Now, did she take care of business in this match?
Absolutely.
But I think the fact that they're in system, they're running their middles and they're
going to the outside makes life easier on the left sides.
And I would agree with your assessment.
This left side duo is definitely not the strongest offensively in love.
I had never seen Winters play before love.
So I've only seen her play a couple matches now.
Honestly, I expected more.
In the hype, I feel like A, she doesn't get off the ground.
And B, she is broad jumping so far on her attack.
The height that she's clearing the net is not good.
Plus her passing and defensive struggles.
So as of this moment, I'm not a Winters fan.
As far as Jordan, and I know people have been asking, so I'll address it now.
Jordan is an incredible ball control player.
Her passing top notch.
Okay, do not serve her the ball.
The way she's able to read the game, the way she's able to see the court offensively and
where players are moving.
Very good.
I have so much respect for Jordan and what she has done, what she has accomplished, what
she's done for volleyball in the US in the state of Nebraska.
She's one of the greatest of all time.
That being said, she's 38 years old.
Okay, trust me, I'm the same age.
I know she is at this point in time.
She is not playing very high above the net, which makes it tough to score points.
You see her managing because her court vision is so good, but she's not playing high enough
above the net.
In my opinion, she used to.
There's a reason that you see the oldest players typically in the setter and libero roles because
they don't have to jump.
You don't have to compete above the net.
This is not a knock on her at all.
It's just a byproduct of age.
I think she's managing and making it work, but I just think that from a point scoring
perspective and from an elevation power perspective, the two Omaha left sides, they're not there
compared to other teams in the league right now.
Well, watching Jordan attack, as soon as teams gave her something, as soon as the block wasn't
formed, as soon as the defense moved at all, she was able to see that and put the ball
in the open position.
Where Omaha is going to struggle is if their ball control falls apart, if a team is able
to isolate Winters' passing and they have to set the left side in out of system scenarios
for a whole match and their block defense is set up to defend that, if they can manage
to get that scenario, Omaha is going to struggle.
They've done a great job playing into their strengths, but that for me, if I'm game planning
against them, is what I'm trying to accomplish.
It was a fun match to watch.
Great rallies.
As we said, not all we expected because we know that I thought Madison would be good.
Yeah, it's just, it was fun to watch a team like Omaha who was so coordinated, who was
so on the same page.
They were very smooth in their ball control, in their defensive system.
It was cool.
They have found their identity as a team and they are playing with that strength in mind.
Our second feature match of the week is PVF San Diego Mojo versus Indy Ignite.
As we said earlier, San Diego handed Indy their first loss of the season.
Initial thoughts.
So I'm still getting to know some of these players.
A lot of them I have not watched in college or anywhere, so it's first impressions for
me.
I was impressed with their left sides, how quick they were, how fast they were to the
ball, the speed of their arms.
And it was fun to watch and Indy came flying out of the gate.
I thought it was going to be a three-nothing sweep, which was not the case.
San Diego, I'm not sure they had any, actually the most standout player for San Diego for
me was their setter.
I thought she did an incredible job.
Well, I thought Janasia Moore was unconscious.
That is also true.
Her arm was, she scored on everything.
It was a golden swing.
I had never seen her play before, but if she can replicate that across the season, she
will be...
Because she hasn't.
This was her first start ever.
I mean, we're talking player of the year caliber performance if she can replicate that.
It's unconscious.
Yeah, Indy definitely started strong.
I agree with you.
I thought it was going to be a sweep.
And then the tables turned and some weird stuff started happening.
So I thought Sydney Haley started the match really well.
I thought her offense was really smooth.
Her set distribution was good.
And honestly, I thought as the match went on, she got worse and worse.
So yeah, I think the setter roles flipped.
I think Lee did not start well and got better as the match went on.
And Haley agreed, got worse as the match went on.
I think San Diego pick up their serving pressure.
And as you were saying, yes, the outsides and opposites for Indy are very dynamic.
They jump well, but like they're very small.
And if passing starts to fall apart and they get a solid double block in front of them,
that thing is coming back fast.
And we started to see that happening.
Granted, Teeler and member Mena were scoring.
They're scoring well.
They were scoring efficiently.
Just the San Diego block defense was able to set up on them early.
So I think I don't know what their hitting percentages were.
I know they scored well, but it didn't look as smooth as they were used to.
So member Mena hit 232 on 56 attempts and Teeler hit 171 on 35 attempts.
Like Teeler was unconscious in set one.
And then for me, she kind of disappeared.
And I watching member Mena, I was like, it seemed like a grind.
Yeah.
I thought San Diego made good defensive positional adjustments.
They started to give up the middle attack and move back on defense with their base position.
And they were able to get many more touches on the outside hitters after that first set.
So I thought it was actually a really good team adjustment from a defensive position
standpoint.
Adam's biggest outrage of the match was why is Elena Scott not the starting libero, his
favorite libero of all time?
I'm telling you, she should have been playing.
Every time she came onto the floor, she had positive contributions.
She served well.
She put the team in trouble.
She would make digs.
Her out of system setting, still incredible.
Put the girl on the court.
She's a leader.
She's very skilled.
I want to see her play.
Kylie Myrrh.
She was, I wasn't a huge fan when she was in college.
I like Elena Scott as well.
So I don't, I'm not sure that that change will be coming, you know?
I mean, they're undefeated.
They're playing.
Well, not anymore.
They're under, but they're playing well.
I, nothing against her.
She played fine.
I'm just an Elena Scott fan.
I think she will eventually be a better libero.
We watched San Diego play last week.
I thought this week they looked much smoother.
Lee, as you said, was running a really good offense.
She got involved in the block.
Ronika Stone, I feel is like the foundation of that team.
She obviously has a middle.
She's not getting set a ton, but any opportunity they have to push her the ball, they try to
do that.
As we said, Janasia Moore was pretty much unconscious.
I thought their libero, Venegas also played really well.
It was a big turnaround from when we watched them play Orlando last week to now.
They just seemed more cohesive.
Well, and this is part of being at the beginning of the season, right?
What's happening now is not what's going to happen.
Which coaches are able to implement their systems, get their players to buy in.
We're going to see huge improvements in overall philosophy and execution over the next couple
of weeks, I think.
I'm curious to see, did Indy just gel right away and this is who they are?
The other teams are going to catch up because they're going to have to figure out that second
left side position.
Right now, if you look at the score sheet, member Mena had 24 points and Thieler had
18, which is great, but then we're talking their next highest player was Blake at nine.
The distribution-
Blake Muller, the middle.
Correct.
If you were just on a first name basis.
I know all the players so well.
I'm just getting to know these players, but me and Blake, we go way back.
The distribution from Hilly, I think she's going to need to find more avenues from points
as teams kind of settle in and figure out what players tendencies are.
One of the sets was super close and Indy had the lead.
I think they were up 24-22 or something crazy.
And then Sydney Hilly kept feeding the ball to Carly Scott, who was hitting negative and
getting consistently blocked by the setter, De Youngly.
Why?
You have set point, run your middles who are actually scoring for you.
I'm pretty sure Muller was in.
The decision making to me cost them that set because they had no business losing that.
Well, you're correct.
It was 26-25 for Indy and they set Scott twice and she had two chances to put the set away.
And I think there was an error and like a tip maybe or something like two plays where
she had a good opportunity to finish and she didn't.
And I just didn't think that was the right selection.
You've got two players who had been scoring all match.
Those are the little keys because if you win that set.
Yeah, over to like set member Mena in the back row.
Absolutely.
Like she's dynamic enough.
She jumps well.
She was scoring definitely some questionable decision making, especially at the end of
sets, but also from both setters because at that same time, Lee set the middle instead
of Moore when they were up by one in overtime.
And it's like, I get you want to run the middle, but Moore is literally unconscious.
She's scoring on everything, give her the ball.
That one I can get behind that decision.
I can get behind more than Hilli's decision because you're going to set somebody who came
off the bench, who hasn't really done anything while she's been on the court.
She passed pretty well offensively, but like Lee, I can get behind because you're going
to set your middle who that is a foundational player for you as opposed to somebody who
is their first match.
Granted in that match, Moore played amazing, but I can understand the history of like finishing
matches like let's go to our like veteran star player.
Well, Indy started up seven two in that third set and that lead got away from them.
I will say I didn't think Pittman who's the right side for San Diego did much offensively,
but defensively she blocked really well, especially down the stretch and she served well and she
generated a lot of points from the baseline in terms of putting them in trouble and getting
them going.
So I thought that was big for them as well.
Well that's another like stiffen situation.
Pittman played middle in college.
It's a very different game slowing down your approach having to hit high balls out of system.
So I'm not shocked that she's not an offensive powerhouse quite yet, but yeah, she caused
them problems blocking wise and I think her rotation was the best one for them as a point
scoring rotation when she was serving.
Correct.
The crazy thing for me was Indy actually passed much better than San Diego did statistically,
but Lee found a way to run the middles way more than Sydney Hilly did.
And I don't know if you're just comfortable with players and obviously that middle connection
takes some time to establish or if you know, I haven't watched a ton of Indy games so I
don't know if those players and Teeler and member Mena have just been able to carry them,
but she's going to need to figure out how to get those middles involved more, especially
if they're passing as well as they are.
Well, which is crazy because like San Diego had a double block in front of the outsides
like all the time, I guess because they're like, well, no setting the middle.
Member Mena actually got player of the week or whatever last week, so she has been playing
well.
And I mean, points scoring wise, like 24 points in four sets is really good.
I just think I keep going back to the size thing and it's not that I'm against smaller
players.
It's just, again, the height that you're playing above the net and having like hands in your
face as you're swinging.
I they to make their lives easier.
You've got a five eight outside of five nine right side.
You need to find ways to create some gaps and some space for them.
And how are you going to do that?
Run the middle.
Well, what did you think about the tempo of sets to those two players or in general from
Sydney Hilly to Lee?
I was surprised how slow Sydney Hilly's offense was considering the size of the hitters.
Normally when you have smaller hitters and we talked about this with the BYU men's match
last week, if you have an undersized hitter, you need to speed it up to create movement,
to create those flashes of seams and space to like help them out.
Big players, they can they get that height above the net that they can create those angles.
But yeah, I thought it would be faster than it was.
So that's my number one change or improvement that Indy will have to do.
Because again, I don't know how many of these players coaches have seen.
Coaches have studied how much film there is, you know, so if you're playing well in your
dynamic, you're going to start off strong just because people don't know your tempo.
They don't know your angles.
But Indy's a new team.
Indy's a new team.
So I'm curious, they got it to a hot start, which is always good.
But as the preparation gets better, as the amount of information and your angles becomes
more apparent, how do you make those adjustments?
And I think Sydney Hilly is good enough to run a more complex and a faster offense.
And I'm curious to see if they're able to make that adjustment, because if they don't,
it could be a long rest of the season for them.
Well, in college, she was playing with massive girls, you know, you're playing with Dana
Recky at 6'8", Anna Smreks 6'9", your outsides are 6'4".
It's a different kind of game when you've got players that are that big.
So that adjustment definitely needs to be made.
But I think like even this head to head battle is a case study in this same discussion and
be that Moore is not huge.
Janasia Moore is like six feet tall, but she was given the opportunity to be very effective
offensively.
Why?
Because Indy was so focused on the San Diego middles in Ronika Stone, and it started Lalo
Blackwell, but then switched to Paige.
They were so hyper focused on them because Lee runs them so frequently that it was able
to create those open opportunities.
So I think even when you look at this match, it's the same discussion, but one team executed
it and did what they needed to do as far as the chess match, whereas the other one didn't.
I will say one other point that I love to see and you know, part of this is because
we lived in Korea and saw the volleyball there for two years, but Lee's competitive spirit
as that match went on her, her fire when she would get a block or her teams would score
points, I thought she was a true leader on the court.
And that transcends language barriers.
A hundred percent.
It's like you can tell like I'm here to win.
I thought that was really great to see because you don't our experience in Korea, in my opinion
was very there is it's not docile, but there's a very big component of respect.
And sometimes that comes across as being meek.
And that's not the case when you get to know the girls off the court, but to see her be
able to let her competitive spirit shine through and just be a part of that.
It was really great to see given our experience of being there full of surprises this week.
Everything we think we know is going to happen did not happen, which I think makes it kind
of exciting.
We'll see if Indy is able to bounce back, make some adjustments this coming week in
San Diego.
Let's see.
Hopefully they're able to continue rolling because because that was a lot of fun to watch.
It's now time for my favorite segment of the show.
We're going to play a new game called levels of concern.
You just had to check what it's called.
So my worst skill is naming things.
I can come up with a concept, but the naming things is always tough.
So we're going to go, we're going to call it level of concern.
So what's going to happen is I'm going to put you into the role of a team, a player.
I'm going to give you a scenario and you are going to tell me what your level of concern
is in that situation.
So there are five options.
So your first level of concern is you're not very concerned.
It's the equivalent of losing an assistant coach to be a head coach at another program.
Not really a huge deal.
Wow.
Adam is harsh.
He's like, I don't care about you.
Your second level of concern is losing a top recruit to a rival.
Not ideal, but it's not going to sink your program.
Your third level of concern is being in a five match losing streak.
The next one is a Pittsburgh losing Tori Stafford to Texas level of concern.
So we are, well, it's, it's very high, but it's not as high as this Nebraska having a
losing preseason.
That is your highest level.
Yeah.
A losing preseason.
That's, that's the biggest part of this.
One of the biggest parts of the season.
If you were to go into conference play, having a losing record, Nebraska having a losing
season.
Okay.
All right.
We'll go, we'll go the nuclear option.
Nebraska having a losing season.
That is the highest level of concern that there is in volleyball.
Okay.
So here, here are the questions and we can both answer these.
I think it'll be fun.
So your first question, you are Lexi Rodriguez.
How concerned are you that you are not going to play all season?
Hold on.
I'm looking at the concern options.
If I'm her, I'm in my first year of pro literally weeks after I ended my college season and
I'm playing behind one of the best liberos in the world.
I would say losing an assistant coach to be the head coach level one concern.
And honestly looking at her face during the matches, she's chilling.
She is chilling.
Just chatting with everybody on the bench dancing.
I'm like, this girl does not seem concerned at all.
So I'm a little higher than you.
I'm being in a five match losing streak.
I'm all for earning your spot.
And like my thing is you chose to go to a place where you knew that Justine was playing.
Like you had to know the writing was on the wall.
Did you think like as a fresh out of college kid, you're just going to walk in and beat
her out?
Come on.
I personally think great.
You can learn from the current us national team libero, but you're a competitor.
You just beat her record.
You want to be on the floor.
You're competitive.
If I'm her, I'm thinking about being on the 20, 28 roster and I need to play to do that
again.
How long is Justine going to be there in front of you?
If you don't get a chance to play at all to prove how good you are, I'm concerned if I'm
Lexi Rodriguez.
My thing is you should have picked another team.
Well, but this is the situation she's in.
I'm more concerned than you are.
Question two, you are Salt Lake City management.
How concerned are you that Haley Washington is not going to be available for you for most
of the season?
I don't know if I'm being over dramatic, but I'm like losing Tori Stafford level of concern.
Do you want me to finish before you tell me?
Go ahead.
Well, A, she's a founding athlete of love.
B, she's been a starter on the US national team.
So she's very good.
So from an optics perspective for the brand, from a skill perspective for Salt Lake, I
mean, you want to be winning matches.
And if she, if she's your best middle, which I believe she is like, how long are you going
to be out here?
Like the clock's ticking.
I am also losing Tori Stafford on this because you know, everything that I kind of had a
vibe about was that she was going to start the second match.
Like she was close to coming back and no offense to Dixon, but the upgrade from Dixon to Washington
Do you think they would actually replace Dixon or do you think that they would replace the
other one?
Cause right now it's alternating between Serena Gray and Sophie Fisher.
I personally think that they should replace Dixon, but I don't know if that's the direction
they would go.
I think longterm it's got to be Dixon and she's done a great job coming in, but regardless,
if she comes on the floor, you are way better with her.
And the fact that it hasn't happened yet, I don't know if there's been a setback or
where she's coming from a recovery standpoint.
I think she's a fundamental piece for your team and I am wanting her back greatly and
right now.
You are the commissioner of the PVF.
How concerned are you that your expansion team is winning the league in season two?
Losing my assistant coach to another program level of concern.
Is it a big deal?
Like, does it matter?
You've added a team, they're doing well.
Don't you want your expansion teams to do well to prove that the investment was worth
it?
Not to mention if they're doing well, then that's another market that can like grow interest
in the game.
Yeah.
I'm like, I don't care at all.
I would agree with you.
I'm losing an assistant coach to that one as well.
I think especially in a market in a league that's so new, you still want to attract new
franchises and the ability to be successful I think goes a long way with that.
And you're going to have more competition next year for teams and locations.
I definitely think that's a positive as well.
And our final question for level of concern.
You are Eric Sullivan.
What is your level of concern that your US players staying and playing in the US hampers
your ability to have internationally ready players for the 2028 Olympics?
I'm probably lose a top recruit level of concern because the players that you're seeing play
in the US are either fresh, fresh out of college little babies, or they are on the tail end
of their career and have done the overseas dance for long enough.
I think the ones who are in the meat of their career, they're still staying overseas.
So it's the transitionary athletes, the ones who are either entering their national team
years or on the way out that are playing in the US.
So I'm like, maybe the ones that you were looking at bringing in immediately, you're
like, is this the best?
But I think the ones who are going to be the biggest difference makers in LA are getting
that competition they need.
I'm a little higher with this.
I think I'm losing Torrie Stafford.
Wow.
I think the leagues in the US are great for the sport in general.
I think you're going to see more and more kids playing and being connected with that.
I look at a Madison Skinner as an example.
So there's somebody who could potentially be your opposite in 2028 and she's playing
here in the US and her specifically playing overseas against bigger blocks in different
systems and part of that for me is being uncomfortable, living overseas, leaving the US, understanding
what that international game looks like.
I think that's valuable experience in playing while uncomfortable.
And I think for most players, it doesn't matter.
But if you have your eyes on two or three players who are coming out of college this
year or next year, you can't replace those four years of experience.
And again, long term, I think you're so excited, but for 2028, I think there are some key players
that you wish would be overseas playing in Italy or Turkey.
So that wraps up our level of concern game.
I kind of had fun with that.
I'm not sure.
I like that one.
I'm not to the roster.
So we're going to have to throw that into the rotation.
And again, anybody has any questions or thoughts about anything that we can throw into a game?
Toss them up on YouTube or on Instagram.
I'm always looking for more ideas and we love the participation.
All right, we have a few listener questions this week.
So our first one is how much do you think love slash PVF will prepare or impact potential
national team athletes for the 2028 Olympics?
Is it better if they were to play overseas in Italy or Turkey?
We kind of just touched on this.
So I don't know if you want to go into it again.
Again, I just really quickly, I think that being in an uncomfortable situation of leaving
the US and understanding what other players do, what other systems look like, how other
setters and liberals function, like all of that gives you information that helps you
prepare for that international season.
And so I don't think it applies generally, but I think it does apply to three or four
athletes that they might have their eyes on.
And like not every league is as good as Italy or Turkey.
So if they could get contracts in those leagues and play against that kind of talent night
in and night out and train against that every single day, like I know for me, I signed in
Brazil like the year they won the gold medal in the Olympics and I was playing with gold
medalists every single day at practice.
And that inherently made me so much better because the level that I was exposed to day
in and day out was Olympic gold medal level.
So there is something to be said.
I think adaptability is huge.
I think getting out of your comfort zone is huge because you don't accomplish great things
by staying comfortable.
Let me tell you, I would agree.
It would be, it's scary.
It is uncomfortable, but I think the payoff could be huge.
Question two is will Omaha ever play Lexi Rodriguez?
No.
I mean, she's in a really tough spot because they run the six two, so they use all of their
subs.
So she's not even coming in as a serving sub.
And unless Justine gets hurt, you're not going to see the floor because she is the best period.
You're not playing.
If your priority was to get on the court, you should have gone somewhere else.
And I keep going back to that, I spoke about it earlier.
What possessed you to sign with a team?
One of love's strengths are their liberos.
Where do I think that Lexi could play?
I think she could play for Houston.
I think she could play for Atlanta and potentially Madison.
Other than that, it'd be tough.
So I'm curious, you know, if the league is looking ahead, because we actually don't know
how the players signed, if they get assigned to teams, what that process is like.
It's very much hidden behind the veil.
They might want her there and go, hey, you're going to sign an eight year deal.
You're going to sit behind.
If you're if you're thinking about going pro, you guys, let me tell you right now.
Don't sign an eight year deal.
Well, but I'm just saying it Lexi in Omaha draws a crowd.
Right.
Her being there makes sense.
How long is Justine going to play?
Is she going for another Olympics?
Like we don't know any of those questions, but we'll we'll see.
But as of right now, she's not playing.
Question three is what does it mean to have a disciplined block?
I love this question.
And specifically, this listener was referring to announcers who always go, oh, what a discipline
block like that was really good.
And just wondering what the criteria for that is.
Now, I will say most of the announcers or a lot of the announcers use this in an incorrect
way, in my opinion.
But what does a discipline block look like for you?
And then I can give you my answer.
I guess for me, you and I are kind of talking about this.
I think my definition is a little more basic.
For me, it means getting set and taking your space without reaching.
So even if you're a middle blocker and you know you're not going to close the block instead
of just jumping sideways and throwing your hands sideways, like stopping where you are
and taking the space that you can in order to give a clear direction to your defense.
If hands are moving everywhere and bodies are flying sideways, it's very hard for a
defense to get set up.
So for me, it is like getting set and just taking solid space wherever you are.
I like the definition.
I'll go on to say part of being in a discipline block is getting your assignment.
And we don't always know what those assignments are.
But if you're supposed to take the line in this situation, it allows the three players
behind you to do their job.
If the block is not correct, the defenders are guessing on where to be.
So first and foremost would be doing your job.
And then let's say some of the common errors I see when it comes to a discipline block
are outside hitters drifting when they close.
So it opens up a scene between their middle block.
That's one you mentioned hands reaching.
And again, you're creating different scenes and areas for the hitters to use you.
And then the last one would be if the block is very high and not over the net, you open
up that space below you.
You want to be over versus up, which you sometimes see as well.
And our final listener question of the week is, do you think top USA players like Plummer
and Skinner will join love soon?
I don't.
I think they're making more money overseas.
I think that they both of those players specifically will be key in the 2028 Olympics, I believe.
And the level of competition, training, the thing about being overseas that listeners
may or may not know is you're playing in your league, which is stronger top to bottom, I
would say.
But you're also competing in Champions League.
So you're seeing all of the best players and that is from different countries.
You're in a tournament style, single elimination.
There's an incredible amount of pressure to perform in those matches.
You have to train with the best to be the best, in my opinion.
And players who have aspirations of starting on the national team for 2028 will continue
to be overseas, in my opinion, until the US leagues can bring in top outsides, opposites
and middles.
That will be the case.
I agree.
I think their earning potential overseas is much higher.
Again, we don't know what the love compensation structure looks like.
So if anybody knows, let us know, please.
But I just I think that their earning potential is too high and everything that Adam alluded
to aside from money.
Like you're not seeing that in love right now.
Training with and against the best every single day and then competing against the best in
different forums, like Champions League, like the league, like the cup.
No, it's it's not a comparison.
Not to mention the season is nine months long.
So you're getting that much more good training as opposed to love where they start their
preseason training in like November.
It's you can't compare it.
All right.
So let's let's look forward to this week.
We'll talk about some of the matches.
One of the requests we had and it can be a little confusing.
Where can we watch these matches?
Where are where can they be found?
So let's go over the matches we're going to watch this week and where we can do that.
So on Wednesday, we have our love head to head match, which is going to feature Houston
and Madison.
So two teams that are sitting at the bottom of the standings currently.
So we'll see who comes out on top for that one.
That's going to be at eight o'clock Eastern on Love Live.
We're not huge fans of Love Live.
We had a bad experience trying to watch the feature match this week.
The screen was black a lot.
Yeah.
Just voices.
So hopefully I don't know if anyone else had that experience.
I'd be curious to know if that was our Internet or the feed in general.
The the announcers, we could still hear them talking completely fine.
But the screen was just black.
I don't know.
It was really.
Let us know if you had trouble with that.
Following up the feature match, the weekend with love will be hosted in Atlanta this week.
Matches on Friday will be on ESPN plus and then the Saturday matches will be on Love
Live.
There are a ton of really good men's matches this week.
I'm really hoping the feedback comes back that they want us to analyze some of them
because I would love to watch.
This week is going to be good.
You have USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Penn State, who needs a win.
They're all playing in Columbus this weekend, Thursday to Saturday.
Hawaii and BYU have back to back matches Friday and Saturday.
That will also be very good.
And UC Irvine and Stanford are also playing.
All of those men's matches will be on Big Ten Plus.
I hope you guys have Big Ten Plus or wait for the match to end and watch it on YouTube.
But you didn't hear that from me.
All right.
Let's look at PVF now.
So the Thursday match is at 10 o'clock Eastern.
Atlanta Vibe will play the San Diego Mojo.
We'll see if they can keep rolling and build on their win over Indy.
On Friday, also at 10 p.m. Eastern, the Indy Ignite will play Vegas Thrill.
Indy looking to right the ship and continue to stay at the top of the league.
Those matches will both be on the YouTube PVF channel.
That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.
There's always something shaking in the volleyball world, and we hope you enjoyed this little
fix.
Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss any updates.
And we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five star review.
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Thanks so much for joining us and we'll be back next week.