The Viral Volley Podcast

Ep. 220: College Volleyball Weekly Men’s Top 20, Week 13, 3/25/24

In Week 12 it seems March Mayhem has re-entered the scene with the MIVA Conference seeing a handful of unexpected results! With only 2-3 weeks remaining in the regular season and conference tournaments around the corner, expect more mayhem! Not excluded from the mayhem is the Big West Conference—with only one matchup during the week that resulted in an upset-split of the No. 2 team in the nation. As always, our coaches’ panel discuss the weeks they’ve had as well, but we also chat about what each of the conferences is looking like at this stage of the season.

The Coaches’ Panel closes out the episode by selecting their players (or now, Teams) of the week, and what they’re watching in Week 13!

Episode 219: College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, Week 4 Recap/Week 5 Preview, 3/19/24

Week 4 of the NCAA Collegiate Beach season and East Meets West in Manhattan Beach, CA along with the FAU Invite in Pompano Beach, FL took center stage as a lot of top 20 teams went at it. Kelly Belardi of Stanford, Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA and Kylie Wickley of Texas gathered to chat on what we saw in Week 4 as well as through the mid-point of the season (even though Texas hosted their first-ever home tri-dual today).

As always, we talk some of the top performers of the week, then look forward to this upcoming weekend where the CCSA Midseason Tournament  and "Fight in the Fort" at TCU go down! 

Episode 218: College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 12, 3/18/24

Week 11 brought another 1 vs. 2 matchup resulting in what will most likely be new No. 1-- again. With that we discuss a handful of the top matches of the week but try a new piece for our Coaches' Panel: "If You Were on the NCAA Committee" segment! The coaches discuss what the 20243 NCAA Tournament would look like today given the 8-team scenario and also venture in to what that could look like if it were a 12-team scenario.

Tap in and spread the world. We're officially into the last month of the NCAA Men's Volleyball season so it's going to get HOT!

Episode 217: College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, Florida St. 3/12/24

This week we jump into our first special episode with the East Meets West in Manhattan Beach this weekend. With that, the Seminoles of Florida St. "take over" the show to talk about their start to 2024, how deep and talented the 'Noles squad is as they've been hovering at No. 4 in the AVCA and CollegeBeachVB.com polls. They're chomping at the bit to make the case to be at the top. CVW Beach Contributor Alli Hansen and teammate Morgan Chacon chat all things Seminole! 

Episode 216: Week 11, College Volleyball Weekly Men’s Top 20, 3/11/24

Week 10 saw another No. 1 team go down not just once, but twice at the Outrigger Invitational in Hawaii. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles the Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge brought in a battle of 4 of the top 12 teams in the nation. In Northern California, two top-10 teams duked it out for split. The Big West got heated as Long Beach St. and UCSB squared off with emotions flaring. The rest of the top 20 were in good conference battles or travelled to cross-conference opponents!

As always, the CVW crew pics their top performers (“Ballers”) of the week and recommend some of the top matches to watch in Week 11 of NCAA Men’s Championship Volleyball!

Episode 215: College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, 3/5/24

Episode 215: College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, 3/5/24

 

This week Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA, Alli Hansen of Florida St. and Kylie Wickley of Texas jump into the show (missing Kelly Belardi of Stanford) talking about what they as athletes have seen so far 1/4th into the season (aka, 2 weeks). What's the talent like, what teams are playing well and how are they getting it done?

The CVW BEACH crew then takes a look at eye-catching duals in Week 2, identifying top performing teams and athletes. As always, we end by picking out some duals to look out for in Week 3. 

Episode 214: College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 9 Recap/Week 10 Preview, 3/4/24

This week didn't see a whole lot of shakeups around the nation, however we're discovering the MIVA is getting very interesting with Ball St., and Ohio St. sitting at the top. There was an LA rivalry matchup, GCU dominance, Long Beach St. on a winning streak and Hawaii rolling along, however the guys talk "chirping and chippiness" in the game. The guys chatter about few other things that have come up last minute like the "two-handed attack", or what Rob refers to as "The Shove." 

All that and our normal business on College Volleyball Weekly, Men's Top 20! 

Episode 213, College Volleyball Weekly, BEACH TOP 20, Week 1 Recap/Week 2 Preview, 2/27/24

While Alli of Florida St. tends to homework, Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA, Kelly Belardi of Stanford and Kylie Wickley of Texas join Rob on recapping the Week 1 action of the NEW Collegiate Beach Volleyball season! We try our best to talk about the CollegeBeachVB.com Top 20 teams and top athletes. Contributor Kelly garnered Most Oustanding Pair (with Ashley Vincent) at the Duke Kahanamoku Classic, which then became the Pac-12 Pair of the Week, then the AVCA National Pair of the Week! Congrats, Kelly!

Along with the Hawaii Tournament action, there was the Third Coast Invite as well as the Tampa Invite that some some teams skyrocket in the polls and the national eye! We'll touch on some key performers and pick some duals/matchs to keep an eye on in Week 2!

Episode 212: College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20, Week 8 Recap/Week 9 Preview, 2/26/24

In Week 8 of the the NCAA Men's season we are still seeing intense parity as multiple teams visit "Splitsville"-- splitting their pairs of matches during the week. Along with that we're seeing changes in lineups, some intentional, some not. One thing is for sure-- the competitive levels REMAIN. 

As always, the guys discuss the results, pick their top players of the week, then dive into "Whatcha Watchin'" in Week 9. All that with some tangented discussion about "beard games," "Karate Kid" references and other salty remarks by the CVW Coaches' Panel. 

NOTE: We would have discussed the potential of a D2 Championship but we 1) ran out of time, and 2) Dan of Lewis had to leave the episode early. 

Episode 211, College Volleyball Weekly, BEACH TOP 20, Just Jaden Intro Show, 2/19/24

Continuation from Episode 209, CVW Beach Top 20 Intro show with the Beach Top 20's new Student-Athlete Contributors!

UCLA's Jaden Whitmarsh gets her own episode because of a schedule conflict with the Beach team when we recorded Episode 209 however, it works out perfectly so that we can find out about her Volleyball/Beach Volleyball career from WAVE Volleyball Club, Torrey Pines High School and now UCLA.

Jaden has always been Ms. Reliable in the clutch and lives for those big moments-- however as you'll see that she has is a great representative of NCAA Collegiate Beach Volleyball-- and hopefully as an AVP regular!

Listen and chime as we our final CVW Beach Top 20 contributor talks about how she got to where she is!