The Viral Volley Podcast

Episode 210, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 7 Recap & Week 8 Preview, 2/19/24

The CVW panel dives quickly into the recap with "The Elephant in the Room" segment that features our Coaches' matches during week 7. Lindenwood got the better end of a match vs. Dan's Flyers, Brad and the Tritons were at the SIAC/Big West Invite in Long Beach, and we discuss Jay's and Theo's wins for the week as well. It was another solid week of action and there still remains one undefeated team at 11-0-- the Lopes of GCU.

 

We take a peek at some of the top series/matches during week 7, and although there weren't a bunch of surprises one thing does remain clear. If you're not careful anyone can beat anyone on any given night. From there we jump into an "Insights After 7 Weeks" as the coaches assess what we've seen almost at the halfway point of the 2024 season.

 

Stay listening to catch the "Whatcha Watchin'" segment as the panel selects some good matches to keep your eyes on!

Episode 209, College Volleyball Weekly, BEACH TOP 20, Intro Show, 2/18/24

Note: We recorded this episode pre-AVCA Beach Top 20 Poll and pre-CollegeBeachVB.com's poll and player/team awards.

 

The 2024 NCAA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Season is just days away! With that, we thought it would be a great idea to do an "Introduction Episode" for most of our contributors (Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA had a team dinner) to find out their backgrounds and a little about them. Alli Hansen of Florida St., Kelly Belardi of Stanford, and Kylie Wickley of Texas.

 

Along with our breaking news (DM Alli or Kylie for context and/or explanation), we discuss the potential top teams and topy athletes to watch out for in 2024, then pick so of the top duals starting Thursday of this week.

 

Spread the word! The season is going to go quickly!!! Also, be sure to follow our athletes/contributors on Instagram (and their programs also)! 

Episode 208, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 6 Recap & Week 7 Preview, 2/12/24

More lower AVCA-ranked-teams have taken down higher-ranked teams, but the pane all agree that these are not upsets! No. 1 Long Beach St. dueled No. 4 UCLA with a split leaving only one remaining undefeated team-- Grand Canyon! Strong performances by Grant Sloane of UCLA, Hilir Henno of UCI, Mason Briggs of Long Beach St. and Kevin Schuele of PFW to name a few take stage in our discussions!

As teams enter Week 7 most teams have started conference play-- except the Big West!

Stay listening to catch the "Whatcha Watchin'" segment as the panel selects some good matches to keep your eyes on-- like GCU taking on BYU in Provo!

Episode 207, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 5 Recap & Week 6 Preview, 2/5/24

Episode 207, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 5 Recap & Week 6 Preview, 2/5/24

 

With the play that transpired in Week 5 of the 2024 D1-2 Men's Volleyball season we have to call this "The Tumultuous Top 20!" There were many good battles discussed from this last week along with our Coaching Panel's insights. Too much to write in a description that's for sure! As always the panel picks their top performers of the week and we recognize some key milestones for Head Coach Alan Knipe of Long Beach St. and Sr. OH, Jacob Pasteur of Ohio St.

 

Stay listening to catch the "Whatcha Watchin'" segment as the MIVA and Conference Carolinas battle in conference play while UCLA & Long Beach St. look to assert themselve as the top dog in the NCAA!

 

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Episode 206, College Volleyball Weekly, Men's Top 20, Week 4 Recap/Week 5 Preview, 1/29/24

This last week brought more than a handful of upsets and a multitude of stellar play in the young 2024 NCAA Men's Volleyball season. From Penn St.'s TWO upsets of Ohio St., the remaining undefeated teams of GCU, Stanford and Long Beach St. it has been pure intensity and excitement from week to week. The share their thoughts on Week 4 action, their players of the week and give us insight of what to look for in our "Whatcha Watchin'" in Week 5 segment!

Episode 205, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 3 Recap & Week 4 Preview, 1/22/24

It’s the Dan Friend Birthday Episode!

In this week’s episode Dan Friend shares some information on the recent approval of Division 2 Championships and how it could be implemented in the next few years. Obviously growth in the men’s game is being seen throughout D1 as well with the addition of Menlo College, Vanguard and now William Jessup University. We take a few moments to explore this growth before we go into our normal weekly routine.

When it comes to growth on the men’s side lots of credit has to go to the First Point Foundation, who just hosted the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, TX last weekend where we saw big crowds and larger enthusiasm for the game thanks to Glen & Kathy Lietzke of Austin Juniors!

Episode 204: College Volleyball Weekly, Jacob Pasteur, Ohio St., 1/15/24

NOTE: Interviewed Jacob, before the MIVA weekly awards came out. Congrats, Jacob on being selected MIVA Offensive Player of the Week!

Interview with Senior OH, Jacob Pasteur of the current No, 4 Ohio St. Buckeyes, who are off to a stupendous 4-0 start for the 2024 season. A lot of the success has been due to the play of Jacob as he gears up for the 3rd annual First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas. 

In our discussion we discuss the end of the 2023 season, the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship and his summer with the USA Men's National Team. We then chat a little about their early 2024 success so far and heading into this weekend's FPCC. 

Episode 203, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 2 Recap & Week 3 Preview, 1/15/24

This week’s episode starts out my remembering and honoring Tom Tait, the founder of Penn St. Men’s and Women’s Volleyball who passed late last week. He was the catalyst of volleyball in Pennsylvania, the East Coast and EIVA. Coach Tait invested his life into volleyball and the people who were around him—including Russ Rose (PSU WVB) and Mark Pavlik (PSU MVB).

The CVW MT20 crew discusses some of the top matches in Week 2 of the 2024 NCAA Men’s D1-2 Volleyball season that include a few upsets and almost-upsets along with eye-catching performances from the top athletes in the week that include, Camden Gianni and Jackson Hickman of GCU, Jacob Pasteur of Ohio St., and Nolan Flexen of UC Irvine. We then ask the panel if UCLA and Long Beach St. are as good as the polls suggest.

As always, we finish up with key matches to watch in Week 3!

Episode 202: College Volleyball Weekly Week 1 Recap & Week 2 Preview

This week our coaching panel of Brad Rostratter of UCSD, Dan Friend of Lewis, Jay Hosack of George Mason and Theo Edwards of CSUN along with host, Rob-on-the-Mic, discuss the following news items of the week:

• Allowance of “The Double” from VolleyballMag.com
• The AVCA Preseason Pol, going to a Top 20 for the first time (hence the name change on the show to CVW MT20)
• 10 Loyola splitting the matches vs. No. 3 Hawaii (Lukas Anderson serving sub 5^th set at 12-8, between OC boys (Jake Read, Cole Schlobel), Ramblers went on a 8-1 run to win the match.

However, this episode was more a “freeform discussion” with topics of the experienced referee crew at the Santa Barbara Tournament spearheaded by Rick Olmstead, Tony Chan and John Park. Jay also brought to light the wonderful community work that Rick is doing with the homeless com. As always we talk about the Coaches’ thoughts on the competition we saw in an action-packed Week 1 of the 2024 NCAA D1-2 Men’s Volleyball season. From there we hit the top performers in the CVW crew’s eyes, then pick their wisdom in “Whatcha Watchin’” in Week 2 of the Men’s season.

Episode 201, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20: Week 1 News Coaches’ Matches to Watch, 1/2/24

Happy New Year! Tonight teams begin to take court for the first time in 2024 Men's D1-2 Volleyball season-- and with that HUGE EXCITEMENT! It was IMPERATIVE we at least get some matches we're watching out for this week, but as things would go some great news items have broken so we discuss those also!

We start off with the renaming of the MIVA Championship Trophy; discuss the retiring of MiddleHitter.com's Jerry Strub and his longtime contributions to the game; VolleyballMag.com's "Hotshot Coaches" who have ties to the Men's game; and OTB's Preseason All-Americans.

Of course, we end the episode with the matches that our CVW Coaching Panel will be on their radars for Week 1!

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