Episodes
Week 10 saw another No. 1 team go down not just once, but twice at the Outrigger Invitational in Hawaii. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles the Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge brought in a battle of 4 of the top 12 teams in the nation. In Northern California, two top-10 teams duked it out for split. The Big West got heated as Long Beach St. and UCSB squared off with emotions flaring. The rest of the top 20 were in good conference battles or travelled to cross-conference opponents! As always, the CVW crew pics...
Published 03/11/24
Episode 215: College Volleyball Weekly Beach Top 20, 3/5/24   This week Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA, Alli Hansen of Florida St. and Kylie Wickley of Texas jump into the show (missing Kelly Belardi of Stanford) talking about what they as athletes have seen so far 1/4th into the season (aka, 2 weeks). What's the talent like, what teams are playing well and how are they getting it done? The CVW BEACH crew then takes a look at eye-catching duals in Week 2, identifying top performing teams and...
Published 03/06/24
This week didn't see a whole lot of shakeups around the nation, however we're discovering the MIVA is getting very interesting with Ball St., and Ohio St. sitting at the top. There was an LA rivalry matchup, GCU dominance, Long Beach St. on a winning streak and Hawaii rolling along, however the guys talk "chirping and chippiness" in the game. The guys chatter about few other things that have come up last minute like the "two-handed attack", or what Rob refers to as "The Shove."  All that and...
Published 03/04/24
While Alli of Florida St. tends to homework, Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA, Kelly Belardi of Stanford and Kylie Wickley of Texas join Rob on recapping the Week 1 action of the NEW Collegiate Beach Volleyball season! We try our best to talk about the CollegeBeachVB.com Top 20 teams and top athletes. Contributor Kelly garnered Most Oustanding Pair (with Ashley Vincent) at the Duke Kahanamoku Classic, which then became the Pac-12 Pair of the Week, then the AVCA National Pair of the Week! Congrats,...
Published 02/28/24
In Week 8 of the the NCAA Men's season we are still seeing intense parity as multiple teams visit "Splitsville"-- splitting their pairs of matches during the week. Along with that we're seeing changes in lineups, some intentional, some not. One thing is for sure-- the competitive levels REMAIN.  As always, the guys discuss the results, pick their top players of the week, then dive into "Whatcha Watchin'" in Week 9. All that with some tangented discussion about "beard games," "Karate Kid"...
Published 02/26/24
Continuation from Episode 209, CVW Beach Top 20 Intro show with the Beach Top 20's new Student-Athlete Contributors! UCLA's Jaden Whitmarsh gets her own episode because of a schedule conflict with the Beach team when we recorded Episode 209 however, it works out perfectly so that we can find out about her Volleyball/Beach Volleyball career from WAVE Volleyball Club, Torrey Pines High School and now UCLA. Jaden has always been Ms. Reliable in the clutch and lives for those big moments--...
Published 02/21/24
The CVW panel dives quickly into the recap with "The Elephant in the Room" segment that features our Coaches' matches during week 7. Lindenwood got the better end of a match vs. Dan's Flyers, Brad and the Tritons were at the SIAC/Big West Invite in Long Beach, and we discuss Jay's and Theo's wins for the week as well. It was another solid week of action and there still remains one undefeated team at 11-0-- the Lopes of GCU.   We take a peek at some of the top series/matches during week 7,...
Published 02/20/24
Note: We recorded this episode pre-AVCA Beach Top 20 Poll and pre-CollegeBeachVB.com's poll and player/team awards.   The 2024 NCAA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Season is just days away! With that, we thought it would be a great idea to do an "Introduction Episode" for most of our contributors (Jaden Whitmarsh of UCLA had a team dinner) to find out their backgrounds and a little about them. Alli Hansen of Florida St., Kelly Belardi of Stanford, and Kylie Wickley of Texas.   Along with our...
Published 02/18/24
More lower AVCA-ranked-teams have taken down higher-ranked teams, but the pane all agree that these are not upsets! No. 1 Long Beach St. dueled No. 4 UCLA with a split leaving only one remaining undefeated team-- Grand Canyon! Strong performances by Grant Sloane of UCLA, Hilir Henno of UCI, Mason Briggs of Long Beach St. and Kevin Schuele of PFW to name a few take stage in our discussions! As teams enter Week 7 most teams have started conference play-- except the Big West! Stay listening to...
Published 02/13/24
Episode 207, College Volleyball Weekly, Men’s Top 20, Week 5 Recap & Week 6 Preview, 2/5/24   With the play that transpired in Week 5 of the 2024 D1-2 Men's Volleyball season we have to call this "The Tumultuous Top 20!" There were many good battles discussed from this last week along with our Coaching Panel's insights. Too much to write in a description that's for sure! As always the panel picks their top performers of the week and we recognize some key milestones for Head Coach Alan...
Published 02/05/24
This last week brought more than a handful of upsets and a multitude of stellar play in the young 2024 NCAA Men's Volleyball season. From Penn St.'s TWO upsets of Ohio St., the remaining undefeated teams of GCU, Stanford and Long Beach St. it has been pure intensity and excitement from week to week. The share their thoughts on Week 4 action, their players of the week and give us insight of what to look for in our "Whatcha Watchin'" in Week 5 segment!
Published 01/29/24
It’s the Dan Friend Birthday Episode! In this week’s episode Dan Friend shares some information on the recent approval of Division 2 Championships and how it could be implemented in the next few years. Obviously growth in the men’s game is being seen throughout D1 as well with the addition of Menlo College, Vanguard and now William Jessup University. We take a few moments to explore this growth before we go into our normal weekly routine. When it comes to growth on the men’s side lots of...
Published 01/22/24
NOTE: Interviewed Jacob, before the MIVA weekly awards came out. Congrats, Jacob on being selected MIVA Offensive Player of the Week! Interview with Senior OH, Jacob Pasteur of the current No, 4 Ohio St. Buckeyes, who are off to a stupendous 4-0 start for the 2024 season. A lot of the success has been due to the play of Jacob as he gears up for the 3rd annual First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas.  In our discussion we discuss the end of the 2023 season, the NCAA Men's Volleyball...
Published 01/16/24
This week’s episode starts out my remembering and honoring Tom Tait, the founder of Penn St. Men’s and Women’s Volleyball who passed late last week. He was the catalyst of volleyball in Pennsylvania, the East Coast and EIVA. Coach Tait invested his life into volleyball and the people who were around him—including Russ Rose (PSU WVB) and Mark Pavlik (PSU MVB). The CVW MT20 crew discusses some of the top matches in Week 2 of the 2024 NCAA Men’s D1-2 Volleyball season that include a few upsets...
Published 01/16/24
This week our coaching panel of Brad Rostratter of UCSD, Dan Friend of Lewis, Jay Hosack of George Mason and Theo Edwards of CSUN along with host, Rob-on-the-Mic, discuss the following news items of the week: Allowance of “The Double” from VolleyballMag.com The AVCA Preseason Pol, going to a Top 20 for the first time (hence the name change on the show to CVW MT20) 10 Loyola splitting the matches vs. No. 3 Hawaii (Lukas Anderson serving sub 5th set at 12-8, between OC boys (Jake Read, Cole...
Published 01/08/24
Happy New Year! Tonight teams begin to take court for the first time in 2024 Men's D1-2 Volleyball season-- and with that HUGE EXCITEMENT! It was IMPERATIVE we at least get some matches we're watching out for this week, but as things would go some great news items have broken so we discuss those also! We start off with the renaming of the MIVA Championship Trophy; discuss the retiring of MiddleHitter.com's Jerry Strub and his longtime contributions to the game; VolleyballMag.com's "Hotshot...
Published 01/02/24
The BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN... or at least on the CVW Men's Top 15! This week, the guys shout out to a former colleague, David Hunt, who received his 2nd consecutive National Championship as an Associate Head Coach for the Texas Longhorns. From the weeks of NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament action we saw significant viewership and attendance. The CVW Crew takes a look at how that can impact the Men's/Boys' side. Afterwards, we'll "kinda" preview the 2024 Men's Volleyball season with what the...
Published 12/19/23
College Volleyball Weekly, Beach Top 20, 11/7/23: In this special AVCA Fall Pairs Championship the newly crowned Pairs National Champions, TCU’s Lina Khmil and Hailey Hamlett share their experience at John Hunt (not Dave Hunt, like Rob “Freudian slipped” for former Men’s Top 15 contributor) Memorial Sports Complex in Huntsville, AL on their road to the National Championship match. We chat a little bit afterward about what the Sandy Frogs could like in 2024 come February!
Published 11/08/23
With the 2023 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship in Fairfax, VA, a new champion has been crowned-- the UCLA Bruins, however, there was no shortage of excellent play from the opening rounds until the finals. With that, the CVW crew reviews the matches and All-America reception (video available on @robonthemic YouTube), and discusses their thoughts on each match until the final! We had to run through the matches during the week but we'll most likely have one more episode to recap issues and the...
Published 05/08/23
From Tucson, Arizona, to Gulf Shores, Alabama to Fairfax, Virginia, the CVW crew makes due with what they've got to discuss final week of Collegiate Beach Volleyball tournaments, the NCAA selection show, and what to expect at Gulf Shores-- all while on the road! Listen in
Published 05/04/23
The home of the 2023 Men's Volleyball National Championship is at George Mason University's Eagle Bank Arena, so in this bonus episode of College Volleyball Weekly Jay (since Jay was doing NCAA business) shares his thoughts on the conference tournaments that happened this last week, as we go into even more detail of HOW GOOD THIS BRACKET IS (HUGE KUDOS TO THE NCAA COMMITTEE)! Jay and Rob discuss some of the eye-catching athletes and matches leading up to the teams' automatic qualification,...
Published 04/26/23
NOTE: Due to technical difficulties I'm working through there are no intros/bumpers. Hopefully they'll be back soon! Instead, we jump right into the nitty-gritty. Timestamps MAY become available but my tech issues have usurped A LOT of time. Sorry. First of all, thank you to all the listeners who came up and introduced themselves to Rob at the Big West Men's Volleyball Championship! This week the CVW Coaching Panel (minus Jay Hosack) of Dan Friend of Lewis, Brad Rostratter of UCSD and Theo...
Published 04/25/23
NOTE: You'll notice some differences in this week's episode. Had some technical difficulties producing. Hopefully normal format episodes will be back out next week! Thanks for listening!   This week, the CVW crew looks to the trees! The trees of Stanford in special guest and Freshman standout, Kelly Belardi and usual suspect, Charlie Ekstrom. This week saw very little movement in the CollegeBeachVB.com poll between 11-20, however, with upsets galore in the top 10 delve into the results and...
Published 04/21/23
Week 15 of the NCAA Men's Volleyball season has concluded and the remaining conference tournaments (outside of the MIVA) will be in full effect! This week the CVW Coaches' panel share there thoughts on each of the conferences' regular seasons and what to look for in their conferences' tournaments. The MIVA already featured one conference tournament upset, but can more be had as the Conference Carolinas, Big West, MPSF, EIVA start up, while the MIVA goes into the semis & finals! NOTE:...
Published 04/17/23
As we move closer to the postseason we discuss Top-20 results that included some top-10 upsets, and how they've affected voters' analysis in the CollegeBeachVolleyball.com and AVCA polls. Then the CVW Beach crew discusses the conference scenarios for the AQ berth and the 13 potential teams that will be vying for 8 At-Large berths.  As always, we discuss what we'll be keeping an eye on in Week 8-- which for all of us will be the Center of Effort Challenge being hosted by Cal Poly, that will...
Published 04/13/23