We Saw 10 Ranked Teams. Here’s What We Learned.
Download MP3Welcome to the Six Zone Duo podcast presented by Home Field. I'm Erin Sorenson.
Speaker 2:And I'm Jess. And we have a lot
Speaker 1:of volleyball to talk about since the last time you heard from us. Amy started her weekend in Arlington at the AT And T Stadium for Spikes Under the Lights and then went straight to Las Vegas to see the Players Area Volleyball Showcase in person. I went to Sioux Falls on Saturday for the State Farm Women's College Volleyball Showcase. And between the two of us, we saw 10 teams ranked in the preseason top 25 and then some additional ones beyond that. The ranked teams though, Nebraska, Texas, SMU, Florida, TCU, Creighton, Arizona State, USC, Minnesota, Penn State.
Speaker 1:It means we have a lot to talk about, Amy.
Speaker 2:So much to talk about as we record this on Monday morning, I am still in Las Vegas as evidenced by the interesting drop that I have today in my hotel room. I'm still processing everything that I saw in the seven matches that I saw in person over the last few days. Though technically, technically only four of those counted. There's a lot to learn in all of it, even exhibitions, the truncated, weird exhibitions.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But hopefully we will dive into some more. Maybe we'll process some of that together. I purposely told Amy before we started recording. I didn't want any of her thoughts because I wanted to like know them in real time.
Speaker 1:So my reaction will likely be your reaction as we listen because we're getting ready to do this all over again. Amy gets no rest. We're heading to Chicago this weekend. Before we get there, we'll try to figure out a little bit of what we watched. Nebraska made a statement.
Speaker 1:Texas had another interesting weekend. Arizona State and USC gave us a whole heck of a lot to think about. Creighton had two very, very different days from Saturday and Sunday, and that's not even looking at their Friday. We will not have a new ABCA poll by the time we well, as we are recording this, but you, the listener, will have one. So we're gonna handle things just a little bit differently this week knowing that we have travel and busyness to, you know, just adjust to, but that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of volleyball, like I said, that we watched. So instead of instead of letting the ABCA poll and its schedule derail us from our schedule, we're gonna do something different this week. Between the two of us, we're gonna talk about all that volleyball that we saw for ourselves. Amy, the top 25 teams that you saw were Nebraska, Texas, SMU, Florida, TCU, and Penn State. You also saw UNLV, not ranked, but still notable.
Speaker 1:I saw Arizona State, USC, Creighton, and Minnesota. So Amy, of everybody you saw, let's start here. Who looked the most complete?
Speaker 2:I know we keep saying that this is not a Nebraska volleyball podcast, and it is not. But Nebraska is the answer here. Though I'm not reading into anything negative that happened for Nebraska or SMU or Florida or Penn State exhibition spikes under the lights because I have more thoughts on that later. Nebraska serve absolutely lethal against Texas, the Longhorns could not pass friggin Riley serve. It was honestly truly something to bold in that first set she served like 10 straight points.
Speaker 2:Now does that mean Nebraska is perfect? No, there are still a few things to be shored up. Remember, it's August. But the block was there. Limiting Tori Stafford to under 100 for the first time in her Longhorn career.
Speaker 2:Wild. Nebraska set the middle pretty consistently. It worked. Teraya Sigler looks great. Manaya Obechey certainly looks like she has arrived.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited for that for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For me, I'm gonna go with Minnesota specifically on Saturday and I'm qualifying that with on Saturday because I'm just talking about what I saw in person. Although I did watch the whole weekend of matches in Sioux Falls. The reason I do wanna talk about that though, Minnesota size immediately stood out to me in person. I had I was keeping a notes.
Speaker 1:I had a notes app open, my notes app open, and I was keeping note and like their size stood out to me just like immediately. And then once Creighton got into trouble against Minnesota, the Gophers just didn't let Creighton back into it. They were stretches where it felt like Creighton was searching for ways to stop the momentum and Minnesota just kept coming and would not let up. So of all of the teams I saw personally on Saturday, Minnesota was one where I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna maybe put a little circle around their name, especially as we start to get into big 10 play because I think they're gonna be really interesting.
Speaker 1:Amy, which team changed your opinion the most over the course of the weekends? For teams that I watched Texas, for one, the Longhorns will be without Abby Vanderwall,
Speaker 2:of the season, best freshmen outside the NPC for the rest of the season after she suffered a non contact knee injury against TCU. That was heartbreaking. It also changes things for Texas, they'll have to adapt without her. In addition to her though, they're passing in service, works. Now maybe Nebraska is just great at that.
Speaker 2:And that was a one time thing for Texas and having struggles in that area. Nebraska did expose some things for them in a lot of different ways. But also Texas is still figuring itself out. Do they want to run the six two or go with the five one? I think they'll figure it out.
Speaker 2:Again, it's still August as we record this. So I'm curious to know what they will look like in November compared to now. For the team I didn't watch, Purdue. For the record, this isn't Purdue's fault. None of this is Purdue's fault.
Speaker 2:Kenna Wallard, who is someone who could have been up for National Player of the Year is quote, dealing with an unexpected health issue unquote, that'll have her out for a while. Then to make matters even more difficult, Grace Heaney went down and produce gaming. Purdue has to be without them, God forbid both of them for a significant amount of time. I have a hard time wrapping around, wrapping my head around how heartbreaking that is for them because they had national title expectations this year. And when you don't have two of your best pins, and it's still August, I'm heartbroken for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this the injuries are I mean, I think it was, know, Texas had said, know, they hadn't had any kind of like non contact knee injury in that way in, like, something like, what, fifteen years. And so, like, that's a really good run and stretch of it, but it is just it is heartbreaking to see any players have to go out for any reason. And we unfortunately saw far too much of it in the first, you know, week ish of volleyball. So hopefully that is not a trend that continues. I would say for myself, Creighton is probably the team that changed the most for me specifically from Saturday to Sunday.
Speaker 1:But I think it was more because of how much more organized the offense looked on Sunday in some really incredible uniforms to say the least. Against Minnesota, it felt like Creighton was out of system quite a bit. The passing wasn't giving the setters much to work with. And once Minnesota got them into trouble, like I was saying, like, the offense for Creighton, they just they were struggling and they they became too predictable, I would say. But USC against USC on Sunday, things just looked a lot more settled for for Creighton.
Speaker 1:Katie Dalton and Rana Christiansen were both involved throughout the match and suddenly Creighton was getting production more from everywhere. I So don't know if I would like go as far as to say, like, they fixed the setting between, like, Saturday and Sunday because some of that also starts with the past, but I do think they looked more comfortable in what they were trying to build offensively between the two setters. And I think that's really what impressed me the most with Creighton between Saturday and Sunday is that I like I said, I had my notes app open and I was making like comments to myself throughout. And one of the things I kept thinking is like, when they get stuck, they really struggle to get themselves unstuck. But then less than twenty four hours, they lose that first set to USC, but they don't let it become Minnesota all over again.
Speaker 1:They adjust. They take the match. So I, you know, I thought that was a really fascinating fascinating kind of twenty four hours, really more like seventy seventy two hours for Creighton and what they went up against in Sioux Falls. So I feel like I learned a little bit more about this team. Amy, I am curious what you've noticed in person that you probably would not have gotten from watching on TV or reading the box score.
Speaker 2:The entire spikes under the light situation. So much so much of the inner arena experience didn't translate to TV and explain to some of the sloppiness. Sadly, various aspects. So again, not to keep teasing this out. I'll explore about that later.
Speaker 2:But I'm not reading into any of the negatives from that day, because I don't think that's fair to anybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I'm excited to get more of your thoughts on this. We have a whole section to talk about this for anyone who is like, I want to hear more. Don't worry. We have you covered. I would say the one thing I noticed and this is why it's so important to be in person is Arizona State has a lot of personality.
Speaker 1:They're very loud on the bench. They were barking during opposing serves where, like, fans in the stands were like, what is that? And they were quite literally barking. At one point, they were singing the ABCs. They were always up to something on the bench because when you are in an environment where you don't have a lot of your own crowd noise, you have to do something and they were all about making sure that they had something happening.
Speaker 1:And I I don't want to say it like worked every single time, but I don't think it didn't work at some points because it was very like what is happening so we can talk about hitting percentage. Can talk about blocks. We can talk about all of it all day long, but sometimes when you're in person you just get a better understanding and feel for who a team is and Arizona State has a lot of personality. So have fun if you are a Sun Devil fan because they are very entertaining. Amy, I would love to know if there's one thing that you saw that you're putting on your watch list without declaring it a problem.
Speaker 2:I mentioned this a little earlier, but Texas is pathing specifically in third receive. Again, was that more Nebraska? Was that more Texas? I don't know, very small sample size to work with there. So I'm paying attention to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting that we're talking about serving because the these two teams are really interesting to me. Was bringing up USC serve and USC's pass game. USC wants to be aggressive from the service line. In fact, we're seeing a lot of teams go towards the jump serve and USC was, you know, they had a lot of jump serves. And when it's working, I can absolutely understand why you would want to play that way.
Speaker 1:It is it is a tough it is tough to defend if it is working well, but if you are chasing that jump serve or that that if you are not timing that correctly, it can go a lot of different ways that you don't want it to. And so as a result, there were a lot of errors and USC had stretches where its own passing was pretty shaky. Then Creighton came in on Sunday and took advantage of some of those things. So I I'm not going to sit here and say like USC has these like major problems, but it does have some things it has to. It's gonna wanna figure out and that's why you have these type of matches in advance is because you want to learn these things now and not two months from now.
Speaker 1:So Amy, which team that in mind do you feel like you still don't know?
Speaker 2:This is a Texas volleyball podcast today. As I spoke to earlier,
Speaker 3:I mean, they're working
Speaker 2:with some core identity things. Like, what offense are gonna that are they gonna run? How do they replace Vanderwolf? How are they going to shore up their serve receive? How are they going to continue to serve aggressively?
Speaker 2:But keeping a fine line there, right? Like you can be too aggressive. They were aggressive on Sunday. Oh my goodness, that was yesterday. They were aggressive on Sunday.
Speaker 2:Wild. But were they too aggressive? Because they were, you know, in a hole that they couldn't climb out of in a couple of those sets and a couple of those situations. So I think I still think they're going to be good. I just don't know if they know who they are yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just reminded me of the the meme where it's like it feels like it's been so long, but it's like the Titanic meme. It's it's been eighty four years. That's how it feels since this weekend. And so when you're listening to this, it's it's been eighty four. It's been eighty four years.
Speaker 1:I'll take Arizona State, which sounds kinda ridiculous because we've gotten several looks at Arizona State at this point, but kind of the same thing. Beats Texas, gets, you know, gets swept by USC. And so, honestly, maybe the answer is simply that Arizona State is a really good volleyball team playing a really difficult schedule, and really good volleyball teams are going to leave matches this season. But I'm still kinda trying to figure out what their ceiling is. So we have we have time still to figure that out.
Speaker 1:Amy, what's one opinion you feel stronger about now than you did one week ago?
Speaker 2:Chaos, baby. Chaos rings supreme in this part right now. A spreadsheet tracking all of this looks straight out of a beautiful mind. It's or the pay pay Sylvia meme from always, it feels like that. So it'll probably be like that all season if we're being honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I said mine is that the top of the volleyball is messy this year. But I mean it as a compliment. I don't mean that negatively at all. There's just a lot of really good teams.
Speaker 1:We've already watched teams beat another ranked team and then turn around and lose. We're watching teams have completely different performances within twenty four hours of one another. And so I don't think we're gonna get through the season with this nice clean hierarchy where, like, number 10 is always guaranteed to beat number or number three is not always gonna beat number 10, etcetera, and everyone just politely stays in their lanes. I think this is gonna be a really, really interesting and fun season, and everyone kinda has to keep a little bit of, like, an eye on their back through this. So all of that to say, we don't have the new poll out yet at the time of recording.
Speaker 1:When you are listening to this, you will. So we would love if you want to leave comments like if you're listening or watching on YouTube. Go ahead and leave a comment. You can also go give us a shout. I'll we you can find us at Six Zone Duo on basically all social media.
Speaker 1:So this is the part where, like, the numbers don't exist yet for us to react to. But you know what? We have a lot that we saw this weekend that probably told us more anyway for right now. I also do not envy the people who have to figure out the poll rankings right now. I like literally sat there in Sioux Falls and was like, what do you do?
Speaker 1:And then open my notes app and just made a note that was like, glad it's not me.
Speaker 2:Not my circus but is on that one. Very glad that I don't have to do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, we get to just enjoy other people's work and react to it and not be the ones having to create that. But as always, we wanna take a quick sponsor break because we are sponsored by Home Field, your industry leader in game day gear for true fans by and for true fans to be clear. Our friends at Home Field design and research everything from the fit and the fabrics, the vintage logos to make standout gear that defines your game day. You can shop the very best of Home Field like t shirts, hoodies, crew necks that feature designs for your school. They've got over a 180 partners, which means, and I mean this, there's truly something for everyone.
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Speaker 1:So I will say, Amy, I don't know what your experience was like where you were, but I I saw a lot of home field out in the wild this weekend, and that tells me one college athletics, like the fall season is here, but it isn't a Nebraska volleyball podcast. But there was there was quite a few Nebraska volleyball home field shirts roaming around in Sioux Falls. I was like, y'all should be in Vegas, but here you are in Sioux Falls, but you're wearing your home field. I love it. At least that was my experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw a lot
Speaker 2:of volleyball day in Nebraska home field shirts here in Vegas. Very noticeable. Very notable.
Speaker 1:Mean, they're great. It's great gear. I live in Homefield, and that is not just because they are a sponsor of this podcast. Literally, they could, like, not know that I exist, and I would be just, like, the the meme of, like, take my money because that is me with Homefield. And if that is you too, and it should be, you can shop the very best in game day apparel for your team now at Home Field, homefieldapparel.com, or on the Home Field app.
Speaker 1:Home Field, the official outfitter of Six Zone Duo and of your game day. Alright, Amy. Last week, we said that listener questions were gonna be a regular part of the Six Zone Duo podcast, and they they are. And we got our first question from our friend Craig. But before I read it, Amy, I did just wanna tell you that Craig emailed me separately and told me to tell you he is very sorry he misspelled your name in his email.
Speaker 1:He was very apologetic and wanted to make sure that you knew that. And then he threw us a doozy of a question. So I don't know if I want to forgive him or also still be. I'm just kidding. It was a great question.
Speaker 1:He what he asked was, how will the combination of NIL driven roster churn, internal pay disparities, and football centric revenue redistribution affect the long term competitiveness and culture of collegiate volleyball programs, particularly at non mega revenue athletic department? So Craig really eased us into this whole listener question thing. Amy, how how do you feel
Speaker 2:about this? I have so many thoughts. Number one, Craig, how long do you have? We can make an entire episode on this. I think I do though want to add a caveat.
Speaker 2:And that I don't think roster churn in volleyball specifically is driven by NIL basketball. Sure. Football. Sure. Volleyball.
Speaker 2:I don't think we're there yet. I think it has factored into some situations. But you can't just point to someone who's transferring and say, it's because of NIL. Like that's just not the reality in this sport. Everyone has different reasons for every decision that they make and volleyball.
Speaker 2:And in volleyball NIL is not the main reason why people transfer. As for the rest of this, though, yeah, money does rule everything. I don't think we can be ignorant of that. Football subsidizes nearly everything on college campuses. It's the way of the world.
Speaker 2:My my non realistic fear, but it is still a fear is that the haves and the have not separate themselves, and we lose parity in volleyball. But I don't think that's going to happen. Because if it would have happened, like it would have happened already. Like the sport has really grown and will continue to grow. And the last 10 national championships have been won by seven different programs.
Speaker 2:You have Texas A and M, Penn State, Texas, one, two of them, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Stanford, one, three, and then Nebraska has one in there too. But it's all interconnected. Like coaching matters, resources matter, investment in athletics, like from a department wide standpoint is investment in athletics. And as long as schools are doing that, I think special things can happen. Now, if you have, if you're a school and you don't take it seriously, well then what are you going to do?
Speaker 2:But I think if you have a healthy athletic department, you're going to have healthy programs and that will trickle down into volleyball as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I agree with Amy that I said the very first thing I would have pushed back on is that calling all of the roster churn for volleyball NIL driven because I don't think that's the case, and I won't regurgitate everything that she just said. Just take it as a same. I agree. I think the part that really interests me about this question is kind of what happens in the middle because you have these enormous athletic departments with the ability to spend at a level that other schools just like simply can't match. And that advantage isn't only, well, we can pay this volleyball player more money.
Speaker 1:It's really everything because how much can you invest in the roster? What kind of NIL opportunities exist? What kind of staff can you afford? What do your facilities look like? How are you traveling?
Speaker 1:What resources that are available for things like nutrition, recovery, sports science, academic, recruiting? Because the wealthiest programs we know are gonna be able to stack these advantages. And so what I'm really interested in is what that means for a very good volleyball program that doesn't happen to exist inside of one of these enormous athletic departments because you can be great at identifying talent. You can develop the players really, really well, and you can build a culture that people wanna be part of. But if one of those players becomes a star and you now are re recruiting your own roster every off season against programs with a significantly higher level of resources, that's that's a very different version of roster management.
Speaker 1:And it's not something that only volleyball is dealing with. This is something that a lot of programs are gonna be thinking about in a lot of different sports. I was talking to someone a little bit about softball last night, for instance, and what this could mean for things like that. So, you know, I I think that, there's the pay disparity piece. I I don't think the fact that two teammates could be making different amounts of money is is really like an an automatic, like, locker room destroyer.
Speaker 1:Professional teams have navigated this forever. But I do think communication is really what becomes the most important thing here because ultimately, like, what did you promise? What were the expectations? Do people understand how the opportunities are being determined? Does someone feel like they're being told one thing during recruiting and then they've gotten something completely different once they get on campus?
Speaker 1:I think those broken promises and poor communication is going to be more damaging to a culture than, like, knowing somebody else has a bigger n I NIL deal than you. So if I, like, had to boil it all down, I don't think this means programs outside of the wealthiest athletic departments suddenly cannot compete. I do think that sustaining success becomes harder, and you may have to recruit great players, develop them, build a great culture, and then have to recruit them every single year, which is tough for a program that might be like, cool. Did we just do all this work for somebody to walk in and basically just, like, poach our players away once we've done all the work to get them to a certain place? But that is, to Amy's point, how long do we have?
Speaker 1:We could do an entire episode on this and probably should with somebody who's, like, subject matter expert in this area. So Amy, kind of with that in mind, I do wanna ask you really quick. Do you think there's eventually a point where being a great developmental program, kind of what I was saying, becomes a disadvantage? Because if you're the one finding the players before everyone else does and turning them into stars, everyone else now knows about them. Does that become a disadvantage at any point?
Speaker 2:I think so. I think you're seeing that in other sports too. Like the FCS level as a whole, for example, in college football has become this just wealth of talent that FBS schools go and take over. I love FCS football. And it's sad to me that that is happening.
Speaker 2:I want opportunities for those players. Don't get me wrong, because everybody's dream is to play at a big school and play well and compete for championships at the highest level. But what does that do for the rest of the sport at that level? And so I think you're starting to see that in every sport, not just volleyball, not just football, just all of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting. It's a really, really good question, though. And Craig, we really appreciate it. So we want the questions to keep coming, because like we like Amy said, this could be an entire episode on itself, and it may just have to be because I think it's something a lot of us are trying to grapple with across all sports at different levels. So we would love more questions.
Speaker 1:They don't all have to be. They can be really anything. You can email us at podcast@6ZoneDuo.com. So think teams, players, coaches, rankings, rules, NIL, pro volleyball. Clearly, Craig has established that there's no maximum level of difficulty here, but please don't feel like you have to have they can be quite literally, what's your favorite mascot?
Speaker 1:I don't I don't know. We can talk about that. Send us whatever you're wondering about. So Amy, after approximately nine hundred hours of volleyball this weekend, it's time for something maybe a little more simple. What was your favorite thing you saw, heard, or experience in volleyball this week?
Speaker 1:I would love to hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I have a lot of thoughts. It could be Creighton's new white uniforms. They were beautiful. I loved them.
Speaker 2:It might be how Nebraska's entire team one by one hugged Texas's Abby Vanderwall in the handshake line after the game yesterday. Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. Like I almost cried. It was really sweet. And you just know, at the end of the day, yes, they're competitors.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day, they want to play teams at their best and not their healthiest. It might be just the fact that there were so many great matchups. It might be how, know, UNLV like really tried to take that third set from TCU yesterday, really close, so close, went many extra points before TCU had the sweep. So there's a lot of really cool stuff happening. And I can't wait to see what else cool is going to be happening next week and weeks after.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I those those Creighton uniforms on Sunday were great. In fact, you know, they were good at the you know, one Creighton was playing well and two the uniforms were good when that was what former Creighton head coach Kirsten Burnsville Booth was tweeting about because they were really great. I will say I'll take anything from the Sanford Pentagon because it was just really fun to sit down for an afternoon and watch Arizona State against USC, followed immediately by Creighton, Minnesota. I know there were two sweeps, but it just felt like such high level volleyball that it didn't really matter to me that there are sweeps. I just it was really good volleyball for Ranked teams, Four completely different personalities.
Speaker 1:I will say this is a conversation for another day. But speaking of Bernthal Booth, she had a tweet also about wanting to see more fans travel. I felt that way in Sioux Falls, especially with its proximity to Omaha and to the Twin Cities to get more people that are able to traveling. And so what do we gotta do? But you know what?
Speaker 1:I just I I really just enjoyed being back in an arena and around the teams, and I got to hear an entire Arizona State volleyball team bark during opponent serve. So there was that. That was, you know, fun. I do want to get to the part that we promised. We talked about spikes under the lights.
Speaker 1:This is really important because as we're talking about growing the game, we do need to talk about things like travel. We need to talk about getting fans in venues. We need to talk about all of that, but we also need to talk about things like the inaugural spikes under the lights and what we saw from it. So before we get to our interview this week, which is an incredible one by Amy with Carrie Walsh Jennings, I wanna go back to something we were excited about from episode one, which was Spikes Under the Lights. The concept, undeniably cool.
Speaker 1:You have four major college volleyball programs and you put them inside of AT And T Stadium in Arlington. You put real money on the line. You're taking women's volleyball into this enormous venue, and you're saying the sport deserves something this big. Amy, you were there. You wrote about your experience afterwards.
Speaker 1:So just to kinda kick this off, how did you feel the event went just on the initial surface level?
Speaker 2:The concept was super cool, like volleyball and Jerry world, like the notion that volleyball would have been played in one of the cathedrals of professional football was just unbelievable to me. And I was really excited for everyone who got to go and got to play in the event. And then once we got there, it just didn't live up to what it could have been.
Speaker 1:I mean, it felt like everyone is in agreement. This was a really good idea that maybe just wasn't executed particularly well. Is that your perspective on it? Yeah,
Speaker 2:that's my thought on it for sure.
Speaker 1:So if we were asked like where the execution fell short specifically about how the event was run or maybe just like any pieces of it, what was your feedback from being in the space itself?
Speaker 2:So the execution fell short, literally everywhere, the communication from the event was lacking. They sent out two conflicting like practice schedules. So I missed all of Penn State's practice. The setup of the court was tough, all the way from like the sport court and being able to see the seams and like the bubbles in it, to the lighting, and the lack of video boards for players to see and match, like back back to the court for a second. Like that was unacceptable.
Speaker 2:Absolutely unacceptable. The lighting super unacceptable. Because it was different from serve and pass to the matches, like significantly so. The players like in the match, when they were going up to set the ball or going up to swing, they could not see where the ball was. I heard this from multiple people on multiple teams.
Speaker 2:And then because of the lack of scoreboard that was like visible to those on the field, like several players had no idea that it was set point or match point even. Like there was one point in Nebraska's first game that one of the players shouted over to the teams on the to her teammates on the bench to ask what the score was. That should
Speaker 1:I know. Yeah, watching on TV. I know Harper Harper Murray asked a couple of times, like turning to people asking and because they couldn't see what was happening. And we did see that on TV, which was notable that we could also witness that of asking because of the confusion. I I do wanna ask because I did watch it from home.
Speaker 1:But what was the experience like inside of the stadium?
Speaker 2:It was weird. The vibes were weird. There was no internal PA. Oh. So that was weird.
Speaker 2:The crowd did the best that it could, but the acoustics were weird and I don't think that's anybody's fault. And then the microphones in the rare instance that they were used mostly just for challenges or the MC in between like in timeouts, like that sounded really garbled to those on the floor. I can't speak to the experience of the people in like the actual stands that are the same stands for football. Maybe it sounded good out there. But on the floor, I couldn't understand anything that was being said.
Speaker 2:So maybe it was good. There was no internal PA because if I couldn't understand it, I don't know. Yeah, it was it was just really I,
Speaker 1:you know, I'm curious what you felt like in the environment because I I'm not surprising this anybody who watched from home, we can tell you this was not made for television. But did it feel like it was meant for television when you were in the arena? Because what like I said, watching from home, it did not feel like this was a television product. But I'm curious if like you were in the venue if you're like, maybe what? Maybe this is what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1:I'm curious what your thoughts are on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is what stumps me. As I was experiencing all of these things in person, I genuinely thought to myself, this is a made for TV event. So this makes sense. But then I heard a lot of feedback from people who are watching on TV.
Speaker 2:And they said the camera angles were tough, and had a lot of critiques about the broadcast itself. So I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:It was it was not the easiest to watch on TV. I'll be honest with you. I am curious because I don't want this just to become a dumping on spikes under the lights because there was absolutely ambition here. We're talking about women's volleyball being put in an NFL stadium with major television exposure and four nationally relevant programs participating. So what actually worked in this for you, Amy?
Speaker 1:The concept. The concept was sick. I will remember it forever. I stole a sign like a sign that they would throw away, right?
Speaker 2:Because we didn't have credentials and I like to keep credentials. Oh, that was another thing. Some of the credentials got lost. So we had wristbands, which is not great for security purposes, for sure with as popular as a lot of those athletes are. Yeah, need a little bit better on that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the event was super ambitious. And we love people who want to dream big. Like, that's John Cook's whole thing is dream big. And that's what this was. This was a very big dream.
Speaker 2:And then the prize pool, like we haven't talked about that a ton. We did a little bit. But what gets lost in the criticism here is that these women earned a lot of money for their programs. Like we cannot forget about that. That was super important.
Speaker 2:And I want to keep seeing those types of events for volleyball. I just want it to be done at an event that is ran well.
Speaker 1:So knowing that the concept is really, really cool. And the idea behind this has a ton of potential, Amy, if they called you tomorrow personally and said, we're doing this again next year. We'd like you to fix the things where we need to fix them. What are the first things you change?
Speaker 2:Can I say the company running the event So loud? I mean, can. So the organizers were out of their depth. I don't think they knew how to put on a sporting event. I don't know if they've put on a sporting event before, let alone a volleyball match.
Speaker 2:And I think getting a company that knows how to put on event like this would absolutely help with most of the critiques we have half of the critiques that we have, like the players era, for example, here in Las Vegas. Have they put on a volleyball match before? No. But they know what to expect from their basketball experience over the last few years, and they put on a really quality event. So I think that might be the solution.
Speaker 2:I don't think you're gonna fix everything like volleyball is not meant to be played in a football stadium. And so they're naturally going to be things that happen there. But I don't know, I just think that lessons were learned. And if we're going to do it again, the feedback needs to be taken into consideration. Because if not, who wants to play in a match where they can't see the ball when they're going to hit it?
Speaker 2:No one.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I agree. Wanting events like this to exist doesn't mean we shouldn't critique them when the execution doesn't match that ambition. If we believe women's volleyball deserves these kind of stages, and they absolutely do, we should also want those stages to showcase the sport as well as possible. And I think that brings us perfectly to our guest this week.
Speaker 1:While Amy was in Arlington, she had a chance to chat with somebody who has had a front row seat to the growth of volleyball for a long time and that is three time Olympic gold medalist Carrie Walsh Jennings. If you've been following us on social media, you've probably already seen a few pieces of this conversation because we've dropped some of those clips throughout the weekend. And if you haven't been following us, you should fix that. We're at Six Zone Duo on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Blue Sky, Twitter, Threads, you name it. And that is the number at so at the number six Zone Duo.
Speaker 1:We'll be sharing a lot more from the places we're going and the people that we're talking to throughout this season. But for now, here's Amy's conversation with Carrie Walsh Jennings.
Speaker 4:Okay. Just what is this like being here, taking it all in, watching, like, 40 some thousand people watching women's volleyball?
Speaker 3:You know, Amy, this is very, very special. You know, I as an athlete, I played on the biggest stage in the world in front of great crowds, I have never played in front of 50,000 people in Cowboys Stadium. So to see the fans show up, to see these athletes so early in their season already playing with the team and and putting on such a great pro show for the fans and for TV, This means so much. Mostly, it means so much because of the growth of the game. You know, when I played, it was big.
Speaker 3:It was important. This is next level big and important, and it's so entertaining.
Speaker 4:Why was it so important for you to wanna be here today?
Speaker 3:You know, the moment they announced this event, I'm like, I'm going. My team at MLB NorCal is like, we're going. It's important to see and to support people doing big important things. You know, this sport has given me everything. I started as an inner player and then moved to the beach, but I wanna go where people are audacious enough to say, let's make this dream come true of playing collegiate volleyball in Cowboys Stadium.
Speaker 3:This is incredible. And, also, I wanna learn. You know? I wanna learn how to put on a great event. I wanna scout these athletes, recruit these athletes to come to my my team at MLB NorCal.
Speaker 3:So it was, know, you it was like a three for one coming here.
Speaker 4:And this is just one of many massive events this year. I mean, Nebraska's heading straight to Vegas. So is Texas, TCU, UNLV, and then the big ten SEC challenge at Wrigley Field. Just could you have imagined anything like this back when you were playing college?
Speaker 3:No. You know, it's I don't think people they just we didn't think like this back in the day. You know? And I just think that the landscape of volleyball, the demand of volleyball, the popularity of NCAA volleyball, like, just allows people to think of these great events that move the needle forward for our sport generationally. You know?
Speaker 3:So, no, I never jumped this big. I'm glad that some people are dreaming this big, and I'm glad people are showing up for it because every event you every event you mentioned is so important. And the more people can show up and show up in person and and just keep showing up, like, events won't go away. You know? And it's more opportunities for the athletes, more opportunities for the fans to experience it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I mean, it wasn't that
Speaker 3:long ago that Nebraska had volleyball day in Nebraska. Was You were there? I was there.
Speaker 4:What what was that like for you just seeing that?
Speaker 3:So volleyball day in Nebraska, I had tears down my face the whole time. Like, it was so incredible, not only because there's 92,000 plus people watching volleyball, but mostly because the reverence that the Nebraska fans and everyone who showed up that they have for the game and for the athletes' former, you know, current future. It just meant so much to me because it's it's beautiful when you can tell people care so much and then the magic that comes from that. And I think volleyball day in Nebraska was the the tipping point for our sport, and now we're not going anywhere. So I'm so grateful for that day.
Speaker 4:Just to see and this is there's money attached to this. Yeah. There's money attached next week. Just the rise of, you know, opportunity for women to earn money playing this sport. Just I mean, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
Speaker 4:Just what does that mean to you as a trailblazer in this sport?
Speaker 3:You know, I just there's so much abundance in this world, and these women and, you know, NCAA collegiate student athletes deserve so much. And for me, I think the money is beautiful, but it's like the cherry on top of this amazing Sunday. You know? I love that they get a chance to compete at a very high level for an extended time. I love that the brands are supporting.
Speaker 3:I love that Fox just signed a 36 broadcast season. They're gonna they're gonna broadcast 36 collegiate games. That's a big deal. I love that ESPN is here. I love this.
Speaker 3:It's on broadcast TV. Like, those are the things that that make things so amazing, and the money on top of it. There's a cherry on top. That's a big cherry. That's a lot of money for these athletes in these programs, which I'm so grateful for.
Speaker 4:And ABC has carried the national championship. ABC has the years. Like, I don't know. It just feels like a pinch me
Speaker 3:moment every time I read a headline about just the growth of the sport. Yeah. You know, I I think I think one of the signifiers that the sport is doing well is is how the diversity of media that volleyball is on. You know, you mentioned the ABC, Fox, ESPN. You know, we just had and all the streaming devices, like, we're everywhere.
Speaker 3:And the more volleyball's on, it's just, you know, it just changes the game. So media has to come first, but we've been working a long time to have the media pay attention to us. Now these athletes are capitalizing, and it just makes me happy for them.
Speaker 4:What excites you about this upcoming year for your team?
Speaker 3:You know, Major League volleyball NorCal. So we're gonna be one of four expansion teams showing up in 2027 for Major League volleyball. Everything excites me. We have an amazing roster. We've signed 12 athletes.
Speaker 3:They are diverse. They're well rounded. They're hungry. They're gritty. And I'm here recruiting, you know, the future of this sport.
Speaker 3:But I'm excited to for all of the first that come along with a new franchise, you know, the the first home game, the first road trip, hopefully, first championship in year one. You know, that would be incredible. But more than anything, I'm excited to compete and to show the world what we're all about.
Speaker 4:And that goes right into the Olympics. I I can't believe it's almost here. Wow.
Speaker 3:Those four years go really fast between Olympics.
Speaker 4:They do. They do. And it's in LA, which is very special for you. Sure. Just what excites you about the opportunity as the growth of the game is leading into the Olympics in The United States?
Speaker 3:You know what's so interesting about the Olympic movement when you're an Olympic sport? Usually, the sport dies in the three years between games, excuse me, and then it it picks up for year four. But because of the rise of Major League volleyball, because of the the significance of NCAA collegiate volleyball, there is no lull between Olympic games. And so what I'm looking forward to is the great momentum that our sport has going into the games. It'll be like a tsunami of support and awareness and new fandom, and then we can take on those new fans and new awareness into Major League volleyball and to grind the game even more, which only inspires the next generation more.
Speaker 3:You know? There there are so many amazing benefits for the Olympic games, you know, happening in America, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Welcome back. That was Amy's conversation with three time Olympic gold medalist Carrie Walsh Jennings. Again, we'll have more from that interview and everything else we're doing this season season across all of our social channels. You can find us at Six Zone Duo pretty much everywhere, including, like, if you wanna see Amy's incredible video of Lexi Rodriguez, one goat talking to Tom Brady, another goat, that is on our social channels. So please come follow us.
Speaker 1:We would love to have you. But before we get you out of here for the week, but again, you're gonna go follow us on social media. So it's not a one and done thing. You're gonna still be talking with us elsewhere. Still, the last thing, Amy, what are you watching this week?
Speaker 2:To backtrack a little bit, I did want to thank the event organizers and the PR people that were running spikes under the lights for helping me set up that interview with Carrie Walsh Jennings. It doesn't happen without them. I know they had a tough week last week dealing with a lot of complaints, but I want to give them their flowers for helping connect me with her. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:The thing I'm watching this week, it's Chicago. Absolutely Chicago. I think that's your answer too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fine. We're in agreement. It's fine.
Speaker 2:100%. It's totally fine. I am so excited about all of it. Again, it's volleyball outdoors, which poses risks, right? Poses risks.
Speaker 2:But if it goes off, as intended, it's gonna be a very, very memorable day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I took Chicago too. I said maybe it's cheating because I'm picking the entire weekend. But Nebraska has DePaul at Win Trust Arena on Friday. Then Sunday is the Big Ten SEC volleyball challenge doubleheader at Wrigley. So you have Penn State playing Kentucky in the first match, followed by Nebraska playing Missouri in the second.
Speaker 1:Penn State Kentucky is already a really good matchup on its own. Then Nebraska gets Missouri. Bring back the days of the big twelve and big eight. Bring back those days. But honestly, after everything we talked about with spikes under the lights and these big showcase events, I think I'm also just really interested in the event itself.
Speaker 1:There are pieces that event organizers they are planning for, but they can't predict and one is weather. And that is something we have to keep an eye on. There is a chance of rain on Sunday. Not to like not to scare anyone, but there is a chance. So, you know, this is the first time volleyball will have ever been played in Wrigley Field at Wrigley Field.
Speaker 1:And we that means we'll watch it go from AT And T Stadium, T Mobile Arena to the Sanford Pentagon Memorial Stadium. People keep adding more and more of these big time venues. And it's like, what's the next thing? What's next really truly at this point? I'm just excited to see what it like, what the atmosphere looks like.
Speaker 1:What does the crowd how does the crowd translate in that space? How does an outdoor baseball stadium work for volleyball? And does the weather is the weather kind to us or not? But there are also just really good matchups happening as we're figuring that all out. So it makes sense that I think we're both talking about Chicago.
Speaker 1:So we'll be there, both Amy and I. We will certainly report back. I, Amy, before we get out of here, any final thoughts for this week?
Speaker 2:I hope to get home safely. I hope to. Me too. It's yeah. It's gonna be a wild week.
Speaker 2:And I just I can't wait for all of it. Outside of Wrigley, there's a lot of really cool stuff that's going to be happening this week all across the country with more premier volleyball matchups. I cannot wait.
Speaker 1:I will say I am I want you to get home safely too because I miss you in the black and red padded room that only people who are watching on YouTube will be able to see. But I just I miss having you here in this checkerboard room with me
Speaker 2:listener viewer person that words are hard today said it looked like Legos and now I can't unsee it.
Speaker 1:I love it Legos sponsor us. That would be sick. Make him volleyball Lego. That would be cool. I I just I missed.
Speaker 1:We're excited. We're going to be recording in person at Wrigley Field next week, so we're really, really excited about that. So just stay tuned with us. Yeah, no weather. But for now that's going to be it for us this week.
Speaker 1:A huge thank you to Carrie Walsh Dennings for spending some time with Amy and to the event organizers and everyone who made that possible. That is a really, really good flag and note And I thank you as always to Home Field for being the presenting sponsor of Six Zone Duo. If you're enjoying the show, please make sure you've subscribed wherever you listen to pod wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. You can also give us a rating if you like it. That would be really kind.
Speaker 1:Five stars is really, really kind. And we'd love it if you come hang out with us on social media. We're at Six Zone Duo on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Blue Sky, Twitter, Thread. And we'll be posting throughout the week and into the weekend in Chicago, and we wanna hear from you. Send your questions to podcast@6ZoneDuo.com.
Speaker 1:It can be something about what we're seeing in the court, happening around the sport, whatever. You can also just follow Craig's lead and ask us something that is just we could just solve the entire future economic structure of college volleyball on the show, but we'll take any and all of the above. Amy, I'm getting I'm passing the final word to you.
Speaker 2:Just like last week. Hell yeah, brother. Let's go.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, brother. That's becoming the tagline for the show. Thanks everyone requesting merch. Maybe that'll happen Yes. To show in the
Speaker 2:Merch.
Speaker 1:For Amy, merch. Merch. Merch. For Amy Just, I'm Erin Sorenson. This is Six Zone Duo.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being so kind and welcoming us into your lives. We will see you next week.
