Hi, volleyball fans, and welcome back to Volley
Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what is going on in
NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host,
Sarah Pavan. I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball
world champion, former Nebraska Cornhusker, and
longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach. And
I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international
volleyball coach, and the show's resident stat
guy. Men's World Championships are officially
over and Italy has won their second consecutive
title. More apologies, more broken brackets,
more excellent volleyball. That's the most important
thing. I mean, I wasn't going to say it. Yes,
I was. Adam's predictions couldn't have gotten
worse from last week, but we're still struggling.
So a lot of matches happened this week, but we're
going to break down the semis, medal matches,
and share our thoughts because wowee, it was
excellent stuff. Excellent stuff. So here we
go. Let's get started. All right. ton on the
weekly highlight front we didn't see a much movement
in the NCAA rankings everybody was kind of hovering
around where they were the previous week but
Miami entered the chat they entered the top 25
after being unranked as I said generally speaking
people were hovering around their ranking from
the week before not a ton as conference play
started to talk about you know we have wrapped
up international season this week with world
championships it was a really big summer for
the international side of things so we're going
to touch on some of the noteworthy results just
give a quick rundown for this week and then we're
going to transition into more ncaa focus with
some of the pro volleyball mixed in once they
start their regular seasons that is coming next
week but here's a bit of the rundown of the noteworthy
results Also by popular demand, we're going to
try and have Paul Pavan back on the episode next
week. A dial -in from Ontario. Get ready, we're
getting serious here at Volley Talk. Okay, so
buckle up. But Pitt beat SMU in both of their
matchups. First of them in five, then they beat
them in four. Unranked Colorado had a great week.
They beat BYU and Utah. That's... We didn't watch
those games. But now, all of a sudden, I'm curious.
I want to see Colorado play. I want to know what's
going on with them. I want to know how they beat
them. I wonder if they played at home, because
let me tell you, back in the day, I was in the
Big 12 with Colorado, and I hated playing there.
Wasn't that one of your four regular season losses
over your career? I don't want to talk about
it. I will talk about it. The year we won the
championship, that is the only match we lost
all season to Colorado. Okay, playing with A,
they played with a Nike ball back then, which
those balls were wild to try to play with, let
me tell you. Plus at altitude, recipe for disaster
for the corn girls. Anyway, they had a great
week. So I'm wondering if they played in Colorado
because that can mess some people up. Utah had
a really bad week. They lost to Colorado, as
I said, and to Iowa State. So not the best. Going
back to Pitt, we did watch a bit of the first
Pitt -SMU match. They're finding their form again.
They are finding their form. That's right. Their
Dutch freshman left side is coming into her own.
She is settling in. The setter. The setter has
a very consistent serve, too. Yeah, they're going
to be just fine. And Bayless. she came in off
the bench a bunch last year she is stepping into
that starting role really well so we are seeing
Pitt kind of gain their footing as we said last
week they're climbing the ranks after a tough
week one but that was a decent match to watch
Mississippi State beat Florida in five didn't
see that coming not great the wheels are They're
not falling off, but they're a little loose in
Florida. They need some tightening. Yeah, I haven't
liked how messy their play has been. I liked
them for a while. I did too. It just, it seems
as if they are, you know, balls dropping, small
execution errors. It's not as tight as it seemed
in the beginning of the season, and I don't have
an explanation for that. They're giving up points
in the matches that I've watched that they shouldn't
be from just mistakes. We didn't see this match,
by the way. No, but in general, the last couple
matches that I've watched them, it hasn't looked
clean. Not a great start to SEC play, regardless.
Our girls at TCU, they had a tough start to Big
12 play. They lost to Baylor in five. Not sure
what that's going to do to their ranking. Yeah,
well, it's not going to help. It's not going
to help them, no. I feel like we can't talk about
mid -major ranked teams because every time we
do, they lose the next match. But they're top
10. Would you consider that mid -major? I mean,
TCU is a mid -major. I wouldn't consider it.
Yeah, I guess when I say mid -major, I don't
mean it in the school sense. I mean it in the
ranking. They're top 10. They're ranked ninth.
That's fine. They're ranked ninth, but they're
still, they're not a legitimate contender. They're
not in the top teams. Like when I say mid -major,
I mean the group in the middle, the messy middle
of teams who can win on any given night. Who
are very good, but for all intents and purposes,
aren't going to win the title. Correct. TCU is
probably not. So who do you have not as a mid
-major? Like who do you have as a legit contender?
Texas, Nebraska, Kentucky. Stanford. I would
put Stanford on that list. They are tightening
up. Considering how young of a team they are,
they have tightened those screws fast. I have
won A teams and then won B teams and then mid
-majors is how I would break it up. I would go
Nebraska, Texas, Kentucky. Pitt? Would you have
Pitt on that list? Would you have Stanford on
that list? I would put Pitt on that list. So
I would say those four. What about Louisville?
So I would say Louisville, Stanford. um wisconsin
and then maybe give a shout out to arizona state
smu and texas a &m those teams are kind of in
the mix now they're not all necessarily clean
but they all have big players who can score so
you could step up basically have you think one
of four teams is gonna win i do i do So it's
four teams, it's four teams, and then everybody
else could have a great night. They're all skilled,
but maybe don't have that marquee player. If
they're playing well, they could make the final
eight. That's kind of how I see it. Adam is just
throwing darts at the wall here, everybody. He's
like, you know what? I completely messed up these
predictions for men's world championships. I'm
going to keep throwing predictions out. Something
is going to stick. I will say, in fairness, my
women's world record was very good. It was very
good. It was very good. Anyway, that's how I
see it. Okay. We had Illinois beat Purdue in
four. Yikes. I thought Purdue was going to be
in real rough shape after literally everybody
left. And then they had a solid ranking only
to start Big Ten play by losing to Illinois.
Yeah, not the best. Not the best. You know what
else isn't the best? Penn State lost to UCLA
in four. Penn State, it's not good there. Not
great. I have no feeling on that team because
you just don't know how bad the tire fire is
going to be. What does losing your best player
do to morale? Not to mention you're in the most
important role. Right. That's what I'm saying.
Best player in the key role. You don't recover
from that. You run your offense a specific way.
She's the marquee player. How does the team respond?
That's a gut punch right at the beginning. I
don't know enough about the mentality of the
program to say, are they going to bounce back?
Are they going to be okay? If it had happened
to anybody else, you'd be like, they're going
to be fine. But that's the one player that just
torches the program when they leave. So in the
top 10, everybody took care of business except
TCU and Purdue. Arizona State, they were eight.
They beat Kansas. So top 10. Pretty straightforward.
It is the mid -major and lower, as Adam would
refer, ranked teams that kind of struggled a
bit or had the surprises happen. Yeah, we will
pick up with NCAA more in depth next week, as
I said, because international season is over.
And, you know, people are going to be settling
in to their... conference play. So stay tuned
if you're an NCAA fan for more coverage of that
next week. That is all I had for the highlights.
Did you have anything? No, that was it. Let's
get into world champs. Let's do it. Here we go.
So we're going to focus on the semis and finals,
but I wanted to recap the quarters and just give
some thoughts and talk about those matches. So,
you know, first we had Italy and Belgium. Italy
rolled in this match. Belgium, I mean, good for
them. They've had a really good summer. But Belgium
pushed them in pool play, did they not? Yeah,
they did. So Italy was like, time to wreck the
ship. Italy came to play in the playoffs. They
beat them 25 -13, 25 -18, 25 -18. We're not going
to strain ourselves. We're going to come out.
We're going to play really clean. They out -blocked
them 6 -1. They out -aced them 8 -1. 26 opponent
errors for Italy versus 10 for Belgium. And,
I mean... The key to Belgium's success was Regers
playing really well, and they held him to hitting
200 on the night. They walked through that match.
Like I said, Belgium qualified for VNL. They
had a really good showing. They beat some good
teams. They made it to the quarterfinals. They're
just outclassed. We would have been absolutely
floored if Italy had lost that match. Exactly.
You probably wanted to see Belgium play a little
bit better in that match, make it a little bit
closer, but Italy was on a mission. And Belgium
has to be happy with their summer. Poland -Turkey.
Poland also rolled Turkey similar to the Italy
-Belgium match. So Poland won 25 -15, 25 -22,
25 -19. A little bit closer, a little more respectable.
than the other one but Poland out blocked them
seven to two out served them six to one the brothers
played decent but Poland's just too strong of
a team overall they have too many pieces and
you know Turkey like I said I think they did
well somebody told me they got a new coach after
VNL I appreciate that piece of information I
personally think their transformation from VNL
to Worlds was out of this world it was insane
I mean they were a different team yes which With
the same roster. 100%. The coach makes a difference,
whether that's in belief, whether that's in systems,
whether that's just in style of play. Maybe the
whole team just needed a deep breath of fresh
air. I mean, kudos to Turkey. You're not going
to beat Poland. You're not there yet. But they
had a really good tournament. Impressive tournament.
For Turkey, I thought they had some really good
matches. The two brothers, I thought, were so
much fun to watch on the pins and played really,
really well. So I was happy and I enjoyed watching
them play. They're a fiery team. And then to
roll through the last two quarterfinals, Czechia
beat Iran, which... And before you jump down
my throat, I understand I picked Serbia to beat
Iran. That didn't happen. I figured the winner
of the Iran -Serbia match would win. Man, Cech
looked good. So that match went four. Cech lost
the first set 22 -25, and then they squeaked
out a win 27 -25, 25 -20, 25 -21. It was a really
fun match to watch. they were hitting the snot
out of that ball in that match. Iran is also
a fiery team. Them and Turkey are fun to watch.
Their players play with so much emotion, you
can't help but get into the game. The stats are
really close. You had seven blocks for Czechs,
five for Iran, five service aces for Czechs,
seven for Iran. Opponent errors were 31 for Czech,
25 for Iran. So the match was really close, but
the difference was Czech had a few players who
went off in this tournament. Indra, the opposite.
hit 586 in that match and he played well all
the way through the tournament he was spectacular
visma the outside hitter hit 548 so they had
two hitters hitting over 500 and their middle
climbs the 19 year old i loved watching him play
i think it's kleemish kleemish okay again my
pronunciation something in between both of those
yeah Anyway, he was spectacular. There were a
couple players for Iran who played well. Perea
hit .358 on the match, which is pretty good,
but it's not .500. It's not .600 or whatever
Indra hit. I think the biggest factor was I didn't
think Morteza had his best match, and they need
him to play well. He's the linchpin of that team,
in my opinion, when you watch them play. I like
their right side. Yeah, I mean, again, he played
well, but... Not as well as Indra. And he gets
fired up. If he scores a point, run away if you're
his teammate because your hand is about to get
a blood blister. I think everybody when he scores
kind of looks away. Or broken blood vessel. I
was shocked by that because I thought Iran was
going to win that one. And our last quarterfinal
was Bulgaria -USA, which I also got wrong. Add
it to the list. I will have it known that I picked
Bulgaria, but can we rewind to last week? I did
pick them. That's true. But that match was spectacular.
They battled back and forth, reverse sweep. You
know we love a reverse sweep every now and then.
And, you know, I watched those first two sets
and I thought, man, U .S. is going to do this.
And they're inexperienced at best and they just
couldn't close it out. Nikolov struggled in the
first two sets. Alex struggled in the first two
sets. And then he was... unconscious and continue
for the rest of the tournament it was wild but
this game was on a knife's edge if we look at
the stats six blocks for USA seven for Bulgaria
five service aces to seven 34 errors opponent
errors for USA compared to 30 you know it was
wildly close and the US could have pulled that
out and they're going to gain a ton of experience
from this for their players and I think Karch
listening to him was was pretty happy I mean
obviously you want to win and that match was
there but they showed up and they competed in
this tournament I think we may have mentioned
it last week the U .S. added a couple pieces
you know in their attacking positions that were
different than VNL but like by and large their
VNL guys were the ones who played worlds except
for Micah Christensen and I will say If I didn't
say it last week, I'm saying it now. And if I
said it last week, I'm going to shout it out
again. Micah Christensen is amazing. Wow. He
is a difference maker. The U .S. got so much
better with him on the court. He is so good.
And I asked Adam because we had this question
come up several weeks ago during B &L. And who
is the best setter for men? And at the time,
we were debating between Janelli and Brizard.
So I asked Adam, do you think Christensen, A,
enters the conversation with those two? And B,
do you think is better than Janelli, who we had
decided was the best setter? Yes, for sure, enters
the conversation. But what do you think? It's
so hard because Janelli has pieces to use that
Micah doesn't. And he's a better... athlete,
overall volleyball player than Micah in terms
of his physical stature, his serve, his block,
those kind of things. From a purely setting and
decision -making standpoint, it would be very,
very close. Micah's decision -making I think
is incredible. His ability to see and run the
middle or the pipe based on who bites and isolate
hitters. I mean, he made his hitters look godly
out there and that was and they weren't in vietnam
no he's incredibly good and i think on any given
night he could out duel anybody else so there's
that but anyway i wasn't bulgaria is also very
young i think they're more physical than the
u .s specifically on the on the outside the u
.s is pretty physical in the middle there also
have a good opposite but on the on the pin outside
The U .S.'s outside hitters just aren't nearly
as physical, and I think that played a role in
the loss there. I like where they're going. You
can see the shape, what they want to do, Karch's
vision for this team given the personnel. I think
Cooper Robinson is going to add some size onto
their pin once he gets going, gets comfortable
with this level of play. I think they're further
along than the women in their goal for a medal
at the Olympics. They were fun to watch. Let's
move on to the semifinals. Okay, semifinal one
saw Bulgaria versus the Czech Republic. Do you
want to go initial thoughts first and then go
from there? Or how do you want to do it? Let's
just say what we're feeling. Okay. I'll start.
I think Czech played really well. I think they
should be very, very proud of the match that
they put on the floor. They played very good
volleyball. pinpoint something as like this is
a huge red flag like they are this is costing
them so many points I really think that it was
a solid team effort they played really well unfortunately
for them Bulgaria was in the same position and
did the same thing with just like more physical
athletes and so that was the difference for me
and Alex Nikolov was literally unstoppable otherworldly
It's insane. I had a very similar instinct watching
that match. I thought Czechia was the more technical
team. They looked like they were in more control
on the other side of the net in terms of how
they were forming their blocks, how they were
playing defense, what they were doing. It was
like pure volleyball. Yes. And they... 100%.
Which I love. Czech plays a style where they
don't... give you anything they force you to
earn your points if you look at the stats they
only made 22 errors in that whole match and that
includes serving errors so they're not making
hitting errors they're not giving you any points
Bulgaria was just better but it's not but they
weren't better volleyball players it was like
bang bang better yeah you know like when the
plays get weird and when things go kind of sideways
they did the like bang bang find a way stuff
better whereas czech was just as i said good
volleyball it was pretty volleyball you know
totally agree if you watch that match it looks
i don't want to say skilled versus unskilled
because that's not fair to bulgaria but you watch
bulgaria play defense and they are clearly in
the right position but they get hit with a lot
of balls they don't control a lot of their days
but i also respect that it's a gritty mentality
yes they stand it is like blue collar it is blue
collar volleyball but how many times did we watch
the opposite get hit in the shoulder with a ball
that's going down to the floor the libero thumb
digs harry sides it up barely above the height
of the net and somebody punches nikolov comes
over and just spatches it to the back corner
the number of balls that nikolov hit that i don't
think they just like yost them up there and everybody
knows like if it's kind of wacky just vacate
the premises and like alex will just hit it no
matter where he is and there were a lot of those
they all go in his favor all of them it's incredible
to watch you think he's in the doghouse On this
shot. And it rattles between four elbows and
dribbles down the net. And I'm not saying, listen,
he's super skilled. He's got incredible vision.
And he's fearless. He is. He earns his luck.
But sometimes you watch the wild things that
he tries to pull off. And kudos to him for having
the cojones to do it. But it works out. He had
no business scoring that ball. And one of the
differences in this match was just that fearlessness.
I thought Bulgaria was on the attack all night,
and Czech was always playing defense. Very rarely
did I feel like Czech was the aggressor in that
match. And over a course of a game, that wears
on you. I also think Bulgaria's serving came
through clutch in moments where they put them
in trouble and then loaded up on a block. They
out -blocked them 12 -7, and they got a couple
massive blocks in key times. I also think Mone,
Bulgaria passed well enough to make Mone a huge
threat at the net because he took down a couple
balls early. Like being 6 '10", his like armpits
are at the net, top of the net, and he threw
down a couple dumps. He straight up swung on
a couple balls, which completely messed up the
Czech defense because now all of a sudden the
blockers didn't know who to pay attention to.
You're seeing hitters get one -on -ones. You're
seeing people jump with Mone. You're seeing the
confusion and everything that he caused just
by taking down a couple balls early. It carried
over for the rest of the match. And so I think
that was a huge factor. And it was because Bulgaria
passed well early. I agree. And the other thing
I think that Nikolov does well is even when the...
So he's a threat when they pass tight to the
net. And when they pass around the three meter
line, he runs that middle incredibly well. It's
connect point to point and he can just kind of
flick it flat to the middle and they run. And
so even on passes around the attack line, he
can still isolate hitters outside because he
can run the middle from there. And he did that
really well too. I will give him props. He evolved
a lot this summer. Yeah. We saw him come off
his NCAA season and... I said it a few times
during V &L, like he's looking to make the most
difficult set, the most spectacular set when
it wasn't always the smartest. Some of his balls
were a little inconsistent. And I think that
he really dialed into a clean international style
of play as a setter where A, feed the hot hand.
He has no problem going to his brother until
he doesn't score a ball, you know? He became
much more smooth with his release, his decision
making, more simplistic, but the execution was
better. So I think he evolved a lot over the
course of the summer. Well, let's just say the
brother and brother connection is... A real thing
because he set Alex 47 times in that match against
Czechia. The next closest person was Asparuhov
who got 19 sets. Now in fairness, Alex hit 468.
So I probably would have set him that many balls
too. He was unstoppable. But that was, it's just
fun to watch them connect in that way. And Alex
was unconscious. 27 for 47 with only five errors.
That's wild. Wild. If we look at the Czech side,
Indra, who had played really well for them up
until that point, they controlled him. He wasn't
able to score at the same rate against the big
outside hitters for Bulgaria as he was in the
rest of the tournament. He had 22 swings and
only hit 181. Now, I will say... again and this
goes to how good czech was technically they run
an incredibly balanced offense everybody's attacking
they're running the middle they're running the
pipe over top they spread the offense because
they don't have i mean indra's good they've got
some really good players but they don't have
a quote -unquote stud but they played I think
their young middle, Klimish, did so well. His
serve is unbelievable. His serve is so good,
and he was scoring very efficiently. He hit .778
in that match. He's got a bright future ahead
of him. He's only 19. Yeah, I really liked him
as well. I think him and Nikolov are the same
age. I think Mone is not even 18 yet, or he's
turning 19 in November or something crazy. They're
probably pretty close. Anyway. That was a really...
tight match with teams really playing to their
identity and I thoroughly enjoyed that one because
it wasn't two titans it's good teams two different
styles super passionate teams going after it
and a lot of young players so there was a lot
of fire and we talk about bulgaria having that
kind of strap it in defense but they're also
ready and willing to just go after any ball that
that goes but at the end of the day i think they
were just a little bit too physical and they
just couldn't check couldn't stop alex check
needs to be proud of their performance so i mean
i don't think they could have anticipated making
the semifinals when this competition started
and seeing them play that match they should be
proud of of the performance they put out there
absolutely Okay, our second semifinal was Poland
versus Italy. I wonder what the odds were for
Italy to win this 3 -0. Holy moly, they were
good. Oh, man. Wow. First of all, it's unfortunate
that Kurek got hurt going before this match.
I think he could have made a difference. And
let me tell you, Rich Lamborn was ruthless. In
his analysis of Sasek. So Rich is an American,
former American libero who was commentating on
the matches. And in fairness, it was deserved
because Sasek wasn't any good. He was relentless
on this guy. Also, I do like Rich's commentary.
So shout out to him. Gotta love a libero ripping
an opposite though. It's just, it's fantastic.
So, I mean, it is unfortunate that Kurek wasn't
playing. Fornal was not playing, but I love.
I don't know if I should say his praises enough
during VNL, and I watched him a bit during club
season last year. I love this guy. Okay, he is
so good. Absolutely. He is a pure volleyball
player. I know that's why you like him. His technical
skill, his physicality, his decision making.
It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. So there's that.
But Italy, wow. I just need to say Italy's serping.
was fantastic and I'm going to shout out Sonny
in sets one and three he came in at the end of
those sets and clutch and scored aces got them
out of system his serving made the difference
in sets one and three and if you are a volleyball
player or if you're a club coach or you coach
period Let that, I want that to be a highlight
of just how important a role player is. So many
people get hung up on who is starting, who's
getting the credit, blah, blah, blah. Like this
kid came in as a role player to serve at the
end of match and honestly at the end of sets.
And I give him credit for those wins because
the games were very back and forth, very close.
And he pushed Italy over the edge when it mattered
most. Your role is important regardless of if
you're a starter or coming in. Amazing. This
was maybe one of the most even matches I've seen.
We were back and forth all match. You know, somebody
would get hot, score a few points, then somebody
would rip off a great serve, get a block. The
game was how volleyball should be. Both teams
have opportunities to win after 20. You've put
yourself in a position. You're making adjustments.
You're making calls in terms of who you're going
to go after, what you're going to try and do.
It was a masterpiece of a game. Even though Italy
won in three, just for reference sake, match
stats were 34 attack points for Italy, 30 for
Poland. Poland had 10 blocks to Italy's nine.
Now, we talked about this. seven aces for Italy
to Poland's three and most of those came at critical
junctures at the end of matches and I think Sonny
had three or four yeah and that's frankly the
difference in my opinion he won them that game
because we're looking at opponent errors Italy
had 25 errors from Poland but they only made
23 and that includes serving mistakes so it was
just such a close game that came down to spectacular
athletes making plays in big moments down the
stretch. And that's, as a coach, all you can
ever ask for is to have a chance to win at the
end of a match. And both teams did, and Italy
took the opportunity. Well, and I think Gerbich
put it best. Like in his post -Set 2 interview,
when he was asked about the match, he said, Italy
is playing so well, and if they continue at this
pace, Good for them. You know, they're going
to win. When a team is playing like this, there's
not much you can do to stop them. And that was
the case. They were so good. And I personally
thought Romanov played very well. I thought he
played super well. I didn't think there was a
massive standout for Poland. Like, they played
well, but nobody took over the match. I thought
Sasek struggled. well Semenyuk didn't score particularly
well yeah so Semenyuk didn't score well Sasek
didn't score well I thought Leon played pretty
well but he made a bunch of errors he was a huge
liability on serve receive yeah like we have
talked about why don't teams just serve him every
ball like Italy found him yeah consistently and
the tough part was I thought the Polish middles
played really well when they had an opportunity
to be set and I thought that worked for Poland
but when the passing broke down and the middles
were no longer an option Italy was able to take
advantage of those in key moments I honestly
feel like they just tell Leon to just get the
ball in the air when he's passing I mean he's
such an offensive weapon for them because Fornal
can score Semenyuk can score but they're not
bangers like they need Leon on the floor to score
points so you take the good and the bad and you
go this is what you're not great at Here's the
minimum requirement. But it's like, there's no
trajectory to those passes. They are not moving
towards the net. They are going high, straight
in the air. And we've asked during V &L, like,
why don't more teams just serve him every ball?
Italy found him. Effectively. Yeah. Leon is a
survivor passer. Like, I'm trying not to get
aced. Just don't get aced. We're shooting for
a 1 .8 to a 2 .2 passing average. We'll take
it. Win. And normally they're good enough outside
of that to win. But, I mean, Italy scored straight
points on him in a couple situations down the
stretch. They executed. Do you think this was
the gold medal game? I think it's doing a disservice
to Bulgaria in how well they played this tournament.
I think Bulgaria was playing well enough to definitely
be there on paper. Yes, I would say it was. All
right, the bronze medal match we saw Poland play
Czech. Poland won that one in four. I was curious
after Poland lost which Poland we were going
to see. Were we going to see, well, it's not
a gold medal. So who cares? It is what it is.
And I know that that's not the right mentality,
but sometimes the letdown of knowing you're good
enough to win and that being the goal, it's just
hard to get going. for that match but that was
not the case they came out to prove a point i
thought well in set one i would say they kind
of cooled off a bit for the other and then check
kind of found their footing but in set one it
was very decisive and i think that that set the
tone for the rest of the match like check check
found their footing but poland i thought made
it clear out of the gate that we're going to
win this match and there's probably nothing you
can do and Leon was unbelievable in that first
set I think he scored 11 points on his own 100
he was on a mission to make sure that they won
a medal even with Leon coming out and being unbelievable
in the first set he continued that trend throughout
the match like he was a single man wrecking crew
I thought he hit 583 on the match, scoring 23
points on 36 swings. They just kept feeding him
the ball, and he was very, very effective. I
think Sasek played better. Sasek definitely played
better. I know we love Semenyuk, but he struggled
to score in both of these matches. And I found
him, and their offense is very quick when they
set him, so I had a hard time. seeing whether
he was struggling to find his swings or whether
he was in tough positions but he threw a couple
balls into the block that he was expecting to
be recycled that just fell on their side and
so that that kind of affected his numbers but
he he wasn't an effective scoring threat I didn't
think no he wasn't as good as we have seen in
the past I just think Poland just kept coming
their blocking was good Poland did a good job
of taking Czechia out of their state that they
like to play in. They're a complete team where
they like to distribute their offense. They like
everybody to be involved. And I thought they
were just a little out of sync in terms of getting
everybody involved in the offense in equal measures.
If we look at their point distribution. Specifically
in the semifinal, it was very consistent across
the board. And then in this match, it seemed
to rely a little more heavier on the outside
pins. So Vashina had 18 points and then Indra
only had 11. And then it was Lajic and Klimic
who both had six. And I think for Czech to be
successful, they need everybody close to double
digits or a little closer to... all of the other
players, because that's their strength. They're
very good technically, distribute the ball, but
they don't have anybody overpowering. And it
looked like Poland had a pretty good read on
who was going to get the ball, and they were
able to make life a little miserable for the
Czechia hitters. And even in the middle when
they saw, you could tell it was coming there,
it wasn't, the offense wasn't distributed the
same way it was in the semi. Other than Lyon
scoring a ton of points, that was the biggest
difference I saw from Czechia. Again, I said
it before. The Czech Republic, for all intents
and purposes, they don't belong there. You know
what I mean? Yes. They had a dream draw, and
they took advantage of it. They beat some teams
they needed to. They're a good team, but are
they going to beat Poland? No. And I think that's
just what we saw. It was Poland just steamrolled
them. Yeah. Poland knew how to handle that moment,
and their athletes are better across the board.
They're better in every position. But good on
Poland and Czech for taking a set. Absolutely.
I mean, they made a game for it. It's one of
those matches where you have a 1 in 100 chance
of winning. And, again, I'm going to look at
this from a coaching perspective. You want to
play well. You want to be able to walk off the
court at the end of that match and go, you know
what, we did the things we wanted to do and Poland
just beat us. And that's what happened. And finally,
our gold medal match saw Italy beat Bulgaria
in four as well. This match to me had an older
brother, younger brother vibe to it. In a couple
different places. Okay. Yeah. So just as a team,
Bulgaria are the upstarts. They're young. They're
young. I mean, Italy's not old by any means.
But they're older. They're in their prime. They're
in their mid -20s instead of early 20s. Yeah.
But they're established. They've won. They have
been to the top and they are standing on the
mountain defending their turf. The other place
where I see this is between Janeli and Moni Nikolov.
Moni is the second Janeli. The second coming.
Right. So Janeli arrived on the scene bigger
than all the other setters, offensive threat.
He's very young. Yeah, could have been, probably
could have been a very successful hitter if he
wasn't a setter. And Moni is coming in and doing
the same thing. So don't kid yourself. Gianelli
knows this. Oh, absolutely. Just speak to that
mindset because I know you've been in this same
situation before in your career. And I want to
say specifically on the beach, like you were
one of the first, let's call it true bigs out
there who was, you know, you're 6 '5", you're
left -handed. When you started, there was nobody
like you playing the sport. Fair. And... all
of a sudden you started to see other athletes
with your profile show up. What's going through
his mind? What is he thinking in this situation?
Does he care or is he out there to make a point
and be like, yeah, you might be good, but you're
not there yet? I don't know his personality.
If it was me, it's number two. It's like, okay,
yeah, people might compare us. People might say
that, like, you might be the next me or the next
big thing, whatever. But, like, I'll just show
you that you're not quite there yet and that,
like, I am still in control. He didn't do anything
overt. He wasn't, you know, looking through the
net. Like, he did actually a couple times, but
not at Moni. he wasn't he just let his performance
speak for himself in how his hitters were playing
and I think Rich Lamborn the commentator put
it perfectly at one point he set this ball and
his hitter just unloaded and Rich was like yeah
sometimes as a setter you just have to look at
your hitter and be like you're welcome That ball
basically hit itself. Like, and that's the story.
Just his hitters were in such a good rhythm.
And yes, they are good hitters, but they become
even better with a setter like him. So not that
Mone played poorly, but I can definitely, I was
like, Janelle knows that this comparison is coming
and he's here to put all the whispers to bed.
But you also saw the other side of that with
Alex Nikolov, who played against a lot of these
guys in the pro season. He is young. He knew
he was playing incredibly well. He was feeling
himself and was definitely provoking the other
side. And who took the bait? Botolo. Yeah, I
think that was a mistake for him. I think it
was a mistake because, like, yes, you're playing
out of your mind. yes you are like outstanding
but like your team's getting beat and also have
some respect and I'm all for like some attitude
some showmanship give me the personality I love
that but he was poking the bear and you could
tell Italy was like dude it happened in the third
set so you're down 2 -0 and your team is playing
well you're on the verge of winning the third
set and you're starting To stare down and to
do. To turn to the crowd and do all this stuff.
And I'm okay with that. But then don't go lose
the fourth set 25 -10. Because I think that was
like Italy being like, okay, here we go. I definitely,
you could definitely feel the energy on Italy.
And again, like you said. Well, you could see
the slow -mo. You even saw Anzani. when he would
score, get a block, turn, and do the finger wag
to his team. You could see Botolo making these
gestures. They didn't do it across the net. Gianelli
did once when something happened, but they knew
it was happening because they were turning back
to the... their team to celebrate and making
these gestures. And by turning, you mean the
quarter turn. So the ref can't say you're celebrating
through the net, but everybody else can see it.
The little work around. Yeah. And I thought that
that was, and I get that he's in the heat of
the moment and he's playing well, but just from
a strategic standpoint. You're one guy that's
like playing really well on a team that's getting
beat handily. Yeah. You can't, you got to keep
that for your team. I wonder if he'll learn that
lesson. He's probably, what is he, like 21 or
something? Yeah. I don't know. Probably not.
Italy came out and slapped them. Slapped them.
After that. So hard. And I'm pretty sure Bulgaria
jumped out to a decent -sized lead in set four.
And then it was like, bye -bye. And Bartolo alone
scored. I think he had five aces in a row. No,
Romanov had five aces in a row in set three or
something, and then in set four, Botolo went
off. I mean, Italy put on a serving clinic again
this match in addition to operating like a well
-willed machine offensively. Quite frankly, their
serving won the Memorial Championship. The serving
was the difference in the Poland match, and they
just... beat the snot out of the ball from the
baseline against Bulgaria. And we talked about
passes to the net, Mone's a threat. Passes to
the attack line, Mone can still run the middle,
that's a threat. They had Bulgaria passing about
a meter behind the attack line, and I know that
doesn't sound like a lot. Their block was munching
them. Italy was then prepared to put blocks up,
and they'll block them 10 -4. Not even close.
if Bulgaria would have been able to pass that
ball even on the attack line I think it's a much
different result because then they can get their
middles in Bulgaria only had one person scoring
points. Everybody else was getting blocked. Well,
you know, Alex Nikolov scored 21 points and he
hit 472. No, he was playing well. I'm not denying
that. I'm just saying you don't poke the bear
when you're fighting the bear one on six. But
their next highest scorer, Atanasov, only had
eight points. And again, he hit 385. It's not
a bad performance, but they didn't have another
person who was able to score. And part of that
was on the passing. And I think... You saw Mone's
inexperience show up a little bit in the decision
making. I mean, you've got to feed your brother
who's the hot hand. I understand that. But you
also have to keep your other players engaged.
He wasn't going to beat Italy by himself. He
beat everybody else. Yeah, well, but they didn't
play France. They didn't play Poland. Like against
those teams. And Bulgaria has other really good
players. We'll see that evolve. They're incredibly
young. This was an amazing performance for them,
an incredible result. They're going to be a force
on the world tour for a decade with the players
that they have. But Italy made sure to say, your
time is not yet. And there's no doubt that we
are the best. Their outside hitting core for
Italy was outstanding. Romano had a great tournament.
Micheleto had a great tournament. When Botolo
wasn't playing well, Porto came in, did a really
good job. They found their middles. Their blocking
was solid. They passed well. They served well.
It was fun to watch, really, and to see the celebration
at the end. I got goosebumps. I think I teared
up. As a kid, you're preached at about serving
and passing. Win you the game. Serving and passing.
Win you the game. It's true in every single level.
serving and passing decide who wins championships
and italy put on a clinic in the serving department
yeah we talk about the mentality and approach
to serving in terms of it's the one skill that
you control that no one else can affect you with
and italy put themselves in a mindset with their
toss consistency with their aggressiveness with
how they were trying to execute that skill was
in their control and they delivered and it's
funny we talk about france and i had france beating
them at some point in the tournament france lost
because of their serving italy won because of
their serving and it just goes to show you where
your head has to be at in that skill and what
it can do for you italy cleaning up left right
and center men's women's every age level you
name it the 2025 was the year for them the president
of that federation is having a great year somebody's
getting a race i don't know who the coaches the
scouts somebody is but huge congrats to italy
repeating as world champions like wow we So yeah,
it was a really fun weekend of volleyball. If
you haven't watched them, highly recommend you
check it out. Check out the USA -Bulgaria quarterfinal.
That one was fire. Any of the semifinal medal
matches were solid. So again, congrats, Italy.
That was a lot of fun. And international season
has concluded, but not until we talk about the
Dream Team real quick. Dream Team setter, Janelli.
Yeah. Opposite Romanov. Yeah. Who would you have
put instead? That was like a deep breath. Romanov
earned that position for sure. I would have been
curious. I thought Kurek had played very well
up until that point. It would have been interesting
to see him finish the tournament, but Romanov
deserved it. Two outsides, Michielaro, who was
also MVP of the tournament, and Nikolov, Alex.
I don't think you can disagree with that. You
couldn't not put Alex Nikolov on the list. Okay,
he cleaned up all tournament. And Micheletto,
solid. His team won. I personally think Nikolov
should have been the MVP. In terms of what he
meant to his team and how he played. No, 100%.
His statistical numbers were off the charts.
But you're not going to get it if you're not
winning. I understand that, but I think he was
that good. Okay. I've seen it happen before.
Middle blockers, Grosdanov and Koschanovsky.
I thought there were a lot of middles who played
really well. I'm not sure how I would make that
pick. You had to include some middles from other
teams because I think that those other four positions
were pretty locked in. Well, it's like Italy's
taking everything and then they're like, well,
Nikolov, you can't deny. And then they're like,
okay, now what? For the most part, I thought
we saw the middles from almost all three of those,
all four of those teams actually. play really
well i didn't think that they were a hinge i
thought the blocking was incredible i thought
the decision making when they had opportunities
to kill balls across the board the middles were
incredibly like if you're picking the position
that italy was least dominant in it's probably
middle yeah that's fair and they're still really
good yeah i mean again there i thought the middles
could have been pickums across all four teams
and finally libero balasso from italy I like
the Polish libero. Yeah. I love him. I think
that's where I would have landed as well. I thought
the Italian libero played really well. You don't
notice him. Exactly. But that's a good thing.
We always talk about you don't want to notice
the libero, but I thought the Polish middle made
some spectacular defensive plays across the tournament.
The Italian libero did as well, but I probably
would have edged. There's perks to winning. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. But, I mean, it's hard
to argue against any of the players on those
lists. They all played spectacularly. There we
go. International season 2025 in the books. It
was so good. Italy, winners. There you go. Okay,
listener question time. Here we go. Question
one. Why are there more spin servers in the men's
game relative to the women's game? They also
seem to utilize the hybrid more. Is there a difference
in serving strategy? We get lots of serving questions.
We do. Here's a few things to think about. One,
quite frankly, spin serves are easier to pass
than float serves in general. If you want a spin
serve to be effective, you need it to do two
things. One, you need it to be incredibly hard
so that it's more difficult to control. And you
need it to move one way or the other, left to
right, right to left, depending on... Put that
wrist behind it, you know. And if you can't do
that, give me a spin serve to pass. Oh, I'll
pass a spin serve over a float serve all day.
Yeah, I agree. And women don't put enough on
their spin serves. And that's the thing. Women
are fantastic passers in general. Unless you're
Kira Van Ryk or Melissa Vargas. Exactly. So you
have a couple women who can put the pace on the
ball required to be effective. And otherwise,
unless you're hitting the ball that hard, because
the net's lower on the women's side and the women
are still very tall who play the sport at a high
level that trajectory that you can get on the
float serve you don't need to hit it as hard
the range of effectiveness is less and so that's
why you see more float serves on the women's
side than on the men's side and on the men's
side you have to get teams in trouble from a
passing standpoint if they're in system and the
good women's teams are like this as well but
I feel more so in the men's game because it's
a little more physical and you the men can hit
the ball harder and put that pace on it so that's
the high level breakdown of why you see more
spin serves in the men's game question two if
you were starting a team from scratch and you
could choose one world -class player in just
one position which position would you choose
okay let's count to three and say the position
we would choose at the same time. Okay, I have
a caveat. Are we talking, are the other players
rec level players or are we baseline competent?
I would say, we're not going to say like they've
never played volleyball before. It's going to
be like a decent level. But you have one player
that is like, elite world class okay ready one
two three setter 100 you saw the difference we
talked about usa you saw the difference that
micah christiansen made for almost the same lineup
from vnl to worlds i think they were way better
personally totally i've said this so many times
a great setter can take a mediocre team and make
them incredible a bad setter can take an incredible
team and make them rough like setters are difference
makers well and they touch the ball more than
any other player on the court yes so you want
your skilled players touching the ball the most
that's why decisions yeah whenever we're doing
like fantasy or like drafts or stuff for fun
we always pick setters first absolutely Like
unless you have just this complete, unless the
setters are all generally the same skill level,
then sure, it's fine. But no, always prioritize
the setter. I think the more interesting question
is what position would you prioritize as your
second pick? Left side, you have every skill.
If you have a world -class left side, you have
every skill set covered. I would have picked
the same thing. Look at that. I like that question
a lot. Question three, when do you know it's
finally time to hang it up? When do you know
you've suffered one last injury and say to yourself,
I'm going to recovery. I'll be able to work out
and be fully normal again. However, I don't want
to work toward playing the highest level of volleyball
possible. I can't answer that question because
I've never been there. Mine was, you're not good
enough to play at the next level. That was the
decision. I wouldn't say the injury forced my
retirement. I was going to retire when I did
anyway. But yeah, when is it time to hang it
up? You know, there are some people who just
never, they don't get it and they just never
reach it. And like you see them continue to try
to push and you almost feel bad for them. You
know what I mean? And then there's some people
who just like know when it's time to go. Well,
I think you have two different types of athletes.
You have athletes who play sport to be the best.
And when they are no longer capable. being the
best they're not interested anymore and they
retire and then you have those athletes who just
they love the lifestyle they love to play they
love everything around the sport including competing
but competing is not necessarily the end -all
and be -all if you know what I mean and I think
you see those athletes hang around. Hey, I'm
going to show up and I'm going to mentor the
next generation. I think you see those two extremes
in general in athletes, or at least that's been
my experience in coaching different athletes.
Speaking on a personal level, I will say I probably
fall into the pursuit of excellence side of that.
Not probably. I did. So for me, the pool of athletes
in my country that I had to choose from became
smaller and smaller. For beach. For beach. For
beach. It's just like when you're not capable
of getting there. I felt good about my own performance,
like knee surgery and all that aside. Like I
was still playing at a high level prior to that.
And it's just like, what do you do? What am I
doing here? Like if I'm not pushing to like legit
be the best in the world, like what am I even
doing here? Like why am I traveling for weeks
and months? Why would I? spend my time and energy
doing this and getting older that's the other
thing is you're getting older and athletes are
getting younger and it's just yeah it was a reality
check and then it was just kind of like looking
at myself and being like I don't have anything
to prove to myself or anybody else anymore I've
done everything I feel good But it's hard. It's
hard to walk away from something that has been
so a part of your life for so long and it's scary.
And yeah, this is a very hard question, but I
think it's like knowing yourself, knowing who
you are and what your life priorities are really.
Question four, do you think the trade -offs in
the college games evolution going from developing
six rotation players during the golden era of
2005 to 10 to building better and more balanced
teams in the current era, do you think those
trade -offs are worth it for the overall trajectory
of the game in the U .S.? So fewer six rotation
players definitely hurts the national team, but...
More balanced teams increases the participation
of girls in the sport and could lead to discovering
untapped talent. There are trade -offs for sure.
This is a very interesting question. I think
the more kids who are playing sport, the better.
I think sport is great for everyone to participate.
And I love that. young kids can come in and play
a sport if they're short, contribute to their
team like we talked about, either defensively
or from the service line. And I love that these
rules allow the sport to be more inclusive and
accessible for both kids of young ages, but both
at the collegiate level. You don't have a ton
of athletes from the overall participating pool
who go play pro or who play on the national team.
However, I think as a coach especially at the
collegiate level but also at the club level if
you have a kid who has aspirations and the skill
set to be that good it should be your responsibility
to give that kid the opportunity to make those
dreams come true and you have to be realistic
about it you know you can be 5 '8 and say I want
to play on the national team as a left side it's
probably not going to happen like I understand
that there's trade -offs between winning in your
program but that you can't tell me you can't
give those kids passing reps in practice or you
can't help them get there so I love the rule
from a participation standpoint I don't think
it has to be as debilitating for six rotation
players as it currently is if coaches And I don't
want to say they don't do this because I understand
you have to win, but I think it could be done
better. That's pretty much exactly the answer
I was going to give. I was like, the percentage
of athletes who are going to go on to play national
team or pro is very, very small. So you want...
kids to have a place to play you want to keep
kids in sport particularly girls you want to
keep girls involved in sport as long as possible
a lot of girls find a social aspect to sport
so I think the way the game is now at the club
level is so good for the average volleyball player
who doesn't like you said have aspirations to
be on the national team But you cannot just have
a cookie cutter. You need to look at kids on
an individual basis. I think kids need to be
coached based on the individuals they are from
like a feedback perspective. But I think if a
kid has a goal to make it, you need to try to
like give them every opportunity to do that.
So I think it's kind of, yeah, a nuanced question
or answer. Because let's be honest, if you...
realistically have professional or national team
aspirations you're playing for a very good program
collegially yeah you can't tell me yeah you can't
tell me that you're not going to have games against
throwaway schools where your coach could go okay
you'll play six rotations in this match but you
could find those opportunities for those players
if there's a player that has that potential they
should be given the opportunity to train all
those skills and use them anyway that's that's
it okay last one when do you think is a good
moment to switch out your star players if they
aren't performing well so the examples they gave
were ishikawa in the japan canada match at worlds
he was kept in way longer than he should have
been angapeth keeping them in so basically what
is asking is is it normal to wait it out longer
when it's a star player because you trust them
to figure it out This is a coach question, so
I'll pass the floor to Adam. There's a couple
considerations here. One is, who do you have
replacing him and coming in off the bench? So
you need to know what the skill level of that
person is. Ideally, you've seen this athlete
in these situations before, so you have an idea
of how long it's going to take them to come out.
It's individual based on those athletes. And
then it's a gut feeling. in terms of, you know,
Ingepeth was coming back from injury. Ishikawa
was not. He just wasn't very good. So, and quite
frankly, so in my opinion, that one was too late
because the replacement for Ishikawa came in
and played really well. It's a feel thing for
coaches in terms of how you do that. Now, what
I haven't addressed here is, is there political
blowback? And what I mean by that is, Inge Peth
is your program's guy, right? Do you have the
blessing of the federation to pull him and bench
him? Those players can go over your head. I'm
not saying Inge Peth would do this, but I'm saying
that's a reality that affects decisions. It's
much easier to get rid of a coach than it is
to lose your star players. There's a whole bunch
of factors that go into this, and they're never
easy. decisions to make oh i liked these ones
this week these were good ones they were very
good questions keep them coming i mean i'm the
one who picks them so like pat on the back to
me for making them but honestly these questions
thank you for sending these in they were really
really fun to answer and think about all right
world is over the italians are the champs and
our focus is now going to switch to ncaa and
i hope For any of you guys who are mostly international
volleyball fans, you should watch some of the
college volleyball. It's very entertaining. I
know pro seasons are starting soon, but if you
need a fix, there are very good matches out there
to watch. And the collegiate scene in the U .S.
is very entertaining. So this week, here are
the matches that we'll be watching. Wednesday,
7 .30 p .m. Eastern, Kansas versus TCU. Looking
to right the ship in that match. Friday at 8
p .m. Eastern, Nebraska, Penn State. Probably
won't be great, but I put it down. Well, it technically
should be good, and Penn State needs to right
the ship as well. So we'll see what product they
put on the floor. Saturday, 4 p .m. Eastern,
Utah versus Arizona State. Utah needs to show
up in this match. Saturday, 9 .30 p .m. Eastern,
Purdue versus USC. This I'm interested. USC,
I don't think they've played a ton of good teams.
so far they're doing pretty well but they're
doing well so i i'm very curious to see them
in big 10 play now against better opponents i'm
curious to get a real good feel of how they look
as a team and then finally sunday at 4 p .m eastern
louisville stanford the battle of the one b's
i'm curious i think stanford is a 1a but whatever
agree to disagree well they're young they they
i think they have the potential to be there but
i need to see little bit more from them in terms
of can they do it consistently and can they compete
with those top teams so this will be this is
a measuring stick match for me for stanford that
concludes this week's episode of volley talk
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