The Viral Volley Podcast

Episode 314, Viral Volley Podcast, Names in the Game - Alaina Chacon, 6-5-26

In this Episode of the Viral Volley Podcast, ascending pro volleyball athlete Alaina Chacon jumps after she and partner Maddie Anderson go 2-0 at the opening weekend of the AVP League in Belmar, NJ. 

Before that weekend, Alaina has always been one of those "watchlist" athletes from her days in HS indoor, to Florida St., and now the Beach Pro Tour and the AVP. One of three tallented sisters, Alaina has been a switch-blocker on the beach but has also been a lightning quick defender with a full toolbox of attacks-- that include a very heavy hammer. This week she reflects on her volleyball beginnings, getting discovered by coaches Hector Gutierrez of TCU and Brooke Niles at Florida St.

After finding success at the collegiate beach game she ventured into coaching and eventually her pro career where she has continued to find success at both the BPT and AVP! How she had to find a partner rather quickly at the start of the 2026 season being that sister, Morgan was carrying her first baby for Auntie Alaina! What did she do? Did she "...slip into Maddie's (Anderson) DMs?" Nope. She just texted her :). 

Listen in!

Episode 313, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, 2026 NCAA Closeout Episdoe, 05-26-2026

After taking a much needed week off the Coaches' Panel of Nickie Sanlin of McKendree, Jay Hosack of George Mason, Brad Rosstratter of UC San Diego, Theo Edwards of CSUN and Dan Friend of Lewis (for a brief moment) jump into this mega-closeout episode to talk about the NCAA Championship match crowing the University of Hawaii as the 2026 National Champions. Along with that a lot of news of top names turning pro before the completion of their collegiate careers as well as athletes changing teams. With that, we move into the effects of "The Portal."

As always, we end with a fan favorite, "Jay's Hot Takes!"

NOTE: A special thank you to all of you who have followed the podcast during the 2026 NCAA Men's Volleyball season. We truly and deeply appreciate all your support, comments, messages and friendly conversations with those of you who have contacted us or said, "Hello," to us! We may do some special topics over the summer, or even track our USA Men's teams!

Episode 312, Viral Volley: Names in the Game, Avery Poppinga, 5-20-26

It's the first Viral Volley Podcast of the summer! To kick it off former Florida St. and LMU Beach standout Avery Poppinga shares about the start of her volleyball journey struggling with scoliosis, playing in Texas, to Florida St. and finally to Loyola Marymount. Avery talks about the wonderful, yet different coaching she received from Brooke Niles and John Mayer and additional back issues she suffered with during COVID.

 

Avery then discusses her current life as a pro-beach volleyball athlete and how she is navigating the pursuit of her dreams, traveling across the USA and the world competing in multiple tours, which has lead her to OnlyFans. Avery, along with other pro-beach standouts Alaina Chacon, Falyn Fonoimoana and Hagen Smith are featured on "Perfect Set" on OFTV-- a competition to see which pro can coach their team to a $50,000 grand prize! Visit the URLs below to check out the former Lion's ventures!

 

"Perfect Set" Series on OFTV: https://of.tv/c/perfect-set

Avery's OnlyFans Site: https://onlyfans.com/averypoppinga

Episode 311, College Volleyball Weekly, National Championship Episode 5-11-2026

The title speaks for itself, but specifically the panel taks about the AVCA Player of the Year, and the TWO great semfinal matches! May add more to the description later but I've got to jump on the mic. Posted at 2:49 PM BEFORE the championship match! 

Episode 310, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, National Championship Recap, 5-4-26

This week only Jay and Rob were available for this week's discussion amid the AVCA and NCAA Men's Volleyball Committee members' responsibilities this week (Yes, Rob is also "doing stuff" for the AVCA). That being said, the discussion goes to the 2026 NCAA National Championship Volleyball Tournament at their regional sites, the top performers, interesting stat lines, and other related issues that arose from the exciting play that we encountered at the regionals!

Sorry, Rob may or may not get to the timestamps. He has a hard deadline to get the episode out in the Pod-Realm!

Episode 309, College Volleyball Weekly, Beach Top 20, NCAA Championship Week, 4/29/26

Sydney Miller of Hawaii and Rob touch on the conference tournaments across the nation winning automatic berths fand punching their tickets to Gulf Shores for the 2026 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship!

Announced recently was the AVCA Collegiate Beach Player of the Year Finalist list and as expected, it should be a tough decision for the AVCA panel to choose between the FSU or UCLA girls.

From there we talk about the matchups to kick off the opening round of the NCAA Championships. See what Sydney and Rob had to say about the matchups and drop some insight as to who to watch for in the pairs!

Thanks for listening and apologies for the missed episodes the last few weeks!

Episode 308, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Pre-Championship Episode 04-27-2026

The CVW crew is joined once again by McKendree Head Coach, Nickie Sanlin, as we talk about most of the big conference tournament results. We bounce all over the place with a few of the contributors having to attend to other responsibilities, but we try to hit on all the top matches, performances and news of the last 7-10 days! We discuss whether the NCAA Committee (with Dan Friend) got the right teams in-- and even consulted ChatGPT TWICE and even IT AGREED! Although we joked it was "Easy" this year to pick the at-large berths, we know they were at the grindstone for the entire season!

With the brackets set, all the panelists are heading over to volleyballrankings.com to fill out their 2026 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship Bracket! You should jump over there also and play for fun!

Thanks for listening and apologies for the missed episode last week!

 

Episode 307, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 15 Recap, 04-13-2026

It’s a MEGA episode this week with special guest contributor, Nickie Sanlin of McKendree. Nickie has been one of the most influential coaches in the game not only in the NCAA but in the USANTDP and is what some may classify as a “mover and a shaker.”

Our almost-2-hour discussion delves into all the panelists’ matches, key performers and the state of where their teams are at in conference play as some head into their final weekend of regular season play, while others are opening their conference tournaments this weekend. 

As always, we pick a handful of top-20 matches that caught the nation’s eye with exciting play, upsets to shake up seedings, and standout performances by some great student-athletes. Still much to be sorted out this last week in relation to conference seedings, so we know ALL matches this week are worth watching to see the exciting conclusion! 

The panel drops their “Ballers of the Week” and fire off on “Jay’s Quick Hits” or “Hot Takes” to round out the episode!

Episode 306, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 14 Recap, 04-06-26

This week's format is an open-forum for the coaches' panel to select the matches and topics we discuss from Week 14. Everything from multiple red cards to "Libero of the Year Award" for the AVCA!

With Hawaii sweeping the series vs. UCI, the Bows appear to be in the driver's seat for the No. 1 seed in the Big West Men's Volleyball Championship. The MIVA will be entertaining to see how it settles before that conference tournament, with Ball St. narrowly leading Loyola for the top seed. EIVA is not a lock-- yet-- especially since the Nittany Lions finish up their regular season at 2nd place George Mason. 

Episode 305, College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 10-ish, Week 6 Recap with Kelly Belardi

This week Kelly Belardi rejoins CVW Beach to recap the week that was for the Stanford Cardinal that had them reclaim the No. 1 AVCA Coaches' Poll ranking for 3rd time in 2026. Kelly also gives some insight on couple of the top 10 teams to watch in the final 3 weekends of regular season play. Last weekend, Kelly achieved the 100th Career Win milestone so she also shared how important her teammates were in accomplishing that feat. In addition, Kelly and partner, Avery Jackson were honored as the AVCA National and MPSF Pair of the Week! The Stanford Cardinal are "gunning for the top" hoping to defend their MPSF Beach Tournament Champion title but are aware that teams are better and deeper than ever!

From there, we break down a couple of the hot teams during Week 6: #5 Florida St. & #3 Texas.