The Viral Volley Podcast

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. 

 

Episode 304, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20 Week 13 Recap, 3-30-2026

In the Week 13 recap, we saw a week were there were no upsets in the top 10, however it didn't mean there was a shortage of action! Long Beach St. took down Theo's Matadors twice, while Brad and his Tritons were in the battle but UCI found a way to get it done in 3 and 5 sets accordingly. Dan and his Flyers only had one match for the week in the Battle for Chitown on Rae Strong Night, where the Ramblers came out with the win in 4. UCLA is at 20-0 and looking unstoppable, while Pepperdine had a very important pair of wins Provo vs. BYU that cold prove important if an At-Large bid is on the line. Just a few samples of our discussions before we pick our "Ballers of the Week,"

NOTE: For those requesting time-stamps, we apologize for not posting them. Rob has to get the episode up within an hour of recording so we have to turn the episode around REALLY FAST.

As always, thanks for watching or listening!

 

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Episode 303, College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 10-ish, Week 5 Recap, 3-24-2026

This week saw top teams like UCLA, Stanford, USC and TCU idle, however that didn't stop the rest of the other top teams from pulling off big wins, like #9 Cal over #4 Texas, and #16 GCU over #12 LSU. University of Hawaii's Sydney Miller and Rob review and recap Week 5 of the NCAA Collegiate Beach season as we inch closer to conference tournament time and begin looking at At-Large berth scenarios! Throughout the episode we discuss a few career milestones for some Mustangs, Seminoles and a Sundevil!

Thanks for watching or listening!

 

Episode 302, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20 Week 12 Recap, 3-23-2026

This week we remember Ann Davenport after her unexpected passing last week. She was truly a volleyball pioneer helping the game grow in so many aspects.

In our “Social Media Shoutout” segment, @lewismensvb is recognized for their viral post of the week—a celebrity doppelganger with one of their current OHs, Daniel Haber.

We got through our Week 12 recap focusing on some of the top 20’s matches that received national attention, spending some extra time on the No. 2 Long Beach St. vs. No. 3 Hawaii matches, picked our players of the week, then dropped some “Whatcha Watchin’” matches for Week 13.

To end our episode, “Jay’s Quick Hits,” brings some interesting questions about team culture and must-have equipment as the panel responds in not-so-lightning-quick speed.

Episode 301, College Volleyball Weekly Top 10-ish, Week 4 Recap 03-17-2026

After a two-week break, Sydney Miller of Hawaii and Rob Espero breakdown some of the top tidbits of the top-10-ish teams in the most recent AVCA polls. There were minor shifts in the top 10 this week, but all within expectations. A lot of discussion on East Meets West in Manhattan Beach and the FAU Invitational where a few unexpected results arose involving USC, Florida St. and TCU.

Thanks for listening/watching and following!

Episode 300, College Volleyball Weekly Men’s Top 20, Week 11 Recap 03-16-2026

As always, we start off "shouting out" some of our Men's Volleyball digital content providers, and this week it's Lee Feinswog of 900 Square Feet and @flicksbyry_!

In the 300^th episode (on Viral Volley Media) we’ve got an NCAA Men’s Championship Volleyball Recap in Week 11 that saw No. 1 UCLA remain undefeated—which beckons the question, “Can the Bruins be beaten?” Also, Penn St. makes a West Coast swing vs. Long Beach St., Pepperdine and USC as Coach Pav continues his retirement tour. Stanford snatches a couple wins against No 7 BYU that could prove to me huge come MPSF Tournament time while celebrating Volleyball Day in the Bay. The then-No. 11 UCSB Gauchos split their Big West series vs. No. 4 UCI behind George Breuning and the mustache-clad Cole Schobel. The Coaches’ Panel chat about a few other matches, then we go into the new HOT segment— “Jay’s Quick Hits,” and this one is a doozy!

Thanks for listening/watching and following!

Episode 299, College Volleyball Weekly Men’s Top 20, Week 10 Recap 03-09-2026

In Episode 299 CVW Men’s Top 20 is graced with the guest appearance of Princeton Head Coach, Sam Shweisky. Sam joins the crew to talk about some of the top 20 matches during the 10^th week of the Men’s Collegiate season. Each week, the MIVA seems to have more mayhem as teams jostle for positioning for post-season play. The Waves split with the Bows for an entertaining series, Belmont Abbey and Mt. Olive are vying for the top spot in the Conference Carolinas, while the “Battle for LA” proved that the lone defeated team in the nation can turn it on in crunch time.

From there the crew selects their “Ballers of the Week,” and matches they’ll be watching in Week 11. We finish the episode with a new favorite segment, “Jay’s Quick Hits,” where the coaches answer some interesting topics in Men’s Volleyball!

Thanks for watching and/or listening! #NCAAMVB

Episode 298, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 9 Recap, 03-02-26

This week, we go through our normal routine of recognizing digital content creators in the Men’s game. This week it was reported that the Official Fan Account for NCAA Men’s Volleyball, @ncaamvb surpassed 22.6 MILLION views! Great news for #ncaavb, but even better news for Men’s Volleyball! In our news segment we remember Steven Lee Sander, father to Taylor and Brenden, two wonderful personalities in Men’s Volleyball. Other news for the week, had former Stanford All-American Matt Fuerbringer being named as Head Coach of the USAV Beach Team as well. From there we go into the “Elephant in the Room,” that highlights the Coaching Panelists’ matches in Week 9, “Eye Catching Matches” of the week and finally, the panel’s “Ballers/Players of the Week.”

New this week, is “Jay’s Quick Hits” segment where we bounce a handful of NCAA Men’s Volleyball questions/topics on the spot for a hot take!

 

Thanks for listening and following! #ncaamvb #ncaamvolleyball #ncaavolleyball