The Viral Volley Podcast

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!

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