September 16, 2025 • 10 mins
UND Volleyball Head Coach Jesse Tupac reflected on the team’s recent 3–0 sweep over Idaho, highlighting strong communication on the court as a key factor in the win. He praised his players for staying connected during rallies and making smart, in-game adjustments. Looking ahead, Tupac and the team are preparing for a road trip in Georgia, where they’ll face UT Martin, Mercer, and West Georgia.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
And we won't give me back. Here to another segment
of Hawk Talk all across the Fighting Hawks Radio network.
We change gears, we head to the deck where North
Goote volleyballs off the schneid. They picked up a win
Saturday against Idaho. They took the Vandals down in three
straight sets. Everybody head. Coach Jesse Tupac joins our broadcast now,
(00:23):
and I'll tell you, coach, I was fist pumping when
I saw that final score come across at Missoula at
Washington Cris Stadium. I was following along trying to see
if we could just get to the finish line. We did.
And for your squad that's trying to figure out it's
cohesion and kind of everybody's role and everything. You know,
(00:43):
there's been a few bumps along the way as far
as near misses, and it can be frustrating. And to
get across that threshold, that was a big first step
there for you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Congratulations, Thanks Paul, I appreciate it. There's definitely some dancing
in the locker room after the match, but I think
who's the best dancer Definitely not me. Okay, you know,
everybody is a very good answer, except for me, But no,
I think ultimately like we've got a we've got a
young team and they're chasing their vest ball of all
every single day, and we're getting closer and closer and
closer to that with every match that we go out
(01:12):
and play and every practice that we have. And UH,
Saturday was absolutely a culmination of the work that we
did on Friday, and they worked through the dow on
Thursday and all the matches that we've had thus far,
and it was nice to see them put it together
all at the same time. And it turns out that
when you do that, you get three zero sweet and
so it was nice for that.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, I was gonna say that, you know, the one
thing that has been I've taken away from some of
your visits with the press and the media here has
been kind of I don't know how you phrase it.
It's talking about serving and uh and it is it
about serving tougher, about the right type of serve who
(01:46):
you're serving, identifying that person, hitting that right serve at
the right moment, or is it on serve receive and
it's about making the right pass out to serve receive
and handling things. Is it both? I guess is that
is that the the thing that we're when this team
is locked into those areas that it sets it on
the right path.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Absolutely, it's both sides of the ball. And you know,
we know that we're we're an incredibly potent serving team.
I mean, going out eleven aces in three sets is wild.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
That's really crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I think the last time we had that many aces
in a match was a couple years ago and we
had twelve ass in five sets, right, So to have
eleven aces in three sets, it's huge. But we know
that that's not only going to help us when we're
playing opponents, but it helps us every day in practice
because our passers have to face our servers daily. Right.
So we served the heck out of the ball against
Idaho and ended every one of those sets with an ace,
(02:35):
and two of our primary passers, sky La darin Is
even Cormick were both passing about eighty percent in system
for the match, which.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Is that's a silly number as well, is it not?
When you're at eighty or.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So, I mean, if you're in the fifty to sixty
percent in system range, you're pretty freaking good. Yeah, So
if you're at eighty percent. It's like where they serve
in lollipops, Like what's happening.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Over the Okay, there's the thing that sometimes when people
are watching a match and then maybe they're not as
attuned to the intricacies of the game. So, okay, you
side a team out, you know you're not quite ready
to serve. One of the coaches steps up with the
clipboard and is signaling in Are they, I guess, re
(03:16):
educating the team Basically we want to serve x or
is it? There's multiple messages to different players about what
we're trying to do here to set up before we
hit that serve.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, so I'll be talking to our services. I'll be
reminding them in their target.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, God, some of our systant coaches are talking to
our blockers and our background defenders to make sure they're
front loading what's going on offensively on the other side
of the net. But ultimately, like, hey, we get a
break before every single serve, so I don't need you
to memorize who our serving target is. I'm just gonna
remind you beforehand, and then you can go out and
let it out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, no doubt, I mean, and then those are the
little things that sometimes when we're watching, Okay, what's exactly
happening in those moments? You mentioned Skyler dar and she
said one thing that you know, we've been good at communicating,
you know, at timeouts, we've been good at communicating after
matches and with one another. There's no like finger pointing
(04:06):
or anything like that. She just felt like the biggest
step though in that that really seemed to be apparent
to her in that Idaho was the on floor communication
within a point when the balls in play was at
a certain level where it had taken a step forward
to where it was really noticeable in that win against Idahol.
Is that a fair assessment.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, you know, one of the things we've been stressing
is like, hey, we can all talk about the play
after it's over, but are we communicating during the rally
right coming on?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And so we've been.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Emphasizing that pretty heavily, both with our offense and in
our defense, and we saw the product of that. I mean,
seventeen kills in the second set is the most skills
that we've had in a set all season long, and
it's partly because our setters and attackers are communicating really
well on the flip side of that, Isy McCormick goes
out and has six plus digs per set in both
our Friday and our Saturday matches, in part because she's
communicating with the people next to her so effectively in
(04:56):
the defensive face of the game.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, you know, that's the thing is that there are
so many things happening in a point in volleyball. And
this is just my own assessment, is that you've almost
got to be almost like a dancer, so to speak,
a hands you know, handling all these bodies diving on
the floor. You got to kind of do a little
(05:19):
two step around to keep your feet so that you
can be there to pass, you know, to either set
it or be in position to be a hitter. And
so there's got to be some fancy footwork, so to speak,
basically in those in those sequences, I.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Understand, you gotta be light on your feet, you gotta
be ready to move, and you got to make sure
you're looking at the right things.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well, I don't know which dance you guys are doing
when you're on the floor and you're and you're successfully
doing it, But if it's the tango, if it's the waltz,
whichever one you're trying to implement with everybody flying around
keeping it up off the deck, that's incredibly important. You know,
we've talked about Page Barber, and I think you know,
everybody knows that she's been doing what she's been doing
so effectively. I think what she has thirty nine swings
(05:56):
in the in the game against the vandals, and you
you you're going to feed a person that can just
do things that she can do hitting almost three hundred.
Think of everybody out there, if you're wondering kind if
I say saying almost three hundred, think of swings as
almost like a batting average basically, And when you're up
in that two eighty to three hundred at the collegiate level,
you're doing something right basically. So who else has been
(06:19):
kind of you know in those swings? You know, I
think you've got Maddie you know, who's a young young
player who's getting a lot of swings right now? Is
it a kind of a learning curve a little bit
about what is effective and how to read things and
when to swing heart and all that stuff. But it's
got to be a little bit of a learning process.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, Yeah, especially for somebody like Maddie. I mean, Maddie
was so dominant the high school level she led to
stay to Nebraska and kills three years in a row. Wow, right,
And now she comes here and it's it's kind of
like remember when Kaylyn Clarke got to WMA, sure to
WNA and like she was making.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
All these like forty foot long court passes.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
At the college level, again, she gets to the WNBA
and the defenders are a little bit faster, and all
of a sudden she can't make those long passes anymore
because people are cut them off, right, And Maddie's sort
of the same deal, Like she was incredibly opponent as
an attacker, And it turns out the blocks a little
bit bigger and the defenders are a little bit faster,
and so the shot that scored before is now getting
dug and sometimes it's getting dug in systems, So we've
got to put a little bit more turn and a
(07:13):
little bit more pace on it. And she's been really
making a nice adjustment over time, getting used to that
level of play and just making the adjustment to be
more effective at this level.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, it's incredible. And then talk a little bit about
you know, we've been spoiled in you know, a long
time eras of having settors at a high level that
can really, you know, get that hitter into the right position.
It's off and overlooked because they got to know each
hitter's preference. Sometimes the shot we'll call for the preference
(07:42):
of where the set that needs to be. Does it
need to be tight to the net? Does it need
to be here? Does it need to be there? But
there's an art. Yeah, and how are our setters coming
along here at und.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, really really nicely.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I mean I said this earlier in the year, but
all three of our setters on the roster this year
are playing at a level that they all would have
started over our pre setter is the last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's awesome. And it's not just with their setting.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's also with the way that they're playing defense, the
way that they're serving, the way that they're doing all
of the other phases of the game.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I mean, we got into the first set against Idaho and.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Sadie had more digs than Izzy, and Izzy had more
assists than Sadie because they were just hitting a ton
of balls to his own one and Sadi was gobbling
them up and then he was putting Paige in a
really good spot.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And so that's the other thing. If you're gonna be
kind of one of those multi rotational players, you got
it better be ready to sometimes do something that's not
your normal job essentially.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, but like your ability to impact the game in
multiple ways makes you really valuable as an athlete and
as a player on this team. And so it's really
cool to have people that can impact the game in
a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Last thing I'm gonna ask you here is we hit
the road. Something League play is just around the corner.
But we're gonna head to the Peach State and get
to make in Georgia. I think ut Martin is going
to be down there. West Georgia is gonna be down there.
Mercer is gonna be down there. It's a what Thursday, Friday,
Saturday event, Friday, one match on Saturday, two matches Friday,
(09:02):
one match on Saturday. What do we know about the
type of volleyball that these types of teams play?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, So just going through some film today with the team,
they do a couple of different things.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Offensive.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We've got a lot of different crossing patterns not only
in services, but they'll also run.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Free ball plays. So anytime that we're.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Not attacking it, their players start to just run around
like almost like a Chinese fire drill, Like everybody's going
to a different spot, and he's got to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You're tracking organized chaos one hundred percent organized chaos.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yea, So hey, can we just be really good with
our eyes and make sure that in match that in
rally communication is really high because they're going to do
things that are a little different than what we normally see.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, it's it's you know, it's gonna be a great challenge,
but I know you guys are really ramping up to
try to be as polished a product as you can
be once the Summit League season begins, which is just
around the corner here. We've got the seven to one
block party coming up what next Thursday, but I think
is coming up again so South Dakota. So it's just
around the corner. Well, safe travels this week and let's
(09:57):
just continue to grow in confidence with the nice win
on satd Saturday and parlay that into some good volleyball
this Friday and Saturday. Thanks coaching a all right, Jesse
Tupac head volleyball coach University of North Dakota appreciate it.
They got that win in their back pocket. They're ready
to go collect more now with this team coming up
down in Macon, Georgia. Now, when we return, we will
(10:18):
head to the soccer pitch because you and Di soccer
was out west in Boise and Pocatello, Idaho, and now
it's time to get their team ready to go when
some league play is set to begin. Hendrick Zone You
Indie women's soccer joins Hawk Talk when we return. All
Lacrosse the Fighting Hawks Radio Network
And we won't give me back. Here to another segment
of Hawk Talk all across the Fighting Hawks Radio network.
We change gears, we head to the deck where North
Goote volleyballs off the schneid. They picked up a win
Saturday against Idaho. They took the Vandals down in three
straight sets. Everybody head. Coach Jesse Tupac joins our broadcast now,
(00:23):
and I'll tell you, coach, I was fist pumping when
I saw that final score come across at Missoula at
Washington Cris Stadium. I was following along trying to see
if we could just get to the finish line. We did.
And for your squad that's trying to figure out it's
cohesion and kind of everybody's role and everything. You know,
(00:43):
there's been a few bumps along the way as far
as near misses, and it can be frustrating. And to
get across that threshold, that was a big first step
there for you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Congratulations, Thanks Paul, I appreciate it. There's definitely some dancing
in the locker room after the match, but I think
who's the best dancer Definitely not me. Okay, you know,
everybody is a very good answer, except for me, But no,
I think ultimately like we've got a we've got a
young team and they're chasing their vest ball of all
every single day, and we're getting closer and closer and
closer to that with every match that we go out
(01:12):
and play and every practice that we have. And UH,
Saturday was absolutely a culmination of the work that we
did on Friday, and they worked through the dow on
Thursday and all the matches that we've had thus far,
and it was nice to see them put it together
all at the same time. And it turns out that
when you do that, you get three zero sweet and
so it was nice for that.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, I was gonna say that, you know, the one
thing that has been I've taken away from some of
your visits with the press and the media here has
been kind of I don't know how you phrase it.
It's talking about serving and uh and it is it
about serving tougher, about the right type of serve who
(01:46):
you're serving, identifying that person, hitting that right serve at
the right moment, or is it on serve receive and
it's about making the right pass out to serve receive
and handling things. Is it both? I guess is that
is that the the thing that we're when this team
is locked into those areas that it sets it on
the right path.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Absolutely, it's both sides of the ball. And you know,
we know that we're we're an incredibly potent serving team.
I mean, going out eleven aces in three sets is wild.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
That's really crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I think the last time we had that many aces
in a match was a couple years ago and we
had twelve ass in five sets, right, So to have
eleven aces in three sets, it's huge. But we know
that that's not only going to help us when we're
playing opponents, but it helps us every day in practice
because our passers have to face our servers daily. Right.
So we served the heck out of the ball against
Idaho and ended every one of those sets with an ace,
(02:35):
and two of our primary passers, sky La darin Is
even Cormick were both passing about eighty percent in system
for the match, which.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Is that's a silly number as well, is it not?
When you're at eighty or.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So, I mean, if you're in the fifty to sixty
percent in system range, you're pretty freaking good. Yeah, So
if you're at eighty percent. It's like where they serve
in lollipops, Like what's happening.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Over the Okay, there's the thing that sometimes when people
are watching a match and then maybe they're not as
attuned to the intricacies of the game. So, okay, you
side a team out, you know you're not quite ready
to serve. One of the coaches steps up with the
clipboard and is signaling in Are they, I guess, re
(03:16):
educating the team Basically we want to serve x or
is it? There's multiple messages to different players about what
we're trying to do here to set up before we
hit that serve.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, so I'll be talking to our services. I'll be
reminding them in their target.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, God, some of our systant coaches are talking to
our blockers and our background defenders to make sure they're
front loading what's going on offensively on the other side
of the net. But ultimately, like, hey, we get a
break before every single serve, so I don't need you
to memorize who our serving target is. I'm just gonna
remind you beforehand, and then you can go out and
let it out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, no doubt, I mean, and then those are the
little things that sometimes when we're watching, Okay, what's exactly
happening in those moments? You mentioned Skyler dar and she
said one thing that you know, we've been good at communicating,
you know, at timeouts, we've been good at communicating after
matches and with one another. There's no like finger pointing
(04:06):
or anything like that. She just felt like the biggest
step though in that that really seemed to be apparent
to her in that Idaho was the on floor communication
within a point when the balls in play was at
a certain level where it had taken a step forward
to where it was really noticeable in that win against Idahol.
Is that a fair assessment.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, you know, one of the things we've been stressing
is like, hey, we can all talk about the play
after it's over, but are we communicating during the rally
right coming on?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And so we've been.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Emphasizing that pretty heavily, both with our offense and in
our defense, and we saw the product of that. I mean,
seventeen kills in the second set is the most skills
that we've had in a set all season long, and
it's partly because our setters and attackers are communicating really
well on the flip side of that, Isy McCormick goes
out and has six plus digs per set in both
our Friday and our Saturday matches, in part because she's
communicating with the people next to her so effectively in
(04:56):
the defensive face of the game.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, you know, that's the thing is that there are
so many things happening in a point in volleyball. And
this is just my own assessment, is that you've almost
got to be almost like a dancer, so to speak,
a hands you know, handling all these bodies diving on
the floor. You got to kind of do a little
(05:19):
two step around to keep your feet so that you
can be there to pass, you know, to either set
it or be in position to be a hitter. And
so there's got to be some fancy footwork, so to speak,
basically in those in those sequences, I.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Understand, you gotta be light on your feet, you gotta
be ready to move, and you got to make sure
you're looking at the right things.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well, I don't know which dance you guys are doing
when you're on the floor and you're and you're successfully
doing it, But if it's the tango, if it's the waltz,
whichever one you're trying to implement with everybody flying around
keeping it up off the deck, that's incredibly important. You know,
we've talked about Page Barber, and I think you know,
everybody knows that she's been doing what she's been doing
so effectively. I think what she has thirty nine swings
(05:56):
in the in the game against the vandals, and you
you you're going to feed a person that can just
do things that she can do hitting almost three hundred.
Think of everybody out there, if you're wondering kind if
I say saying almost three hundred, think of swings as
almost like a batting average basically, And when you're up
in that two eighty to three hundred at the collegiate level,
you're doing something right basically. So who else has been
(06:19):
kind of you know in those swings? You know, I
think you've got Maddie you know, who's a young young
player who's getting a lot of swings right now? Is
it a kind of a learning curve a little bit
about what is effective and how to read things and
when to swing heart and all that stuff. But it's
got to be a little bit of a learning process.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, Yeah, especially for somebody like Maddie. I mean, Maddie
was so dominant the high school level she led to
stay to Nebraska and kills three years in a row. Wow, right,
And now she comes here and it's it's kind of
like remember when Kaylyn Clarke got to WMA, sure to
WNA and like she was making.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
All these like forty foot long court passes.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
At the college level, again, she gets to the WNBA
and the defenders are a little bit faster, and all
of a sudden she can't make those long passes anymore
because people are cut them off, right, And Maddie's sort
of the same deal, Like she was incredibly opponent as
an attacker, And it turns out the blocks a little
bit bigger and the defenders are a little bit faster,
and so the shot that scored before is now getting
dug and sometimes it's getting dug in systems, So we've
got to put a little bit more turn and a
(07:13):
little bit more pace on it. And she's been really
making a nice adjustment over time, getting used to that
level of play and just making the adjustment to be
more effective at this level.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, it's incredible. And then talk a little bit about
you know, we've been spoiled in you know, a long
time eras of having settors at a high level that
can really, you know, get that hitter into the right position.
It's off and overlooked because they got to know each
hitter's preference. Sometimes the shot we'll call for the preference
(07:42):
of where the set that needs to be. Does it
need to be tight to the net? Does it need
to be here? Does it need to be there? But
there's an art. Yeah, and how are our setters coming
along here at und.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, really really nicely.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I mean I said this earlier in the year, but
all three of our setters on the roster this year
are playing at a level that they all would have
started over our pre setter is the last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's awesome. And it's not just with their setting.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's also with the way that they're playing defense, the
way that they're serving, the way that they're doing all
of the other phases of the game.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I mean, we got into the first set against Idaho and.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Sadie had more digs than Izzy, and Izzy had more
assists than Sadie because they were just hitting a ton
of balls to his own one and Sadi was gobbling
them up and then he was putting Paige in a
really good spot.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And so that's the other thing. If you're gonna be
kind of one of those multi rotational players, you got
it better be ready to sometimes do something that's not
your normal job essentially.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, but like your ability to impact the game in
multiple ways makes you really valuable as an athlete and
as a player on this team. And so it's really
cool to have people that can impact the game in
a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Last thing I'm gonna ask you here is we hit
the road. Something League play is just around the corner.
But we're gonna head to the Peach State and get
to make in Georgia. I think ut Martin is going
to be down there. West Georgia is gonna be down there.
Mercer is gonna be down there. It's a what Thursday, Friday,
Saturday event, Friday, one match on Saturday, two matches Friday,
(09:02):
one match on Saturday. What do we know about the
type of volleyball that these types of teams play?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, So just going through some film today with the team,
they do a couple of different things.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Offensive.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We've got a lot of different crossing patterns not only
in services, but they'll also run.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Free ball plays. So anytime that we're.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Not attacking it, their players start to just run around
like almost like a Chinese fire drill, Like everybody's going
to a different spot, and he's got to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You're tracking organized chaos one hundred percent organized chaos.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yea, So hey, can we just be really good with
our eyes and make sure that in match that in
rally communication is really high because they're going to do
things that are a little different than what we normally see.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, it's it's you know, it's gonna be a great challenge,
but I know you guys are really ramping up to
try to be as polished a product as you can
be once the Summit League season begins, which is just
around the corner here. We've got the seven to one
block party coming up what next Thursday, but I think
is coming up again so South Dakota. So it's just
around the corner. Well, safe travels this week and let's
(09:57):
just continue to grow in confidence with the nice win
on satd Saturday and parlay that into some good volleyball
this Friday and Saturday. Thanks coaching a all right, Jesse
Tupac head volleyball coach University of North Dakota appreciate it.
They got that win in their back pocket. They're ready
to go collect more now with this team coming up
down in Macon, Georgia. Now, when we return, we will
(10:18):
head to the soccer pitch because you and Di soccer
was out west in Boise and Pocatello, Idaho, and now
it's time to get their team ready to go when
some league play is set to begin. Hendrick Zone You
Indie women's soccer joins Hawk Talk when we return. All
Lacrosse the Fighting Hawks Radio Network
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.