The Viral Volley Podcast

Episode 246, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 4, 1/27/25

Four weeks in and there are 6 remaining teams with unblemished records in D1-2 competition! The CVW Coaches' panel discusses what is making these teams successful early on in 2025. Prior to that discussion they discuss teams without conferences and why certain MPSF teams are not playing against other teams within their own conference.

 

From there, we go through our normal discussion of the week's results, players of the week and matches to watch in Week 5. Taking a risk on a new segment-- "The Hot Mic Moment" where our coaching panel sounds off on whatever they want to. We'll see how that goes-- all on this week's CVW Men's Top 20!

Episode 245, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 3 – 1/20/25

NOTE: For some reason this episode was "doubled-up" in length. Need to contact tech support. Will upload a "singled" episode in a few hours, and will keep this one up. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The CVW Coaches' Panel dives into Week 3 with another FULL week of Men's D1-2 Volleyball news from the Hawaiian Islands to ATX to the East Coast. We are in full effect!

Many great non-conference matches on tap with teams rising up early-- like the Cougars of BYU, while others are holding their own like Long Beach St.. While in the MIVA we are seeing a very competitive climate as they grind through early play with certain teams taking down top teams in ATX.

With that, we go into our normal recap, banter, players of the week and Week 4 matchups to watch! Somehow, we also dabble in the amount of foreign players on rosters-- which was totally impromptu and could be an entire episode of it's own!

Episode 244, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Big West Takeover | Week 2 – 1/13/25

In this "Big West Takeover" Episode the Big West Panel discusses the devastation and tragic results of the recent fires that plagued the Pacific Palisades, Eaton and Hurst communities in Southern California. 150,000+ people, with many in our volleyball community have been directly effected by total property loss and irreparable damage. As promised, here is a starting point for resources. I will update as needed: https://lafd.org/news/palisades-fire-0

As we headed into the 2nd week of the young NCAA D1-2 Men's Volleyball season there were 65+ matches to track with great battles and results to discuss. It's hard to say, "There were upsets" especially when the season is only 2 weeks old so let's just say it was an exciting week of competition, first wins for programs and A LOT of matches!

As always, the guys pick there top performers of the week and reveal matches they'll be keeping an eye on in Week 3!

Note: Hoping for a Part II of Week 2 with Dan & Jay later!

Episode 243: College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 1 – 1/6/25

The CVW crew is back for 2025 and are ready to ROCK for the NCAA Men’s Volleyball season!

This week we discuss all the transitions and changes throughout USA Volleyball and Collegiate Men’s Volleyball— for which there were A LOT (you have to listen to find out)! We’ll touch on format of the NCAA Championship and its new format with the NEC now receiving the 7^th automatic berth. From there we go into the opening weekend of competition discussing the Top 20 teams in action across the nation with a good portion of matches occurring against our Canadian neighbors to the north.

As always, we’ll discuss top performers and matches to watch out for in what will be a very HEAVY week of matches in Week 2! #NCAAMVB

Episode 242, College Volleyball Weekly: Izzy Starck, Penn St. 12-26-24

Izzy Starck, freshman setter of Penn St. has had a remarkable rookie campaign in 2024. Izzy and her Nittany Lions went through a gamut of emotions to start off the season but found their inspiration in their mission: "Bigger than us." In it they were inspired by Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley's perseverance in "the fight," and the legacy of the Penn St. Women's Volleyball program.

In this special Christmas/New Year's episode we chat about the regular season, the journey to the NCAA title match, the numerous individual recognitions she received as freshman, having her big sister alongside her on the team, the remarkable in-house crowd and viewership, ALL of the history that was made from the NCAA Championship, and other tidbits along the way!

Episdoe 241, College Volleyball Weekly, Men's Top 20: Pav and the Hawkman 12-23-24

Special guests Mark Pavlik of Penn St. and John Hawks of UCLA jump on this special, pre-2025 season episode as we gear up for the 2025 NCAA Men's Volleyball season after a historic, record-breaking 2024 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship. In this episode we'll discuss various topics and potential impacts of the women's championship and how it could potentially benefit all aspects of volleyball-- including encouraging youth, high school competition and growth of NCAA Men's Indoor Volleyball. From there we discuss all the movement on the men's side from the USAV level and through all the conferences.

Episode 240, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20: John Hawks, UCLA Head Coach 10-14-24

In only the 3^rd time in program history the UCLA Men’s Volleyball team named their Head Coach—and they didn’t have to go far from the Bruin family. On October 9^th, 2024, the former Loyola Head Coach and former UCLA Assistant Coach under John Speraw, John Hawks steps into the role to continue the Bruin Men’s Volleyball legacy. In his first interview since the announcement last week John sat down with Rob to chat about going through the news of Speraw’s new position at USAV, what that meant for UCLA, the interview/hiring process, and having to say “Goodbye” to the excellent team Hawks assembled n Chicago.

In the episode, John talks about a recent run in he had with a State Trooper driving the Midwest while potentially being interviewed!

Episode 239, College Volleyball Weekly Men's Top 20: Paris Olympics Preview 07-24-24

The CVW crew jumps back into the bandwidth to discuss some of the news that has dropped since the last NCAA MVB Championship ball dropped in May with coaching changes, hirings and other MVB related news.

From there, Brad, Dan, Jay & Theo discuss all things Pairs Olympics style! We'll recognize some former D1-2 athletes representing other countries. The guys then jump into the nitty-gritty breaking down the pools, athletes and medal contenders. Spread the word because we're diving into USA Volleyball! 

Episode 238: Paris Olympics Episode with USA Volleyball's, Haleigh Washington

 

 

The USA is heading back to the Olympics as reigning Gold Medalists in Women's Indoor Volleyball. Part of that history-making team in the Tokyo 2020 (2021) Olympics was former Penn St. standout and current Paris 2024 Olympian Haleigh Washington!

In this Paris Olympics Episode Haleigh comes back onto the Viral Volley Podcast for a second time to talk about her collegiate and professional volleyball journeys through Tokyo, VNL 2024, the upcoming USAV Cup series vs. world No. 8 Netherlands, and the upcoming League One Volleyball movement kicking off in November 2024. Haleigh recently announced on social that she signed with LOVB Salt Lake City!

In a very high-energy and informative conversation, Haleigh tells it like it is in her own special way-- with just a little humor sprinkled in!

Episode 237: Paris Olympics Episode with Spain's & TCU's Dani Alvarez, 6/26/24

TCU has become a national powerhouse in Collegiate Beach Volleyball in large part due to Spanish sensations Tania Moreno and Dani Alvarez. This same pair has now become TCU Beach's program-first-ever Olympians representing Spain!

Dani joins Rob to discuss her beginnings in Beach Volleyball (from Tennis), trying indoor for 9 days, connecting with Tania and WINNING in Europe. Dani shares about how she found herself going to the USA to play Beach Volleyball and how she, Coaches Hector Guitierrez and Majo Orellana convinced Tania to follow her to Ft. Worth, TX. From there we discuss her 3 years at TCU, and the path to the Paris 2024 Olympics.