Latest / Set 6: The Official MLV Podcast / Episode 004 | Tristin Savage and the Dallas Pulse win the Million
Transcript
- Mike Moline: It's just a normal game. And I was thinking that almost so hard the whole time that when the point did end, I was like, wait, we actually just won and it wasn't a normal game and it was the championship game and we won. What's going on everybody? Welcome to the Set 6 podcast. I'm your host Severin Lavinstein. This is episode 4 where we are so excited to talk to MLV champion Tristan Savage today. But first, know, a couple of things to get to up top. If you haven't listened to episode 3, please go do so. I know we're in the aftermath. That's really what this episode is. The aftermath of the match for a million and ⁓ what an incredible week it was leading up to the MLV championship and... ⁓ my gosh, I mean, so many emotions, right from the content staff from behind the scenes. It's tires is one if that's an emotion, but also just really grateful for what I think was a fantastic event. What I think was really such a great showcase of the sport. And that sounds very, ⁓ I don't know, grandiose, I guess is the big word that I'll use for that one. But it just sounds sounds like that's a lot. But truly, you know, just watching it, the level of competition, the Absolute show out from the stars in this league and and you know, think each match really showed I mean not only just the the quality but it was great volleyball That's really what I think and hopefully you feel the same way but you can tell I'm already so excited to talk about the match We have some other things to talk about first. Also, however, you may be listening to us as always. Thank you much appreciated whether that's Apple Spotify or YouTube and I've seen the YouTube numbers to the first three weeks. Thank you very much. I love to see the growth there. Please. What is the saying that Pat McAfee says? I think it's be a friend, tell a friend, please share the podcast, continue to do so. And it was so great to hear from the people who came up and mentioned something about listening to the podcast during the week in Frisco. Just can't thank you enough and much appreciated. Please keep those numbers going. We love it. Thank you to the team operations up top. You know, I don't even want to wait till the end for that. These episodes don't happen unless we get some fantastic coordination from the people on the teams who Help us talk to people like Tristan that you'll hear from today, but also all week, they have a lot to do and they provide the access to the athletes so that we can have them speak through us to you. So a huge thank you to the team operations staffs from all the teams, not just the winners. We really can't thank them enough. And then congrats to Dallas, know, got to say just what an amazing season just from Dallas to go from being the start of. their entire franchise and getting really an organizational identity and you'll hear Tristan talk about it a little bit, but just it was great to talk to Shannon too and from, you know, I'm sure some of their players were probably sick of us talking to them so much throughout the stretch run to the season, but the identity that they built and going from a little bit of kind of an underdogs to champions, I think is such a great story. So that was just a great. a great capper to the season, I think, to see it be Dallas and just with how their team structure morphed into becoming the 2026 champion was great. And so you'll hear more for that from Tristan, not too much to get to before we get to Tristan, but just a couple of things to kind of fill in about the week a little from behind the scenes. First, talked about the content day, a huge shout out to Every Point Matters, which was one of the... content teams that we had there helping us out. thought they got some tremendous content. ⁓ They handled the media day and the media stuff with such great class and ⁓ great ideas. mean, just even they had, brought sheets with them, for example, so we had the still station and they did individual sheets per teams of the, it's kind of like the color of the team, but not really. And you can see it in those, in those, ⁓ me content a photos and I say not really that's not accurate like they are the colors but it's kind of just a subtle nod to the color of the team like it's not a team branded drape and people are like this is boring what are you talking about but I just thought little subtle references like that were just attention to detail that they had they even had one station two that was sort of like a it's kind like a live mirror I think is what they called it which I thought was just ⁓ genius again to And then for our purposes, just being over and having a podcast set up and being able to do that live podcast, that was so great. And so from content day, then eventually we went into awards and what an awesome award show that was. ⁓ So much fun. Indie, Indie Ignite, they cleaned up. was ⁓ Mia, MVP and Setter of the Year. Of course, coach Lauren Bertolacci, Coach of the Year. Lydia Martin, Middle Blocker of the Year. Elena Scott, Lavera of the year, Ajani Teeler, opposite of the year, excuse me. And then Dallas having Mimi be the outside hitter of the year. ⁓ Omaha, Kiara, Reinhart, Rising Star, and of course, Iko Jones, most inspirational, all well-deserved. just hearing the athletes go up to the stage and speak was... I also well spoken and I thought had great messages and and that was a great event to lead into the the final match. So that was a lot of fun. I had a blast on the red carpet. ⁓ Quick story time. I got to meet some of the ownership from the new NorCal team that we'll be getting and I got to meet Zaza Petulia who is a former NBA player and who I get starstruck over is weird. I don't know, there's no rhyme or reason to it really, but so the quick story time is Heather from NorCal asked me, know, do you know who Zaza is? And I was like, of course I know who he is. He was in the first NBA video game that I ever played. I believe at that time he was on the Atlanta Hawks and I love to play with the Hawks. had like Joe Johnson and I think it was Josh Smith. And when Zaza came in, he was a rebounding machine in the video game. And I used to, was NBA Live 09. And ⁓ yeah, so it was just so weird to, you know, then there he is, was saying he's a friend of the podcast listens to the podcast. So we loved that, but he got to shake his hand and his hand just engulfed mine. And that is the difference between, yeah, just a professional, a former professional ⁓ athlete of his height and then me. So that was, that was great. Very, very cool to meet him and hopefully we'll be. able to do more with him and also the NorCal group there. They've been so fantastic from being able to talk to them soon. ⁓ And then I got to work with Jordan Lucas this week. He was tremendous, such a great guy. He's still very down to earth ⁓ with his new stardom. I hope that he keeps that, but he was great to work with, had some great ideas. Truly a fan of the volleyball that was going on and he absolutely killed it on the red carpet too. Jordan was great to work with, loved to chat with him. And Jordan, if you're listening, thank you for being so great to work with, appreciate that. Got to work with Madison Fitzpatrick. We love Madison, she's great. You know her, I got to be her cameraman on the red carpet, which was fun. And I think anybody who's a fan of Madison knows that she presents exactly as she is away from the camera, but just the nicest person ever. so, just so great to. get to work with her. We're usually kind of on different sides. Obviously she's got the broadcast stuff and you know, being the big shot on ESPN and all that, but and being sidelines for Ion for the championship. But it was really cool to kind of cross paths with her in that professional setting a little bit more than just kind of saying hi at the desk. So Very appreciative. Madison's the best. So love that. And then you just again, getting a chat with the people that came up to us at awards, got to talk to GMP and doc of ⁓ the major league minute podcast. They were awesome. Love to talk to them. ⁓ Got to talk to the court captains love their podcasts as well. And had a great talk with Grant Hanson from the Omaha radio call. Just so many great people, ⁓ not necessarily that are the players on the court, but you who are also in the media landscape. around our ⁓ great league and just had a lot of fun on the red carpet and in the awards ⁓ ceremony, being able to chat with them. So that was a lot of fun. So thank you to everybody who I got to talk to. Some quick thoughts on the match. Again, I know you're itching to get to Tristan. Time code's below if you want to skip ahead, but just some quick match thoughts before we get there. ⁓ What a match. I thought the block presence of Dallas was amazing. You know the story where Lane goes out. you know, earlier in the season and still we got to talk to her on the last episode. She's still like at the top of all of the metrics that she was leading before the time that she went out. And you just know how big of an impact she was having this year. All-star as well and, you know, unfortunate that that injury happened. ⁓ But the block presence of Dallas to me was so just surprising is the wrong word because Dallas fans are looking at me like, yeah, you idiot. Like we were good at blocking the whole year, but I thought of them as the offensive team. think a lot of us did. You got Mimi and Sophia and Kaylee Cox was having an amazing end to the season. I've said amazing way too many times already, but I'm trying to think of other adjectives as we go. She was coming into her own with ⁓ some great hitting percentage numbers, and especially in the semis, she got the chain and we got to talk to her after the match. So needless to say, Dallas was having that offensive impact. And then you get to this championship match. First off in the semis, Tristan has eight blocks. And then you get to this, they had six blocks as a team by the second set. And you were just thinking, wow, they can really read this Omaha attack. Well, an Omaha attack that we know is so varied. And before I go any further, just a tremendous shout out to Omaha. I don't think anybody thought in the middle of the season when they make the coaching change and they make the change, et cetera, that we were gonna see Omaha in the final. ⁓ To upset Indy and to ride that momentum like Merritt Beeson told us and to be able to weather the storm there Absolutely, just what a championship caliber effort from them to even get to the match and and I loved the the the presence that that Thomas Robson had and you can tell he's having fun with his team and you were tell that they were a ⁓ close-knit group so, you know want to make sure I give them their flowers before we continue to talk about Dallas and a huge shout out to their staff. They were so kind and helpful to us on the media side throughout the entire entire season as well. But, ⁓ you know, just back to Dallas, like talking to Sophia, she said she wanted to bring that energy to lift everybody up. And I think, you know, for me, reading between the lines, I wonder if they were a little nervous after that first set of like, ⁓ no, we got to kind of steady the ship a little bit. And then the second and third sets, you just knew, okay, this is this is a pretty pretty formidable opponent in Dallas once they kind of figured out where they needed to set the ball and it figured out that that that figuring it out ended up being to Sophia who I think off the top of my head was like 26 kills in this final MVP performance which was incredible and also you know a huge huge thoughts and prayers and shout out to hopefully the speedy recovery for Janice Liao who that was a tough injury to watch and a credit to Omaha for being able to rally from after that happened. They could easily have not answered after that unfortunate situation happened, but they stayed in the match and it was great to see Janice come back out to the sideline as well to finish watching too. But yeah, all of this to say, my rambling is to say that I think it was an incredible final performance and Dallas really came into their own and just it was incredible. So those are my thoughts. didn't come here for that. You came here to hear from Tristan Savage. And if I can just set up table one final time. Tristan has been one of my favorite people to talk to this whole season. We set up this podcast to tell you more about who these athletes are away from the court. And I think, you know, I hope that you have as much of a blast with this as I did, because Tristan is exactly, I think this interview just what we want to show you just more of who this athlete is that so that hopefully you become just as much of a fan of who they are off the court that it makes you even more of fan of them on the court. So with that said, here's our conversation with Tristan Savage, 2026 MLV champion, Tristan Savage. Tristan Savage, welcome to the Set Six podcast. Tristan, I want to start with two things. One is congratulating you on being a 2026 MLV champion. The second thing that I want to do is apologize for almost taking you away from the celebration at the end because my timing was so poor, but we ended up getting you to celebrating with your team, which was right on time. So I'm glad that we got you to where you needed to be. Yeah, thank you. I'm happy that we are able to talk now since we had to cut it so short, but all the girls were screaming at me wanting a picture. So I had to hurry up and go do that. We got you to the right time. was the best ending to an interview I think I've ever had. So it ended up working out. But what is the whole last week been like for you as a champion? Tell us. It's been, same as I said in the interview, unreal. I think it still hasn't sat in that we won. I actually, I feel like I'm just visiting at home and waiting to go back to practice and like... see my girls and like we were just texting in group chat today. I miss everybody. Where is everybody? I can't believe that we're like not getting back into practice together like tomorrow. So it's kind of it's like I'm super happy because we won but I'm also like so sad that everything just ended and I don't get to be around like my girls anymore. This is the best group of girls I've ever played with so it's I've never felt like, ⁓ I'm so sad season ending and I don't get to be with my girls anymore. And like, I want to celebrate with them more than just like the couple of days that I did. And, but everybody's like spread apart. So it's like, I'm super happy, but I'm also sad at the same time. But. So there was no celebration tour around Frisco with the trophy, you know, going to different fun places, nothing like that. No, there wasn't. I actually. Left home, left for home the next day, but don't worry. We celebrated quite a bit that night. It's kind of a rough flight home as you can imagine. Where is home for you currently in this? Los Angeles. So I'm back there. All right. Perfect. So you and I are just to drive up the freeway. I'm in Anaheim. So that's perfect. We're both back on the East coast or the West coast. I can tell you too, was a rough flight for me too. It was really early in the morning, but I think you all had a lot more fun before your flight, definitely. ⁓ So that's great. Well, I'll have to get some of the best LA food spots from you towards the end. But I saw on the broadcast that it was almost a little bit like you all didn't know that you had the final point yet. And then what was that moment of realization like when you realized, okay, this is it. We got it. We are now champions. I think I like, it's so weird because the whole game I was just thinking, just treat it like a normal game. We've played them before. It's okay. Like this isn't the championship match. It's just a normal game. And I was thinking that almost so hard the whole time that when the point did end, I was like, wait, we actually just won and it wasn't a normal game and it was the championship game and we won. Like we're done. And it was so unreal. That my mind, was just so, this is a normal game. It's fine. It's not the championship. And then we won and my mouth with like my jaw was on the floor. I was like, no, it wasn't a normal game. Like this was it. This was like what we've been working towards all season. And we did that. So it was just so unreal. that's, you'll hear me say it so many times. It's just so unreal. I'm curious if there is a reason, like why was this group so tight knit for you? What was it about? being together with this Dallas Pulse team that allowed you all to become so close. Because, you know, we talked about the start of the season, you know, no one really knows what to expect. First year, the Dallas Pulse, you all come together to be part of this inaugural team, and then you take it all the way. But like you said, it's a special group. And how did that come to be? Well, it came to be through Shannon and the staff. I know that they were wanting to build a group, a good group of girls. So and they truly did that. It was the best personalities. We all wanted to hang out with each other all the time. So it almost made us have each other's backs more on the court. ⁓ I think another part of it is we all bought into the same thing. From the very beginning, we sat down, we had multiple meetings like with Shannon as a team talking about what we want, how we're going to achieve that. And I feel like we all bought in every single person on the team bought into what we wanted, what was expected from each other. And we did it in a way that was still loving. And I just love these girls. Like we all bought in and we all were kind and great people. It was really fun to be a part of this team. Is the Dallas Polls group chat going to continue for the 2026 group chat going to continue after this season where you get to stay connected with everybody? I really hope so. We're still all texting in it. Usually after see all the other teams that I've been on after season ends, everybody leaves the group chat. Nobody talks anymore. We're all like sending pictures of the stuff we've been buying. I hope the group chat sticks around for a while. Tristan, let's talk about the match a little bit from your perspective. I mean, I talked to Sophia after the match and she said there were a lot of ups and downs. What can you provide more clarity to that? And did it kind of, I guess I'll rephrase it to did the match go the way you thought like it was a five set tough match like Did that kind of go the way you expected going in? Honestly, no. I think the first set kind of like hit me where I was like, okay, same, mindset of trying to like be like, this is a normal game. It's fine. Don't, don't freak out. Just if you play the way you normally do, everything will be okay. ⁓ and I think everybody was kind of feeling at the first match like, ⁓ okay, wait. this isn't a normal game, this is championship, like we need to have this like certain standard and if we don't then it's not be good. I was expecting go out there, just be normal volleyball and then I went out there and I was like, ⁓ no, I'm a little, I'm nervous. Sorry, you You didn't play nervous at all. mean, you played fantastic. mean, you follow up, I think it was what, eight blocks in the semis to, I think it was, was it seven blocks in the championship. I mean, you didn't play nervous at all and you also contributed to an amazing defensive presence in that match. What was it? I ask a lot and I know it's such a tough question to answer of like what let you have such a great defensive match? But I mean, you must have been felt ready to go and ready to almost read their attacks in the way that you were just able to have such a great match. Yeah, I think I owe a lot of that because I'm just a... anxious person, so I get nervous easily. It doesn't even have to be a championship match. But something that I will say that really helped me this year in general is V, our strength coach. She has us do these meditations before games where we meditate and we work on breath work. And I actually, when I was feeling that, I think around, I think it was the third set, or it could be the second. I, it was when Natalia said, you know, we all just need to do our individual things. And I just thought back to the breath work that V has us do and how much it helps me like focus on what I want and like my outcome and how I want to play good and how, what it like to play good. So I actually ended up doing that just by myself in the sideline and that helped me out so much. And it's definitely something I'm going to continue to do. ⁓ but that really helps me in my play is just taking a second, praying, meditating, doing my breath work. And it helps me go in there, like go out back on the court, be able to walk in and do what I want without necessarily thinking about it too much, you know, if that makes sense. Tristan, we talked about that third set. I that was an avalanche of points. Was that the turning point? in the match where you all, know, after you get through the meditations and the praying and the breath work for you, you're just kind of like, ⁓ okay, now, now we're kind of in control. Yeah, I definitely was, I had that feeling of, all right, we're going to win. I, I was like, this is, we're all locked in, all doing exactly what we want to be doing. I just felt it in my heart. I was like, we are, we're going to do this thing. And I was excited, but I was trying to, you know, bring my, we always on the team, we talk about staying here and not getting too high or getting too low. So I really, I just wanted to stay there and be like, it's not over yet. I still have a job to do, but we're going to win. And so the whole time I was like, Tristan, you can be like, F yeah, we're going to win, but you need to stay here. ⁓ But yeah, the third size when I was. I was pretty locked in at that point. Tristan, just tell me more about the team. I guess the identity and how it changed from the season, know, chatting with Shannon, it was kind of like that underdog mentality seemed like it was there throughout a lot of the season. And then, I don't know, I'm curious, like from my standpoint, it looked like you really changed from a team that was very comfortable in its offensive identity to being almost a defensive juggernaut in the postseason. And obviously still with the amazing offensive of everybody on your team, but that defense really came into its own. that, was that ⁓ team identity? that kind of a, big word, will be amorphous, you know, was that an amorphous team identity throughout the whole season? Yeah, I think we had, so we always had our like core values that we established in the beginning, but team wise, one of the big things that Shannon always talked about at practice was she didn't want to be a team that just stayed the same all season. She wanted to get better every week. And so that was kind of one of our goals, whether it was offensively or defensively, she wanted something of our team to be better. And especially towards the end, she wanted us to be better blocking wise on the defense. And that's what we worked on. We worked on it. pretty much that whole week leading up to the semi-finals and the championship was blocking and how that was going to get our team that next step. Even though we only have a week left of season, Shannon wanted us to have, to be even better that last week than all the other weeks. And so I think having that mindset really helps the team grow instead of thinking like, ⁓ this is our team. This is how it's going to be. We're just going to work on, you know, even offensively with our attacking, we're really good. But every week she was like, no, we need to be better. We need to be better offensively. We need to work on these tips, hitting off the block, hitting these shots, even though we have powerhouse hitters that sometimes don't necessarily need, you know, that tip shot when they can put the ball straight down. But she wanted everybody to get better every single week. So I think that's how we grew, offensively, defensively, is just having that mindset. And having a, she always wrote on the board, having a championship mindset when you come to practice. So it's kind of, it's nice, even if you're having a bad day, you can look at the board and be like, okay, this is why we're here and we're here to get better. And so when the game does come, We already know what to do. sorry, that's a lot. I talk so much. that's what we want you talking. Absolutely. Everybody wants to hear from you, not from me. No, no, no. We love all of it. Please keep going. Tristan, hopefully something you can tell us more about is one of the other sayings I heard was, pardon me if I butcher it, but I believe it was, make history, leave your mark. What did that mean? And correct me if I have it wrong. No, no, you're right. What does it mean? that what's the question? as one of Shannon's sayings, what was the message behind that? Expand on it if you could. I think it was, well, I know it was. It's because we're the underdogs and nobody expected us to do as good as we did this season. And we started off ranked so low and we came out thinking, you know what, we're going to prove. who we are as a team and what we can do. And we're going to make our mark in history, like being the first team in Dallas and being an extension team. We want to prove that that doesn't mean that we're not going to be like as good as everybody else and that we can, you know, we can play with the big dogs. I think it means, you know, what it says, we're going to make our mark on the Dallas, you know, Pulse history. And we did. It's a two-parter here. How did the team rally and then how did you rally from losing Lane at part of the season and just how that changed everything? That was so hard. I think it was so hard because we expected Lane to be with us to the finals and she, you know, she was a big part of our offense and our defense. She's an insane player. ⁓ But I think. I was able, I tell Lane this and I don't know if she thinks it's embarrassing or she thinks it's actually cool. But I've told her that when I'm out there playing and especially in the championship and the finals, I think to myself, play like Lane. Because she's so good and I feel like she's so nonchalant about the way that she plays. And it makes her better because she's not overthinking things. She's just going out there and she's just doing it because that's who Lane is. And so I told her after everything, I was like, just to let you know, when I go out there and play, think play like Lane. And it honestly helps me so much. But yeah, I know the whole team really missed her this year. And I think a lot of us were thinking, we got to win this for Lane. ⁓ And a lot of us said that as soon as she went down, we were like, all right, now we have to win this thing. Tristan, one more question about this amazing season before we talk a little bit more about you. What do you want, you know, maybe five years from now, 10 years from now in the history of MLV champions, what do you want people to remember about the 2026 Dallas Pulse team? I think that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. and hard work doesn't go unnoticed and that's exactly what our team did. ⁓ nobody thought that we were going to do what we did, but with hard work and a lot of team time, we were able to do it. I think. So many people say this, but hard work beats talent. had a lot of talent in our team, but we also had so much hard work and those being side by side just. That's what made us win. So working hard and being together and unity. That's what we say all the time is unity. Stay together as a team, do it for the team. If you don't want to do something, but it's going to benefit the team, you do it. So I think looking back on it, I hope people will remember that working hard and staying united, a united front and that the team is above Not everything else, of course, there's God and family, but the team, you are there to be as a team and work together towards this goal. So I hope people look at us and they realize how much work went into our team and us doing this. Tristan, let's talk more about you and your history playing volleyball and how we got here for you. I've seen that you played in Greece. Puerto Rico and France as the teams prior to being here with Dallas. ⁓ Tell us your favorite memories from playing on those teams and then also just the differences in playing internationally compared to playing in the MLB. Well, my favorite place would have to be Puerto Rico. ⁓ Everybody in Puerto Rico knows that because I always talk about how much I loved it there. Europe in general is really hard. It's going overseas, like away from your friends, your family, everybody for nine months. It was definitely something I didn't want to do. was my first year and it was really rough. Looking back on it now, I don't think it was as rough as I thought it was like in the moment. But it because I was a baby and it was my first time like being away from literally everybody. And I was like, okay, I can't do this again. I'm going to retire. And then I went to Puerto Rico and I was like, okay, maybe I can keep playing volleyball. I really like this. And then I made the decision to go to Greece and ⁓ my goodness, Greece was... I don't know if a lot of people know, but I got married recently. So I got married in June last year. So I basically got married end of June and then I left for Greece in August, August 1st. And I, that was so hard. I do not recommend leaving your fresh husband for nine months. I thought I could do it because we'd done it before. He played professional basketball for five years. So we've done it before. And so was like, okay, we can do this. Being married is completely different story, okay? I it was... I was like, no, this is so sad. But it was beautiful. Greece is beautiful. I don't know if you've ever been there, but the food is insane. It's beautiful. It's so cool. I'm just saying it's not my favorite place because if you've ever... Whoever has played in Greece, you know why it's not gonna be your favorite place. But... So after, like, December hit... I was, really wanted to go home. ⁓ I, lot of stuff happened, but I could not be there anymore. And. My agent, Hey, can you give me all this contract? He was like, do you know what my agent is the best out there? ⁓ And he was like, do you want, yes, I can. It's like, okay, I don't know how you're going to do this, but thank you. He gets me out of my contract. I'm like, I'm going to retire. It's fine. It's going to be really hard to get on another team. And I just need to be with my husband. I'm going to retire. It's whatever. I just need to be with my husband. Then the Dallas Poles contacted me as my plan landed from Greece saying that they wanted me on the team. And I just saw it as like a sign from God that I needed to keep playing, that there's bigger things ahead for me and my story in volleyball wasn't over. And I was like, okay, I guess I'm going to Dallas. So I think at the end of the day, I'm going to take back the Puerto Rico. Sorry guys, love you. But I'll say Dallas. Dallas is my favorite place that I've played. Wow. We've heard it here first. Complete change to her favorite spot. was going to say, Greece is the one place I haven't been to. I can relate a little bit to Puerto Rico and to, at least I've been to Paris, but not much else in France. But I mean, you said Dallas now, so I've been there. So there we go. Dallas, a big reason why Dallas is one of my favorite places is I think it was the biggest pull I've felt from God to go somewhere. And I'm just, I'm so grateful. So Dallas, thank you. So we've covered the pro stops and then college was UCLA. were your favorite things about, obviously SoCal left a mark on you as well, but you know, just being at UCLA and just the whole Southern California experience. I honestly didn't have the best college experience, I would say. ⁓ I went there as like a red shirt and then kind of just got put on the back burner. And you know, that happens a lot. And back when I played, I feel really old. I know I'm not that old yet, but it makes me think like thinking about, you know, back then, but because transferring wasn't really that big of a thing. It was still like you stay loyal. You don't really transfer. I'm happy now that people feel a lot more comfortable transferring. ⁓ But that was just something that you didn't really do as much. And I was there. And I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot, but I wasn't fulfilled when it came to volleyball. I wouldn't change it for the world. I lived in California. It was the best life. I was so close to the beach. Like I met my husband here. it was clearly I love California. I'm still here. But you I would say volleyball wise, wasn't super fulfilled in college. I actually was also going to retire after college and I had to get shoulder surgery because my shoulders messed up. And after I got shoulder surgery, I remember two weeks after post my, my surgeon was like, so when are you going back? When are you going to go play pro? And I was like, no, this is like it for me. And he was like, you. why wouldn't you if you had the opportunity to do that? And I was thinking about it I was like, you know what? My volleyball story isn't over. And if I feel unfulfilled now, then I'm just going to keep feeling unfulfilled. And so that's kind of what made me go overseas. I got a desk job and everything. I was after college. I was working at a desk. And I was like, man, this is crazy that I could be playing. you know, volleyball right now. I think it's just so crazy how God works. Sorry, I've like got off the topic of what No, it's okay. I was just going to add that you had a brief stint of being a NARP. The non-athletic regular person. I did. And I didn't know what to do with myself. It was so weird. It's also weird because I'm so like, this is so random, but because I'm so like tall and I've been around athletes like my whole, my whole life. And then going into the normal world, I was like, ⁓ my God, I'm so tall. ⁓ I'm just not tall in the volleyball world. No, I'm huge compared to other people. And so I'm working in this office and I'm just, yeah. But it's just funny. It's so funny. Head is just poking out over the cubicle. Yes, exactly. And it's like, making eye contact with every single person. I'm like, I'm not supposed to be able to do that. That's a great image. Oh man, when you do finally hang it up and we have the pictures from every part of your career, I hope there's one of just you in the office before you went overseas, just in the line of pictures of where you were at at each stop in your career. That's so funny. Oh man. And thank you for adding that too, because I think that... It's so great to listen to athletes talk about how they still keep their motivations through struggles to play, it's not always easy to keep the career going. So hopefully that's inspiring to people who listen to that, because ⁓ it just sounds like you've always been so in touch with when you know you need to or you want to keep your career going. And I think that's incredibly inspiring. Tristan, something I've been dying to talk to you about ever since I read that you did this, because There's a little bit of crossover, although I'm willing to bet that you did it a much higher level than I ever did. But please tell me more about your ⁓ equestrian experience in high school. My gosh, that's so funny. I did not know where you were going to go with that. And I was a little scared, but I tried to bury the lead a little bit. Equestrian. Okay. Yeah. So not a lot of people know this, but I did grow up very different than California. I grew up. Small town girl. It's gotten bigger now. Every time I go home, I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm stuck. But I grew up very small town, rode horses. ⁓ I showed in reigning cow horse. don't know a lot of people are gonna know what that is. I also did barrels and poles and all like the speed event. Not like Western pleasure. It's a little different. ⁓ But, and I was pretty good at it. I'm on a lot of stuff. ⁓ But the O set is the Oregon high school equestrian team. And that is, I did do that. I wasn't as good as that, as I was as reigning in cow horse. But my dad and my family, like they still have horses. They used to breed horses. So I grew up, you know, very country riding my horses, working on the farm, all that kind of stuff. Horses are really hard to take care of. ⁓ So I don't know if I would get one here, but if I could work around horses or like in the equestrian field or animals in general, I would love that. Especially if I can stay in LA and do that, that would be a dream after volleyball, if I could do that. Or maybe even do both because season is, you know, it's short enough that I can do stuff like that in the off season. And then still play volleyball, which is such a blessing that we're able to do that. Sounds like a plan. Sounds like a good plan. What was your, what was your favorite event out of all of the events that you competed in? ⁓ my gosh. My favorite. Probably raining. I really liked raining. It was that's what I grew up doing ⁓ The like speed events were new. I just did that in high school ⁓ and I did that because my dad wouldn't let me use our expensive raining horse for Oset so I just got like a cheap event horse and Did that in high school? But which fair enough I understand dad Don't hold it against you. But raining was my favorite. ⁓ I did, that was my favorite. This poor cheap event horse, like they have a name probably, they just were trying their best, right? Yeah, his name is Danny, he was a little bit of a s***head, not gonna lie. Bucked me off quite a few times. ⁓ my gosh, did you ever have any like bad injuries from falls? ⁓ Honestly, not, nothing like... I've had like horses step on me and stuff, but it never caused anything like brutal. And I think a lot of the times when I like fell off, I was just being stupid. Like riding around with the noble, like no head gear, no saddle or anything, just like hoping the horse will take care of me. And then I would just fall off. But no, no serious injuries. Thank goodness because so many people do. So I'm very grateful that for how stupid I was, I never got injured. Like me and my friends would do very stupid things on horses. And we never got. Good. If Danny was not the favorite, did you have a favorite horse that you either, you know, rode in Oregon at any point? Yeah. So my expensive reigning horse, her name's Star. ⁓ She's retired now, but she was definitely my favorite. We can make everybody happy and move on to a different topic, which is just now that we're in the off season. What does that look like for you? Do you get a chance for any kind of vacation at all? Any recharging? ⁓ When does your off season program, if any, start? Just what does the off season look like for you? Off season for me, looks like two weeks of not doing anything. And then I'm going to get back into weightlifting and staying in shape. My biggest fear or the thing I hate most is when you're out of shape and you're trying to get back into shape. Like especially cardio shape. So I try and stay in cardio shape as much as possible at all times. It is just horrible. I hate to get back into cardio shape. It hurts. It sucks. You want to die. So I try to avoid that. ⁓ So I stay up on my cardio, but yeah, I'm gonna take a little bit of time to just chill out, let my body recover. Because for me, I mean, I was in Greece before this, so I've been playing volleyball for like 10 months. So I'm gonna take a break, let my body be happy. And then, I don't know, I think I'm gonna coach a little bit. I'm gonna play, I'll play in six man. I'll, you know, be... I don't want to say like a housewife, but essentially that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be working out, coaching, cooking food. I got to go to Costco after this. Like I'm just going to be living the life until I can start training again. I'm like, want to play some more and I don't know what I'm going to do. So I need to find some open gyms and maybe I'll reach out to UCLA or something and be like, Hey. Can you please let me use your gym because I need to touch a volleyball. I'm like feeny and it's only been a couple days. So I'm going to need... I feel like if I see you at Six Man, it's just going to be like the scene in Batman at the end, know, the Chris Nolan one where I'll just give you like a little head nod, just acknowledge that you're there and then just, you know, passing ships. That's so funny. It is. It's so funny. You mentioned the Costco run first off. mean, you got to tell us, if you're looking forward to making some food, mean, you got to give us the dish that is your favorite to make at this point in the off season. Okay. I'm not going to give you a dish, but I'm going to give you what I'm really excited to start making, and it's sourdough bread. My mother-in-law has gotten really into it, and she's been teaching me how to do it, and she's going to give me a sourdough starter. And I'm so excited to just... bake so many sourdough things. And I'm more into baking than cooking. I still cook, but I feel like I'm just like not as good at it as baking. Baking is so fun. I love it. It's like a little science experiment that you get to eat. yeah, Who's the first test subject? Is it your husband? Is he the first test subject for the sourdough bread? Like- Yes, I'm- A lot of pressure. Yeah, no, he's- He's had to eat a lot of crazy things ⁓ and he's happy for it. You know, he's a very grateful guy. All he wants is anything homemade. It could literally be like tuna with mayonnaise and he will be so happy because it's homemade and I made it. So I'm hoping he keeps that mindset for when I start this journey. The baking kick is no joke. In the fall, I got on a really weird baking kick where I was just like, you know what? I've got a bunch of the supplies. I'm just gonna go for it. And I was making different kinds of oatmeal raisin cookies. I was trying to get all cocky and I was like, I'm gonna make chocolate chip cookies. Horrible. You would think you can't mess that up, because it's just chocolate. No, you can mess it It was bad. I've messed up so many chocolate cookies. It's so bad. What's your favorite thing to bake? What is my favorite thing to bake? It's a really, really good question. I think I'd have to go with, so where I ended up at the end of the whole experiment for the baking kick was oatmeal raisin pumpkin spice cookies. They were really good. I would like to, know, so a little bit of a brag. I think they were okay. You should make that. for that because I did not have the confidence to have other people test. No, you need to make the heat and bring the decision. Please. That's what I'll do. I don't know if that necessarily fits the vibe. So maybe I'd have to like come up with a summer recipe though. A summer recipe. I don't know either way. I want to try these cookies. sounds so good. All right. Well, we'll have to do that. Or then when I start making my rounds, the different teams next in the winter, you know, maybe then we'll have to get in the festive spirit and I'll bring those around for sure. But okay, challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. I love this. And then I'll bring a loaf of sourdough. All right. And by then you'll have perfected it too, you know, and it'll be great. Perfect. Tristan, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you. I figure we'll end on a fun note. We're already ending on a fun note, but it's more fun to ask you just rapid fire questions without a lot of time to think. And then you just answer with the first thing that comes to your mind. But it also gives people a little bit more of an idea about who you are. away from the volleyball court. So are you ready for these rapid fire questions? Yeah, I think I'm like nervous though. Okay. What is the last TV show or movie that you watched? My gosh, the last movie I watched actually last night I watched Dracula, a love tale. Actually so good. Really good. But I watched before that I watched Project Hail Mary and that is such an insanely good movie. I've seen it twice already. Yeah. I recommend that movie Boots Down. So good. It's so good. Great taste so far. I 10 out of 10 recommend. Right. You can't say sourdough making now also because you haven't started, but what is your current hobby? My current hobby? Oh, I have so many hobbies. I'd probably say crocheting. Yeah, we'll say crocheting even though I'm not great at it. I, but I do it. I do it, but it's not very good. I just saw you looking around. Do you have an example handy that you can show us? ⁓ No, I don't. It's so bad. It's so bad. There's some stuff over here, I don't want to catch strays. But I do read a lot too. I kind of forget reading is like a hobby because for me it's kind of like an obsession. that I need to get over. So it's a problem. I recently got a Kindle. I've heard reading as an obsession to get over. I usually people are like, that's good. No, it's so bad because the thing is, is I put off like all of my work. Like I wake up and I start reading. I like as soon as I get something done, I'm like, ⁓ I got to get this done so I can start reading. Like I, I, I grew up for. The final like the Carson who sits next to me in the locker room was like Tristan put your book away like stop Important team meetings and you're just on your Kindle. Yeah, she was like Tristan. No, let's let's talk about the scouting report I'm like, oh, yeah. Okay. Shut my kid. That's great. So that's why I'm like, it's a problem. All right, so So you're for your teammates that might be a pet peeve, but for you, what is your current? You can say any of them, but what is your pet peeve? Volleyball wise, I think my biggest pet peeve is, and I know a lot of coaches don't mind this, but when balls are bouncing while the coach is talking or while anybody is trying to talk, honestly, because I straight up can't hear them because I'm just focused on the ball bouncing. So I can't even, I can't hear what they're saying and then they're going to get mad at me because I don't know what's going on. So I would say that's actually my biggest pet peeve. Sports I'm with you. I hate during interviews if it's happening in the background and then it's like it's it's on the background with the mic Yeah, no, I'm with you 100 % Mike what's happening? All right next one Exactly next one. What would be I titled as death row meal, but that sounds like really intense What I just mean is your last meal like what would your last meal be? Okay, it's a little lame but like a really a really really good steak with with really good mashed potatoes, corn, really good sourdough bread. And then for dessert, it would depend on the day, but like a really well-made cake with like buttercream, like frosting. Next one. Who would play you in the biopic of your life? Who would, like what actor would play me? My goodness, I don't know. Is this like a look-alike situation? Nope. It can be whoever you would want to play you. ⁓ probably. Or you can make it look-alike if you have one. Well, I don't really know. ⁓ I've been told a couple of people, but whatever. ⁓ I think if somebody was to play me, wow, I'm really not good at this. Who was, Mimi would be really good at telling you because she said, she said someone sometime and it felt well. ⁓ probably. Have you ever seen My Girl? Or, not My Girl. ⁓ yeah. My Girl. Jess? New Girl. Yeah. New New Girl. God, what's her name? This is so bad. I know who you're talking about though. Yeah, she, ⁓ it's gonna come to me. But yeah, no, someone right now listening to this is screaming the actress's name. Yeah, But yes, I know exactly who you're talking about. I'll look it up while you answer the next one. Three more to go. And you should be able to answer this one because you do a lot of reading and you have great movie taste. What fictional world do wish you could live in? the Throne of Glass series world. Can you describe it a little bit? what makes up the world? It's just like fantasy. think I would love to be able to wear really pretty dresses and have all the cool creatures around. I think that would be really cool. And just to be like a tat. detached from like phones and social media and like all that stuff and like being a world without like without all that stuff would be really cool. think Zoe Deschanel was the actress we were thinking of and now the person screaming at us can finally rest easy. Yes. Yeah. That that world sounds amazing. Two more for you. If you weren't a volleyball player, we now know it's not a desk job, but what would you be doing? Honestly, if I wasn't playing volleyball right now, I'd probably be having kids and being a mom. I really, I can't wait until I'm able to do that and start a family and be a mom. I'm so excited for that day. So if I wasn't still playing volleyball, I would definitely be trying to have some kids right now. And Tristan, the final question for you, it's a broad one, but hopefully it takes you anywhere you'd like to go. What makes you happy? What makes me happy? ⁓ my gosh. My husband, God, and good people make me happy. that. What a perfect way to end. Tristan, we can't thank you enough for joining us here on the Set Six Podcast. Once again, congratulations on being a 2026 champion. We hope you have a restful off season. And we hope to chat with you again really soon. We're looking forward to seeing you next year, but thank you again. Yay, thank you. This was so fun. I really enjoyed this. Another big thank you to Tristan for joining us. Just so much appreciated. We hope that she gets to enjoy her off time, that the sourdough bread ends up coming out well. And thank you once again to Tristan. We're gonna wrap up the show. This has already been a little bit of a long one, but we'll have some fun towards the end. We got a new segment, a couple of segments that we'll hit. One of them is gonna be who did I follow or who'd you follow? Because it's the collective few. But who'd you follow at the end of this week instead of just, we'll switch it up. We'll give you something different. So who I followed this week on the socials, every point matters. Once I hit them again at the top, just to once again say they were So amazing and so good to work with this week. All of the content you saw, they just put out another great one where we did on the socials, which you should check out, which was ⁓ sort of a MLV kind of hype video for the MVP, Sophia, and you should go watch that. It's on all your socials, ⁓ Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Go watch it. Tremendous job by them as they did all week. and nothing that we did could have happened without them. So a big thank you to Every Point Matters. You should follow them as well. ⁓ Jocelyn, who helped out on our socials, ⁓ getting everything posted. Big thank you to Jocelyn. ⁓ Courtney as well. Courtney was there with Jocelyn the whole time. So great. Courtney Schwann, you know her from the Orlando Valkyries. She was there helping us out as well. Very good social media person as well as a great player. So thank you to Jocelyn and Courtney. Michaela from the ⁓ Indie Ignite, Michaela was also helping us out on social and with Every Point Matters. So big thank you to them. And the core captains. those were everybody there is everybody I followed after this week and it's always nice to make new friends and to also just get to know all of the great people who, you you get to just kind of work with them and see how they operate and it's so nice to be able to bring that in the fold. So a thank you but also follow was given to all of them. And then the other new segment that we're gonna hit, just briefly to close this out, is what's on your playlist this week? So to me it's funny where I think there are certain songs that just really encapsulate a week like this where you're running on very little sleep and very few brain cells and they leave the more that you do and the more work that you put in. and to sometimes that you end up playing the same songs, not always voluntarily. So my playlist this past week was very eclectic. So if you know anything about me, I'm more of an alternative kind of guy. I never grew out of my emo phase is what I tell a lot of people. So a lot of pop punk rock is what I listen to. Some metalcore too, which I know, you know, look, not everybody's favorite, heard, understood. Everybody's got their own thing. However, my playlist this week was very eclectic, as I said. So we on go. was a song was playing a lot for ⁓ just a lot of the hype videos. And what's funny about us on the content team is, you you might see it once or twice. We see it a lot. ⁓ not that it's still cool when you get to see and or make those videos and they're still cool after the 50th watch. ⁓ But one of the side effects is that the music that is used for said videos gets stuck in your head. So We On Go was stuck in my head. And it's also funny because ⁓ Producer Mike likes to play a lot of different music than I listen to. So it's exposure therapy to more of that side of music. So that's on my playlist this week. Ella Langley's Choosing Texas was on my playlist this week. You can't be in Frisco for a week and not hear that at some point. That one has a lot of staying power in terms of the, I don't know, it's not repetitiveness, but I don't know what the word is, but it's like, it's an earworm. It gets stuck in your head. I even saw a video, I'm a Patriots fan, so you know, I follow the New England Patriots stuff on social. I saw a video of Drake May playing golf and he was humming along to Jews in Texas. So then I had to veer back towards my music. Blackfield Brides released a new album, Vindicate. So that was all through the playlist. So right now we've got, you know, hip hop slash R &B. We've got country and then we're onto metalcore. like, yeah, hitting everything. And then more on the alternative side, ⁓ Movements released a new single, Dissolve Me, so that was on there. And then finally we'll wrap it up with The Killers, all these things I've done. So there you go. That was my playlist this week. Please share yours, share what you were playing, if you were out in Frisco and if you happened to pass by us, maybe something was different going on in your earbuds. And you can let us know. I forgot to say, you can reach the show by emailing me. That's severin at mlvb.com, S-E-V. R.I.N. The pod team, Mike, Amy, Jenna, thank you for just all you do to produce this pod. It is a whole lot more than just me talking in front of the microphone. It's those people that make it happen. So thank you. And thank you to our entire team. There's way too many people that I need to give their flowers. And hopefully we will do that. ⁓ not in the, you you got to give them more of the real, the real thank yous in person and which we will certainly, I will certainly do. because there are way too many of them to shout out on this pod, which has already gone a little over. But thank you for listening once again to the Set Six podcast. This has been episode four. Stay tuned for episode five. I don't know who it's gonna be yet and we'll figure it out. But some announcements I heard might be on the horizon. So I'll leave you with that. That's the teases they call it in the industry. So without any more blabbing, that's all for Set Six episode four. Thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time.