The Viral Volley Podcast

Episode 256, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20: Week 8 Recap 2-24-25

Week 8 of the NCAA Men’s D1-2 season brought about the emergence of the Bearcats of McKendree, the rejuvenated Bruins, and streaking Matadors! In addition to the teams that are grabbing the headlines, there is MIVA madness as the teams tussle in the first half of conference play. Then there is the EIVA– where teams are flipping the script on historic powerhouses while others are waiting to see how teams find their rhythm. 

From there the guys pick their “Ballers of the Week” and matches to look out for in Week 9. The HOT MIC moment brought a great amount of discussion topics– that we ran out of time for. For the next episode, the panel wanted to entertain questions from Volleytalk and/or through Social Media! Send your thoughts/questions via DM if you want to drop a few!

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Thanks for listening in and/or viewing!

Episode 255, College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20: 2025 Preview

And the 2025 NCAA Collegiate Beach season less than a few days away and the chatter and buzz are running HOT! College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20 brings some of the top athletes in the game to "talk shop" on their "Sandy Colleagues" across beach courts throughout the nation! One returner is back-- Kylie Wickley of Texas, whos program is starting out in the top 15, and newcomer Sydney Miller of No. 12 Hawaii.

The CVWBT20 crew discuss the Preseason AVCA Poll, and touch on the TruVolley Poll. From there Kylie, Syd and Rob discuss the top 15-ish players on rosters to start 2025, along with some top athletes to watch. As always, we end on "Whatcha Watching" in Week 1!

Episode 254, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 7 Recap 2-17-25

Week 7 has been one of the most intense weeks of the the 2025 season with 8 upsets and boatload of 5-setters. With those results we witnessed some teams levelling up while others stumbled. With that, the CVW panel discusses some of the top 20 results, teams and performers of Week 7!

 

The panel picks some matches to watch out for in Week 8 and only Jay decides to drop a "Hot Mic" thought!

Thanks for viewing/listening to College Volleyball Weekly!

Episode 253, College Volleyball Weekly, Beach Top 20, Sydney Miller, Hawaii Sand Bows

As the season gears up in the next few days Rob chats with some of the players to watch during the 2025 season.

Sydney Miller of Hawaii chats about her beginnings in volleyball through her decision to play Collegiate Beach at Hawaii. We then discuss her first two seasons with Chandler Cowell and Anna Maidment through her two seasons so far. Sydney

An All-Big West honoree and 2024 AVCA Top Flight recipient Sydney is looking to help the Sand Bows get to another post-season appearance! Be sure to watch until the end for an announcement regarding College Volleyball Weekly, Beach Top 20!

Episode 252, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 6 Recap, 2/10/25

The CVW Coaches' Panel recaps the play from Week 6 of the NCAA Men's Volleyball season that included SIX upsets, the start of some conferences' play and a lot of GREAT ACTION. The guys pick their players of the week as well as p Week 7 matches to be on the lookout for! Our shortage of time had us do a "shorter" "Hot Mic" segment, but we still "kinda" jump into the ESPN+ vs. B1G+ discussion. I'm sure there will be more in upcoming weeks!

As always, thanks for listening and watching!

Episode 251, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Special Guest: Foti Mellis, MPSF Commissioner, 02-06-25

Only the 2nd Commissioner ever to lead the MPSF, Foti Mellis joins CVW to discuss the status of the MPSF Conference in Men’s Volleyball. Episode 248 & 249 brought multiple questions from the Coaches’ panel and listeners/viewers regarding the competition format of MPSF conference play, the addition of DII teams in the conference and the utilization of the B1G for promotion, marketing, broadcast and streaming of Men’s Volleyball. Foti addresses each of these in detail in this episode of CVW!

Episode 250, College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, Preseason Special Episode with Foti Mellis, MPSF Commissioner

In 2025 a new Collegiate Beach conference takes the sand-- and it's the MPSF. With 4-Peat Champions USC (6-time winner), 2-time winner UCLA, along with Cal, Stanford, Oregon, and GCU we're talking about a GAUNTLET of a conference!

Foti shares how the MPSF Beach Conference formed, its upcoming 1st-ever MPSF Beach Championship, the potential of adding more hardware and news that broke just hours before the posting of this episode! The addition of 4 more POWERHOUSE teams in the MPSF for 2026!

Episode 249, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20: Week 5 Recap, 2-3-25

Week 5 of the NCAA Men's D1-2 season was a DOOZY! Great matchups in abundance and phenomenal battles occurred across different platforms and live in-arenas! This week we recap the 5 remaining undefeated teams and discuss where the top 20 teams are at as far as 2025 competition so far. Conference play is beginning in the Conference Carolinas, MIVA, and EIVA so the heat will be turned up!

As always, our CVW panel selects their eye-catching performers of the week, pick their "Whatcha Watchin'" matches in Week 6. Of course we close out with our "Hot Mic" Moment!

Episode 248, College Volleyball Weekly, Men's Top 20: Jeff Nygaard USC 01-30-25

Second Men's Volleyball Episode in 3 days! It was a great opportunity to catch up with USC Head Coach Jeff Nygaard whose No. 6 USC Trojans are off to a fantastic start in 2025! The Men of Troy stand at 6-0 and have "bought in" to the team philosophy and mission!

Jeff shares about the Trojan's start and why they've clicked. As the Trojans await their first match in the Big 10 Challenge in Columbus, OH, Jeff talks about the remaining non-conference schedule and what we could expect to see in the MPSF. 

From there, we chat about USC's and other MPSF teams' partnership with the Big 10 Conference and Network and how that could encourage growth in men's game. Additionally, we talk about the format for MPSF competition between the D1 and D2 teams and why the schedule worked out the way that it has for 2025. 

Episode 247, College Volleyball Weekly BEACH Top 20, 1/29/2025 – Lindsey Sparks

To kick of the 2025 NCAA Beach season Rob brings in one of the top athletes in the last 7 seasons in Collegiate Beach Volleyball, Lindsey Sparks of Cal Poly. Lindsey has garnered Regional and State Championships indoor, but has also been an outstanding Beach player wherever and whomever she competes with!

From committing indoors, decommitting, then committing on the beach fulltime we discuss where her collegiate career has taken her. From the lows of battling an eating disorder to the highs of a National Championship at UCLA, then suffering a career-threatening injury, then finding physical and emotional healing with a PT who helped bring her body back to compete again. In a new role and school as the team “Grandma,” Lindsey is looking forward to what 2025 has in store—along with her freshman sister, Dani, who is also on the Todd Rogers coached Cal Poly Beach team!