Erin Sorensen
00:00
Welcome to the Six Zone Duo podcast. I'm Erin Sorensen. And I'm Amie Just.

00:03
And last week, we recorded basically live in real time from Wrigley Field. And understandably, what happened became became. The story.

00:15
Nebraska and Missouri were suspended because court conditions. And are still suspended. Still suspended.

00:20
Don't have an answer on that. Probably won't happen. Probably.

00:23
Well, you know. We can dream big. But we spent a lot of time there, and understandably so.

00:29
But some people did kindly point out that there's another match at Wrigley that deserved A little more attention from us. So, we are so excited to have you here for another episode of Six Zone Duo. This has been such a fun journey, and the great news is We are back, as you can see, in the Lego room.

00:47
It's not really Legos.

Amie Just
00:49
It's what is that called? I don't know, Styrofoam? No, it's. Why can't I it has a specific name? I can't think of it.

Erin Sorensen
01:00
It's for acoustics. It is. So that's why we sound so great.

01:04
But is the best part is, is we're not Traveling in quite the same way. So, we're not battling hotel Wi-Fi. We're not battling somebody staring at us through a door trying to kick us out of a very historic Major League Baseball Stadium.

01:19
So, we hear you. There was another match. Kentucky beat Penn State in four.

01:25
Kentucky looked really, really good doing it in that match. Brooklyn DeLeye had 21 kills. Kentucky hit .281 while holding Penn State to .173.

01:34
The Wildcats won the blocking battle 12-8. More than anything, though, Kentucky looked like a team that absolutely belongs in national title at least in the conversation in non-conference play, which we're going to dive into that in just a minute. But Amie, because we deserve to not let the Wrigley matches go just yet, let's stand out to you about Kentucky.

01:57
So did Kentucky just lose to SMU?

Amie Just
02:00
Yes. But Kentucky's really fun. Like, I love how balanced their offense is like among their pins.

Erin Sorensen
02:08
No, they lost in the Bahamas, which if you're going to lose anywhere What a lovely place. Those are on the bus. Is there no offs if you're in the Bahamas?

02:16
Right. I think we all win. I don't know why we are in the Bahamas.

Amie Just
02:19
Can we get Nebraska to play there next year?

Erin Sorensen
02:21
Could we just get Six Zone? Hey, hey, we idea live from the Bahamas.

Amie Just
02:27
Anyway, we're talking Kentucky. Continue, anyway. So, Brooklyn DeLeye is one of the best pins in the country, like for a reason.

02:34
But the people around her are really talented too. Like, it's important to remember that Kentucky had four players selected to the preseason watch list for AVCA Player of the Year. You have DeLeye, obviously, and then setter Kassie O'Brien, you have pin Morgan Gaerte, you have libero Molly Tuozzo.

02:55
Tuozzo was one of just two liberos named to that, by the way.

Erin Sorensen
02:59
Justice for liberos. Yeah.

Amie Just
03:02
The other podcast. We are friends. We're friends. And we are united in that front as two short people.

Erin Sorensen
03:11
Yes, truly. That was one of my dreams. My dreams were probably meant to be a defensive specialist or a libero. But you know, maybe I could have been a hitter with just a little bit of more height if dream big.

Amie Just
03:23
For these outdoor matches, I don't want to read into too many of the negatives. Because there are conditions there that you're not going to have any other point in this season. But I do think DeLeye is the real deal. Not that there's any doubt about that, by the way. But there was plenty to go around for Gaerte, too.

Erin Sorensen
03:40
Yeah. And I think Penn State's response is worth talking about. They didn't exactly spiral after losing to Kentucky.

03:46
We know that now with the beauty of hindsight. They turned around, swept DePaul. Swept number four Stanford.

03:52
That was a heck of a match, by the way. And then followed that with another sweep of Ohio. And that is a pretty strong response to your first loss of the season.

04:02
I guess, like, what did you make of Penn State coming out of the Wrigley weekend?

Amie Just
04:05
I liked the fight that they had. Did it delay the second match a little bit because they forced a fourth? Yeah.

Erin Sorensen
04:12
And it wouldn't have they Nebraska and Missouri would not have played a full match if they wouldn't have that that wouldn't have it wouldn't have happened.

Amie Just
04:18
So we got good volleyball. Yes. They were able to fend off Kentucky's quest to sweep them by winning a deuce game, by the way.

04:26
Like, that's really tough. There's a lot of stress with that. I think that says a lot about their toughness.

04:31
Again, I'm not reading into their mistakes. Let's go over it though. Penn State had twenty seven attacking errors in that match, but only twelve of them were into Kentucky's block.

04:40
So was the wind a factor? Was it the depth perception? Was the court was turning slippery late?

04:46
Like, was that a factor into it too? Like, again, I'm grading on a curve here for both of these teams just because. The conditions were so different than any other match that you're going to play in this season.

Erin Sorensen
04:57
Yeah. And I honestly think that this is something that I've been thinking about quite a bit. And that's how quickly we're trying to decide exactly what teams are based on one match, one weekend, one ugly result, one great result.

05:10
And so we're going to talk quite a bit about that today. We've also got Creighton head coach Brian Rosen on the show, which I think. Honestly, I had the opportunity.

05:19
Now we'll dive into this in a little bit. This interview happened a little bit over a week ago. By the time you are hearing it.

05:25
However, that conversation is even more interesting now because so much of what I spoke with Brian about and how you deliberately schedule difficult matches early and what you're supposed to learn from them being uncomfortable is very relevant for this Creighton team now. But first, we do have a brand new top fifteen to dive into. So we are going to take a pause and we are going to dive into that.

05:48
So the new AVCA poll is out. We're going to go through the top 15. At number one, we have Nebraska, number two, Pitt, number three, Louisville, number four, Kentucky, and number five, SMU.

06:00
Amie? First reactions. We were reading this list just shortly before we started recording this, and we both had some initial, like, woohoohoo.

06:07
So, what was your first reaction? SMU at five.

Amie Just
06:11
Ponies. One, two, three, four, five. Yes, SMU at five.

Erin Sorensen
06:15
Wow. I mean, that was the one I went like, hmm. SMU defeats Texas.

06:22
And I mean, look, if I'm a Mustangs fan, I am I that is a heck of a win because SMU hadn't beaten Texas, has only ever beaten Texas now twice. But the first time that SMU beat Texas was in the year 2000. So it's been 26 years.

06:41
Like 2000 was not 26 years ago. Stop it. I know.

06:45
I thought you were telling me my math was on. No, no.

Amie Just
06:48
I didn't do the math right on. You're completely in denial of the passage of time. I know.

Erin Sorensen
06:52
Okay. I know. I know.

06:54
I think one thing that you did notice is that Nebraska actually lost a couple of first-place votes. They did. Nebraska had 48 first-place votes, Pittsburgh with 15.

07:03
That's interesting. I wonder if Nebraska coach Dani Busboom Kelly voted for Pitt again, number three. Probably.

07:08
I assume so. That was something that a number of you asked in the YouTube comments last week, like who voted number one for Pitt? And she said me.

07:17
Somebody said, oh, that's mind games, or it's just what she feels right now.

Amie Just
07:20
Yeah, well, and she also has an intimate knowledge of what Nebraska is. So maybe she's grading on a curve. Or something.

07:28
She could be grading on curve. So, um, but yeah, so unlike the AP football top 25. The AVCA ballots aren't public, so we won't know who votes which way unless they tell us.

Erin Sorensen
07:43
Jinx, you owe me a soda. There you go.

Amie Just
07:47
Have a Pepsi that I've already drank it out of.

Erin Sorensen
07:50
All right, six through ten. Number six, Wisconsin. Number seven, Texas.

07:54
Number eight, Stanford. Number nine, Penn State. And number ten, Florida, who catches your attention in this group?

08:01
Florida. I this is a really interesting group to me. I actually think I know that Florida was what were they last week?

08:09
14?

Amie Just
08:10
Yeah, 14. Maybe. Was it?

08:12
No, 10. This is so small, you guys. We're looking at things very, very tiny.

08:16
Florida. Okay, they were 10 last week, but still. Like they are they're seven and one.

Erin Sorensen
08:23
Where was Texas at again last week? Texas was I'm looking, you're all watching me process in real time. Nine.

08:31
Nine. I actually find that really interesting. Texas, you know, this is why we have to be careful with non-conference reactions because things are going to be a little bit Swirly and wonky for a bit, and especially as it settles out.

08:42
But I actually think we're going to see a lot of this movement still through conference play. For sure. And so this is really interesting to me to see how voters are kind of starting to kind of try to figure out.

08:52
Who goes where and why, and I'm really grateful I'm not a voter.

Amie Just
08:55
Well, and as someone who has voted in polls before, your philosophy as a voter will not align with the person next to you. Or I think there's like sixty some people that vote in this. Like their philosophies Are probably all different.

09:14
And so, like, how you and I would rank teams would probably be pretty different. Yeah. So This is just the consensus of what they have.

09:24
But I bet you there are some ballots that look extremely different than this finished product. It's really, really interesting.

Erin Sorensen
09:32
11 through 15. Number 11, Purdue, number 12, Arizona State, number 13, TCU, number 14, Minnesota, and number 15, Texas A&M. So, later in the show, because this is the magic, the magic of podcast recording is we did have to wait for the AVCA poll to come out.

09:50
So, we started recording other pieces of this. So, later in the show, you're going to hear us talk about a couple of things. One, being Creighton, two being Baylor.

09:58
Baylor, we both agree, and I won't spoil too much, but we both agree that we thought Baylor looked quite good, even against Nebraska, where it was swept. Baylor's at eighteen. So, like and they were sixteen last week.

10:11
Let's no, I think they bumped up. They were twenty last week.

Amie Just
10:15
Yeah, number twenty. This is this isn't like

Erin Sorensen
10:18
five size font and I'm blind as a bat. I just remember because I remember thinking it's a top twenty matchup, and so they were twenty. So that's notable that they bumped up a couple of spots.

10:30
I think that's very fair. Creighton actually dropped from 15 to 20. I still think that's very fair for Creighton.

10:35
I think Creighton is still a top 25 team at this point. Now, Creighton's going to need to show some things in the coming weeks. Creighton certainly knows that as well.

10:43
But I did think that, that so I was going to ask you, Amie, if anyone's seeing outside of those groups. So I guess for myself, those would be two that stood out to me. Is anyone outside of the top fifteen notable to you?

10:53
And they could be those.

Amie Just
10:56
I mean, let's see. Georgia Tech is still on the cusp of receiving votes, and I think they need to be ranked. I don't know who you drop out.

Erin Sorensen
11:06
That's true. I thought Georgia Tech played so, so difficult against Nebraska, really, really tested Nebraska.

Amie Just
11:15
They served so tough, and they were just. Hammering away. And I wouldn't want to be trying to pass those. No, thank you.

Erin Sorensen
11:27
No, honestly, there's a lot of really interesting serving teams in this top 25, too. Like, this is going to be. This is like, I agree with you. I think Georgia Tech deserves to be ranked, but who do you drop out in favor at this point? And that gets to be a little bit because.

Amie Just
11:42
Yeah, because the bottom five Bottom five of the top 25. Right. Oh, come on. So mean. Indiana, Kansas, Oregon, BYU, North Carolina.

Erin Sorensen
11:54
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, and even looking at that, like you've got UCLA kind of on the cusp, too, not quite as they're sitting there Yeah, those are the only two teams that have more than forty points. I do.

Amie Just
12:09
I do think Georgia Tech really impressed me. Me too. And again, like I said at some point in this episode. Like Georgia Tech, like one of the games that they played, like they were like illness was running through that team. So

Erin Sorensen
12:25
That's just kind of like this is the part of like non-conference play is they are getting truly into like the thick of it right now. We are like, it feels like the grind. It feels like these teams are playing every day.

12:37
Yeah, honestly. I mean, I'm tired. Same.

12:40
And I'm not even the one on the court doing the work. I'm just. I didn't set an alarm yesterday and I slept until one o'clock in the afternoon.

12:47
Oh, wow. Good for you. See, I can't do that, but I didn't set an alarm either.

12:50
And so this is like, this is crazy for me. I slept until like 9:30. But I'm telling you, that's very strange for me because I'm used to waking up by like at the latest, like, I'll wake up at like seven, just very naturally.

13:00
And I was so exhausted from the weekend. That I woke up at 9:30 and was like, Who am I? Where am I?

13:05
What is happening? And you know, it was one of those things where I even thought, and I told Amie this, where I was like, you know, I might like stay home on Friday and just watch volleyball on TV and just like. And then I ended up like, I was like, okay, I'm gonna go watch it in person.

13:19
So, like, part of it is like, you can't stay away from it. I'm like, watching, like, Sunday was an amazing day. There was so much good volleyball on my TV, so many ranked matchups, so much going on.

13:29
That I just was like, she's talking about something else that popped on her computer. Anthony Coleman. Although it is notable that I was just watching so much.

13:40
But I'm like, here, like, there's something so very cool about the fact that. Here, I had like Sunday NFL football on one half of my screen, and then two Saints got robbed anyway, two volleyball matches on the other side. I don't know.

13:54
I was like, this is amazing. Like, I love this. I'm able to, like.

13:57
I'm able to like still watch a little bit of like NFL if I want to, but still have the volleyball matches on. It was inside you, there are two lions or something like that. Yeah, it was great.

14:09
It was such a good it was a good Sunday. It was like rainy, so it was like the perfect day to stay inside. Probably should have napped, but was watching too much.

Amie Just
14:16
I slept in and then Went to Costco and didn't have, there was no line. That's I also went to Costco, but there was a line.

Erin Sorensen
14:27
I wanted your experience. Well, We all can't have nice things, Erin. We can't all have nice things, as we have seen time and time again.

14:36
Sometimes, like, every one day might be nice for a team in the top 25, and the next day it's not. So here's what I will say. The top 25 is interesting.

14:47
It's going to keep being interesting. But there's some, I've got my eyebrow, I've got my eyebrow raised in a couple of these this week. So that's going to be fun.

14:55
Same. Can't wait for more chaos. Can't wait.

14:58
Before we keep going to today's show, we do want to take a quick timeout for our presenting sponsor, Homefield. One of our favorite things about Homefield is that their stuff actually looks like it has a story behind it. This isn't just another shirt with the same logo that you've seen thousands of times before.

15:12
Homefield is a premium collegiate apparel brand based in Indianapolis, and they dig deep into the school archives to find old mascots, vintage scripts, forgotten logos, and weird little pieces of college history that make you look at a shirt and me leak ask Where did you find that? There are sometimes I see things I'm like, no, but for real, where did you find that? And then there's the part that you really appreciate when you're spending an entire Saturday in the gym or traveling to a match.

15:35
It is also ridiculously comfortable. the Homefield stuff we've gotten in is that we have personally gotten is the kind of gear that ends up in your regular rotation. In fact, Amie is currently wearing one of her favorite Homefield shirts.

15:46
Yes.

Amie Just
15:47
So it's kind of hard to see, but it is the twenty twenty four Big Ten Men's Basketball tournament t-shirt, RIP to the pinwheel. What a great logo. It was such a good thing.

15:57
That's why I bought it because I knew the pinwheel would probably be dying. But I love this shirt. If I were to give a tip for Homefield, I would love more event-based merch.

16:11
More event-based merch. That's what we would love.

Erin Sorensen
16:13
Because I wear it as evidenced By right now. Yes. Because they do have officially licensed gear for more than 150 colleges.

16:21
So there is a very good chance your school Or several of your schools, if you're someone like me that just loves to collect merch from quite literally, everyone is there ready for you to buy and wear. Head to homefieldapparel.com and find your next favorite college shirt, sweatshirt, or game day layer.

16:35
And thanks again to Homefield for being the presenting sponsor of Six Zone Duo. Okay, Amie. It is time for our listener question.

16:46
We've actually received a lot of really great questions. So I'm just going to tell you right now, paring these down and picking has not been easy It actually fits well with you wearing a Big Ten tournament shirt of some sort. Why do you think I wore it?

16:57
I read the rundown. You did. You did.

17:01
We got a question from Robert this week. Technically, we received this question from Robert two weeks in a row. So shout out to Robert for making sure that we didn't forget persistence.

17:09
Persistence is key. Because the Wrigley match. threw a lot of things up in the air.

17:14
But this gives us a chance to talk about something we haven't really dug into a whole lot yet, and that was our thoughts on the Big Ten's new regular season and tournament format. There are two really important changes that you need to know here. I like how I held up four.

17:28
Like I held up two and two. Two. Love that for anyone watching.

17:34
You're just like, Erin can't count. And right now, I'm very tired. So that would make some sense.

17:39
The first thing that you need to know is the regular season. Big Ten teams are now playing seventeen conference matches instead of twenty. which means every team plays every other team in the league exactly once.

17:49
You if you are somebody who's watched Big Ten matches in the past, you may have seen like basically a home like a home and home situation or for like two teams. Yeah, so like Nebraska and Wisconsin, you know, they might play in Lincoln and then play in Madison. et cetera.

18:03
That is not the case in 2026. The other change is the addition of the 15 team Big Ten tournament. Three of the league's 18 teams will not qualify.

18:12
So if you're like, hey, Erin, the person who can't do math because you just held up four fingers instead of two, That yes, I did the math. 15, 18 minus 15 means three are left out. Congrats on doing basic arithmetic.

18:26
There's a reason I was a journalism major. You have to do math. Not well for me personally.

18:33
But seeds 10 through 15 play in the opening round. Seeds five through nine receive one bye, and then the top four seeds get a double bye and don't begin until the quarterfinals. So, the regular season champion is still recognized separately.

18:45
That's interesting to note. While the tournament champion earns the Big Ten's automatic NCAA tournament bid. So, when we're talking about that, that very important tournament bid.

18:55
For the NCAA tournament, the Big Ten tournament is your thing to watch. I think what I really like about this is that everybody plays everybody. With an 18-team conference, there was always going to be complaints about schedule strength.

19:07
If certain contenders simply didn't play each other, now everybody gets everybody. But it also doesn't completely solve the fairness issue because you only play each other once. So instead of asking who you missed on the schedule, now the question becomes.

19:19
Where did you have to play them?

Amie Just
19:21
Or who was sick? Like with Georgia Tech earlier this week, I think it was their Thursday match. that they had some illness running through their team.

19:31
So like that could happen, right? Oh, well, she played them and they were sick. That doesn't count.

19:37
Right.

Erin Sorensen
19:37
And like, obviously, we know that there are some venues that are much more difficult to play in. And so if you are having to play a team in a certain venue, you might look at it and go, well, that's not quite as fair. But the sites do reverse the following year.

19:53
So over a two year window, that becomes more fair. But in one individual season, getting Penn State or Nebraska or Wisconsin at home instead of on the road could obviously matter for any team. Amie, I'm curious though what your take on the new schedule and tournament are.

20:08
So. I am an alumna of the Ten Team Big Twelve.

Amie Just
20:12
What a time. Everyone, complete round robin. And volleyball and basketball.

20:20
It was a beautiful thing. It was a beautiful time to be alive. There were no excuses.

20:25
There were still excuses. Everyone will always find excuses. There's always excuses in sports.

20:31
So put that on a t-shirt. That's my dream is that we can go back to having smaller conferences that actually make sense. But that'll never happen.

20:42
So I'm an idealist, and that is what I that is the bar that I'm holding everything to. So less than anything than that is less than ideal, obviously. But I also don't love that teams are losing out on a home game or two.

20:58
Yeah. Like depending on the program, like that could be a decent change for revenue. That's a good point.

21:05
Which is why John Cook was pushing against this for so long is because that's a lot of money that you could lose. You know, Penn State, that's a lot of money that you could lose. Wisconsin, that's a lot of money that you can use.

21:16
But if you're going at a conference tournament, I think this is the way to go. I'm really curious, just like what it'll look like. Like, how much will, like, let's say a team, like the number whoever the number one seed is, what if they lose their first match?

21:34
Like, how does that affect their seeding in the NCAA tournament compared to years before. Since this is the first year of this, we don't really know how that's going to go. We can look at the SEC tournament a little bit and kind of draw some parallels if there are any.

21:50
But early indications are good. Like tickets are sold out, and there seems to be a lot of excitement about it.

Erin Sorensen
21:54
Yeah. I you know, I think the thing that a lot of people are saying, like I like people are wondering about is like if this ends up being good Really good for the sport as an event because volleyball hasn't historically had that same championship week feel that we've associated to things like you were talking about, the basketball tournaments, or even like the football, like the championship week. But now the Big Ten has the opportunity to build something around this.

22:17
I do think that events do help people who might be an entry-level volleyball fan get interested because it's something that feels like, okay, I can kind of tune in, maybe like see a little bit of it. So I think there's something to be said about the event based nature of it that helps the sport. Do you think, Amie, that the tournament itself ends up becoming something that fans really care about?

22:39
Or do you think that the regular season title will still feel more significant?

Amie Just
22:43
I still think fans care. But for me, I think a regular season title is more significant in any sport, not just volleyball, because it shows your collective body of work Over a longer period of time. It shows measured consistency, that type of stuff.

23:00
The conference title shows that you piece together a good run over a week or so. Yeah. That's important too.

23:06
That's how we get A&M as your national champion. Yes. But the regular season title shows more to me about the achievements of a team over a conference season.

23:20
And sometimes the two conference champions are the same teams. You look at Nebraska softball last year in the Big Ten, right? You look at UCLA women's basketball and what they've been able to do, but it's not always the same.

23:37
Yeah. So, I mean, look at the Big Ten men's basketball season last year, for example. Yeah.

23:43
So, I don't think one is necessarily better than the other one, but I think they measure different things. And as long as we acknowledge that they're measuring different things, I think it's fine.

Erin Sorensen
23:58
I agree. And I think the other thing I'll be watching a bit is whether we start talking about the standings themselves differently. Because in previous years, fourth versus fifth might not have felt enormously consequential, right?

24:09
We would have looked at that and been like, okay. Now it could be the difference between sitting at home while other teams play and having to win an extra match just to reach that same point. And that changes, despite my inability to do it, the math a little bit.

24:22
So, I think overall, I'm into it. I still think it'll be interesting to see how it plays out for the first time this season. And you know, what's going to be a little bit of that, we'll learn in real time how people react and feel about it.

24:32
And that's not a bad thing. Sometimes getting the real live emotion and feeling toward an event is worth experiencing. Like we've seen with all the events that have happened so far, people in real time are sharing their thoughts one way or the other that will happen here as well.

24:49
We did have some favorite things from the week that was in volleyball. And one thing that I have really loved is some of you are starting to share your favorite things as well. And you can always do that by sending us an email.

25:02
Podcast at sixzoneduo.com. That's you can do the number six or spell it out.

25:07
Either one will get to us. But also go follow us on all of your different social media accounts like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Bluesky too, Bluesky, at Six Zone Duo. That one is the number, Six Zone Duo.

25:22
And let us know your favorite thing from the week. Amie, I would love to know what yours is.

Amie Just
25:27
The reason why I kind of like sang, I don't know, sing songy mood, I guess, Bluesky is because that's where mine comes from. So shout out to one of our listeners, Doug Brooks. He sent us a couple photos of his daughter attending her first Tennessee volleyball match.

25:42
And based on her smile, she loved it. I get like weirdly emotional when I see kids attending their first match. Like seeing the signs that they make, just seeing how excited they are.

25:54
Like I vaguely remember my First match, do you remember yours?

Erin Sorensen
26:00
Oh my gosh. On the top I mean, I know it would have been Nebraska. And actually, I don't remember I don't think my first match wasn't till college because it has been historically growing up in Nebraska, it was historically difficult to get tickets to Nebraska matches.

26:18
But I do remember my grandma being a giant volleyball fan and going to the open practices when they would have them for especially like NCAA tournaments. And that was very, very cool. So even though it wasn't a match, like being able to be in that environment and just see them I do remember that standing out.

26:35
So that obviously left a large impression on me, too. Even if I can't I think it might have been college by the time I could finally get to like a real college volleyball match.

Amie Just
26:46
So my first one, I was I was really little. So it was like preschool or kindergarten little. My cousin played volleyball for McNeese.

26:56
And we went to one of her matches. I don't remember everything about it because, again, I was like four or five years old. I don't remember if she even played well.

27:06
I don't remember who she played against. But I just remember being so proud that I got to go to my cousin's volleyball game. Like, I talked about it forever.

27:14
And so just seeing other little girls and little boys too, having those experiences just is emotional for me for some reason.

Erin Sorensen
27:23
It's so cool. It's very cool to see the signs and see them light up, especially I mean, even if you're just watching on TV and they cut to the crowds and you see the little kids. And like, I think the thing that I really, really appreciate is we're not just seeing little girls anymore, especially at volleyball enchanters.

27:39
We're seeing little boys who are looking up. To these women, and I think that that's so important because you know, we've we were certainly taken to many men's sporting events, like growing up football and men's basketball, et cetera, but like We also were taken to women's sporting events. So I think having that on the other side where like little boys are also not just going to football, they're going to volleyball.

28:00
They're going to women's basketball. And so they're seeing idols of all These different sports is so, so important. Ah, that's a soapbox I could sit on like stand on for a while.

28:12
It's funny that both of our things came from social media this week because mine came from TikTok. Funny enough, Baylor libero Tehani Ulufatu posted a video before Baylor played Nebraska on Friday, and it was literally just her and another one of her teammates dancing with the text, Just a Chill Friday, about to play Nebraska. That was over top of the video.

28:31
And then the caption read, Hopefully, a core memory in a good way. Last I checked, it had almost 400,000 views, which Whoa. But my favorite part might actually be the comments because to me, the comments are the volleyball community in a nutshell.

28:47
They were incredibly supportive. People were excited for her. They were telling her to enjoy the moment, take it all in.

28:53
But they're also very funny. There's something I love about a player acknowledging, yes, this is kind of a big deal, while also having a sense of humor about the fact that she was about to walk into the Bob Devaney Sports Center, one of the most difficult arenas to play. and played the number one team in the country.

29:10
But I will just say, because I think it's really, really important. I thought Baylor went out and played really well. I understand Baylor, I understand Nebraska swept Baylor But that's also a little bit misleading if it's the only thing that you look at.

29:21
Nebraska won 25-20, 25-22, and 26-24. Why that is notable is Baylor was the first time first team this season to score at least twenty points in every set against Nebraska, and they actually had a 23-22 lead late in the third before Nebraska was able to finish it off. So, I am just saying I came away impressed with Baylor.

29:40
They went into an environment they made Nebraska work. And they didn't look too overwhelmed by the moment, in my opinion. And honestly, I hope it was a core memory in a good way for Tehani.

29:50
And the Baylor piece actually gives us a pretty perfect transition into something else I've been thinking about. I talked with Amie about this last week. Because if you all, if all you saw in the headlines was Nebraska swept Baylor, I do believe you missed quite a bit about that match.

30:03
I think we do versions of that all the time, especially in non-conference play. We see the final result and we immediately decide what it means about a team. So let's talk about that.

30:12
And please, Amie, hop in at any point. I kind of took the, I haven't shared it yet. But I recorded a TikTok and it was kind of disjointed.

30:20
I might redo it by the time you see this. Actually, knowing when this is going to drop, it probably will not be done yet. But it kind of just took the script that I originally had for it and put it here.

30:29
So please joy. To hop in at any time.

Amie Just
30:32
All good.

Amie Just
30:33
Will do. I wrote that. At the time, now the Georgia Tech match did happen, but I wrote that Baylor was the best team Nebraska faced all year. Yeah, up until that point. Yes, I know they played Texas. I said what I said.

Erin Sorensen
30:47
Yeah. I mean, I think like I think we are all guilty to some degree of especially early in the season of overreacting, especially to nonconference results. But I want to be clear that, like, I don't mean that non-conference play doesn't matter because it does.

31:04
It does matter. Bad performance. A bad performance can absolutely show you what's going wrong.

31:10
A great performance can show you something that a team does incredibly well. These matches can expose weaknesses, strengths, lineup questions, setter-hitter connections, serve-receive issues. All of that is very, very real.

31:22
What I don't think they give us is the final verdict. So look at Creighton last year. Creighton went 7-5 in non-conference play, then that team went on to go undefeated in the Big East and didn't lose again until the Elite Eight.

31:34
Okay, not bad. Texas A&M is an even better example, in my opinion. That team the team that eventually became your national champion got swept by SMU, then lost in five sets to TCU on back to back nights during non conference play.

31:48
And then there's Nebraska. Nebraska went through last year's non-conference schedule without dropping a set. No, no, no, excuse me.

31:54
They dropped sets during non-conference. I am wrong on that. I was like, I was happening.

32:00
Nope. And I was like, Creighton happened. This is what I was saying.

32:04
I don't know when I was like copying and pasting my video that I wrote. I caught myself as I was typing very fast. We were like at the Devaney Center and I'm like sitting at a little table, like typing.

32:12
Read my thoughts out, and then I hit copy and paste. Long story short, Nebraska, I guess what I'm trying to say, they did not lose a match through non-conference play, didn't lose a match up until the NCAA went undefeated through conference play. got to the NCAA tournament, and that is where they eventually met Texas A&M, and the rest is history.

32:34
So I think September tells us a lot. I just don't think it tells us everything. And so then I think sometimes the question is better, like when we're thinking, like, a better question after an early season match is maybe not what permanent conclusion can we make about this team, but it's more like, what did this match teach us?

32:49
At least that's my opinion. I feel like I've said this on every episode. It's not a loss, it's a learn.

32:55
It's not a loss. I love that. I've been saying it so much.

32:57
Hell yeah, brother, and it's not a loss, it's a lear It's like been in my vernacular the last like two weeks because of you.

Amie Just
33:03
Hell yeah, brother. But no, it's so true though, because who you are in September is not who you are in November. It's not who you are in December.

33:14
And I think. That if we just look at this as chapters, I think that's good. So again, I try not to read into everything and make sweeping rationalizations about what one team looked like one night compared to the next because We've already talked about this season is chaos.

33:37
It is chaos. And so how do you make how do you try to make sense of something that doesn't make sense? Yeah.

Erin Sorensen
33:43
I mean, that's I think that's the part is we're we're all trying to because it is fun at the same time to kind of sit here and figure out like What does any of this mean? I think there are some instances, and this actually brings us to a great point with Creighton, because Creighton is a team that is currently Currently, five and four. Now, I just mentioned that they were seven and five coming out of non-conference play in 2025.

34:10
Now, in 2026, this team is currently sitting at five and four. And here's the reality. Brian Rosen and Creighton have intentionally built a non-conference schedule that gives this team nowhere to hide.

34:23
That is just the reality of it. They opened with Purdue, Minnesota, USC. They've played Arizona, Pepperdine, Tulsa.

34:29
They just played Northern Iowa, Louisville, and Rice in Houston. They're still not done. They have Nebraska and then defending national champion Texas A&M that are still coming up within just a matter of days of one another.

34:43
I know. They also have Kansas State. I should say sandwiched between that.

34:46
So you have Nebraska on a Wednesday, Kansas State on a Friday, Texas A&M on Sunday. That is, That is not an easy schedule. Like, nothing about what Creighton has done has been easy.

34:58
So I recently spoke with Brian Rosen. So you're going to hear us reference this team as it existed before some of these recent matches. But that makes this conversation, in my opinion, just as interesting now because we talked about the setting and what he was looking at from that position.

35:14
We talked about those pieces. And so that, again, is very, very relevant to this Creighton team. Creighton, like I said, went one and two in Houston.

35:21
So a conversation about why you intentionally put your team in uncomfortable situations and what you're trying to learn from those situations. feels especially relevant. Here is my conversation with Creighton head coach Brian Rosen.

35:34
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate the time.

Erin Sorensen
35:39
Thanks for having me. I have a slew of questions. I had an opportunity. Well, by the time this podcast comes out, I have watched a lot of Creighton volleyball, which I'm very excited about.

35:47
But I was in Sioux Falls, and I just have to ask because you got. You had three very different days of volleyball in Sioux Falls. You had the five sets against Purdue, the Minnesota match, and then you came back and played really well against USC.

36:00
So I guess, what did that weekend teach you? And maybe what you learned about this team that you didn't know before that weekend?

Brian Rosen
36:06
Yeah, I think you're never defined by one day, and especially first weekend of the year, you kind of know never know what you're going to expect from your own team. You don't fully know what you're going to expect yet from the other team. Purdue was going through some things as well.

36:22
One of their key pieces being out. I thought their two outsides played incredible in that match. And then Grace, who we know really well, she's from Omaha.

36:31
My daughter and her sister played on the same club team. So I was So bomb to see her kind of go down early. And so we had to watch them kind of try some different pieces in that role and just rely even heavier on their outsides.

36:42
And then we needed to put the focus on our side of the net, and that's what we went into the weekend. Talking about for all the matches. Like it's always going to be about us.

36:50
And so I thought we did a really nice job through that match because it wasn't super clean at any point. But we just continued to grind away. And then the fourth set They'd beat us pretty bad, honestly.

37:02
I think it was 25 to 12 or something like that. And we subbed all the starters out at one point really just to give them a mental reset of pump them with a little bit of confidence, just take a breather and then like let's come back in the fifth set. I think something Coach Booth always talked about ingrained in our program is the best thing about volleyball and sometimes the worst thing is it starts zero zero.

37:25
And so after that fourth set was over and yeah, you lost twenty five to twelve. Now it's zero zero. And we did a really nice job like jumping out to an early lead in that fifth set to find a way to win it.

37:36
And then Minnesota Nothing could go right. We made more hitting errors, I think, in that match than maybe we'll make for the rest of the season combined. So just Just a combination of a lot of things.

37:47
And Minnesota played really well. Their outsides had great matches. And just as a team, they played really clean.

37:54
And we couldn't match that. And so we had some chances and some sets. just couldn't pull it away.

37:59
But I think it was easy for our team to come from that loss. And then we watched USC just play incredibly well against Arizona State So I think it could have been easy to be like, okay, well, tomorrow's just not going to be our day. And I thought they went into film really prepared, let the last match go, and they came in on Sunday just incredibly ready to take on the day.

38:21
Energy was great. Even as we actually lost the first set tight, I don't think I used the timeout to like the very, very end. And really, that was just to talk about a strategy.

38:30
I never felt like they were pressing. I never felt like they didn't have the confidence that they were going to win it. And so all match, I just felt like they were in control.

38:39
really handled our side of that well. So it ended up being a great weekend.

Erin Sorensen
38:42
Yeah. I mean, like I said, I was there for one of the days, had a chance to watch all of them on T V, which was incredible. Like love putting more volleyball on T V is all I would say. But the one thing that we did talk about briefly after the game is the setter position, and that piece is different for you this year. So when you're evaluating that position early in the season, what are you looking for beyond just like how the offense is scoring.

Brian Rosen
39:05
Yeah, consistency and leadership. And I thought that was a place where we were just okay this past weekend. I think there's some nerves, some tightness, some health things going on where I don't think Katie was truly her best self within those first couple of matches.

39:22
We actually met like pretty late on Saturday night to just talk about Things that we could do better as coaches for her, and things that she could do better. And the biggest thing for her was just to play more free And to as she put it, go ball. I think she put an F word in between that, but but to just like go play, and that's when she plays at her best.

39:42
And I thought she was really good at that. on Sunday. And then Rayna's a freshman.

39:46
And I think what she does is bring like a consistency of who she is in our gym is who she is in the matches. And so very steady, served really, really well this weekend. And We put also I don't know if we ran the same lineup twice this weekend, which is great that we can do those kinds of things and try different things and find success in different ways.

Erin Sorensen
40:08
Yes. And especially when you're looking at this, like The one thing I think anyone who knows Creighton, especially when we look at last year, you had some really established players. They were able to carry a lot of different identities with this program.

40:19
This year feels different, kind of in your noting. So when you look at this group, do you kind of have a sense what the identity is becoming? Are you still learning?

Brian Rosen
40:26
Yeah. I mean, it needs to be defensive minded. I just think since the spring, that's what we've seen as a coaching staff that are tenacity as blockers and defenders like has to be the highlight of our team.

40:37
And then we're going to continue to get better and better offensively, which we even did just this weekend. got like a little better every match. And so like that has to be like our mindset going into every match is we're going to win this match because like we are the best defensive team in the gym, and that includes our block.

40:52
And then again, as our offense continues to get better, similar to what we did last year, like we're just going to continue to click and click and click. And so that when October, November, December come, like we're playing our best volleyball. And I think that is what we showed last year as well.

41:06
I mean, we finished the preseason last year seven to five started 0 and two. But again, it was that like setter hitter connection kind of thing offensively is where we continued to improve all season long. But I think our defense is far ahead of where it was last year.

Erin Sorensen
41:21
I will say, anyone who's listening to this or watching this, you're going to think that like I gave you the questions before, but I didn't. You just like set you druid your team these up really well because I was going to ask you You've intentionally scheduled this absolutely, in my opinion, brutal nonconference season. What can you learn about a team though? Like you're kind of touching on that, but by putting them in uncomfortable situations early that you can't manufacture. Practice.

Brian Rosen
41:42
Yeah, well, I think last year was such a good learning experience for our team that you can go seven and five and still make it to the Elite Eight, still have a chance to get to the final four. Whereas maybe if the season didn't end up going so well, it might force us as coaches to change the way we schedule to maybe build confidence, which a lot of teams across the country like schedule for confidence in the preseason. And then when you get into conference play, it gets really, really hard.

42:09
We want to be hard all the time. And so we've always scheduled this way. It's the way we recruit.

42:15
That's what our athletes expect when they get here. I'd say different than most. We play three matches every weekend.

42:20
So like we play twelve matches every preseason, or a lot of teams now are playing eight to nine. And so it is a heavy load on our team, and it forces us to be in great shape and be conditioned. And that's where our support staff like play huge roles in that.

42:36
And it makes our team like really have to be locked into practices early on because if not, you're going to go O and two or O and three, which like you know looking back at this weekend We could have just as easily went three and zero as we could have went zero and three. And so to come out two and one is a great place to be. And now we go to this next match.

42:55
And we what we always talk about at Creighton is the next match is the most important match. We get these teams coming up and all preseason that we have to be equally prepared for, not just for a Big Ten team, because as we know, mid-majors can be really good. And so, like, we don't take anyone for granted.

43:11
And I think the Big East is as good as it's ever been. And obviously, we've got to watch Marquette take Texas to five. And I just think The bottom of our league continues to get better and the top of our league is really good.

Erin Sorensen
43:22
Yeah, it's really interesting. You were saying that about mid-majors, the amount of people who have emailed us and said do not look past the mid-majors. Like you are like it's true.

43:31
Like we've we've watched a lot of teams push and I mean, you know, you can't every any given day could be who knows what it might be, as we've now seen. When you look at like This is your second year as the head coach for Creighton. And so what's different would you say about the way you coach this team today compared to how you coached them one year ago?

43:54
I don't see that. The big question.

Brian Rosen
43:57
Yeah, I think just learning again, like learning that every team's going to be different and how you talk to one player might not be the same as another. How do you get the most out of one player might not be the same as another. And every year, every season throughout my entire coaching career has different obstacles than the one before it.

44:13
Even if you have the exact same players the journey is going to be different. And so like always being ready for whatever comes. I saw some podcasts actually that had a couple of NFL coaches on it where they We talked about the head coach being a lighthouse and like you just you know that something's going to come eventually, and you have to try to see it as far in advance as you can and then have solutions for when it gets there.

44:39
And I thought that was like a really great approach to it because that is every year. And last year, it was that early season 0 and two punch was really hard for our team. And this year, we'll see what that's going to be.

44:52
As far as things that I do differently, I think I'm just more prepared, especially like schedule-wise. How to go about the routines and those kinds of things. Better at delegating this year than I was a year ago, because again, I was the person getting things delegated to before that.

45:07
So, trying to be better at giving things to my incredible staff as well.

Erin Sorensen
45:12
You know, delegating is like that's hard for me to do as well. So I completely understand. So as you're thinking about this team when you imagine the best version of this Creighton team later in the season, what's the biggest difference between the team right now and the team you hope they become?

Brian Rosen
45:28
less tight and more joy, honestly. Like it's not a technical, tactical, any of those kinds of things. Like I just want them to play loose.

45:36
Like we talk like what I want from them is to be the best version of themselves all the time and us as coaches. the same way as to all of us to just show up, be loose, play with lots of joy. And I think here at Creighton, like we play our best in those circumstances.

45:50
And so like that, that's what I hope. And that we're just incredibly connected as a team, as a coaching staff and as an entire program.

Erin Sorensen
45:58
I'm going to use that. I like the more joy. I think in anything that any of us do, more joy is the way to go, especially when you're like in the thick of a season.

Erin Sorensen
46:09
Like more joy is like so I'm just agreeing with you on that. I you know, one of the things I wanted to ask you about when I saw you over the weekend, but it's hard in a postgame environment You've brought in players from some really different volleyball backgrounds. I mean, you even have a player who's like one of the best long jumpers in Canada. What makes someone a Creighton what makes somebody a Creighton player once they're in your gym?

Brian Rosen
46:28
that there are others first. Like what makes Creighton so unique is it's so for others. It's so community based.

46:35
So you're smaller than most of our peers. We're not small, but We recruit a lot against the Power Four, and so we're smaller than those. So the teachers know our student athletes by name, they know their professors, they can go to them anytime.

46:48
There's such great like interpersonal connections that are here. And so as we talk to recruits in the recruiting process, if they're saying, all I want to do is play volleyball and I don't care about anything else that athlete's not coming to Creighton. Like they're going to go somewhere else and could have great experiences.

47:04
Like we want the student athlete, or we're going to get the student athlete that wants more. And the players that you're kind of referencing, I think sometimes People think they want one thing, and then they go there and realize, like, maybe I did want more of this. And so, yeah, Ayden and Trinity could be examples.

47:20
Again, not that their programs are incredibly successful and are perfect fits for the right people. But sometimes people want different, and Creighton can provide, obviously, like top ten volleyball and like a different like student athlete type of experience. And I just think a community that like truly values them like beyond the volleyball court and they can study anything they want and pursue different things.

47:44
And I just think it's a really unique university, and the staff and faculty and everyone here are just so supportive of us and our programs. Honestly, the fact that we don't have football gives our athletes so much more attention, especially in the fall. We don't have to compete with that thing.

48:02
And it's such a huge advantage for us as coaches and for our student athletes.

Erin Sorensen
48:06
Yeah, and I will say, I need to like put something together. If people are not familiar with Trinity's long jumping.

Brian Rosen
48:13
Yes.

Erin Sorensen
48:14
She's real good. Like I saw a video of her and was like, oh, oh my.

Brian Rosen
48:19
Yeah, she's a pretty special act.

Erin Sorensen
48:20
Yeah, really exciting. I'm like excited to see her keep growing. So what the last question I have for you is what's something about coaching high level volleyball right now that has changed more quickly than people outside of the sport might realize?

Brian Rosen
48:35
Man, the physicality in our sport at all levels continues to get better and better. Even as I go to like club volleyball sometimes, I'm like blown away with just like how physical the athletes keep getting, how much just taller, stronger, all of these kinds of things. Like this sport I really think is just one of the most physical sports there is.

48:58
And I'm watching back in the back when I played and started coaching, it was like, if you were tall, you just played middle. And now like the size and the physicality is in all the different positions. But I just I love how our sport like champions each other.

49:12
I think the volleyball community and the student athletes like genuinely want like good things for each other. The coaches across the country like collaborate really well together. And we all just want to see this sport grow because we want these women to get the platforms that football gets and men's basketball gets because they work just as hard, and this is like such an incredible sport.

49:35
And when it's on T V and when there's opportunities to watch it does incredibly well because it is so fun. So we're going to keep pushing it, and I just love how the sport like continues to champion each other.

Erin Sorensen
49:47
Okay, I lie. I have one more question for you. I'm completely off.

49:50
I just I have to ask you because I as I'm sitting here remembering, you said, you know Volleyball deserves the same attention, everything. One of the things that like a lot of people are commenting on is your new uniforms, those white uniforms. Tell me a little bit about those for all it might just be Kirsten Bernthal Booth at home who's like, hey, but like truly, those uniforms are so incredible.

Brian Rosen
50:15
Last year, someone picked us as like the best uniforms in the country, and I think they're We have a lot of those same jerseys and then new ones this year. We are so fortunate. Again, we don't have football.

50:24
And so like the top resources come to us. And so we have a great connection with a group called the Gallagher Group, and like they help us like fully design our jerseys. If you haven't seen our Taraflex court that we play on, they design that as well.

50:39
And it's like it's the best court in the country. And there's lots of schools that are now trying to imitate that. And still doesn't I haven't seen a court come close.

50:47
And so we're so fortunate to have those. I mean, there's one year where our players are literally telling them they're like stop sending shoes. Like it's just too many at this point.

50:54
Like so they're aw they wanted like one shoe for like every different combination of jersey colors. And but again, like it it's so it's so cool that our players are getting like that kind of treatment, whereas I think that used to go just to men's basketball or just to football, and our athletes are able to feel that. And so we have a few other jerseys that will come out at different points this year.

51:14
So maybe one of them will come out this weekend, I think. But Yeah, so we're excited. And again, just the community of Creighton like truly values what we do as women's volleyball athletes.

51:26
There aren't that many places around the country that can say that.

Erin Sorensen
51:30
That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. I know on behalf of Amie, we just are so glad to have you on the show.

Brian Rosen
51:36
Thank you. Well, thank you for being here and thanks for supporting us.

Erin Sorensen
51:39
Thank you again to Brian Rosen and to Creighton Volleyball for allowing myself. Amie would have certainly been there if she was on the like the greatest tour of all time for volleyball. But I so appreciate Creighton for giving us the time to speak a little bit more with them just about what we were seeing.

51:56
I also did have a chance to watch a practice that week as well. And the thing I will say I have been impressed by Creighton's communication. I would be curious to get back in their gym right now and see how they're kind of feeling and doing, but it was very noticeable that They lead all of their practices with joy, which I found really, really fun.

52:17
They have fun drills that are meant to just get them loose and like enjoying the day. I imagine if this is not easy when you are up against a very, very difficult slate, you probably can get bogged down very, very easily. But knowing that in their practices, they're intentionally being very like, let's look for the joy.

52:37
Let's be very mindful. I think that that will serve them, especially as they start to kind of internalize what they've been doing and then getting into conference play in the Big East. So, again, thank you to Brian Rosen and Creighton for that.

52:52
Interview. That said, we have another listener question, Amie. I'm throwing you a bit of like, I kind of am like, I'm throwing you, I'm talking.

53:01
I'm teeing you up. I'm trying to make, I'm. Do it a jump serve. I don't know.

53:06
I was trying to think of something off the top of my head. It didn't work. It doesn't matter.

53:10
But this is one thing that we may have summoned. I'm sending that was right there. That was so easy.

53:15
I just so badly wanted to bring up the jump serve again because I was on such a tangent about how much it was driving me crazy the other week. But This might have actually given us refloat serves. Yeah.

53:27
The Frontjustice for Float serves. Put that on a t-shirt. So We had another listener question, which may have given us something that we could do regularly.

53:36
And this is that there are a lot of people who love volleyball, understand the basics, but do want to understand the game at a deeper level. So maybe every week, or whenever we have a good question. we take a few minutes for something that we could call know your volleyball.

53:48
And one strategy question, one rule, one piece terminology, whatever it might be, something happening during a match that you might not see That you might see, but not totally understand why it's happening. And Scott gave us the perfect first question. So Scott wrote, and I believe this came on Bluesky.

54:04
Perhaps. Perhaps. Everything is flurrying together in my mind.

54:07
But Scott wrote, long time, Every Day Should Be Saturday commenter and Split Zone Duo listener here. Super excited to see these bringing see the two of us bringing a stronger Nebraska quotient quotient.

54:19
Words are hard to worry about. They are so hard today. Why am I struggling with this word?

54:24
Am I okay? Quotient? Quotient?

54:26
Yes. Oh my goodness. To the universe and sports podcasting in general.

54:30
I don't know what just happened. It was like my brain. You just froze.

54:34
I did. There was like if you could see the like little spinning wheel, that just happened. Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the only fan who understands the basics of volleyball, but would like to dig a little deeper.

54:43
Pun, definitely intended into strategy, gameplay, etc. Can you share any resources you've utilized to understand the game better? I love the question. So, Amie, what have you what has helped you learn the sport at a deeper level?

Amie Just
54:55
Honestly, I started starting by playing it. Like, I wasn't good, right? I didn't play in college other than a ton of recreational beach in the shadow of Allen Fieldhouse.

55:05
But playing it even recreationally with beach volleyball, it helps you understand some of the nuances. Like, I know that solid fundamentals are the base for everything. If you have a bad platform, Your pass ain't going nowhere, right?

55:18
It's how I know that serving is harder than it looks. It's how I know serve receive is super stressful. It's how I know communication is key.

55:25
If you and your setter are on different pages, that operation is not going to work. And you don't need to be a volleyball player to understand those things. If you have ever played basketball or football or softball or baseball or any team sport, really You know that fundamentals matter.

55:40
You know that communication is important. And you know that if it looks easy, chances are it's probably not, right? Now, for specific resources that I have utilized.

55:50
I listen to the radio broadcasts of matches.

Erin Sorensen
55:58
You guys going to be a while or you got the room? I think I was only able to reserve it till 1:45 on the outside.

Erin Sorensen
56:03
Nobody else has it. No, it just would only do let me do an hour. So, probably, I don't know, maybe like 15 to 30 more minutes at the most. Is that okay?

Erin Sorensen
56:12
Yeah, we'll check it some other time. Okay, sorry. No, no problem. Okay.

56:14
Hold on one second. I want to check in time. 3322.

56:18
Okay, I'm going to make a note of that so I come back. 3322 restart. Okay, so you were kind of at the part where fundamentals matter communication is important.

56:26
Okay. Yep.

Amie Just
56:30
Do I need to redo the fundamentals matter communication? I would, just in case. Okay.

56:36
We'll go three, two, one. You don't have to be a volleyball player to know those things. The same thing goes for if you've ever played basketball or football or softball or baseball or any team sport, really.

56:48
You know that fundamentals matter. You know that communication is important. You know that if it looks easy, chances are Probably isn't. Now, for the specific resources that I've utilized, I listen to the radio broadcasts of matches.

57:03
Or if it's an analyst that I really like on the TV broadcast, like John Cook or Emily Ehman, Mary Wise, Nancy Metcalf, to name a few, I'll listen there too. Good analysts explain what's happening without making the audience feel stupid. They teach you something that you may not already know, or they'll say a term like tool the block.

57:23
And if you don't know, you can look it up. USA Volleyball also has some real like a really thorough resources page. There's a tab for rules, there's a tab to learn about skills, but there's also a learn tab that has a lot of videos.

57:38
Now, those are technically geared towards players, but that doesn't mean you can't watch them and learn from them as well Like, if you want to learn about the three keys to passing, there's a video for that. Or if you want to learn about basics of blocking, like there's several videos of that too. Or to plug my day job, John Cook, before he retired, he would do some film breakdowns for us, which those are great teaching tools for the average fan, for the more than average fan.

58:10
to understand what he saw regarding some specific players. I think the last one he did for us was Lexi Rodriguez and was super, super thorough. But just overall, like with anything, the more you engage with something and the more you listen, the more you're going to pick up.

58:25
Mm-hmm.

Erin Sorensen
58:26
So when we're saying like when Amie was saying justice for float serves, like float serves are really like that's there's the reason that she's saying that because we've had A lot of conversations about a jump serve, and there's a jump float serve. There's all different styles of serving. A float server.

58:42
And like, there's like reasons that some people do certain things. There's a reason that Texas was trying to really, really go. Hard at the jump serve, especially starting the season and has had to kind of reconfigure some things.

58:57
Those are things where we can definitely dive into them more about the whys. But as you watch the game, you'll start to kind of see like, oh, what the effectiveness of certain serves are and why Somebody might choose to serve in a certain style than another. Like, for instance, the best example I can give you is Jordan Marson has stopped jump serving because she felt like it just It wasn't as effective as a tool as she wanted it to be.

59:20
Everything at the end of the day is a tool, just like in any sport that Amie was saying. And so that's a really good point. The more you engage with it, the more you observe it, you'll start to see patterns and you'll start to understand, like, oh, that's really interesting.

59:32
Oh, I noticed that this player serves this way and this player serves this. Maybe I'll go look up like what like why that one player might be doing that. Chances are they've probably talked about it too.

59:43
Yeah, no.

Amie Just
59:44
There's a lot of intricacies about volleyball. Some of it is really complicated, some of it not so much. Just kind of depends on what you're talking about. Mm-hmm.

Erin Sorensen
59:55
And I do want you to send us questions. If there's something that you hear during a broadcast at the time and you've always thought, I technically know what that means, I don't really understand it. Maybe you try to look it up, it still doesn't make a ton of sense.

01:00:05
send it to us. If you don't know what if you don't understand like what in system means, please ask if rotations make your brain hurt, like math is making mine hurt today. Please ask if you want to understand why a team is serving one particular player over another.

01:00:19
Go ahead and ask. If you want to know why a setter dumped in a certain moment, shout out Bergen Reilly. Or what a block is actually trying to take away.

01:00:27
You can ask us as well. Those are exactly the things I think that this segment can be for. And there's a really good way tooling the block matters.

01:00:34
Yeah. Because if there's a chance if you're wondering it, that means a lot of people, a lot of other people might too. So please don't ever not ask because you think, like, oh, that's a silly question or a dumb question.

01:00:46
Like, no, we want to have those conversations. And heck, the community that so many of you are starting to build, especially on like our YouTube comments, like people might also be willing to help you understand in those spaces as well. So like I love that.

01:00:58
Let's keep it going. Before we get out of here, though, one more thing. Amie, what are you watching this week?

Amie Just
01:01:05
I cannot wait for the Creighton match against Texas A&M. I will be there because both of those teams really intrigue me. when this was on when I realized that this is happening, things have changed a little bit for both of those teams, but I don't want to count either of them out just because their non-conference slates haven't gone the way that they have wanted.

01:01:28
I'm still really intrigued by them. It's two coaches that I really respect with a lot of players that I really enjoy watching. So I can't wait to be there.

Erin Sorensen
01:01:36
I will also be at Creighton, Texas A&M. I'm very excited. I think the arena that Creighton plays in is a fantastic arena as well.

01:01:46
I hope Bands show up and pack that place because when it is full and loud and rowdy, it is fun. The student section is really fun, the band is really fun. Those are those venues that when you get a chance, especially in like a collegiate volleyball setting, to be a part of them, like please like if you can go find tickets right now and you're somewhere in the vicinity, go do it because Like it is a venue we're seeing.

01:02:09
And that is a great way to finish for this week because we have so much to look forward to. A big thank you to Creighton head coach Brian Rosen for joining us on today's show. We appreciate Brian taking the time to talk with us about his team, the schedule they've put together and what they are trying to learn through this stretch of nonconference play.

01:02:28
Plus, We did, as you probably know. Hopefully, you didn't skip over the episode. But if you did, go back, maybe listen to it again because we did talk about the uniforms.

01:02:36
They have some really incredible uniforms this season. And he actually, at the time, like teased where he's like, We've got another one coming. Now they've worn it already since this.

01:02:44
But it was like, it was when I saw it, I was like, ooh, they've got some good uniforms. Their Taraflex might be my favorite too, for being honest. It is so cool.

01:02:52
Actually, this is why I'm saying if you have a chance. If you're going to tune in on TV, if you're just going to watch from wherever, you're going to watch Texas A&M at Creighton. One thing I want you to look for on the Taraflex specifically, they have this really, really cool design, which, by the way, Kansas actually.

01:03:06
Got inspiration from after the fact. But if you look at it, you will see these like little Easter eggs throughout it. I think they said there's about 10 of them?

01:03:15
They're somewhere like, I think it's 10. But they've got like old school Bluejay logos, like the year that the volleyball team, the program started. Like, they have all these little Easter eggs that you can see if you're looking for them.

01:03:27
So, watch the court and see if you can spot. Some of the Easter eggs, because it's really, really cool that they do that. And thank you, as always, to Homefield, for presenting the Six Zone Duo podcast Also, like I said, if you have a question, a just a general question, or you want something about knowing your volleyball, send them our way.

01:03:44
If there's something you want to hear during the broadcast, something you've seen on the court or a piece of strategy, doesn't matter. We would love to hear from you. There are also, like I said earlier, so many people are probably wondering the same thing, or maybe just appreciate that you started the conversation.

01:03:57
You can email us at podcast at sixzoneduo.com, and you can find us on social media at Six Zone Duo anywhere. Twitter, Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, Snail Mail, Instagram.

01:04:11
You could send a snail mail. I don't know where yet, but at least just send the just send the Send an email. Send a carrier pigeon.

01:04:18
I don't find me. Actually, that would be really fun. There's an app that like is like you send a carrier pigeon and it takes as long.

01:04:26
So like the distance you are from somebody is how long the carrier pigeon takes to get to them. Like, love that. I have not heard that.

01:04:34
I'll have to send it to you. We just appreciate you for being here as always and for making this podcast what it is so far. We can't wait to see where it keeps building.

01:04:43
Keep your emails, your comments, everything coming. Thanks for listening to Six Zone Duo Podcast presented by Homefield. We will talk to you next week.