January 13, 2025 • 53 mins
In this episode of Volley Talk, we do a side by side comparison of the LOVB and PVF pro volleyball leagues after having watched some matches from each one. We also break down the LOVB Houston vs Austin match and PVF Omaha vs Atlanta.
The transfer portal is still popping off, NCAA men's volleyball preseason is in full swing, and we address a couple listener comments.
If you have questions for us or topics you would like us to explore, drop us a line on Instagram or email us at info@sarahpavan.com!
Instagram: http://instagram.com/volleytalk_podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
(00:04):
who want to dig deep into what is going on in NCAA and international volleyball.
I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska
Cornhusker, and longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach.
And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach, and the show's
resident stat guy.
(00:26):
Happy New Year everybody!
We hope year 2025 is off to a great start.
This is obviously our first episode of the new year and it is time for us to shift our
focus a little bit from NCAA women's volleyball to love, PVF, big happenings in other pro
(00:47):
leagues around the world, and NCAA men's volleyball.
So it was a very exciting week this week as love kicked off its inaugural season, PVF
began their second season, the transfer portal has been popping still, and the NCAA men's
preseason is underway.
(01:08):
So we have a lot of fun stuff to discuss today, so let's get started.
We are starting out our traditional weekly highlight segment with transfer portal updates
(01:35):
this week, a lot has happened.
We also had quite a few comments and opinions on our last episode when we dove into the
transfer portal, and some of them I'd like to address and discuss a little bit more.
Yes, so what were they Adam?
So one of the common themes that we didn't discuss was about money being a big factor
(02:00):
for athletes transferring, and totally correct.
Athletes are leaving for really good sums of money, you know it's something that we
didn't want to address primarily because we didn't have any concrete information.
Quite frankly it's not always on the top of our mind because that wasn't our college
experience.
(02:21):
In the meantime we have done a little digging, it's a very accurate statement.
There are very large sums of money being thrown around to athletes who have to make decisions
about staying with their team or securing their financial future, and it is definitely
playing a role in decisions, and yeah we just wanted to acknowledge that and there were
a lot of really good points around that.
(02:43):
So thanks to all of you who shared that with us again, yeah we missed that.
So thanks for bringing it up, it's a valid point.
So that kind of leads into our first transfer.
Tori Stafford is heading to Texas.
I want to say like two minutes after it was posted that she was entering the portal I
(03:04):
got tagged in a message on Instagram with somebody being like, look at this, and I have
to admit I was unwell.
Like this rattled me for a couple days, you guys.
I was not okay with this.
I mean I agree and this was one of the ones there were rumored big money around this deal.
(03:26):
You know initially there were thoughts around Babcock going to play pro and the coach leaving,
none of which appears to be true, and you know Tori Stafford came out and said I want
to be close to home, I'm feeling a little homesick.
You know at this point, and I get it's not going to be a popular decision with her teammates,
if you're going to do it and you're going to chase the payday, which is totally her
(03:50):
right, own up to it and do it.
Just like let's call it what it is.
Homesick, you're not going home.
So I was rattled when she announced it and I was even more rattled but not shocked at
all when it was Texas because if you remember last episode I was like so surprised that
Texas hadn't picked up more players and I was like just wait.
(04:12):
They wait for the blue chip athletes to enter the portal and they snag them, shocker.
Tori Stafford it is everybody.
Rumor has it Texas didn't even give her the highest offer.
There were schools that gave her higher offers than Texas but Texas is the choice.
So great pickup for Texas after losing Skinner.
(04:33):
So that breaks my heart, I can't believe it, I can't think about it.
That one hurt me.
They win the transfer portal this year for sure.
One of the other things that came up in the comments around transfer portal was athletes
taking a little bit of ownership back about their careers and my personal opinion about
this is that is true and the athletes should have the ability to make their decisions.
(04:58):
I think some of the comments that we talked about was lamenting the fact that college
sports has become professional and a business at that point.
That's the reality of it and when we talk about loyalty and lessons and building as
a team those to me were the skills that we learned as a transition athlete from high
(05:23):
school to professional and it wasn't about, our comments weren't about disempowering
the athletes or them having no control over what they want.
Both of us had very positive experiences in college dealing with hard situations, succeeding
through tough lessons and tough situations and coming out on the other side.
(05:43):
Now that's not always everybody's experience and people should never stay in bad situations
but we both do lament the loss of that pure athletic pursuit because it really is very
professional at this point.
But we also were told about Avery Carlson's situation in Texas which we did appreciate
(06:07):
that info as well.
Apparently when she won the starting spot she was getting hate messages from Texas fans
even when the team was winning.
So in that scenario I know I was critical of her now entering her third program but
that is one of the situations we talked about where it's like okay, yes this is like making
(06:29):
you mentally unwell like it is fair.
But speaking of her she is heading to SMU.
So SMU has now picked up six portal athletes and we already know my feeling about that.
Lourdes Meyer from Purdue has committed to Minnesota and Flormarie Heredia Colon from
Miami is heading to Florida which good pickup for them I think a good compliment to Kennedy
(06:54):
Martin.
And another fun fact that I was looking at is Arizona State has now picked up five players
from the portal but they only lost one.
So they are another program that is like consistently poaching from the portal year after year.
So I'm curious to see if more of their players enter the portal in the second phase now that
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they've brought so many players in.
It'll be interesting to see how that dynamic works out moving into the spring season.
So there was a lot of talk about what was going to happen in the women's program now
that Karch had moved over to the men's side and we have an answer.
Eric Sullivan was named the USA national team women's head coach.
He's been an associate at Texas for the last 14 years.
(07:40):
He was selected because of his reputation as a master of defensive systems, his ability
to develop top tier talent and the experience in high pressure environments.
He was a two time Olympian as a player in 2000 and 2004 and a team leader for the USA
men's team at the last three Olympics.
So I think that's a really good hire.
(08:00):
You want to keep somebody who has that experience who's been in the system.
I do believe that Dan Fisher was in the conversation but given his international experience and
where he's been I think that that's a smart choice.
I like that hire actually.
I think it's a great choice.
He's been a part of the system since his days as an athlete and I mean everything that was
(08:26):
highlighted on the website as to why he was selected.
You can't disagree with it.
But I also think like the women's team has like such a foundation of excellence and they've
really worked on developing that solid culture especially with Karch.
And so I think like that's a perfect transition because I think that he will embody those
(08:51):
values that the team has.
I also think given that the Olympics are in LA in 2028 both programs have been relatively
successful pressure is going to be high.
I think bringing somebody in who hasn't done the cycles or been a part of that that's a
lot of pressure and a little probably a little bit too much of an unknown for USA volleyball
(09:16):
going into that highly tattered Olympics.
Oh absolutely and the international game and the planning the strategy all of that like
it is a hundred percent different than the college game where there's such an emphasis
put on recruiting and things like that.
So I'm excited about that pick.
(09:37):
I think it's great.
Yeah I was a little shocked.
I didn't pay close attention to it but I looking at it from the lens now I think it's a really
good hire.
We also had the love debut and the beginning of PVF season two this week.
So in the first match in love pro history Salt Lake City defeated Atlanta 3-1.
(10:02):
This game was actually played at the Gateway Center Arena which is the same venue used
by the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA.
So for basketball games that typically it has a capacity of 3,500 people and it was
posted that the love attendance was around 3,300.
So pretty close to selling out the venue.
Good crowd.
Pretty good for that venue.
(10:24):
In the weekend with love series Houston beat Austin 3-2 in a reverse sweep.
Austin beat Madison 3-0 and Omaha beat Houston 3-0.
We also had the PVF season openers.
Orlando beat San Diego 3-0.
Vegas beat Grand Rapids 3-2 at home and then Omaha did the same thing to Atlanta.
(10:47):
Our final highlight of the week is NCAA men's volleyball.
So the AVCA preseason poll came out December 30th and it had UCLA at number one, Long Beach
State at two, UC Irvine was three, Hawaii at four and Ball State was five.
(11:08):
The next poll is coming out January 13th which is obviously different than the women's poll
because there's way fewer teams.
But the preseason began at the very beginning of January and this week in particular there
were a couple interesting matches that happened.
Number 12 Loyola Chicago beat number eight Penn State 3-1 and number five Ball State
(11:34):
handled number 13 Stanford 3-0 on Friday.
So we're seeing teams play like back to backs and things like that so it's really interesting
how they're all mixing it up but I personally thought that those two matches were particularly
interesting.
So so much volleyball to be played, so much transfer portal drama as always so it's a
(11:57):
spicy start to 2025.
This episode we kind of did a love PVF preview and we're asking a lot of questions and we
got those questions answered.
And now having watched some matches we also have some answers but I wanted to give a huge
shout out to one of our listeners named Rudy who gave us an in-depth rundown of both leagues.
(12:20):
The info was outstanding.
We're going to do a little comparison of love and PVF to give like the overview of each
league.
And I'm assuming that we will continue to learn about each league as we watch a little
bit more and go through.
So as we pick up more tidbits of information we'll also share that with you but this is
what we have so far.
(12:41):
Some questions have been thrown around as to why the certain locations were selected.
I do know for love they picked the cities they did because they were the biggest youth
volleyball and club volleyball markets in the US.
So it might be confusing why Austin and Houston each have a team.
Both of those cities have massive club volleyball presences and so they selected the cities
(13:05):
based on that.
For the PVF I don't think it was as deliberate.
I obviously think they picked cities based on where there's a huge volleyball following
but I don't think it was as specific as love was in their market research.
So as far as the scheduling goes PVF has eight teams.
Each team plays each of the other teams four times two times at home two times away.
(13:29):
That's a total of one hundred and twelve regular season matches and then there's a four team
single elimination playoff.
So each team will play 14 home matches and most matches last season ended up drawing
like four to six thousand people by the end of the season.
Love however has six teams and each week there's one head to head match and then the weekend
(13:53):
with love series featuring three matches between the four other teams.
If it sounds confusing it's because it is.
So this format rotates among each city and I know we touched on this last episode but
just to reiterate that is a total of 48 regular season matches and each team will play six
home matches.
(14:14):
So there's also a midseason tournament in February and a playoff tournament at the end
of the season.
I'm not a huge fan of the love format.
I prefer the traditional format that we see with PVF and typically overseas you'll see
teams play one match a week.
The PVF format is a little different because a couple teams are playing two matches in
(14:34):
a weekend because obviously the season timeline is much much shorter than you see in Europe.
But I'm not a huge fan of the love system particularly when you're bringing four teams
to a place and a couple of those teams are only playing one match.
It's like I don't know not to mention the limited number of home matches but that is
the difference between the schedule.
(14:56):
That decision seemed really interesting to me because I think you're going to have people
struggle to identify with their home team because they're not playing there very often
and we'll talk about the branding later on but I'm really curious to see how that pans
out.
Let's talk about the look and design of both of those.
So now we've watched a couple matches of each.
(15:17):
We've seen the presentation.
PVF has a very individual team design.
You get a feeling that the team is created unto itself.
They are trying to win and nothing else matters.
They're playing in a league.
It's a very kind of NFL, NBA, baseball feel to it.
(15:38):
They talk about the general managers.
They're talking about the draft.
They're talking about trading players.
It feels very professional sport.
Well, they all have completely unique uniforms.
They have their own unique team name, a really cool logo.
Everything is very specific to each team and I like that a lot.
(16:02):
It allows you to connect with a team or a coach or a player on a team and have some
affinity to that group of athletes.
I think that that's really important and one of the keys in why people watch sport.
If we look at love, there's not really any individuals that are being prioritized.
(16:24):
I mean that both as athletes other than the founding athletes, but the teams as well.
Everything that we've seen so far in the pro section is about the love brand.
They all have very similar uniforms.
All of their logos represent the city they play for, but they're all kind of the same.
It's really hard when you watch to actually tell the teams apart on TV and the players
(16:48):
names on the jerseys are really small and below the hair.
It's really hard to kind of get into a team and it almost felt watching this week like
it was a scrimmage or a friendly match.
Just not to take away from the level or how it happened.
It just that was kind of the atmosphere that I got watching it on TV.
(17:11):
Yeah, I don't like that the uniforms are the exact same.
The only thing that changes is like an accent color and maybe a sponsor name on the front,
but like even the court is completely love branded and the big love brand sponsors.
Whereas you watch the PVF and it's like the team's sponsors are all over the court.
(17:33):
So yeah, and the small names on the jersey like no, I didn't like that.
Yeah, I agree.
It was very and again on the men sometimes you can get away with that because the hair
is not in the way.
Almost every woman's ponytail block their name.
So if you didn't know who the player was, it was very hard to figure out who they were.
And finally, let's compare the general brand love.
(17:55):
It is very clear is all about the pathway from club to college to pro and being able
to keep that accessible to girls all over the country for the entirety of their career
so that they always have a place to play.
PVF seems more autonomous and more of a standalone league.
(18:16):
You don't really see as much of the crossover to the club or youth.
Obviously they do community engagement, but it's not as at the forefront or like what
the mission is like it is for love.
I honestly think love is winning in the TV department.
I mean without seeing the numbers, I would agree with you.
And it's just like way easier to find like ESPN ESPN plus versus like Fox Sports 2 or
(18:41):
like YouTube.
One match on volleyball world TV.
So I liked the accessibility of the love games.
This love as I mentioned earlier, the love sponsors seem to be league and brand wide
instead of specific to the individual teams.
So one of the interesting things watching the two separate leagues this week is love
(19:06):
was all about their mission as a league and as a brand.
Every time something happened on the court or there was a play, it came back to a founding
athlete or the athletes playing at home or you know how many kids they're having the
stands and the athletes connecting with them.
All of which is great.
I actually personally love the love mission.
(19:29):
I think it's a very worthy approach to sport and a holistic view.
I'm all for it.
When I'm watching the pros play, I personally want to watch the volleyball.
I want to hear the analysis of what's going on.
I want to hear about the decisions about the match I'm watching.
(19:50):
And for me that was lacking in the broadcast and I understand it's week one.
I understand they're bringing their brand to the world.
I get that.
I hope that it becomes less as they continue playing and that their professional broadcasts
lean more into the volleyball and less into the mission and the background of the company.
(20:13):
I agree.
I mean it's clear also that love is trying to position itself among the top leagues in
the world like the number of times we heard like oh the top players in the world are playing
here.
It's like well they're yeah sure there are a couple but like let's let's be honest.
But they kept pushing that narrative too about how like the best players are playing here.
(20:34):
So I think that is definitely their long-term goal.
Which is totally fair.
But you don't get that messaging at all from PVF.
It was strictly about just the volleyball.
Correct.
Well from what we've seen so far the love level of play is much higher.
For me PVF seemed like an extension of college volleyball.
(20:54):
They delivered a great product.
It was entertaining to watch.
I enjoyed hearing the analysis that was missing from the love broadcasts.
But you cannot compare the level.
I mean and I think for me one of the biggest pieces of that was across the board love seems
to have experienced international setters which I think makes a really big difference.
(21:18):
They're able to push the pace.
We'll talk about this a little more in the game analysis.
But I think getting those top and setters along with really credible international coaches
is going to help continue to push that level and you saw that in the first week of competition.
And I mean the final thing to touch on here that love is very transparent about is how
they are providing health insurance and maternity leave to their athletes.
(21:40):
Which honestly in professional volleyball around the world maternity leave is not a thing.
It's just like you're having a kid.
Good luck.
Hopefully you can come back.
The health insurance like clubs do purchase health insurance for their athletes when they're
overseas.
Obviously the American system is different than the systems we see around the world.
(22:03):
But the love mission is very focused on female empowerment and giving women the choice and
the opportunity to pursue whatever they want.
And I think that that is a very noble mission especially because it's been so lacking for
so long.
So that's really cool.
(22:23):
And I want to end this section by saying I am wholeheartedly on board with the love mission
and the end goal of what they're doing.
I think it's amazing.
I hope that once they kind of get that messaging out there that we transition into focusing
on the volleyball because it could be very, very good in the future and it could be its
(22:46):
own standalone product.
All right.
We are going to get into our feature matches of the week.
The first feature match is love Houston versus Austin.
What are your initial takeaways?
Not even takeaways but just like thoughts.
I really enjoyed watching the game.
I thought that both Merzik and Skinner were very good which was really good to see.
(23:13):
We kind of talked about how Merzik's game would transition to a pro level and we talked
about her ability to find the block and how we thought that that would be a skill that
would come in handy when she started playing pro.
And let me tell you she's still finding fingernails.
Wow.
It was impressive to watch and I really enjoyed the match overall.
(23:36):
It was very close.
It was very competitive.
Yeah, very positive.
I enjoyed it.
I was unsure of how Jess Merzik would transition to a higher level of play and based on what
I saw in that match, I shouldn't have doubted her.
Obviously, it's the very beginning of her career.
(23:56):
I don't know what will happen but for where she's at right now, I was very impressed.
In the NCAA season, we talked about how she tends to start a little slow.
That was the case this match as well, ladies and gentlemen.
She got blocked several times early, got taken out in set one but re-entered the match and
(24:16):
honestly was their best player I thought.
Very consistent.
Great blocking.
Picked up some great balls on defense.
Found the fingertips.
We were like, okay, she's very good at this.
Yeah, I think she won player of the game and I think it was well deserved.
She was very good and she didn't miss a beat.
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I was also going to say you have to remember that these college players who came in got
probably two weeks of training with their teams, with their setters.
And so for her to come in and to find that offensive rhythm that quickly in the match
was kudos to both of them.
Skinner was very good as well.
I was pretty confident that Skinner would transition well to a higher level of play.
(24:59):
I was surprised that they switched her to the opposite.
What do you think of that move?
Oh, I think it's a strictly ball handling decision.
I think the left sides that they have in the two that they chose to start in Janari and
Hawk, I think they are much better passers than Skinner.
(25:20):
So I personally think it was a ball handling decision and like let's just have Maddie score
and just focus on scoring points.
I think it was a good move.
I honestly was surprised that Hawk was starting for them.
I wasn't shocked to see Janari.
She's got a ton of experience.
(25:41):
She's an outstanding player.
The Hawk decision I was a little surprised about.
I don't know who I expected to play instead of her.
Maybe Eggleston.
But again from a passing perspective it was a good choice.
Well we ended up with pretty much all Texas roster in the fifth set.
So that was kind of fun to see and I think a cool storyline for Love.
(26:04):
Looking at the match overall it seemed to be a game of giving up leads.
Oh my goodness.
Literally every set.
Yeah, it was really interesting.
So the first two sets Houston was up big after 20 and Austin came back to win both of those
and I thought Austin had a massive lead in the third set that they were going to sweep
(26:29):
in three.
But the team who was winning late in the match did not win the sets.
Austin also gave up an 11-6 lead in the fifth set which is mind blowing.
It was like 10-4 at one point.
It was insane.
Every like literally every single set whoever had a big lead lost the set.
(26:49):
A question I had for you was who do you think won the setting battle?
I think overall Micah Hancock won the setting battle.
I think she delivered some good balls.
I think she ran a solid offense.
My critique of her is that she didn't.
I don't think she ran the middle enough.
Particularly Raffaella Foley.
(27:11):
I think Foley is an experienced middle.
She's a great attacker and Hancock was not running the middle at all.
She basically was only setting Mirzik and Jordan Thompson.
She was also winning on to crunch time particularly in sets one and two when Houston had the lead.
She made some terrible sets like almost unhittable.
(27:34):
But then on the same side I think the setting in general was a little inconsistent.
I just think Micah Hancock was we saw her inconsistency near the end of sets.
Yeah she was really good up until 20 and then I agree some of the executions seemed to drop
off.
That was also exacerbated by the fact that Thompson could not score at the end of sets.
(27:55):
I believe she went 0-7 on set points when she was attacking.
A lot of tips.
She got blocked.
It was crazy to see because other than that she was very good.
So many tips and so many sets over.
And I will say when they found themselves in that position she was stuck on the left
(28:17):
side which she's not a left side attacker but you'd think she'd find a way.
And I was just stunned at how she was not able to put the ball down in crunch time.
Yeah it was like you said her efficiency on the left side was a stark difference from
her efficiency on the right side and they always got stuck in that rotation one late.
(28:43):
And it'll be interesting to see how they address that issue moving forward because it was a
problem.
I did like when they did the double sub the finish setter ran the middle a lot.
And the announcers were very critical of running the middle because they're like you've got
a bug up there like why do you keep setting she's such a good blocker.
(29:06):
And it's like sometimes it's not even about scoring the point it's about creating some
confusion or making them think a little bit longer so that the outside hitters don't have
a wall in front of them.
And I really appreciated how the finish setter came in and ran the middle consistently whenever
(29:26):
she had that chance.
I do think Hancock saved them at the end of set four and set five with her serving wowee.
That lefty five to five serve is a killer.
If you're a lefty out there and you want to spin serve even if you've got it is such a
messed up angle for the passers.
(29:48):
It just visually is so strange and the ball spins in a different way than they expect
like use that.
Well it's interesting you talk about running the middle because in sets one and two Austin
out blocked Houston 14 to 6 in those first two sets.
And then by the end of the match it was much more even.
(30:10):
Now we can talk about players starting slow we can talk about whatever you want but at
the end of the day running that middle does open up seams both on the pins and coming
out of the back row and I think that that was at least a large portion of why they the
hitters were more successful after that.
I will say Austin's blocking was outstanding outstanding particularly I was so impressed
(30:37):
by a bogbos blocking.
I know she got best blocker at the Olympics you guys I know that but like wow it was wonderful.
Austin controlled the net from a block standpoint finishing the match with 22 blocks to Houston's
15 but Houston dug better 80 digs to 58.
(30:57):
They also had seven aces to Austin's five and they were in system more of the time.
So it was an interesting trade off but Houston won a lot of the categories outside of the
blocking.
They also managed to close the gap in sets three four and five.
You know Austin was coming after Merzik and I think she handled it very well.
(31:21):
I think you know down the stretch Hawk for Austin Hawk was replaced by Eggleston and
Micah Hancock was going after her or going after seams and got a few aces that way.
She was clutch when she needed to be from the service line.
I don't think they win that match without her doing that.
(31:42):
It was impressive.
I did think that Austin had a bit of a lack of connection with their middles.
I know we talked about setter inconsistency but and you could really see it from the middle
a lot of them were under set like a little low the slides were not really working but
so we did see a sub Sage I'm going to butcher her last name you know who I mean came in
(32:05):
for Carly Lloyd late in the match and I think her connection with the hitters was better
obviously it was basically like her college team so she set them all before but things
seem to be running a little more smoothly then but yeah my my criticism overall for
both sides was that they didn't run the middle enough.
Well and I think probably to be expected given the teams are just coming together it's the
(32:28):
first match of the league you know it's going to take a little bit of time to gel so I think
I agree with you it didn't happen enough I'm curious to see which team can establish that
and utilize those players as we get a little more training and a little further into the
season and like I understand that this is really early in the season like they are working
(32:52):
through their finding their system finding their rhythm there are growing pains the players
who are playing in college just joined a couple weeks ago like I understand that it's not
as polished as it will be a month from now but just from where it was right now those
were my observations I did appreciate too how in all the love matches we watched the
(33:16):
coaches were experimenting with lineups and that you saw a lot of changes happening you
saw players coming in and staying for you know the rest of the match or the rest of
a set and so you could just see the coaches experimenting trying to see what's working
what's not working and you don't as we've talked about in the past you don't often see
(33:39):
that in the college game because there are so many other things at play so I thought
that that was really neat.
I did appreciate how often Austin ran the back row they ran it predominantly with Skinner
and they were moving her around which I thought was really nice out of the pipe and on the
right Houston was running Jordan Thompson out of the back row but predominantly from
(34:03):
the right and then they didn't really use Merzic much in the back row they didn't really
use it aside from from Jordan Thompson so I did appreciate that addition and sometimes
you know you had Austin running two players out of the back row which when they're in
system and if they can keep that going they're going to be tough to stop.
(34:25):
I agree I really like the back row option that they had going especially with two players
and you saw Skinner was very effective both from the front and the back and I thought
that that connection was really good.
You had mentioned to me as we were talking that Carly Lloyd had not played in a little
bit she had been on the beach she was transitioning she wasn't sure what she was going to do so
(34:46):
I'm expecting to see her connection with her teammates improve as we go and we see the
season progress.
Overall I thought that it was a great match honestly the level of this particular love
match was higher than I expected.
It was a lot of fun the teams you can see them you know they're starting to gel the
(35:12):
coaches are invested you can tell that they're very passionate so overall I think this match
was a ton of fun to watch and I'm really excited to see how these teams and these individual
players develop as the season goes on and interestingly Merzik, Skinner and Franklin
(35:32):
Sarah Franklin playing in Madison are the only three players of the love six that saw
any time so good for them.
Our second feature match of the week is PVF Atlanta Vibe versus Omaha Supernovas hit me
with your thoughts.
It was fun to watch I thought the presentation was great the fans in the stadium were fantastic.
(36:01):
I was really engaged the whole match and in fairness I believe we watched the first match
of love which was Atlanta and Salt Lake City and there were a few production issues with
that one and that was our first taste of love and then we watched this one and the comparison
(36:22):
between those two in my opinion was quite stark.
Oh yeah.
That was a lot of fun to watch this match like you said the level was not it seemed more
along the lines of the college game and specifically in my opinion the set speed and location was
(36:43):
not as fast and given we watched Jordan Poulter in that first match who runs a super fast
offense so there were some stark differences from a production standpoint and then from
a volleyball standpoint in that regard but an entertainment value in that match was very
high Beeson played really well at the beginning and the end of the match it was good to see
(37:06):
her at least start well given how her college season ended.
And then she scored six at the end which was like literally was unconscious at the end
of the fifth set and I'm like did you just take a three and a half set break like what
is going on right now?
But she looked like she was having fun.
She didn't look quite so stressed or high strung as we saw her look at the end of the
(37:30):
college season.
And the other thing I appreciated about the PVF was that team environment they were invested
they were competing they were coming together it felt like pro sports.
That was the biggest there are a lot of positives for me but that is the thing that made me
(37:51):
smile the most was these women were so invested they were intense they really really looked
like a team they had that connection I talk about it all the time like the eye contact
the you know talking to each other between play like it was cool to see that like camaraderie
(38:18):
especially with so many young new players that had joined the rosters.
Yeah it was incredible to see how many fans were there you know the supernovas people
are in like all these sparkly clothes I thought it was so cool the amount of merch that I
saw the fans and the crowd wearing I'm like this feels like a pro sport.
(38:41):
I didn't necessarily get that level of engagement feeling or that level of intensity from the
love matches the level was higher but it was just exciting to watch and coming off of the
NCAA season it was like a really cool transition.
Well we talked about there being 3300 people at the love match and the match we watched
(39:03):
in Omaha had close to 10,000 people over 13,000 was it over 13,000 so the stadium was
packed the atmosphere was loud and you could really hear everything that was going on which
I really appreciated.
So at the start of the match the only rookie on the court period was Merritt Beeson and
(39:24):
then as the game progressed we started to see more rookies being given opportunities
on the Atlanta side unfortunately Shelly Fanning the middle blocker went down early in the
second set with an ankle injury so Corey Lewis the rookie from Florida State came in to replace
her so that's like an unfortunate situation but I think she came in and did a great job
(39:47):
we saw Lindsey Krause come in and serve a couple times we saw Baton Horse come in.
Baton Horse played well.
She did very well I was very impressed with her so it was it was cool to see the rookies
start to be integrated obviously like we said with love they joined their programs very
late so we might see more integration as the season progresses and they can like work into
(40:12):
the system a bit more but it was cool.
Who were your MVPs from each team in this match?
For Omaha I really liked Nunevillar I think she brought intensity she brought energy she
is a great ball control player she had the hustle the fight she scored well and then
(40:38):
especially down the stretch she was unconscious I think she hit over 800 in set five.
Yeah she was 228 on the match with 22 kills and 57 attempts so she definitely led the
team in that regard.
So she was my MVP what about you?
Yeah for I would say I would agree with you I thought Nunevillar was the probably the
best player in the match she was very standout very noticeable on the court she moved the
(41:03):
ball around scored in different ways she was impressive to watch.
I also really liked if we're comparing setters which we like to do I really liked Valentin
Anderson the setter for Omaha as well I think her serving choices were excellent the way
that she had that zone four serve dialed in like she caused a lot of problems for Atlanta
(41:25):
with that I think her decision making was good her defense she picked up some incredible
balls her leadership like she's been playing pro for 16 years.
She brought a calmness and a competitive spirit to that team and she was the leader.
I honestly didn't love the setter for Atlanta.
There were too many sets over so for me I don't think she did a bad job but she wasn't
(41:51):
as good and it still felt very college-esque to me setting balls over trying to catch teams
score cheap points it wasn't.
Yeah she kept doing and he doesn't mean set over like she's setting a hitter and setting
over the net it's the side set like the dump we don't love that.
(42:13):
Well I mean you have to you have to change with how the game changes you in general have
higher IQ players at the professional level they've seen more they read the game better
their eye works are better their progressions are better they play defense as a team you
need to be focused on putting your hitters in good positions running and offense and
(42:33):
I obviously she had a plan but you couldn't tell who she was trying to isolate in different
rotations who she was trying to get going it was hey I'm gonna set this player so it
wasn't necessarily about her execution but I think her decision-making was not what I
would want to see at a professional level.
(42:53):
We mentioned Beeson not being very effective in the middle of the match and I do think
that a large part of that was Omaha made an adjustment with their block defense so Beeson
particularly out of the back row hits a pretty neutral angle you know corner basically zone
six to zone one ish and she was scoring pretty effectively on that and to Omaha's credit
(43:23):
after set one they moved their block in they left a panel of line for their libero and
they blocked her a lot and so I think you know we saw some of those adjustments happening
on the Omaha side I think Horde blocked very well like Sheep in particular made that adjustment
(43:43):
but Beeson didn't change back she didn't make the counter adjustment to that again her first
pro match but like somebody needs to tell her what's going on if she can't you know get
there herself and in fairness she scored very effectively in the fifth set so there was
(44:03):
there was a little bit of movement or elevated play at that point I think she has the physical
tools to do well in this league and I'm curious to see what her progression looks like with
this team in this year under a new system we heard Atlanta was the preseason number
(44:25):
one so they were picked to win it all honestly their libero Morgan hence I think very good
she did a great job Atlanta passed very well they were always in system they had 53% positive
touches 31% perfect passes compared to Omaha's 39% positive touches and 21% perfect and this
(44:49):
was actually something I wanted to talk about Atlanta ran the middle incredibly well Vicini
had the second most points on the team at 15 hitting 435 on 23 attempts with four blocks
anytime in my opinion that you can have a middle as one of your team's main point scorers
that's a great sign it's going to open up the rest of your team if Atlanta can continue
(45:13):
to pass that well I think they're going to be a good team now I think they struggle a
little bit to have terminal hitters and so they're going to have to sort that out are
they going to be a team that is in system all the time and that's what other teams find
challenging they always have three or four hitting options or are they going to have
(45:34):
somebody who can get them out of trouble I'm curious to see which direction the team goes
and what their identity is going to become Leah Edmond who was the player of the year
for PVF last year she didn't do much she didn't have a good match so I think you know she's
going to really have to step up and score a lot more points for Atlanta if they're going
(45:58):
to be successful as you were saying like yes great sign if your middle is your one of your
top scores because that is like showing the health of your serve receive so if your middle
is scoring that much your serve receive is on point which as Adam said the stats showed
it was but yeah Edmond was disappointing to me I mean so she hit 065 on the match with
(46:23):
46 attempts and 11 kills I have to imagine if she was player of the year that that match
was an anomaly yeah so that'll be something that'll be interesting to keep an eye on I'm
curious how good she normally is and how consistently she'll be able to score points for them at
the end of that match though Omaha just seemed better to me one of the things that I think
(46:48):
Atlanta will be spending a lot of time doing this week is their tip defense holy moly guy
there was there was not a lot of tips coming up like zero yeah and again you know we're
talking about new team new system new season you know all of that but that was a glaring
(47:09):
issue to me and we'll see if they can get their responsibilities together quickly and
understand who's taking what balls but that was that to me was a glaring issue watching
that match overall it was a it was a really positive experience I really enjoyed watching
the game which I think is a huge win you know obviously professional sports is about winning
(47:33):
but at the end of the day it's also an entertainment product and while you know we discussed the
level maybe not being the same the product was very entertaining and we will only see
those teams get better as the year goes on as they have a chance to gel and push towards
you know their final as you said we play 114 matches as a league so we're gonna see a lot
(47:56):
of volleyball and I really enjoyed watching that match so I'm gonna call this section
hot take slash listener comments because it's gonna be a mashup of both so I don't know
if I'm in the wrong on this or I have an unpopular opinion but it happened in both leagues where
we watched and the commentators were talking about you know the athletes smiling and being
(48:20):
good people and a whole bunch of things I love watching her play she always has a smile
on her face and you know me again maybe this is just a personal preference this is a both
of us hot take FYI everybody so you know feel free to tell me I'm wrong and to disagree
with me but that's not what sports about that you can be a great person and that's and that's
(48:45):
great but your ability to smile on the court and do things has no effect on the outcome
of your play I don't really think it needs to be highlighted as much as it is in women's
sport you never hear that in men's sport oh never just think of how ridiculous it would
sound if commentators were saying that about men you can't you I like I can't even picture
(49:08):
it so like why do we have to talk about it for women why do we have to talk about like
she looks so happy to be there I understand good vibes are part of being on the court
but like but talk about it in terms of in terms of leadership talk about it in terms
of the qualities that it brings to the team and allows you to participate and I understand
(49:30):
that there's a different dynamic on women's teams and men's teams I think that we can
agree that that is a thing and it just it's communicated in a way that not that it lessens
female sports but I it's just a difference and I think we should be focusing on the sport
the athletes in and of themselves just my opinion having listened to a couple of the
(49:52):
matches at the end of the day I think whether you like a player or not you can choose to
like or dislike whatever athletes you want but it should come down to especially on a
broadcast that is about the game it should be about the players skill and and things
like that and not so much about if the player is likeable or looks like they're having a
(50:16):
good time like it just lessens the women's abilities in my opinion so we had another
tough question on the YouTube channel and I think it was a fair question given you know
what we said about this topic and several people asked us you know why we didn't go
into the San Jose State transgendered issue in more detail other than highlighting it
(50:41):
for me my experience in talking about this situation is that people have a very hard
time separating the social and political stance on this from the sport context or the science
or and the science because I think the sport and the science discussion are very tightly
(51:04):
intertwined we love doing this podcast because we love the sport of volleyball and what we
don't want to happen is for this to become hey they said this we're not going to listen
to the podcast or we have different views or you know at the end of the day we want
to bring you volleyball and what's happening and even if our social views and our sport
(51:27):
views are different my experience has been that it's very hard to have a rational conversation
about this and we want to keep this about the volleyball and about what's happening
so I appreciate the question we're always up to have a debate and a good argument if
you will with people about what we see and what we hear and what we talk about but this
(51:51):
particular issue is one where I don't think that discord would be A kept civil and B productive
so thank you for the question you know we'll keep our eye on it we'll keep everybody up
to date with what's going on but that's probably as far as we'll go in that regard
all right looking forward lots of volleyball happening this week so if you're into NCAA
(52:12):
men's volleyball the matches that we suggest watching are number five ball state is playing
number six BYU on both Thursday and Friday so that could be very exciting and on Saturday
at 8 30 p.m. eastern time number two Long Beach State is playing number 14 Lewis and
at 10 30 p.m. eastern that same evening Saturday number one UCLA is playing number eight Penn
(52:39):
State we also have the love head-to-head match on Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern we have Austin
playing Atlanta and the weekend matches are happening in Madison this week for PDF on Friday
at 10 p.m. eastern Vegas is hosting Omaha and on Sunday at 6 p.m. eastern Atlanta is
hosting Grand Rapids so there's lots of volleyball to watch this week those are our personal
(53:03):
picks of what to watch but we know you'll do you and let us know what you end up watching
and what you think that concludes this week's episode of volley talk there's always something
shaking in the volleyball world and we hope you enjoyed this little fix be sure to follow
the show so you don't miss any updates and we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five-star
(53:23):
review you can also find us on Instagram at volley talk underscore podcast if you have
a topic that you want us to discuss be sure to let us know by reaching out to us on Instagram
or at info at Sarah pavin.com thank you so much for joining us and we'll be back next
week
Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
(00:04):
who want to dig deep into what is going on in NCAA and international volleyball.
I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska
Cornhusker, and longtime pro, both indoor and on the beach.
And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach, and the show's
resident stat guy.
(00:26):
Happy New Year everybody!
We hope year 2025 is off to a great start.
This is obviously our first episode of the new year and it is time for us to shift our
focus a little bit from NCAA women's volleyball to love, PVF, big happenings in other pro
(00:47):
leagues around the world, and NCAA men's volleyball.
So it was a very exciting week this week as love kicked off its inaugural season, PVF
began their second season, the transfer portal has been popping still, and the NCAA men's
preseason is underway.
(01:08):
So we have a lot of fun stuff to discuss today, so let's get started.
We are starting out our traditional weekly highlight segment with transfer portal updates
(01:35):
this week, a lot has happened.
We also had quite a few comments and opinions on our last episode when we dove into the
transfer portal, and some of them I'd like to address and discuss a little bit more.
Yes, so what were they Adam?
So one of the common themes that we didn't discuss was about money being a big factor
(02:00):
for athletes transferring, and totally correct.
Athletes are leaving for really good sums of money, you know it's something that we
didn't want to address primarily because we didn't have any concrete information.
Quite frankly it's not always on the top of our mind because that wasn't our college
experience.
(02:21):
In the meantime we have done a little digging, it's a very accurate statement.
There are very large sums of money being thrown around to athletes who have to make decisions
about staying with their team or securing their financial future, and it is definitely
playing a role in decisions, and yeah we just wanted to acknowledge that and there were
a lot of really good points around that.
(02:43):
So thanks to all of you who shared that with us again, yeah we missed that.
So thanks for bringing it up, it's a valid point.
So that kind of leads into our first transfer.
Tori Stafford is heading to Texas.
I want to say like two minutes after it was posted that she was entering the portal I
(03:04):
got tagged in a message on Instagram with somebody being like, look at this, and I have
to admit I was unwell.
Like this rattled me for a couple days, you guys.
I was not okay with this.
I mean I agree and this was one of the ones there were rumored big money around this deal.
(03:26):
You know initially there were thoughts around Babcock going to play pro and the coach leaving,
none of which appears to be true, and you know Tori Stafford came out and said I want
to be close to home, I'm feeling a little homesick.
You know at this point, and I get it's not going to be a popular decision with her teammates,
if you're going to do it and you're going to chase the payday, which is totally her
(03:50):
right, own up to it and do it.
Just like let's call it what it is.
Homesick, you're not going home.
So I was rattled when she announced it and I was even more rattled but not shocked at
all when it was Texas because if you remember last episode I was like so surprised that
Texas hadn't picked up more players and I was like just wait.
(04:12):
They wait for the blue chip athletes to enter the portal and they snag them, shocker.
Tori Stafford it is everybody.
Rumor has it Texas didn't even give her the highest offer.
There were schools that gave her higher offers than Texas but Texas is the choice.
So great pickup for Texas after losing Skinner.
(04:33):
So that breaks my heart, I can't believe it, I can't think about it.
That one hurt me.
They win the transfer portal this year for sure.
One of the other things that came up in the comments around transfer portal was athletes
taking a little bit of ownership back about their careers and my personal opinion about
this is that is true and the athletes should have the ability to make their decisions.
(04:58):
I think some of the comments that we talked about was lamenting the fact that college
sports has become professional and a business at that point.
That's the reality of it and when we talk about loyalty and lessons and building as
a team those to me were the skills that we learned as a transition athlete from high
(05:23):
school to professional and it wasn't about, our comments weren't about disempowering
the athletes or them having no control over what they want.
Both of us had very positive experiences in college dealing with hard situations, succeeding
through tough lessons and tough situations and coming out on the other side.
(05:43):
Now that's not always everybody's experience and people should never stay in bad situations
but we both do lament the loss of that pure athletic pursuit because it really is very
professional at this point.
But we also were told about Avery Carlson's situation in Texas which we did appreciate
(06:07):
that info as well.
Apparently when she won the starting spot she was getting hate messages from Texas fans
even when the team was winning.
So in that scenario I know I was critical of her now entering her third program but
that is one of the situations we talked about where it's like okay, yes this is like making
(06:29):
you mentally unwell like it is fair.
But speaking of her she is heading to SMU.
So SMU has now picked up six portal athletes and we already know my feeling about that.
Lourdes Meyer from Purdue has committed to Minnesota and Flormarie Heredia Colon from
Miami is heading to Florida which good pickup for them I think a good compliment to Kennedy
(06:54):
Martin.
And another fun fact that I was looking at is Arizona State has now picked up five players
from the portal but they only lost one.
So they are another program that is like consistently poaching from the portal year after year.
So I'm curious to see if more of their players enter the portal in the second phase now that
(07:16):
they've brought so many players in.
It'll be interesting to see how that dynamic works out moving into the spring season.
So there was a lot of talk about what was going to happen in the women's program now
that Karch had moved over to the men's side and we have an answer.
Eric Sullivan was named the USA national team women's head coach.
He's been an associate at Texas for the last 14 years.
(07:40):
He was selected because of his reputation as a master of defensive systems, his ability
to develop top tier talent and the experience in high pressure environments.
He was a two time Olympian as a player in 2000 and 2004 and a team leader for the USA
men's team at the last three Olympics.
So I think that's a really good hire.
(08:00):
You want to keep somebody who has that experience who's been in the system.
I do believe that Dan Fisher was in the conversation but given his international experience and
where he's been I think that that's a smart choice.
I like that hire actually.
I think it's a great choice.
He's been a part of the system since his days as an athlete and I mean everything that was
(08:26):
highlighted on the website as to why he was selected.
You can't disagree with it.
But I also think like the women's team has like such a foundation of excellence and they've
really worked on developing that solid culture especially with Karch.
And so I think like that's a perfect transition because I think that he will embody those
(08:51):
values that the team has.
I also think given that the Olympics are in LA in 2028 both programs have been relatively
successful pressure is going to be high.
I think bringing somebody in who hasn't done the cycles or been a part of that that's a
lot of pressure and a little probably a little bit too much of an unknown for USA volleyball
(09:16):
going into that highly tattered Olympics.
Oh absolutely and the international game and the planning the strategy all of that like
it is a hundred percent different than the college game where there's such an emphasis
put on recruiting and things like that.
So I'm excited about that pick.
(09:37):
I think it's great.
Yeah I was a little shocked.
I didn't pay close attention to it but I looking at it from the lens now I think it's a really
good hire.
We also had the love debut and the beginning of PVF season two this week.
So in the first match in love pro history Salt Lake City defeated Atlanta 3-1.
(10:02):
This game was actually played at the Gateway Center Arena which is the same venue used
by the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA.
So for basketball games that typically it has a capacity of 3,500 people and it was
posted that the love attendance was around 3,300.
So pretty close to selling out the venue.
Good crowd.
Pretty good for that venue.
(10:24):
In the weekend with love series Houston beat Austin 3-2 in a reverse sweep.
Austin beat Madison 3-0 and Omaha beat Houston 3-0.
We also had the PVF season openers.
Orlando beat San Diego 3-0.
Vegas beat Grand Rapids 3-2 at home and then Omaha did the same thing to Atlanta.
(10:47):
Our final highlight of the week is NCAA men's volleyball.
So the AVCA preseason poll came out December 30th and it had UCLA at number one, Long Beach
State at two, UC Irvine was three, Hawaii at four and Ball State was five.
(11:08):
The next poll is coming out January 13th which is obviously different than the women's poll
because there's way fewer teams.
But the preseason began at the very beginning of January and this week in particular there
were a couple interesting matches that happened.
Number 12 Loyola Chicago beat number eight Penn State 3-1 and number five Ball State
(11:34):
handled number 13 Stanford 3-0 on Friday.
So we're seeing teams play like back to backs and things like that so it's really interesting
how they're all mixing it up but I personally thought that those two matches were particularly
interesting.
So so much volleyball to be played, so much transfer portal drama as always so it's a
(11:57):
spicy start to 2025.
This episode we kind of did a love PVF preview and we're asking a lot of questions and we
got those questions answered.
And now having watched some matches we also have some answers but I wanted to give a huge
shout out to one of our listeners named Rudy who gave us an in-depth rundown of both leagues.
(12:20):
The info was outstanding.
We're going to do a little comparison of love and PVF to give like the overview of each
league.
And I'm assuming that we will continue to learn about each league as we watch a little
bit more and go through.
So as we pick up more tidbits of information we'll also share that with you but this is
what we have so far.
(12:41):
Some questions have been thrown around as to why the certain locations were selected.
I do know for love they picked the cities they did because they were the biggest youth
volleyball and club volleyball markets in the US.
So it might be confusing why Austin and Houston each have a team.
Both of those cities have massive club volleyball presences and so they selected the cities
(13:05):
based on that.
For the PVF I don't think it was as deliberate.
I obviously think they picked cities based on where there's a huge volleyball following
but I don't think it was as specific as love was in their market research.
So as far as the scheduling goes PVF has eight teams.
Each team plays each of the other teams four times two times at home two times away.
(13:29):
That's a total of one hundred and twelve regular season matches and then there's a four team
single elimination playoff.
So each team will play 14 home matches and most matches last season ended up drawing
like four to six thousand people by the end of the season.
Love however has six teams and each week there's one head to head match and then the weekend
(13:53):
with love series featuring three matches between the four other teams.
If it sounds confusing it's because it is.
So this format rotates among each city and I know we touched on this last episode but
just to reiterate that is a total of 48 regular season matches and each team will play six
home matches.
(14:14):
So there's also a midseason tournament in February and a playoff tournament at the end
of the season.
I'm not a huge fan of the love format.
I prefer the traditional format that we see with PVF and typically overseas you'll see
teams play one match a week.
The PVF format is a little different because a couple teams are playing two matches in
(14:34):
a weekend because obviously the season timeline is much much shorter than you see in Europe.
But I'm not a huge fan of the love system particularly when you're bringing four teams
to a place and a couple of those teams are only playing one match.
It's like I don't know not to mention the limited number of home matches but that is
the difference between the schedule.
(14:56):
That decision seemed really interesting to me because I think you're going to have people
struggle to identify with their home team because they're not playing there very often
and we'll talk about the branding later on but I'm really curious to see how that pans
out.
Let's talk about the look and design of both of those.
So now we've watched a couple matches of each.
(15:17):
We've seen the presentation.
PVF has a very individual team design.
You get a feeling that the team is created unto itself.
They are trying to win and nothing else matters.
They're playing in a league.
It's a very kind of NFL, NBA, baseball feel to it.
(15:38):
They talk about the general managers.
They're talking about the draft.
They're talking about trading players.
It feels very professional sport.
Well, they all have completely unique uniforms.
They have their own unique team name, a really cool logo.
Everything is very specific to each team and I like that a lot.
(16:02):
It allows you to connect with a team or a coach or a player on a team and have some
affinity to that group of athletes.
I think that that's really important and one of the keys in why people watch sport.
If we look at love, there's not really any individuals that are being prioritized.
(16:24):
I mean that both as athletes other than the founding athletes, but the teams as well.
Everything that we've seen so far in the pro section is about the love brand.
They all have very similar uniforms.
All of their logos represent the city they play for, but they're all kind of the same.
It's really hard when you watch to actually tell the teams apart on TV and the players
(16:48):
names on the jerseys are really small and below the hair.
It's really hard to kind of get into a team and it almost felt watching this week like
it was a scrimmage or a friendly match.
Just not to take away from the level or how it happened.
It just that was kind of the atmosphere that I got watching it on TV.
(17:11):
Yeah, I don't like that the uniforms are the exact same.
The only thing that changes is like an accent color and maybe a sponsor name on the front,
but like even the court is completely love branded and the big love brand sponsors.
Whereas you watch the PVF and it's like the team's sponsors are all over the court.
(17:33):
So yeah, and the small names on the jersey like no, I didn't like that.
Yeah, I agree.
It was very and again on the men sometimes you can get away with that because the hair
is not in the way.
Almost every woman's ponytail block their name.
So if you didn't know who the player was, it was very hard to figure out who they were.
And finally, let's compare the general brand love.
(17:55):
It is very clear is all about the pathway from club to college to pro and being able
to keep that accessible to girls all over the country for the entirety of their career
so that they always have a place to play.
PVF seems more autonomous and more of a standalone league.
(18:16):
You don't really see as much of the crossover to the club or youth.
Obviously they do community engagement, but it's not as at the forefront or like what
the mission is like it is for love.
I honestly think love is winning in the TV department.
I mean without seeing the numbers, I would agree with you.
And it's just like way easier to find like ESPN ESPN plus versus like Fox Sports 2 or
(18:41):
like YouTube.
One match on volleyball world TV.
So I liked the accessibility of the love games.
This love as I mentioned earlier, the love sponsors seem to be league and brand wide
instead of specific to the individual teams.
So one of the interesting things watching the two separate leagues this week is love
(19:06):
was all about their mission as a league and as a brand.
Every time something happened on the court or there was a play, it came back to a founding
athlete or the athletes playing at home or you know how many kids they're having the
stands and the athletes connecting with them.
All of which is great.
I actually personally love the love mission.
(19:29):
I think it's a very worthy approach to sport and a holistic view.
I'm all for it.
When I'm watching the pros play, I personally want to watch the volleyball.
I want to hear the analysis of what's going on.
I want to hear about the decisions about the match I'm watching.
(19:50):
And for me that was lacking in the broadcast and I understand it's week one.
I understand they're bringing their brand to the world.
I get that.
I hope that it becomes less as they continue playing and that their professional broadcasts
lean more into the volleyball and less into the mission and the background of the company.
(20:13):
I agree.
I mean it's clear also that love is trying to position itself among the top leagues in
the world like the number of times we heard like oh the top players in the world are playing
here.
It's like well they're yeah sure there are a couple but like let's let's be honest.
But they kept pushing that narrative too about how like the best players are playing here.
(20:34):
So I think that is definitely their long-term goal.
Which is totally fair.
But you don't get that messaging at all from PVF.
It was strictly about just the volleyball.
Correct.
Well from what we've seen so far the love level of play is much higher.
For me PVF seemed like an extension of college volleyball.
(20:54):
They delivered a great product.
It was entertaining to watch.
I enjoyed hearing the analysis that was missing from the love broadcasts.
But you cannot compare the level.
I mean and I think for me one of the biggest pieces of that was across the board love seems
to have experienced international setters which I think makes a really big difference.
(21:18):
They're able to push the pace.
We'll talk about this a little more in the game analysis.
But I think getting those top and setters along with really credible international coaches
is going to help continue to push that level and you saw that in the first week of competition.
And I mean the final thing to touch on here that love is very transparent about is how
they are providing health insurance and maternity leave to their athletes.
(21:40):
Which honestly in professional volleyball around the world maternity leave is not a thing.
It's just like you're having a kid.
Good luck.
Hopefully you can come back.
The health insurance like clubs do purchase health insurance for their athletes when they're
overseas.
Obviously the American system is different than the systems we see around the world.
(22:03):
But the love mission is very focused on female empowerment and giving women the choice and
the opportunity to pursue whatever they want.
And I think that that is a very noble mission especially because it's been so lacking for
so long.
So that's really cool.
(22:23):
And I want to end this section by saying I am wholeheartedly on board with the love mission
and the end goal of what they're doing.
I think it's amazing.
I hope that once they kind of get that messaging out there that we transition into focusing
on the volleyball because it could be very, very good in the future and it could be its
(22:46):
own standalone product.
All right.
We are going to get into our feature matches of the week.
The first feature match is love Houston versus Austin.
What are your initial takeaways?
Not even takeaways but just like thoughts.
I really enjoyed watching the game.
I thought that both Merzik and Skinner were very good which was really good to see.
(23:13):
We kind of talked about how Merzik's game would transition to a pro level and we talked
about her ability to find the block and how we thought that that would be a skill that
would come in handy when she started playing pro.
And let me tell you she's still finding fingernails.
Wow.
It was impressive to watch and I really enjoyed the match overall.
(23:36):
It was very close.
It was very competitive.
Yeah, very positive.
I enjoyed it.
I was unsure of how Jess Merzik would transition to a higher level of play and based on what
I saw in that match, I shouldn't have doubted her.
Obviously, it's the very beginning of her career.
(23:56):
I don't know what will happen but for where she's at right now, I was very impressed.
In the NCAA season, we talked about how she tends to start a little slow.
That was the case this match as well, ladies and gentlemen.
She got blocked several times early, got taken out in set one but re-entered the match and
(24:16):
honestly was their best player I thought.
Very consistent.
Great blocking.
Picked up some great balls on defense.
Found the fingertips.
We were like, okay, she's very good at this.
Yeah, I think she won player of the game and I think it was well deserved.
She was very good and she didn't miss a beat.
(24:37):
I was also going to say you have to remember that these college players who came in got
probably two weeks of training with their teams, with their setters.
And so for her to come in and to find that offensive rhythm that quickly in the match
was kudos to both of them.
Skinner was very good as well.
I was pretty confident that Skinner would transition well to a higher level of play.
(24:59):
I was surprised that they switched her to the opposite.
What do you think of that move?
Oh, I think it's a strictly ball handling decision.
I think the left sides that they have in the two that they chose to start in Janari and
Hawk, I think they are much better passers than Skinner.
(25:20):
So I personally think it was a ball handling decision and like let's just have Maddie score
and just focus on scoring points.
I think it was a good move.
I honestly was surprised that Hawk was starting for them.
I wasn't shocked to see Janari.
She's got a ton of experience.
(25:41):
She's an outstanding player.
The Hawk decision I was a little surprised about.
I don't know who I expected to play instead of her.
Maybe Eggleston.
But again from a passing perspective it was a good choice.
Well we ended up with pretty much all Texas roster in the fifth set.
So that was kind of fun to see and I think a cool storyline for Love.
(26:04):
Looking at the match overall it seemed to be a game of giving up leads.
Oh my goodness.
Literally every set.
Yeah, it was really interesting.
So the first two sets Houston was up big after 20 and Austin came back to win both of those
and I thought Austin had a massive lead in the third set that they were going to sweep
(26:29):
in three.
But the team who was winning late in the match did not win the sets.
Austin also gave up an 11-6 lead in the fifth set which is mind blowing.
It was like 10-4 at one point.
It was insane.
Every like literally every single set whoever had a big lead lost the set.
(26:49):
A question I had for you was who do you think won the setting battle?
I think overall Micah Hancock won the setting battle.
I think she delivered some good balls.
I think she ran a solid offense.
My critique of her is that she didn't.
I don't think she ran the middle enough.
Particularly Raffaella Foley.
(27:11):
I think Foley is an experienced middle.
She's a great attacker and Hancock was not running the middle at all.
She basically was only setting Mirzik and Jordan Thompson.
She was also winning on to crunch time particularly in sets one and two when Houston had the lead.
She made some terrible sets like almost unhittable.
(27:34):
But then on the same side I think the setting in general was a little inconsistent.
I just think Micah Hancock was we saw her inconsistency near the end of sets.
Yeah she was really good up until 20 and then I agree some of the executions seemed to drop
off.
That was also exacerbated by the fact that Thompson could not score at the end of sets.
(27:55):
I believe she went 0-7 on set points when she was attacking.
A lot of tips.
She got blocked.
It was crazy to see because other than that she was very good.
So many tips and so many sets over.
And I will say when they found themselves in that position she was stuck on the left
(28:17):
side which she's not a left side attacker but you'd think she'd find a way.
And I was just stunned at how she was not able to put the ball down in crunch time.
Yeah it was like you said her efficiency on the left side was a stark difference from
her efficiency on the right side and they always got stuck in that rotation one late.
(28:43):
And it'll be interesting to see how they address that issue moving forward because it was a
problem.
I did like when they did the double sub the finish setter ran the middle a lot.
And the announcers were very critical of running the middle because they're like you've got
a bug up there like why do you keep setting she's such a good blocker.
(29:06):
And it's like sometimes it's not even about scoring the point it's about creating some
confusion or making them think a little bit longer so that the outside hitters don't have
a wall in front of them.
And I really appreciated how the finish setter came in and ran the middle consistently whenever
(29:26):
she had that chance.
I do think Hancock saved them at the end of set four and set five with her serving wowee.
That lefty five to five serve is a killer.
If you're a lefty out there and you want to spin serve even if you've got it is such a
messed up angle for the passers.
(29:48):
It just visually is so strange and the ball spins in a different way than they expect
like use that.
Well it's interesting you talk about running the middle because in sets one and two Austin
out blocked Houston 14 to 6 in those first two sets.
And then by the end of the match it was much more even.
(30:10):
Now we can talk about players starting slow we can talk about whatever you want but at
the end of the day running that middle does open up seams both on the pins and coming
out of the back row and I think that that was at least a large portion of why they the
hitters were more successful after that.
I will say Austin's blocking was outstanding outstanding particularly I was so impressed
(30:37):
by a bogbos blocking.
I know she got best blocker at the Olympics you guys I know that but like wow it was wonderful.
Austin controlled the net from a block standpoint finishing the match with 22 blocks to Houston's
15 but Houston dug better 80 digs to 58.
(30:57):
They also had seven aces to Austin's five and they were in system more of the time.
So it was an interesting trade off but Houston won a lot of the categories outside of the
blocking.
They also managed to close the gap in sets three four and five.
You know Austin was coming after Merzik and I think she handled it very well.
(31:21):
I think you know down the stretch Hawk for Austin Hawk was replaced by Eggleston and
Micah Hancock was going after her or going after seams and got a few aces that way.
She was clutch when she needed to be from the service line.
I don't think they win that match without her doing that.
(31:42):
It was impressive.
I did think that Austin had a bit of a lack of connection with their middles.
I know we talked about setter inconsistency but and you could really see it from the middle
a lot of them were under set like a little low the slides were not really working but
so we did see a sub Sage I'm going to butcher her last name you know who I mean came in
(32:05):
for Carly Lloyd late in the match and I think her connection with the hitters was better
obviously it was basically like her college team so she set them all before but things
seem to be running a little more smoothly then but yeah my my criticism overall for
both sides was that they didn't run the middle enough.
Well and I think probably to be expected given the teams are just coming together it's the
(32:28):
first match of the league you know it's going to take a little bit of time to gel so I think
I agree with you it didn't happen enough I'm curious to see which team can establish that
and utilize those players as we get a little more training and a little further into the
season and like I understand that this is really early in the season like they are working
(32:52):
through their finding their system finding their rhythm there are growing pains the players
who are playing in college just joined a couple weeks ago like I understand that it's not
as polished as it will be a month from now but just from where it was right now those
were my observations I did appreciate too how in all the love matches we watched the
(33:16):
coaches were experimenting with lineups and that you saw a lot of changes happening you
saw players coming in and staying for you know the rest of the match or the rest of
a set and so you could just see the coaches experimenting trying to see what's working
what's not working and you don't as we've talked about in the past you don't often see
(33:39):
that in the college game because there are so many other things at play so I thought
that that was really neat.
I did appreciate how often Austin ran the back row they ran it predominantly with Skinner
and they were moving her around which I thought was really nice out of the pipe and on the
right Houston was running Jordan Thompson out of the back row but predominantly from
(34:03):
the right and then they didn't really use Merzic much in the back row they didn't really
use it aside from from Jordan Thompson so I did appreciate that addition and sometimes
you know you had Austin running two players out of the back row which when they're in
system and if they can keep that going they're going to be tough to stop.
(34:25):
I agree I really like the back row option that they had going especially with two players
and you saw Skinner was very effective both from the front and the back and I thought
that that connection was really good.
You had mentioned to me as we were talking that Carly Lloyd had not played in a little
bit she had been on the beach she was transitioning she wasn't sure what she was going to do so
(34:46):
I'm expecting to see her connection with her teammates improve as we go and we see the
season progress.
Overall I thought that it was a great match honestly the level of this particular love
match was higher than I expected.
It was a lot of fun the teams you can see them you know they're starting to gel the
(35:12):
coaches are invested you can tell that they're very passionate so overall I think this match
was a ton of fun to watch and I'm really excited to see how these teams and these individual
players develop as the season goes on and interestingly Merzik, Skinner and Franklin
(35:32):
Sarah Franklin playing in Madison are the only three players of the love six that saw
any time so good for them.
Our second feature match of the week is PVF Atlanta Vibe versus Omaha Supernovas hit me
with your thoughts.
It was fun to watch I thought the presentation was great the fans in the stadium were fantastic.
(36:01):
I was really engaged the whole match and in fairness I believe we watched the first match
of love which was Atlanta and Salt Lake City and there were a few production issues with
that one and that was our first taste of love and then we watched this one and the comparison
(36:22):
between those two in my opinion was quite stark.
Oh yeah.
That was a lot of fun to watch this match like you said the level was not it seemed more
along the lines of the college game and specifically in my opinion the set speed and location was
(36:43):
not as fast and given we watched Jordan Poulter in that first match who runs a super fast
offense so there were some stark differences from a production standpoint and then from
a volleyball standpoint in that regard but an entertainment value in that match was very
high Beeson played really well at the beginning and the end of the match it was good to see
(37:06):
her at least start well given how her college season ended.
And then she scored six at the end which was like literally was unconscious at the end
of the fifth set and I'm like did you just take a three and a half set break like what
is going on right now?
But she looked like she was having fun.
She didn't look quite so stressed or high strung as we saw her look at the end of the
(37:30):
college season.
And the other thing I appreciated about the PVF was that team environment they were invested
they were competing they were coming together it felt like pro sports.
That was the biggest there are a lot of positives for me but that is the thing that made me
(37:51):
smile the most was these women were so invested they were intense they really really looked
like a team they had that connection I talk about it all the time like the eye contact
the you know talking to each other between play like it was cool to see that like camaraderie
(38:18):
especially with so many young new players that had joined the rosters.
Yeah it was incredible to see how many fans were there you know the supernovas people
are in like all these sparkly clothes I thought it was so cool the amount of merch that I
saw the fans and the crowd wearing I'm like this feels like a pro sport.
(38:41):
I didn't necessarily get that level of engagement feeling or that level of intensity from the
love matches the level was higher but it was just exciting to watch and coming off of the
NCAA season it was like a really cool transition.
Well we talked about there being 3300 people at the love match and the match we watched
(39:03):
in Omaha had close to 10,000 people over 13,000 was it over 13,000 so the stadium was
packed the atmosphere was loud and you could really hear everything that was going on which
I really appreciated.
So at the start of the match the only rookie on the court period was Merritt Beeson and
(39:24):
then as the game progressed we started to see more rookies being given opportunities
on the Atlanta side unfortunately Shelly Fanning the middle blocker went down early in the
second set with an ankle injury so Corey Lewis the rookie from Florida State came in to replace
her so that's like an unfortunate situation but I think she came in and did a great job
(39:47):
we saw Lindsey Krause come in and serve a couple times we saw Baton Horse come in.
Baton Horse played well.
She did very well I was very impressed with her so it was it was cool to see the rookies
start to be integrated obviously like we said with love they joined their programs very
late so we might see more integration as the season progresses and they can like work into
(40:12):
the system a bit more but it was cool.
Who were your MVPs from each team in this match?
For Omaha I really liked Nunevillar I think she brought intensity she brought energy she
is a great ball control player she had the hustle the fight she scored well and then
(40:38):
especially down the stretch she was unconscious I think she hit over 800 in set five.
Yeah she was 228 on the match with 22 kills and 57 attempts so she definitely led the
team in that regard.
So she was my MVP what about you?
Yeah for I would say I would agree with you I thought Nunevillar was the probably the
best player in the match she was very standout very noticeable on the court she moved the
(41:03):
ball around scored in different ways she was impressive to watch.
I also really liked if we're comparing setters which we like to do I really liked Valentin
Anderson the setter for Omaha as well I think her serving choices were excellent the way
that she had that zone four serve dialed in like she caused a lot of problems for Atlanta
(41:25):
with that I think her decision making was good her defense she picked up some incredible
balls her leadership like she's been playing pro for 16 years.
She brought a calmness and a competitive spirit to that team and she was the leader.
I honestly didn't love the setter for Atlanta.
There were too many sets over so for me I don't think she did a bad job but she wasn't
(41:51):
as good and it still felt very college-esque to me setting balls over trying to catch teams
score cheap points it wasn't.
Yeah she kept doing and he doesn't mean set over like she's setting a hitter and setting
over the net it's the side set like the dump we don't love that.
(42:13):
Well I mean you have to you have to change with how the game changes you in general have
higher IQ players at the professional level they've seen more they read the game better
their eye works are better their progressions are better they play defense as a team you
need to be focused on putting your hitters in good positions running and offense and
(42:33):
I obviously she had a plan but you couldn't tell who she was trying to isolate in different
rotations who she was trying to get going it was hey I'm gonna set this player so it
wasn't necessarily about her execution but I think her decision-making was not what I
would want to see at a professional level.
(42:53):
We mentioned Beeson not being very effective in the middle of the match and I do think
that a large part of that was Omaha made an adjustment with their block defense so Beeson
particularly out of the back row hits a pretty neutral angle you know corner basically zone
six to zone one ish and she was scoring pretty effectively on that and to Omaha's credit
(43:23):
after set one they moved their block in they left a panel of line for their libero and
they blocked her a lot and so I think you know we saw some of those adjustments happening
on the Omaha side I think Horde blocked very well like Sheep in particular made that adjustment
(43:43):
but Beeson didn't change back she didn't make the counter adjustment to that again her first
pro match but like somebody needs to tell her what's going on if she can't you know get
there herself and in fairness she scored very effectively in the fifth set so there was
(44:03):
there was a little bit of movement or elevated play at that point I think she has the physical
tools to do well in this league and I'm curious to see what her progression looks like with
this team in this year under a new system we heard Atlanta was the preseason number
(44:25):
one so they were picked to win it all honestly their libero Morgan hence I think very good
she did a great job Atlanta passed very well they were always in system they had 53% positive
touches 31% perfect passes compared to Omaha's 39% positive touches and 21% perfect and this
(44:49):
was actually something I wanted to talk about Atlanta ran the middle incredibly well Vicini
had the second most points on the team at 15 hitting 435 on 23 attempts with four blocks
anytime in my opinion that you can have a middle as one of your team's main point scorers
that's a great sign it's going to open up the rest of your team if Atlanta can continue
(45:13):
to pass that well I think they're going to be a good team now I think they struggle a
little bit to have terminal hitters and so they're going to have to sort that out are
they going to be a team that is in system all the time and that's what other teams find
challenging they always have three or four hitting options or are they going to have
(45:34):
somebody who can get them out of trouble I'm curious to see which direction the team goes
and what their identity is going to become Leah Edmond who was the player of the year
for PVF last year she didn't do much she didn't have a good match so I think you know she's
going to really have to step up and score a lot more points for Atlanta if they're going
(45:58):
to be successful as you were saying like yes great sign if your middle is your one of your
top scores because that is like showing the health of your serve receive so if your middle
is scoring that much your serve receive is on point which as Adam said the stats showed
it was but yeah Edmond was disappointing to me I mean so she hit 065 on the match with
(46:23):
46 attempts and 11 kills I have to imagine if she was player of the year that that match
was an anomaly yeah so that'll be something that'll be interesting to keep an eye on I'm
curious how good she normally is and how consistently she'll be able to score points for them at
the end of that match though Omaha just seemed better to me one of the things that I think
(46:48):
Atlanta will be spending a lot of time doing this week is their tip defense holy moly guy
there was there was not a lot of tips coming up like zero yeah and again you know we're
talking about new team new system new season you know all of that but that was a glaring
(47:09):
issue to me and we'll see if they can get their responsibilities together quickly and
understand who's taking what balls but that was that to me was a glaring issue watching
that match overall it was a it was a really positive experience I really enjoyed watching
the game which I think is a huge win you know obviously professional sports is about winning
(47:33):
but at the end of the day it's also an entertainment product and while you know we discussed the
level maybe not being the same the product was very entertaining and we will only see
those teams get better as the year goes on as they have a chance to gel and push towards
you know their final as you said we play 114 matches as a league so we're gonna see a lot
(47:56):
of volleyball and I really enjoyed watching that match so I'm gonna call this section
hot take slash listener comments because it's gonna be a mashup of both so I don't know
if I'm in the wrong on this or I have an unpopular opinion but it happened in both leagues where
we watched and the commentators were talking about you know the athletes smiling and being
(48:20):
good people and a whole bunch of things I love watching her play she always has a smile
on her face and you know me again maybe this is just a personal preference this is a both
of us hot take FYI everybody so you know feel free to tell me I'm wrong and to disagree
with me but that's not what sports about that you can be a great person and that's and that's
(48:45):
great but your ability to smile on the court and do things has no effect on the outcome
of your play I don't really think it needs to be highlighted as much as it is in women's
sport you never hear that in men's sport oh never just think of how ridiculous it would
sound if commentators were saying that about men you can't you I like I can't even picture
(49:08):
it so like why do we have to talk about it for women why do we have to talk about like
she looks so happy to be there I understand good vibes are part of being on the court
but like but talk about it in terms of in terms of leadership talk about it in terms
of the qualities that it brings to the team and allows you to participate and I understand
(49:30):
that there's a different dynamic on women's teams and men's teams I think that we can
agree that that is a thing and it just it's communicated in a way that not that it lessens
female sports but I it's just a difference and I think we should be focusing on the sport
the athletes in and of themselves just my opinion having listened to a couple of the
(49:52):
matches at the end of the day I think whether you like a player or not you can choose to
like or dislike whatever athletes you want but it should come down to especially on a
broadcast that is about the game it should be about the players skill and and things
like that and not so much about if the player is likeable or looks like they're having a
(50:16):
good time like it just lessens the women's abilities in my opinion so we had another
tough question on the YouTube channel and I think it was a fair question given you know
what we said about this topic and several people asked us you know why we didn't go
into the San Jose State transgendered issue in more detail other than highlighting it
(50:41):
for me my experience in talking about this situation is that people have a very hard
time separating the social and political stance on this from the sport context or the science
or and the science because I think the sport and the science discussion are very tightly
(51:04):
intertwined we love doing this podcast because we love the sport of volleyball and what we
don't want to happen is for this to become hey they said this we're not going to listen
to the podcast or we have different views or you know at the end of the day we want
to bring you volleyball and what's happening and even if our social views and our sport
(51:27):
views are different my experience has been that it's very hard to have a rational conversation
about this and we want to keep this about the volleyball and about what's happening
so I appreciate the question we're always up to have a debate and a good argument if
you will with people about what we see and what we hear and what we talk about but this
(51:51):
particular issue is one where I don't think that discord would be A kept civil and B productive
so thank you for the question you know we'll keep our eye on it we'll keep everybody up
to date with what's going on but that's probably as far as we'll go in that regard
all right looking forward lots of volleyball happening this week so if you're into NCAA
(52:12):
men's volleyball the matches that we suggest watching are number five ball state is playing
number six BYU on both Thursday and Friday so that could be very exciting and on Saturday
at 8 30 p.m. eastern time number two Long Beach State is playing number 14 Lewis and
at 10 30 p.m. eastern that same evening Saturday number one UCLA is playing number eight Penn
(52:39):
State we also have the love head-to-head match on Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern we have Austin
playing Atlanta and the weekend matches are happening in Madison this week for PDF on Friday
at 10 p.m. eastern Vegas is hosting Omaha and on Sunday at 6 p.m. eastern Atlanta is
hosting Grand Rapids so there's lots of volleyball to watch this week those are our personal
(53:03):
picks of what to watch but we know you'll do you and let us know what you end up watching
and what you think that concludes this week's episode of volley talk there's always something
shaking in the volleyball world and we hope you enjoyed this little fix be sure to follow
the show so you don't miss any updates and we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five-star
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review you can also find us on Instagram at volley talk underscore podcast if you have
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or at info at Sarah pavin.com thank you so much for joining us and we'll be back next
week
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