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.
We had Valentine's Day, we had a long weekend.
You might be listening to this on your long weekend.
Lots of volleyball to be watched.
I mean, what more can you ask for really?
The number of unbeaten teams is dwindling on the NCAA men's side as some heavy hitters
faced off this week.
The Love Classic was held in conjunction with Triple Crown in Kansas City, the PVF All-Star
weekend is coming up.
You may think you know what we have in store for you this week, but I think you might be
in for a little surprise as we mix things up a little bit.
So we're so excited to talk volleyball with you all.
So let's get started.
As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, the US women's national team named Eric Sullivan
as their head coach for LA 2028, but he has announced his assistant coaching roster this
week.
So in addition to Eric Sullivan, Tyeeba Hanif Park, Mike Wall and Brandon Talley-Farrow
were named the assistant coaches.
For those of you who may not be familiar with those people, Tyeeba Hanif Park was a three
time Olympian.
She's currently coaching the San Diego Mojo in the PVF.
She has been an assistant coach at Oregon and Arizona and has been involved with a lot
of the USA development programs like the Pan Am Cup teams, the U23 teams, things like that.
Mike Wall was the US men's national team assistant coach from 2013 to 2021.
And then through the Paris Olympics, he was a consultant coach.
Not sure what that means, but you get the idea.
And he has been an assistant at Arizona State and Utah.
And then Brandon Talley-Farrow is a former men's national team member and he is currently
the assistant coach for the UCLA men's team.
We were actually asked a question this week about what we think about this coaching lineup.
I'm not going to lie whenever I see a coaching lineup for a national team, I always think
the assistants are a little like, why did they pick them?
I'm always kind of like, what made you pick this person?
As a head coach, ideally you're thinking about the things that you're good at and the things
that you are not good at and finding assistant coaches who maybe fill the gap or have a need
that you are maybe not the best at.
And so looking at that skill set along with how do you work with people?
What's the dynamic like?
Are they going to have your back but push you?
That coaching staff dynamic I think is really, really important and so making sure that you
fit on a skill and personal level are important.
And a lot of times we don't know those things.
So it's hard to kind of make an assessment until you see at least one year of results
and see how they work together.
Looks like we're just doing a flip flop here.
Former men's national team coaches heading to the women's side, women's coaches heading
to the men's.
We're just doing a little flip.
I wonder what these coaches develop as their coaching specialty as they transition into
the coaching game because maybe their specialty is not what they played.
But yeah, I did notice that none of these coaches were former middles.
But when we look at the women's national team last round, neither were any of them.
So well, in the US has generally been very strong at that position.
So we'll see how that goes.
And if that continues, they do have some very good middles coming down the pipeline.
So to be completely honest with you, I had no idea who Mike Wall was.
And then I was a little surprised that Talia Farrow, that one kind of came out of nowhere
for me.
Tyba Hanif Park, that makes sense.
Like I can see why she would be selected.
And quite frankly, women's teams, you need to, I mean, you don't need to, but you tend
to see a woman on the coaching staff in some capacity.
But yeah, I was a little surprised about Talia Farrow, but I mean, he's based in LA already.
He's coaching at a high level program.
I mean, there's always going to be Eric Sullivan is going to have his own relationships and
know a ton of people in the sport.
He's going to know who he works well with.
So you have to trust that the head coach knows what he's doing and how that fit is going
to work and to shape that team to his vision of the USA program.
So we'll see how it goes.
On the NCAA men's side, last week was upset week.
Okay.
There was a lot of movement and shaking happening.
So we did end up seeing a lot of movement happening in the middle to lower part of the
rankings.
The top five stayed solid and consistent from the week before.
This week wasn't upset week as a whole, but we did have some unbeaten teams get handed
their first defeats.
So Long Beach State is now 10 and 0 after beating UCLA 3-0 in Westwood.
We watched that match.
I thought it was a very good match.
It was close for the most part.
Points back and forth, lots of tide, lots of lead changes.
I mean, I don't think UCLA led the match at all until the third set, but the first set
was very close.
It was close.
And there were chances for UCLA.
I know that Long Beach handed them their losses, but I would say that they had chances in that
match to take the lead and even win sets.
I'm thinking specifically there was one overpass where the middle hit the ball into the, or
hit the net.
No, just like ripped the net down with his arm.
And I think that was to go up 23-21 at that point.
Yes, they won.
They won.
And then they went back and lost that set.
So I think UCLA was very close to having a few execution pieces go in their favor.
And then they struggled to give up serving runs with some of their best players for Long
Beach.
I just think Long Beach stays better.
Yeah, 100% they're better.
I totally agree with that.
But it wasn't like UCLA didn't have chances.
Had they executed on a few things, I think they could have extended that match and they
don't run the middle enough.
Plain and simple.
Okay, so a question that was asked to us was A, what do we think about UCLA's Tulabero
system and B, what could UCLA have done to beat Long Beach State?
I personally think that when I look at the top men's teams, when I look at Long Beach
State, when I look at UC Irvine, they're in system so much.
Their passing is very, very good.
And I think that that is kind of where UCLA falters a little bit.
I don't think UCLA's passing is at the standard of the top top teams.
And so I think it's twofold.
There's that but then there's also the fact that they rely so heavily on their outsides
and they're not getting production from their middles and right sides the same way that
the other top teams are.
Could it be a factor?
Could it be part of the passing issue?
Maybe, but even when they are passing well, they're not getting that same production that
the other top teams are.
So I think that that is the difference right now.
What do you think about the Tulabero system?
I mean, it's tough to judge what either one would do in the other position.
I'm personally not a fan of Aziz's serve receive.
So I like that the other guy comes in for serve receive.
Yeah, and I mean, obviously, both of those liberos are putting into their best position.
And if one was outperforming the other, you'd play with the same guy.
I personally like when you have one libero on the floor for both skills.
I think it adds a little bit of cohesiveness and you can kind of feel the game out better.
But sometimes you just have two players that have skill sets that are independent and you
might as well utilize them.
The thing about the passing that you mentioned was, it's interesting.
They're not a terrible passing team.
They just pass at the attack line.
They're all shaking every single ball, but they're not like Rowan was running around.
Well, yeah, there's height on the balls, but they're all that he's setting from the attack
line very consistently or slightly from the sideline, either sideline.
The setter is running around.
Yeah.
And that and that makes it hard because I think Rowan is a good setter, but he's constantly
on the move.
And that's what needs to be fixed because they very rarely run their middle in server
receive.
Mostly they run their middle on free balls in transition and the other team knows it's
coming.
And they the middle still score.
I think the middles are good enough to be more productive than they are and they don't
use them at the right time.
It's part passing and part decision making for me.
And they're missing David.
They're go to opposite.
I'm curious if he comes back, if that production improves, but I agree.
They're a little one dimensional right now.
Also, did anybody see miles partain on the bench?
Somebody tell me what's going on there because after he left that team high and dry a couple
years ago, I am shocked that he is showing his face in Polly Pavilion again.
So somebody give me the details on that because I was wow.
Well, I'm not surprised that it's after sprawl left.
And also his numbers 28 is that a sign for LA 2028?
Who knows?
To be completely honest, I've kind of like since I retired, I just stopped paying attention
to beach volleyball.
So maybe it's been out there and I just don't know.
But tell me.
You see Irvine beat formerly unbeaten USC in both of their matches this week.
They won three, two and three zero.
So we are going to be talking about those matches here in a bit, but there is one unbeaten
down Ball State and Lewis split their series.
Ball State won the first three one and then Lewis returned the favor beating Ball State
the next night and five.
And then Loyola Chicago is no longer unbeaten.
Everybody McHendry handed them their first loss of the season of three to two.
They upset Lewis last week.
So McHendry is just like the dark horse here to just mess up everybody's seasons.
You know what I'm saying?
So that means Long Beach State and UC Irvine are the only two unbeaten teams left in men's
volleyball.
That's exciting.
I want to see them play each other.
That would be outstanding.
I just have to say, and I know I mentioned this last week, I have had so much fun watching
the men's NCAA matches.
If you are just craving some volleyball, turn on men's NCAA.
You will not be disappointed.
All right.
Let's look at the women's leagues.
We have as mentioned this week was the love classic.
Earlier this week we saw love implemented the super point for this tournament.
Lame, so lame.
As soon as I saw that, I almost wanted to like this to me.
This to me just feels so gimmicky.
It seems like they're trying to put in some interest or something to talk about.
It's so cringy.
Hey, this one's worth two.
Like, that just doesn't.
Oh my gosh.
I can't even talk about it.
I'm like, this is so embarrassing.
Like I wish I was a fly on the wall in that meeting where somebody pitched that idea.
I hope everybody at that table was looking around thinking it was a joke.
And then when they saw the person was like serious, they're like, oh, yes, yes, genius.
This is going to throw everybody for a loop.
It sure threw me for a loop.
So I boycotted love this week because I just couldn't take it.
It's almost like they know that things are getting stale and things are getting a little
boring watching the same matchups over and over.
So they're like, you know what, let's be exciting.
It's not exciting.
But think about, so if I'm a coach and I'm looking at this, anytime I get to 23 points,
I'm just going to go.
But they made a rule.
It was like, it can't happen.
I want to say it couldn't happen after 20 or something in the normal sets.
And then in the fifth set, you couldn't do it after 11.
Okay.
So we're going to spice it up, but you can't do it when it matters.
So you're just going to pick your best server and go, hey, this one's worth two.
Like that is the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
It does nothing for me.
Nothing.
Anyway, moving on.
We're okay.
Trust us.
So the tournament was set up.
So the top two teams in the standings currently got a buy in the tournament.
So the quarters were already played.
Houston beat Madison 3-0.
No surprise there.
Madison stinks.
Austin beat Salt Lake 3-1 in a match that was looked closer.
We didn't watch that one, but the scores indicated.
No, we boycotted love.
Yeah.
Scores indicated that the match was at least close.
Semi-final play saw Houston beat Omaha 3-1 and then Atlanta beat Austin 3-1.
That one I was less surprised about.
I thought Omaha was probably going to win.
So Houston got their rhythm down in that venue.
You know?
Yeah.
Having a buy is always a double-edged sword in my opinion.
It's tricky.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the finals.
Maybe we won't boycott the finals.
Maybe we'll have them on in the background or something.
But we'll see what happens between Houston versus Atlanta.
That could be a good game, especially if Houston's found a little rhythm.
That's being played today.
We record on Sundays, everybody.
So, yeah.
Looking at the PVF, Orlando is still going strong.
They had a 3-1 win over both Columbus and Grand Rapids this week.
Atlanta's back on the winning track with a 3-1 win over Grand Rapids.
Orlando has stacked up a decent lead of points with 23 on the season.
Vegas has 17, but is still atop the leaderboard at 7-2.
So somebody hit us up and just…
We're so confused.
I couldn't find anything on the website as to what the actual standing metrics are and
how you break ties.
So if anybody knows, let us know.
But Orlando has been winning in convincing style.
Most of their wins are in 3-4.
Correct.
They've had a 1-1 win in 5, so they have been maximizing those points.
Which I think is important and will serve them well.
And we'll see if Vegas can start to win a little more consistently in 3 or 4.
But yeah, both of those teams are leading the league and playing well right now.
Our first feature match of the week is on the NCAA men's side, UC Irvine versus USC.
We watched the first match.
We did not see the second, but very, very different style of play from the Hawaii-Stanford
matches we talked about last week.
Whoa.
This match was an absolute shootout.
They were bombing balls at each other.
This was physicality on another level.
And while there weren't a lot of rallies in this match…
No defense was to be found in this match, okay?
It was still impressive to watch.
It was incredibly fun.
It was impressive, yeah, like Adam said.
Just by its sheer physicality and power, I think the Hawaii-Stanford match, they were
impressive because it was a full, well-rounded volleyball game.
Good ball control, good rallies, the defense was solid.
The teams were very consistent with their serving.
This was on a different level, but it was still entertaining.
I was watching that match and thinking, okay, how are these teams going to match up against
a Hawaii, which is, you know, stout defensively, they make plays, they extend rallies.
It seemed that USC and UC Irvine were playing a similar style of game, and it was just going
to be, hey, who's better at this style?
And once those kind of strategies mix, I'm so curious to see some of those matchups.
But this was thoroughly entertaining, so close, unbelievable.
26-24 in the fifth set, ladies and gentlemen.
To UC Irvine's credit, and I know I kind of alluded to it earlier, they are in system
a lot.
They're passing, even though they didn't do a lot of balls, they're passing.
The setter has any option, and the scary thing is all the options are good options.
There are no bad players on that team, and they're all physical.
It's incredible.
One of the differences, so there was very little digging happening because the balls
were coming just so fast, lots of off the block.
But to me, the difference in the match was UC Irvine ended up blocking better down the
stretch, and it was always a combination.
Because the hitters were so skilled, UC Irvine had the ability to apply a little bit of pressure
from the service line and then get one or two key digs almost in a row.
So they had a couple rotations where they blocked really well, and that would create
a little bit of separation for them, and then they'd kind of finish the match off.
From a holistic standpoint, that was one of the things that I noticed they were really
good at.
So looking at the teams, who from UC Irvine did you think stood out the most for you?
I think Noah Flexon was very good.
I know Heno is also very good.
He kind of rubs me the wrong way, you guys.
His attitude is so bad.
It's very dependent on where they are in the match and how well he's getting set.
Well, it always depends on how everybody else is doing.
He doesn't seem to mind his own mistakes, but if anybody dares to set him poorly or
make an error, he's storming around the court, he is upset, but then he makes a terrible
set, and he's like, oh, my bad.
He's like, nah, I'm not a fan of that.
But Heno finds very interesting and varied ways to score.
He finds the top of those fingers so frequently.
He mixes up his shots.
His court vision is outstanding.
He is more of a diversified offensive player, whereas Flexon is just jumps out of the gym.
His contact point is so high.
I like Flexon's style of play.
He is just a horse and he is working.
Feed him the ball, he's going to put it away.
So I personally prefer Flexon, and I thought he did a great job.
So if we look at the stats for that match, both Flexon and Heno got 50 attacks in that
match.
Heno had 24 kills, Flexon had 27.
Flexon hit 420 on the match, and Heno hit 340.
It was incredible.
But that being said, they still spread the ball around even after that.
You had Mika Gross had 16 sets, you had Maxim Grigoriev had 15 sets, and then Andon had
27.
So I was going to get that one.
So even though they have their go-to hitters, I thought they did a pretty good job of balancing
the offense.
I liked how they ran the middle just enough to kind of keep USC there and in the zone.
And they ran the back row ball over top of that incredibly effective.
So even though they didn't necessarily run the middle a ton, I thought they did a good
job of owning the middle of the court, which made attacking on the outside of the pins
more effective for them.
I think that's what makes them so dangerous.
And that's kind of what I was speaking about earlier is that every option they have is
a good option.
Their middles, while they may not get used a ton, are capable.
And they score when they're given the opportunity.
Both left sides are scoring.
Your right side is scoring.
In a team like that, what do you do?
You have to prioritize your option and then you have to leave something available and
you're eating it.
Yeah.
And their setter did a very good job of understanding where they were.
Any kind of movement, he was setting the right player.
At least that's how it looked to me.
His hitters always seem to have the advantage.
I would say their biggest liability is when their setter, Carlos, is in the front row.
USC was exploiting that like crazy.
And the wild thing to me is this setter is definitely a liability at the net.
But not only that, he's leaving a truckload of line when he's blocking.
If you know that teams are attacking you and you know that you're not the strongest blocker,
make the line, minimize the court that they have to hit over or around you.
But he's leaving so much line.
I would hate to be defending behind that.
It's just like, please just hit me and don't knock me out.
You know what I'm saying?
The right side, digging behind the setter is never a place you want to be.
It's never a place you want to be.
But when the setter can't block and is leaving so much, it was honestly, and not that this
happened, but it was honestly like digging behind my setter in college when Destiny Hooker
was hitting.
Well, and I will say- And Rachel would take the line, but Destiny
Hooker was like touching 20 feet.
So I know you've experienced this.
You've played with a lot of small setters and it's never a fun experience.
But let me tell you, as a man playing the game, when you're setter small and the heavens
just open in front of you and you're halfway- I would step off of the court, okay?
I'm out.
I would step out of this.
It's not a good feeling.
I thought that so many times.
I was like, I don't know how these guys do that.
Because that ball is going so fast.
I would just walk away.
It's wild.
I love this match just because it was so competitive and so close.
If we look at the match from a statistical standpoint, USC hit 311 on the match, which
is good.
UC Irvine hit 335.
So you're pretty close.
And if we look down the stat line, service wise, USC 16 errors to UCI is 18, three aces
to four, very similar.
And again, as we discussed, it's the blocking for me that comes in and makes the difference.
UCI had 27 block assists and four solo blocks compared to 16 for UCI and two solo blocks.
And not only that, USC made blocking errors at bad times.
Oh my gosh, they touched the net.
Four times they were on the net.
And if I'm remembering correctly, almost all of them were post 20.
And that was part of it, was undisciplined in some of those situations towards the end.
Now don't get me wrong, we were in extra time in the second set and major extra time in
the fifth set with point leads going back and forth.
Those guys had ice in their veins.
They were making swings on broken plays and keeping their team in there.
And it was super exciting.
But that ability to get a block and a couple key errors at times, I think for me was what
sunk USC in that match.
You know what I really liked about USC was how they ran their middle.
Oh, yes.
From like way off the net, they were pumping that middle and they were very effective,
particularly Parker Tomlinson.
This kid is seven feet tall.
He didn't look seven feet tall on the court.
You know, it's like when you're when you're standing among people who are around your
height, you look normal.
Seven foot middle.
And opening him up, opening himself up for attacks.
He was working hard to be a target all the time.
I think that is going to be one of USC strengths going on is how often they can run both of
their middles, quite frankly.
And it's opening up their outside hitters who probably weren't as physical as some of
the other outside hitters that we've seen in the league.
So that is going to be a key component for them.
I thought Marcus Olsen came in and did a good job in the middle too.
He came in partway through the match, but I loved how adamant they were and how consistently
they were running their middle.
I thought Dylan Klein played really well.
Jack Duker.
Like it was it was a fun match to watch.
I think USC definitely won the libero battle.
I would say Dylan Klein did a bunch of things really well and he was fun to watch.
But that to me was the difference in the match because you had the hitting efficiencies for
the two outside hitters in Hano and Flexin from UC Irvine who are over 300.
Dylan Klein had 47 sets, so almost as many as the other two, but only hit 191.
And it's not as if he played poorly.
He still had 18 kills, but for me, he made too many errors.
He had nine errors and he needs to find a rhythm where he doesn't feel perfect of being
able to put the other team in trouble while not causing his team an error.
Well we were talking about that in the first set too.
Like USC was either scoring or making an error.
There were very few plays that were continuing.
And I think that with the middles doing the job that they are for USC, you're going to
get your chances because the middles have to hold on the other side.
You've got to be able to find a three quarter swing that can still put them in trouble and
give yourself a chance when you don't have that clean kill.
And that will come.
That's an experience thing.
And in general, men are shooting to score and they're not thinking about the three quarter
speed.
That's just an experience thing in my mind.
The only head scratching thing for me was UC Irvine put in a serving sub for the first
time in the fifth set at 13-12.
Welcome to the match.
My man better not mess this up.
And I believe he missed the serve.
He did.
But I was like this poor kid.
Like you were set up to fail on that.
I'm thinking what are you doing?
Like you've got to have so much confidence in that kid.
This is a massive match.
He's ice cold.
Like literally two hours into the match, welcome.
You're going into overtime.
For me, I was sitting there thinking this is going to cost them the match.
They're blocking so well.
They're controlling the net from that standpoint.
I didn't understand that and thought it was going to cost them, but they ended up coming
back and closing it out 26-24.
But that was definitely kind of the head scratching moment for me of the match.
And I thought that's game over.
They're going to look back on my decision and go that was not the right call.
I mean obviously we only watched the five set match, the more exciting one, you know,
but UC Irvine did beat USC three straight in their next matchup.
So maybe they figured them out, you know.
This match was more of the same.
USC made way more hitting errors.
They had 20 errors to UCI's 10.
The blocking numbers were stacked in UCI's favor and it just wasn't quite as competitive.
USC hit 213 on the match as a team and UCI was 379.
So they just kind of came at them and USC couldn't hang with them after that five set
match and it looks like it was a little more of the same, but a little more spread out
and staggered.
So I think that UCI is definitely the better team.
They have more weapons.
I like what USC was doing from a strategy standpoint in terms of running their middle.
I think that's going to serve them well down the stretch and we'll see if their outside
hitters start to make a few better decisions against really high level opponents.
Honestly, this is probably a hot take, but I think UCI is better than Long Beach State.
I know people are going to be so mad that I said that, but I said what I said.
I think UCI is better.
Let's watch the showdown.
Okay, as we mentioned earlier in the show, we boycotted love this week because we could
not believe that they created that super point.
And to be completely honest, both of us kind of needed a bit of a breather and a palate
cleanser of sorts from love and the PVF.
So we have a surprise for you.
We mixed it up.
We decided that we were going to watch the Coppa Italia final between Conigliano and
Milano, because we just needed to spice things up.
We felt like we were saying the same things week after week and I was like, I need to
see some high level European league play here.
So the Coppa Italia final was last Sunday, so we checked it out and I'm so glad we did.
It was exactly the breath of fresh air that I personally needed.
I would agree it was time to mix it up and this had more of a college excitement feel
to it at a higher level of athlete.
And before we dive into the game, though, why don't you tell everybody what Coppa Italia
is and where it fits into the season and what the significance of it is?
Because I'm thinking some people may not know.
So all I don't say all I think all European pro leagues, they have their like season,
you know, they play each team twice, they play playoffs, you have your league winner.
But then on the side, they have the League Cup, which is just another kind of mini tournament
that you highlight like the top eight teams in the league in Italy, for example.
And the significance for the Italian League is that the winner of the Italian Cup earns
a berth to Champions League the next year.
So even if you don't win your league title in certain leagues, if the league is strong
enough, you you can earn your berth through your cup.
So this was very significant to heavy hitters in Conigliano and Milano.
And wow, this is what I've been needing.
What is the difference between this league and the leagues we've been watching?
The middles were so good and the outsides like you cannot compare.
You can't compare.
I if you have volleyball world TV, check it out.
They have all the games archived.
But OK, let's dive in.
So the first set epic is the word that comes to mind.
It was incredible.
We're talking 3735.
It was a shootout in a different way than the men's match.
It's still terminal, but the defense and the ability to extend rallies was incredible to
watch because you have two amazing opposites on those teams and Paulo Iganu and Hawk will
be familiar with Hawk Sister, who's playing in love.
And they were going back and forth in that first set, but the Libero's for both teams
were also incredible extending rallies.
I thought the outer system setting from both liberos.
Oh my gosh was absolutely incredible.
And actually one of the things that I thought was a major difference between that match
and watching kind of the outer system setting in some of the American leagues.
You want to know if a libero is good.
You want to know what makes a top level libero consistent setting.
The hitters should not look like their rhythm is disrupted.
And these two liberos were so good at setting out of system like chefs kiss on that.
The other thing that I loved from a high level standpoint of watching this match was the
adjustments that were happening.
Lineup adjustments, player adjustments.
You could see the coaches talking to the teams about where we want you to stand, what the
block looks like, how they wanted to defend certain players in different rotations.
It just the whole thing was more professional.
And I are execution.
It was incredible.
And if you get a chance to watch the match, to me, the difference was really in the execution
of Milano versus putting Liano at the end of that set.
It was so neck and neck down the stretch, but at the end of the day, Milano made 11
errors to Kenegliano's four in that first set alone.
And most of them were serving errors.
They missed a ton of serves in that set just and they needed to go after it to apply pressure
on Kenegliano because they were siding out at such a high level.
But well, that was honestly that was their chance.
Because in set one, Gabi was not in a good attacking rhythm.
No.
Volosh kept setting her inside.
We know Gabi loves the open the shoulders to the angle and snap it quick line.
She was being put in a box because they also had her matched up with a Gono.
That is not a great match up because not only was Gabi having trouble scoring.
Couldn't stop her.
But she couldn't stop a Gono either.
Paola was hitting the tips of Gabi's fingers down the line into the five, six seam.
And it was just like that match up was, I think, the difference in that first set.
And Milano needed to take advantage of having that match up.
They had a set point too.
They had a set point.
They messed it up.
If you watch the match, you'll know why.
We'll get into it.
Anna's favorite player was on the court.
Never to be seen again after that.
She messed up big time.
Yeah.
OK.
Long story short, a Gono got a perfect out of system set.
A Gono was in the back row.
And Anna Smreck decided the set was for her and backed up to hit it and got blocked by
Gabi.
That was set point.
Get out of the way.
OK.
When a Gono is on the court, they're getting her the ball.
Just like know your role.
That's all I have to say.
But it became way more one sided after that because Gabi found her hitting rhythm.
For Konigliano in the first set, the middles and Hawk were unbelievably good.
And both left sides, like you said, struggled.
And then once they found their rhythm, all five players were firing on all cylinders.
Milano just couldn't keep up.
A Gono did her best to keep her team in it.
But they didn't get enough production from the rest of the players.
A Gono made errors down the stretch between her and Hawk.
Well, statistically, she made nine and Hawk made eight.
But Hawk was better at the end of the first set.
And a Gono was making errors in set two and set three.
She kept going for that sharp angle and missing.
So I think the head to head between those two, Hawk lit it up because she also found
her spin serve after set one.
Set one was kind of tragic.
I don't think she got a serve in.
She couldn't get one in.
But then she found it literally at the very end of set one.
Got an ace.
To put them ahead, I think.
And then was unstoppable.
It took Konigliano a little bit of time to find the rhythm at the beginning of that match.
But after that, they just rolled.
They're impressive at every single position.
And I actually, so I mean, a Gono obviously played well.
She's their best player on that team.
I really liked their middle Dineze.
I thought she did a really good job and she's in a really important piece for them.
I liked she's a very good blocker.
I like how she works to get open to be able to score points.
She finds the gaps in the blocks really well.
She I was really impressed watching her play.
I also love Miriam Silla.
She's got some sass.
She's got some attitude.
You know what?
I love somebody with personality.
I actually played with Silla and Dineze when they were young on my Italian team and she
had attitude back then.
And I love to see it even as they're older.
It's fantastic.
I was going to ask you who which setter do you think was better?
I personally think Alessia Oro, the setter for Milano was better.
I think Volosh is I mean, she's older.
She's not as mobile, but I think she's just you know what you're going to get with her.
I think she ran the middle very well.
I didn't love she like I said before, she was hanging the in the outside sets inside
for Gabi too much in my opinion.
But I think Oro ran a better offense.
But I think Conigliano is just so experienced and so stacked that they were able to make
the necessary adjustments.
I think that's a fair assessment.
I also agree that she ran overall a better offense.
And if Milano was going to win that match, they need more production from more players
for me specifically their left sides.
I didn't think their left sides matched up well in terms of point production.
Well Dowder up the Dutch left side for Milano.
She was scoring deep angle pretty well early in the match, and then that Conigliano figured
it out.
And then the left the six back would just slide over and pick it up.
They made a good defensive adjustments once they once they saw what she was going to do
and then she was like not as effective.
She only had seven points on the match.
And they took that away from her.
I was just thoroughly impressed with Conigliano's game plan with how they adjusted with what
they were looking at.
I also really liked how they ran Hawk out of different places in the back row.
And sometimes she's out at the pin moving in she hit the pipe.
That just puts so much stress on a block defense because you have to watch her from the back
row all the time and find your hitter in the front row.
It's very challenging when they do that well.
I think one of the other for me difference makers was Conigliano's passing.
Gabi is a very good passer.
Ju Ting, while she's not the most offensive player anymore, and she's not quite as physical
as she used to be, their ball control along with their libero, they're in system all the
time.
Their middle is always a threat.
Hawk can move around because they know where everything is going to be.
They just don't have any faults.
They're incredible to watch.
Something that I really appreciated watching this match, and I think that is another difference
between this and love is just how hard the middles work.
They do not take a break.
You'll see sometimes in love or PVF, like if a middle can't make it, they'll stop or
in transition, they won't get up.
No, these middles are sprinting.
They are making sure that they are an option on every single opportunity, whether it's
transition or otherwise.
They are closing the block.
The speed that you see from them laterally at that level, the fact that these middles
are able to close blocks the way that they are with the speed and skill of these offenses
is so impressive.
So I think that that was a big difference watching between the leagues as well.
Those middles were machines.
Some of those rallies, everybody, when everybody's exhausted on the floor, you know that the
middles are twice as exhausted because they've done more work than absolutely anybody.
It's very impressive to see.
If we look at the match as a whole, I think Conegliano is just a better team.
And I think specifically on the left side of the court, they're better.
The match was very competitive.
I know the scores in the last couple of sets weren't quite as close as the first set, but
it was still watching felt like Milano had a chance.
They were in the matches.
Conegliano was just able to score more points.
I thought they were better in transition.
I thought they had more opportunities based off their adjustments in that match.
And once Hawk got her serve going, she was able to generate quite a few points from there.
And they're just an incredible team to watch.
I'm sure they're in the running for a Champions League title this year.
Oh, 100%.
I think the Italian players that Milano have are outstanding.
I think the balance is tipped for sure in Conegliano's favor with the foreign players
they brought in.
Yes.
I don't think that there is a comparison between the foreigners.
And while I do think that the Italians on the Milano side are so good, there's just
that extra piece missing from the foreign side.
So overall, outstanding match, I highly encourage you guys to check it out if you have volleyball
world TV.
But Conegliano, 3-0, decisive, but that first set, baby, that was exciting.
It was great volleyball.
So we've had the PVF All-Star team selection.
We're going to give you our thoughts on the actual selection and who we thought maybe
was left off the list that we would have put on.
And why the heck do they have Jalen Rose and Sean Johnson hosting the All-Star game?
What about volleyball people?
I'm so confused about these choices.
Like the promos and the amount of advertising they're doing, like Sean Johnson East, an
Olympian in gymnastics is hosting the All-Star game.
Like, does she know anything about volleyball?
Does Jalen Rose know anything about volleyball?
I'm just very confused about those decisions, first of all.
I hope that they have enough of a following that people will tune in and maybe learn about
the league.
I'm guessing that's what this is about.
You're bringing in personalities to kind of talk about it.
We'll see if it works or not.
Yeah, I'm not a fan.
But okay, what are your thoughts on the people who were selected?
Apparently, okay, it was a combination of fan voting.
Then the league kind of also stepped in and was looking at stats.
And that's what they kind of alluded to on the website.
So it wasn't completely fan voted.
The league definitely massaged some things.
Well, I mean, when you have teams that maybe have a bigger fan base than other ones and
you're looking at strict voting, people are going to vote for the players that they see
the most often that they like.
So hence Columbus having one player on the list when they should probably have zero.
Right.
And so I get that the league is kind of trying to get a hybrid.
You want a good representation, you want everyone to pay attention.
My question is if they were looking at the stats and the eye test from my opinion, where
is Natalie Foster?
Did they give her a vacation?
Does she not have to go?
Because I think she would have been maybe one of the first on my list to choose.
We're talking about she's first in hitting percentage.
She's attacked on 156 balls and still has the highest hitting percentage.
She's first in aces and she's sixth in blocks.
Where is she on the list?
Because that to me was the biggest head scratcher and the biggest snub.
I do feel like they really wanted award winners from last season to make sure they were there.
So like Kaz Brown was like named best middle blocker last year.
So she got picked.
I don't know how she's doing this season, but like maybe replace her or Maren Grode
is doing okay, but like maybe replace her.
Like Ronika Stone is playing a huge role for San Diego.
Caitlin Hoard, I know she's putting up good blocking numbers.
Corey Lewis is playing well.
But like, I'm like, how much did you prioritize award winners from last year to kind of like
highlight them?
You know, I that to me was when I looked at the list, the biggest surprise and the first
thing that jumped out to me because I, I personally like her as a player.
I think she brings all kinds of different dimensions to her team and I think she's effective
in multiple parts of the game.
I was actually surprised that Dayoung Lee wasn't on the list.
Like looking at the setters that are there.
I probably you guys know how I've been feeling about Sydney Hilly this season.
I don't think she's been, I know she's leading in assists and whatever, but like I'm not
loving her offense and August Rasky, like yeah, she's a little unconventional.
She's she hits on too a lot, but I think Lee is a better setter than both of those players,
particularly Rasky.
Natalie Foster was definitely the one that stuck out for me.
The other two players as I kind of went through the stats and looked at it who I can see the
cases made for both of these next players, but I think probably should have been included.
The first one would be Kendra Delky.
Yeah, that one is surprising to me.
She's fifth overall in kills, eighth overall in points.
She's having a really good season and I was surprised she was left off the list.
Oh, she is having a great season.
She's on top of everything for San Diego, like her and Ronika Stone, like kind of like
set the foundation for that team.
So I was very surprised that she was left off the list.
I would be curious to know exactly what the selection criteria are.
I'm curious and I'm not on social media, but is there a portion of advertising for the
league?
Did they take that into consideration?
Like you said, past award winners or are these two athletes just not fan favorites?
Either.
So, I mean, if you're going to say that you're focusing on stats, then there's no excuse.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
If it was just fan voting, then sure.
Makes sense.
Maybe she's not a fan favorite.
Maybe she flies under people's radar, but from a statistical standpoint, how is she
left off the list?
Well, and that's the curiosity for me is are we weighing fan vote like 80-20?
Is it 50-50?
Megan Courtney-Lush was put on the list from Columbus because, I mean, it's clear they
wanted representation from every team.
So maybe she was on the list, but then they're like, no, we need somebody from Columbus here.
You're getting bumped.
Yeah, fair enough.
So that's kind of the final one for me is Nina Cajic.
I think she's also having a good season, not a great season.
She's the last one on my list who was like, ah, she could have been put in there.
But again, ninth overall in aces, she's effective from the service line.
She's ninth overall in kills, eighth overall in points.
She's having a solid season and she definitely could be in the conversation to also be included
on these teams.
I mean, when I look through the list, another player that I'm kind of like, I'm not a fan,
why are they on the list?
Is Azani Teeler.
She has not impressed me at all this season.
And as an opposite, she's, I don't think I've ever seen her score from the pin.
The only time that she's scoring is when they're running combo plays, not to mention she's
kind of a liability at the net blocking wise.
I think Dalky should have been there before her.
I understand it's an outside opposite type of thing, but like, yeah, Teeler for me, no.
Teeler is statistically pretty good.
I hate that.
And I think that she's a fan favorite on what she brings when she's on the court.
So I'm not going to disagree with you from your personal standpoint, but from a statistics
and fan favorite standpoint, I definitely understand why she's there.
Well, okay.
Another one that might be a similar situation is Hannah Maddox.
When I watched her play, I was like, absolutely not.
I thought that there are definitely stronger players.
So there are definitely some question marks I have here.
When I look at the list as a whole, I can see how a case could be made for the majority.
But if I were to get picky, the ones that we've talked about and that I just brought
up are the ones that I would probably put question marks beside.
I hope that Natalie Foster and Kendra Dalky got a paid vacation for being left off that
list.
Those two for me are the head scratchers.
Did you guys vote?
I know a lot of you enjoy PVF, so I'm sure there were some voting happening.
And how much, I'm curious how much the league did weigh in.
Yeah.
I am generally not a fan of All-Star weekends.
No, I hate them.
In general.
It was always like my nightmare playing in a league.
And they're like, you made the All-Star weekend.
I would find any reason to get out of it.
My knee sore, my shoulder sore.
I need a rest.
It's not like I did not find them fun.
So I was like, get me out of here.
I do not want to participate.
Like, bye.
I think it's fun if you're there.
It's a cool chance for fans to engage with athletes if they do a good job of hosting
the event from a pure volleyball standpoint, kind of don't care about it from an athlete
standpoint.
The only thing I could ever think of is like, if I get injured playing this pointless, stupid
match with people I've never played with, I will kill myself.
That's all I can think about.
Like, this is not worth a potential injury for me.
Yeah.
I hope they do a good job.
I hope that the fans are there and enjoy it because that's what it's all about.
I will probably tune in and see what's up.
I'd be so mad and say, Natalie Foster should be there.
Well, yeah.
But I will say All-Star games in general for most sports that I follow, not my favorite
time.
We had a massive list of listener questions this week, you guys.
Wow.
Thank you.
So I picked out a few.
The first one is, so basically a few weeks ago we talked about what it means to have
a disciplined block and a listener wrote in asking if swing blocking can be considered
disciplined because based on our definition, they were like, it doesn't look like swing
blocking fits the disciplined block definition.
Do you want to take that one?
Sure.
So the listener was obviously really paying attention to what we said in terms of, and
I'm going to go ahead and guess that it's about being square, being set, hands coming
over the net and not drifting, I think is probably the big confusion point.
Now when you look at swing blocking, your momentum is generally going to carry you a
little bit to the side as you make your motion and go and press.
The key with swing blocking is that all of the blockers timing is in line and that your
press is done at the same time.
So what you sometimes see is the outside blocker will drift too far or farther than the middle
and open up a seam.
That's where the discipline comes in from a swing block standpoint.
You want to be able to see all of the hands go over the net and form essentially a wall
together.
You want your defense to trust that there's no hole in the middle of the block so that
they can play around it.
So even if both players drift a little bit, the goal is to not open up that seam and the
swing blocks allows you to be a little bit faster, get a little bit higher.
And if your eye work is really good, press that timing to get the ball to go to the floor
better.
I mean, at a high level swing blocking is discipline.
I think it can definitely be undisciplined if the players are younger or not trained
well.
Yeah, that was an interesting question.
Yeah, I thought I was like, oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense given the definition
that we presented with normal blocking and what you'll see on some of the swing blocks.
But as long as they're in unison pressing at the same time and not opening up any seams
in the block, a swing block can definitely be disciplined.
Our next question is about Champions League.
I love this question.
So the listener said you often see several Turkish teams and a lot of A1 teams perform
well in the Champions League.
How do you qualify for the league when there's no playing overlap between the A1 teams and
the Turkish League teams?
Do they end up playing during the regular season?
Chev Champions League, what you're saying is completely correct.
There is no in season overlap between the leagues at all.
But what Champions League does and the reason you see several Turkish and Italian teams
is because those leagues are stronger and the organization is rewarding the stronger
leagues by giving more births to those countries.
So in this year's edition of Champions League, we had three Italian teams, three Turkish
teams, three Polish teams.
Then we had two German teams, two French teams, and then one from several different countries.
If you win your league championship and you are one of the top leagues, so Turkey, Italy,
Poland, France, Germany, I would say those five predominantly, if you win your league,
you automatically get a birth to Champions League.
Then if you're in a top top league like Turkey and Italy, I believe Poland does this too.
What we were talking about about the League Cup.
If you win that, you also get a birth to Champions League.
If the same team wins both, then it goes to the second place team in the league.
This is why you see several teams from certain countries and not others.
Now it is possible for leagues like Poland or Germany, France, the smaller countries
to bring their teams into the Champions League because they have early qualification rounds.
So as viewers, we only really pay attention to what is considered round four.
And that's when the 20 teams are established on the women's side, for example.
But the smaller leagues are the leagues that aren't as strong.
They are competing with each other in October to be able to earn that birth.
So for example, Poland ended up with three teams in Champions League this year because
one of their teams snuck in through the early rounds.
So they had their league winner there, their cup winner there, and they happened to get
a third one in because that team snuck in through the early rounds.
That's why you see like a team from Portugal or Montenegro or Serbia or Slovenia, Croatia,
because those teams, they're not as strong.
Those leagues are not as strong, but they want to give the opportunity to those teams
without diluting the quality of play.
I hope that explains it.
The teams that do participate in the early qualifying rounds, if they don't make it to
actual Champions League, they play in something called CHEV Cup, which is structured very
similarly, but the level is closer to what they're able to adequately compete in.
So hopefully that explained things.
We are actually in the playoff rounds to determine the quarterfinalists.
So some of those matches will actually be happening this week.
Our third question is, which of the players from the US 2024 Paris roster do you think
will be on the LA 2028 roster?
Another great question.
This is a great question and obviously this is a very early look at what that might look
like.
There's still lots of time for athletes that decide they're no longer interested in the
lifestyle and want to retire.
There's still time for women who are in college to make their international debut, but we'll
give you a way too early look at our roster thoughts for 2028.
I already know looking at the 2024 roster, I already have who I think will be back.
So one of the most interesting positions for me is the setting position.
All of those athletes are, they've had a lot of experience and I know everybody's going
to want to play at home, but what does that level look like?
How physical can they be and what does their game look like in four years?
For me, this is a big question mark.
I think Jordan Poulter is probably the most likely candidate to be back.
She is on my list of like, I think she'll be back.
The other big question mark for me is you have a brand new staff and what style are
they going to play?
Who are they going to favor?
What do their favorite athletes look like?
What are the criteria they're looking for?
So all of this has a big question mark as Eric Sullivan kind of molds his teams and
looks at where the game is going to go and what he wants to accomplish.
I think Avery Skinner is going to be on the team.
That for me is pretty much a lock.
Justine Wong-Aranthis will probably stick it out.
Dana Retke would be a lock for me.
Catherine Plummer would be a lock for me.
Chiaka Ogbagu is a lock for me.
Those would be the ones Jordan Thompson for me is...
She's my like, unsure.
I would agree with you.
The ones that I'm least sure about are actually Poulter and Thompson, but the ones that Adam
mentioned are the ones that I'm like, yes, I think they'll be on the roster.
Yeah, those players from the last roster would be the ones that I think are locks.
Our final question for the week is a beach volleyball question.
What are your thoughts on the new AVP schedule and the league?
Like I said before, I have not been following beach volleyball because indoor has always
been more of my thing, but I think that the AVP has taken a serious, serious dip in the
last few years, ever since Donald Sun sold it.
I am personally not a fan of the new schedule and the league.
I think the league is just sad to me.
If you see photos or if you have watched, there's literally like a dozen people in the
stands, which I think is doing a complete disservice to the sport.
Not to mention they were trying to move them into like stadiums and do indoor stuff too.
I think the league is decreasing accessibility for fans and athletes, and I think it's a
really bad idea.
I've talked to several athletes.
The ones who are guaranteed a spot in the league are really happy about the guaranteed
income.
All of the other athletes are pretty upset or unhappy with the lack of opportunity and
being able to play and to really have a chance to kind of earn their berth week in and week
out.
I think that I understand they're trying to make a product and find a way to make beach
volleyball make sense financially.
Even when they were running big tournaments, it wasn't making money.
You need to be able to do that, but from a fan perspective and from an athlete perspective,
I'm not a fan of the schedule.
It's definitely limiting the pool of athletes.
Is that a bad thing?
I don't know.
It's a professional sport.
If you want to make money, only the strong survive.
That's part of it.
I get it.
I just think it's not interesting.
That is the thing for me.
You have three tournaments for the opportunity to qualify for this league.
I think a lot of people really look forward to the traditional stops as they were throughout
the summer.
People would plan their summer around following the AVP around and it was an experience.
From that perspective, I think it's really sad.
I understand.
Trust me, if you play beach volleyball, not everybody's cut out to be a professional.
I understand limiting the number of people who can legitimately make money at it.
I get it, but it's just completely lost its draw and its interest to me in this new format.
Looking forward to this week, the Love Head to Head match is on Friday at 7.30 p.m. Eastern
between Atlanta and Madison.
I think we all know what's going to happen in that match.
The weekend with Love is in Austin, except on the website it's listed as midweek, Wednesday
and Thursday.
Those matches can be seen on Love Live and Dazone.
The website looks like it is inaccurate just based off the schedule that we've become accustomed
to.
Keep your eyes on the website.
I'm guessing they're going to update it.
The Head to Head is usually Wednesday and they have it listed as Friday.
Then there's no matches.
Then there's actually no matches on Saturday.
Unless they couldn't get a venue or the schedule was changed intentionally, it's just different
than it was.
If you're looking forward to those ones, keep an eye on the website.
Maybe Love Socials to see what's going on.
In the NCAA men's action, UCLA and UC Irvine are going head to head this week on Wednesday
at 9 p.m. Eastern and on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
You've got another exciting high level men's match.
I'm actually calling that game on Saturday everybody if you want to tune in.
So that one will be a lot of fun.
I will be there in person and again you're going to have some great volleyball and we'll
see if UCLA can find some rhythm against UC Irvine as they've struggled against top ranked
teams so far.
Grand Canyon and Long Beach State play Friday at 10 o'clock p.m. Eastern and then on Saturday
at 1 30 p.m. Eastern we have the PVF All-Star match in Indianapolis.
You can watch that match on CBS Sports.
If you want to check out some of the overseas leagues that we've been talking about, Volleyball
World TV shows those matches from several different leagues and they're all archived
so you don't have to watch them live.
It's really a great platform and well worth the subscription fee but it's a great way
to follow both those pro leagues and then international volleyball as well.
We had a great comment from a listener that we list all the matches for reference later
on the YouTube channel in the description so that everybody can find them.
We will do that moving forward and then from there everybody will know what we're watching.
You'll have a quick link to it and you can use that for a reference point.
So thanks for the suggestion and we'll do that moving forward.
And if we're feeling particularly frisky we may post it on Instagram which I do some weeks
and some weeks I don't.
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
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If you have a topic that you want us to discuss be sure to let us know by reaching out to
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Thanks so much for joining us and we'll be back next week.