September 17, 2025 • 10 mins
The Louisville Cardinals volleyball squad is 7-1 and ranked #3 with #6 Kentucky coming to the Yum Center this THursday night for the rivalry matchup. Louisville's Dan Meske is in his first year as head coach after 8 prior seasons as associate head coach.
He talks team focus, prep, and communication skills, some of which he took away from his visit to the Navy Seals in San Diego during the summer.
Dan's love of all things Louisville runs deep for his entire family.
Click to hear his chat with WHAS Radio's Terry Meiners ahead of the UK vs. UofL rivalry match, knotted at 4-4 since Dan Meske has been with the Cardinals.
He talks team focus, prep, and communication skills, some of which he took away from his visit to the Navy Seals in San Diego during the summer.
Dan's love of all things Louisville runs deep for his entire family.
Click to hear his chat with WHAS Radio's Terry Meiners ahead of the UK vs. UofL rivalry match, knotted at 4-4 since Dan Meske has been with the Cardinals.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, it's been a heck of a season so far
for the University of Louisville women's volleyball team. Oh my goodness.
They're great year after year after year because their coaching
is great. Dan Meski's the head coach of Louisville volleyball.
He was the associate head coach for many years. Glad
to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited. So yeah, I've
heard a lot that I've moved down a seat, but
if you watch games, you know that I don't sit,
so I haven't moved any seats. I've always stod for games,
so it's kind of won my style.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, I mean, you have to be thrilled of what
you've seen out of this this team of incredible athletes
this season.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, it's been a good start to the season. It
was nice to be able to start at home. The
first two weekends, we got a match in the Young Center,
and then we just finished up what we call the
September surge, where you know, we had an acc SEC
challenge that was thrown into our schedule late, so that
was the reason we were on the road for six
days and played in Dallas and then went to Omaha
and played two really tough away games. Between Texas and Creighton,
(00:57):
they are two Elite eight teams last year. And yeah,
I mean the fight that our team has had and
the grit that our team has had to to get
the results we've had has been really impressive. I think,
you know, regardless of what the results were, you know,
I've been most impressed with just you know, we always
say it's not enough to be a great team, you
have to play great, and I think we've played great
in stretches to put ourselves in a good position. So yeah,
it's been a good start to the season. And you know,
(01:19):
big test tomorrow with Kentucky, you know, another top ten team.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
No doubt. And let's talk about this little run here
that you had to do on the road. You had
Creighton on Friday, then Northern Iowa. You took care of them,
same way, three to one, same score, beating Rice. But
that's three days in a row. So how many days
rest do you give them after a run like that?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
They only got one, And honestly, the surge started, you know,
two weeks ago. We played Illinois on a Sunday and
then we played Texas that next Wednesday, so we were
able to take a Monday off, but then once we
were getting rolling for Texas on Tuesday, gosh, I mean
we were probably ten days straight without without a day off.
So we got back from you know, it ended up
being between Texas, Creighton, You and I and Rice, which
(02:00):
in their own right, those are all four of them
were picked to win their respective conferences, so there were
great teams. You know. After that, it was four matches
and five days and we got one day off and
we had to get back and fix a few things
yesterday and then we're installing our prep for Kentucky today
and then teet up again tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I love it, and of course Texas is the only
disappointment so far, but you had it right there at
match point, and so your team has to feel good
about its strength and power and ability to close deals.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, you know, that's the thing is. You know, you
gotta win three sets by two points, and we came
up just short of that. We won too, by a
little bit more than that. But you know, in those
sets that we did win, you know, we didn't just
coast like we were down and had to close the gap.
So the way that we were able to win. That
always is what you kind of take away. It's like, Okay,
we can be down a couple of points late, or
we can you know, cough up a lead late but
(02:50):
then still close. So you're learning all these things about
your team of you know, how you can be good
in those stressful moments. So it would have been nice
to win one more set with Texas. We did have,
you know, one match point. But for me, when I
walk away from a match like that, I don't look
at those one or two points. I look at just
the body of work and you know what our team was,
and can we elevate that just slightly? So we're maybe
not even in that position where we're able to close
(03:10):
in four, maybe even three sets. So we got a
little ways to go in that regard.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And you swept Auburn and Morberhead and Saint John's and
so what do you say to the squad after they
sweep somebody? Well, get on a bus. I mean, what's
left to say?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
A sweep is great. It's really hard to sweep any team,
but in particular great teams, just because you know, again
you can get caught in a different rotation, there's different
matchup things it's you know, I think that's why our
sport is growing. The way that it's growing is just
because you never feel out of it. You know, you
can really get trounced in one set and then bounce
right back and even up the match. So you know,
sweep is always great. You know, I wish we had
(03:46):
a few more sweeps under our belts at this point.
But at the end of the day, like I said,
you've got to win three sets or you know, three
sets by two points. M h.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know this Kentucky team is strong. Your ranked third
last time I checked, and they're like six. So and
I saw them go up against Nebraska, and this Kentucky
squad year in and year out, is tough. We know
that national champs a few years ago. So what's the
difference in preparation for this Kentucky match because you understand
the intensity of the rival versus any other match.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, they're loaded. So this is probably the best Kentucky
team we've played in at least a half half a decade.
So for us, you know, we we approach our prep
the same way. You know, one thing we do unique
in our prep is we only use numbers. We don't
use players' names. Even though we know everybody's names, it
just kind of makes it feel a little bit more like, Okay,
we're used to this. It's you know, we're just prepping
for a team. It's another team. Because you know, when
(04:36):
the when the ball goes up and you know, the
first serve goes there's gonna be some some people that
are amped up, it's gonna feel a little different. So
if we can make everything feel as much normal as
possible up to that point, I think that helps with
our mentality, you know, going in. But you know, I've
been here. This will be my ninth match against Kentucky.
We lost the first four, we won the next four,
(04:56):
So this is the rubber game in the nine game
series to this point. So the stakes are always high. Man.
You hear about in the athletic department, good or bad,
how that Kentucky game goes for you know, three hundred
and sixty four days.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do you and Coach Skinner ever talk?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Not really. You know, I'm still new to the head
coaching kind of tree. So you know, my network right
now is still a lot of assistants that I talk to.
But you know the connection with the coaching tree is
you know, Craig Skinner left Nebraska sometime in the two thousands,
and when he left, they replaced him with an assistant,
And when that assistant left, that's my first job that
I got in coaching, So you know, two job cycles
(05:29):
after Craig left was my first job in coaching. So,
you know, we learned from a very similar mentor you.
Obviously we've evolved our coaching in different ways, but there's
still a lot of similarities in the way that we
train and the way that our teams compete.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, Nebraska looks like the Mothership, but man, they sure
have spit out a lot of great coaching talent like you.
And we're thrilled to have this opportunity again for this
rivalry six o'clock KFC Yump Center Thursday night. And I
know people are going to scream. The fan base has
grown exponentially here in these last so many years. What
are you in the final four for the last five years, Louisville.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, we were, I think our first one was in
twenty twenty one. We really busted on the scene. We
went undefeated and unfortunately lost in the semi final, and
then everybody thought, you know, we had a great senior
group there thought we were a one hit wonder, and
then in twenty twenty two we ran it back and
went even further, went to the national Championship match. Twenty
twenty three, we lost in the Elite eight and five,
very similar to that Texas game. We just had, like
(06:24):
you have a lot of those close ones, and then
we were able to get back in twenty twenty four.
So we've been to the championship game two out of
last three years, and we've been to the final four
three out of last four. So, you know, a lot
of what we do here is to try and peak
in December, and a big part of that is growing
the love of the game, you know, being as excited
to practice in December as you were in August. And
that's a lot harder than people think. It's a lot
(06:45):
of time together, it's a lot of you know growth,
a lot of tough you know, tough things you have
to walk through, and that's kind of been the i'd say,
the secret sauce with our group to this point.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
How different has it been as the head coach officially
as the head coach, because I know you and Josh
Haard were discussing things over so much time, and he
said that he was ninety nine percent sure you were
going to get this. How big was that one percent
looming in your mind? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, I mean that in that time, luckily that was
only about an hour or so, that I was ninety
nine percent excited about it. I didn't know if I
was going to get it, but no, I was. I
was more excited just we love Louisville so much. Two
of my three kids have been born here, and we
love raising our family here. I love the University of Louisville.
So I was just more excited that, Like, I just
still had a job here, and it's great that it's
the head coach, but I was just looking to serve
(07:33):
and just be a part of this program because I
love it so much, so that part of it I
was just again, I'm just so thankful to be able
to still be a part of it and do my part,
even though it's shifted slightly. But it's been a great
ride to this point.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, and you feel the love from the crowds. I
mean they're showing it too, and they're going to do
it Thursday night in the KFCM Center for this UKU
of L thing.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
As always Here's the thing is, you know, Llenn, our
normal home arena only seats a thousands, So the YM
is like, okay, everybody who's been playing and they can't
get tickets, Yeah, I got to come, and so they
always do. And it looks like we're getting to five
figures over ten thousand for this game, which is I mean,
I almost have to take a step back sometimes of
how cool that is.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
No doubt. Last thing for you, spent some time with
the Navy Seals. Tell me about that experience.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, it was great. That was probably one of my
first maybe coach outreach or I guess coach development opportunities
when I got the head coaching job. Here is, we
went out to San Diego and got to spend some
time with Seal Team five. And you know, for me,
it's funny. I was talking to another administrator that went
on that trip and they were talking about, you know,
I'm They said, you're a very like laid back, kind
of low key guy, like the Seals is very like
(08:36):
opposite of you, because you know, I'm I'm kind of
you know, when you see our practices, I'm pretty time
oriented or whatever, but we're not very like it just
doesn't feel like very military style. There's not much of
that within our practices, and so for me, it was
a little bit of a you know, fish out of
water experience pun intended with the seals there, but it
was just so cool to see such a high functioning, uh,
(08:57):
just environment and the way that they communicate. That's allway
is my biggest thing is just communication. I think in
every sport, especially a team sport, the way that we communicate,
the way that we learn from our mistakes with communication,
I think it's so important. And you see what the
Navy seals. I mean, nobody does it any better than them.
So there's a couple things we took back from that
that I think have a little bit of flavor to
our season here. But it was such a such a
(09:18):
cool opportunity.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Did they hold your head underwater to see how long
you could hold your breath?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
No, No, sugar cookie, no underwater. We're supposed to skydive.
And then the winds. The winds canceled that, which that's
one of those things for me. I like was like, yeah,
I'll do it, but I was like not excited to
do it. So when I got canceled, I was like, oh,
you know, bummer. It was one of the things I
just kind of like, not even think about it and
just do it.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I had to do it once on TV, and I
had to turn to a camera and say a thing
and then go out of an airplane. I will never
do that again.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
There you go. That's probably how it would have been,
so never say never, I guess Dan.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Let's go. Let's get this thing done against the Wildcats
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Appreciate it, Gokard, great.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Talking to you. And it is Damn Mesky's head coach
University of Louisville Volleyball six pm KFC youm center. Yeah,
it's the end state rivalry, Louisville versus Kentucky. Let's go
get him.
Man, it's been a heck of a season so far
for the University of Louisville women's volleyball team. Oh my goodness.
They're great year after year after year because their coaching
is great. Dan Meski's the head coach of Louisville volleyball.
He was the associate head coach for many years. Glad
to have you on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited. So yeah, I've
heard a lot that I've moved down a seat, but
if you watch games, you know that I don't sit,
so I haven't moved any seats. I've always stod for games,
so it's kind of won my style.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, I mean, you have to be thrilled of what
you've seen out of this this team of incredible athletes
this season.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, it's been a good start to the season. It
was nice to be able to start at home. The
first two weekends, we got a match in the Young Center,
and then we just finished up what we call the
September surge, where you know, we had an acc SEC
challenge that was thrown into our schedule late, so that
was the reason we were on the road for six
days and played in Dallas and then went to Omaha
and played two really tough away games. Between Texas and Creighton,
(00:57):
they are two Elite eight teams last year. And yeah,
I mean the fight that our team has had and
the grit that our team has had to to get
the results we've had has been really impressive. I think,
you know, regardless of what the results were, you know,
I've been most impressed with just you know, we always
say it's not enough to be a great team, you
have to play great, and I think we've played great
in stretches to put ourselves in a good position. So yeah,
it's been a good start to the season. And you know,
(01:19):
big test tomorrow with Kentucky, you know, another top ten team.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
No doubt. And let's talk about this little run here
that you had to do on the road. You had
Creighton on Friday, then Northern Iowa. You took care of them,
same way, three to one, same score, beating Rice. But
that's three days in a row. So how many days
rest do you give them after a run like that?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
They only got one, And honestly, the surge started, you know,
two weeks ago. We played Illinois on a Sunday and
then we played Texas that next Wednesday, so we were
able to take a Monday off, but then once we
were getting rolling for Texas on Tuesday, gosh, I mean
we were probably ten days straight without without a day off.
So we got back from you know, it ended up
being between Texas, Creighton, You and I and Rice, which
(02:00):
in their own right, those are all four of them
were picked to win their respective conferences, so there were
great teams. You know. After that, it was four matches
and five days and we got one day off and
we had to get back and fix a few things
yesterday and then we're installing our prep for Kentucky today
and then teet up again tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I love it, and of course Texas is the only
disappointment so far, but you had it right there at
match point, and so your team has to feel good
about its strength and power and ability to close deals.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, you know, that's the thing is. You know, you
gotta win three sets by two points, and we came
up just short of that. We won too, by a
little bit more than that. But you know, in those
sets that we did win, you know, we didn't just
coast like we were down and had to close the gap.
So the way that we were able to win. That
always is what you kind of take away. It's like, Okay,
we can be down a couple of points late, or
we can you know, cough up a lead late but
(02:50):
then still close. So you're learning all these things about
your team of you know, how you can be good
in those stressful moments. So it would have been nice
to win one more set with Texas. We did have,
you know, one match point. But for me, when I
walk away from a match like that, I don't look
at those one or two points. I look at just
the body of work and you know what our team was,
and can we elevate that just slightly? So we're maybe
not even in that position where we're able to close
(03:10):
in four, maybe even three sets. So we got a
little ways to go in that regard.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
And you swept Auburn and Morberhead and Saint John's and
so what do you say to the squad after they
sweep somebody? Well, get on a bus. I mean, what's
left to say?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
A sweep is great. It's really hard to sweep any team,
but in particular great teams, just because you know, again
you can get caught in a different rotation, there's different
matchup things it's you know, I think that's why our
sport is growing. The way that it's growing is just
because you never feel out of it. You know, you
can really get trounced in one set and then bounce
right back and even up the match. So you know,
sweep is always great. You know, I wish we had
(03:46):
a few more sweeps under our belts at this point.
But at the end of the day, like I said,
you've got to win three sets or you know, three
sets by two points. M h.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know this Kentucky team is strong. Your ranked third
last time I checked, and they're like six. So and
I saw them go up against Nebraska, and this Kentucky
squad year in and year out, is tough. We know
that national champs a few years ago. So what's the
difference in preparation for this Kentucky match because you understand
the intensity of the rival versus any other match.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, they're loaded. So this is probably the best Kentucky
team we've played in at least a half half a decade.
So for us, you know, we we approach our prep
the same way. You know, one thing we do unique
in our prep is we only use numbers. We don't
use players' names. Even though we know everybody's names, it
just kind of makes it feel a little bit more like, Okay,
we're used to this. It's you know, we're just prepping
for a team. It's another team. Because you know, when
(04:36):
the when the ball goes up and you know, the
first serve goes there's gonna be some some people that
are amped up, it's gonna feel a little different. So
if we can make everything feel as much normal as
possible up to that point, I think that helps with
our mentality, you know, going in. But you know, I've
been here. This will be my ninth match against Kentucky.
We lost the first four, we won the next four,
(04:56):
So this is the rubber game in the nine game
series to this point. So the stakes are always high. Man.
You hear about in the athletic department, good or bad,
how that Kentucky game goes for you know, three hundred
and sixty four days.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do you and Coach Skinner ever talk?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Not really. You know, I'm still new to the head
coaching kind of tree. So you know, my network right
now is still a lot of assistants that I talk to.
But you know the connection with the coaching tree is
you know, Craig Skinner left Nebraska sometime in the two thousands,
and when he left, they replaced him with an assistant,
And when that assistant left, that's my first job that
I got in coaching, So you know, two job cycles
(05:29):
after Craig left was my first job in coaching. So,
you know, we learned from a very similar mentor you.
Obviously we've evolved our coaching in different ways, but there's
still a lot of similarities in the way that we
train and the way that our teams compete.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, Nebraska looks like the Mothership, but man, they sure
have spit out a lot of great coaching talent like you.
And we're thrilled to have this opportunity again for this
rivalry six o'clock KFC Yump Center Thursday night. And I
know people are going to scream. The fan base has
grown exponentially here in these last so many years. What
are you in the final four for the last five years, Louisville.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, we were, I think our first one was in
twenty twenty one. We really busted on the scene. We
went undefeated and unfortunately lost in the semi final, and
then everybody thought, you know, we had a great senior
group there thought we were a one hit wonder, and
then in twenty twenty two we ran it back and
went even further, went to the national Championship match. Twenty
twenty three, we lost in the Elite eight and five,
very similar to that Texas game. We just had, like
(06:24):
you have a lot of those close ones, and then
we were able to get back in twenty twenty four.
So we've been to the championship game two out of
last three years, and we've been to the final four
three out of last four. So, you know, a lot
of what we do here is to try and peak
in December, and a big part of that is growing
the love of the game, you know, being as excited
to practice in December as you were in August. And
that's a lot harder than people think. It's a lot
(06:45):
of time together, it's a lot of you know growth,
a lot of tough you know, tough things you have
to walk through, and that's kind of been the i'd say,
the secret sauce with our group to this point.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
How different has it been as the head coach officially
as the head coach, because I know you and Josh
Haard were discussing things over so much time, and he
said that he was ninety nine percent sure you were
going to get this. How big was that one percent
looming in your mind? Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, I mean that in that time, luckily that was
only about an hour or so, that I was ninety
nine percent excited about it. I didn't know if I
was going to get it, but no, I was. I
was more excited just we love Louisville so much. Two
of my three kids have been born here, and we
love raising our family here. I love the University of Louisville.
So I was just more excited that, Like, I just
still had a job here, and it's great that it's
the head coach, but I was just looking to serve
(07:33):
and just be a part of this program because I
love it so much, so that part of it I
was just again, I'm just so thankful to be able
to still be a part of it and do my part,
even though it's shifted slightly. But it's been a great
ride to this point.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, and you feel the love from the crowds. I
mean they're showing it too, and they're going to do
it Thursday night in the KFCM Center for this UKU
of L thing.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
As always Here's the thing is, you know, Llenn, our
normal home arena only seats a thousands, So the YM
is like, okay, everybody who's been playing and they can't
get tickets, Yeah, I got to come, and so they
always do. And it looks like we're getting to five
figures over ten thousand for this game, which is I mean,
I almost have to take a step back sometimes of
how cool that is.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
No doubt. Last thing for you, spent some time with
the Navy Seals. Tell me about that experience.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, it was great. That was probably one of my
first maybe coach outreach or I guess coach development opportunities
when I got the head coaching job. Here is, we
went out to San Diego and got to spend some
time with Seal Team five. And you know, for me,
it's funny. I was talking to another administrator that went
on that trip and they were talking about, you know,
I'm They said, you're a very like laid back, kind
of low key guy, like the Seals is very like
(08:36):
opposite of you, because you know, I'm I'm kind of
you know, when you see our practices, I'm pretty time
oriented or whatever, but we're not very like it just
doesn't feel like very military style. There's not much of
that within our practices, and so for me, it was
a little bit of a you know, fish out of
water experience pun intended with the seals there, but it
was just so cool to see such a high functioning, uh,
(08:57):
just environment and the way that they communicate. That's allway
is my biggest thing is just communication. I think in
every sport, especially a team sport, the way that we communicate,
the way that we learn from our mistakes with communication,
I think it's so important. And you see what the
Navy seals. I mean, nobody does it any better than them.
So there's a couple things we took back from that
that I think have a little bit of flavor to
our season here. But it was such a such a
(09:18):
cool opportunity.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Did they hold your head underwater to see how long
you could hold your breath?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
No, No, sugar cookie, no underwater. We're supposed to skydive.
And then the winds. The winds canceled that, which that's
one of those things for me. I like was like, yeah,
I'll do it, but I was like not excited to
do it. So when I got canceled, I was like, oh,
you know, bummer. It was one of the things I
just kind of like, not even think about it and
just do it.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I had to do it once on TV, and I
had to turn to a camera and say a thing
and then go out of an airplane. I will never
do that again.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
There you go. That's probably how it would have been,
so never say never, I guess Dan.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Let's go. Let's get this thing done against the Wildcats
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Appreciate it, Gokard, great.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Talking to you. And it is Damn Mesky's head coach
University of Louisville Volleyball six pm KFC youm center. Yeah,
it's the end state rivalry, Louisville versus Kentucky. Let's go
get him.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.