Latest / Set 6: The Official MLV Podcast / Episode 005 | MLV Stars Report for Team USA

Transcript

Episode 005 | MLV Stars Report for Team USA · Set 6: The Official MLV Podcast

• speaker-0: How have you mentally kind of compartmentalized, okay, you now my MLB season's over and I'm right into Team USA stuff. Yeah, I feel like it's just talking to the people I'm leading on my family, my friends. If I need to, I talk to a sports psych, you know, and making sure I'm leading like a balanced lifestyle. So what's wonderful about California is that the beach is right there. speaker-1: What's going on everybody? This is the Set Six Podcast, the official podcast of Major League Volleyball. I'm your host, Severin Lavinstein. Thank you for joining us on episode five. I'm broadcasting to you from my home apartment studio in Anaheim, California. And as always, thank you for listening. Whatever your podcast platform of choice may be, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, we thank you for listening and watching as always. And if you haven't done so, please. Listen to episode four just an awesome conversation with Tristan Savage 2026 MLV champion with the Dallas Pulse just so much fun talking to Tristan and yeah, go check that one out. I'll go check out our entire library out to get up to this point. We've got a little bit of a different episode for you today. So not really like a full blown like, you know, guest feature per se, but I'm talking to you. I figured it'd be kind of fun. So I'm to record this here and then I'm actually going to head off to the red blue scrimmage for USA volleyball which is featuring some of your favorite MLP athletes later tonight so I was like you know what let's record this before where I have no idea who I'm going to talk to and no idea how it's going to go and then at the end after we'll kind of put those in the middle and then I'll report back to you afterwards and give you my thoughts so figure that could be a little bit of fun and in the meantime I'll blab and give you a little bit of news and just some updates as well because we have a little bit to get to but yeah I just figured that might be a cool way to shake things up for this format for Episode five. So let's get to the news first. And the first thing let's start with is some championship numbers from the first year on ION. You know, I always think it's kind of cool to peel about the curtain a little bit and get some really thoughts and opinions and actually backed up by data on the broadcast. And because I think that the way that the sport of volleyball is broadcasted is always really interesting the new innovations and also just always the constant search to reach more audience and what was really cool is it seems like we really did that. So The numbers for you and you can also cross-references by the way at this point there should be a graphic that we put out on our socials that you can ⁓ see all these numbers if ⁓ me talking through it is a little bit too fast for you but reaching nearly 300 million through excuse me nearly 3 million unique viewers across all three matches. 300,000 peak championship viewers for the match which had an average about 200,000. and a 63 % year over year increase in social media impressions. Obviously working more on the social media side, that's awesome to see just for ⁓ me seeing that number initially, but also really love the broadcast numbers as well. Love them equally, but specifically was paying extra attention to the social media impressions for us and our purposes. And also want to give you a little bit more on the payouts for the players. So I'm gonna have to refer to my phone for this one, but. The payouts, 1 million, obviously we know it's the match for a million, that's $1 million bonus. Also $300,000 for the postseason compensation awarded to the four semi-finalist teams that doesn't always get publicized in addition to the million dollar payout. $10,000 postseason MVP bonus awarded to the championship MVP. So nice little bonus for Sofia Maldonado-Diaz there. And $142,000 season award winners bonus, that's the total bonus. compensation so safe safe to say if you if you won this championship or if you were part of this championship you got a nice little bump to your bank account there which we'd love to see we'd love to see these players getting what they deserve so I just figured I'd give you those championship numbers a little bit ⁓ we're coming off of it and it's so weird to have last week for a lot of us it was ⁓ almost a little bit it wasn't quite time off we were still working but It was time not traveling. was super weird. was like, wow, I've actually timed a golf and I can go over. I caught a ducks playoff game down the street. And I was like, huh, this is a interesting to have this free time. And it's sad a little bit. was like, ⁓ where, where am going to be jetting off to next? And at least for the time being, not going to be going anywhere for the moment, but excited for more of the off season news and fortunate in my position. I get to hear some of the rumblings and some of the things coming down the bike that, that I know are coming soon and I can't wait to share with you and trust that I will share it with you once I can. ⁓ You know, things like team names and, you know, different announcements like that. And ⁓ yeah, you can tell I'm brimming with excitement to share with what I can with you. But what I can talk about is some stuff that you already know, which is the next bit of news that we're going to talk about, which is the coach hirings that we got this week, we got two pretty high profile ones in, let's see in Omaha, of course, which is where we're gonna start. We're gonna go in descending order here, we're go Omaha and then to Orlando. So Omaha supernovas, let's start with them. First, Chris McGowan was announced as the new head coach, he signs a two year contract, according to the press release from Omaha. And it's also a two year extension for Thomas Robson returning as an assistant. So again, we knew after they had switched to Robson as the interim that he was going to be coming back in the assistant capacity they'd already announced that he wasn't gonna be staying on as the coach that indeed ends up being the case and then identified McGowan pretty quickly here in the offseason as the next guy. Stats or not stats, but some history on McGowan for you most recently was the interim coach for League One Austin during the 2025 professional season was a head coach for the 2024 USA women's U-23 collegiate national team. and was on staff I believe for last year's women's national team in some capacity. I think I remember seeing him in might have been VNL Arlington and I can't remember if I saw him at Worlds. By the way, just for some background on my on my background, if you're ever wondering what these are over my right shoulder, that is some some Worlds memorabilia for you. So there you go. But he also coached professionally overseas in Japan, I believe was men that he was coaching over there and coached on the Netherlands staff as well and course played in coach at BYU where his dad established the men's program. And lastly, was a co founder or is a co founder and head coach of gold medal squared, which just camps and coaching clinics. So extensive background there a little bit on Chris McGowan, who was announced again as the next head coach of the Omaha Supernovas. And of course got that huge support, which was mentioned in the press release as well from John Cook, we know that's obviously very important for anything that goes on in Omaha. So great to see that. And then Orlando, I'm going to Hopefully not butcher this name, but Francois Salvagnis, excuse me, I'm still working on that. We're hoping to talk to Francois here coming up soon, some point on this podcast. So again, I'll get his name right by the time we talk to him for sure. But Salvagnis was most recently the head coach of Cuneo Grandi Vali in Italy. Again, Italian, I can't do for you. I a little French, but that's it. I can do French a little bit. Not not a whole lot else. But you know, I'll work through you with these names here. So bear with me. But obviously, that being one of Italy's highest professional league team or one of the teams that's in Italy's highest professional league in Syria, a one was head coach of Algeria national team or became head coach of the Algeria national team in 2014. And during his tenure with volley moulous Alsace in France from 2019 to 2024, Francois led the club to a league championship to French Cup titles to French Cup soup. to super French Cup. Wow. Pause to French Super Cup victories. There we go. And it was funny to read in his press release. He says sacrifice hard work, a winning mentality and just a little bit of madness is what he wants to bring to the Orlando Orlando Valkyries. I wonder and I'm curious to talk with him about what a little bit of madness means what that looks like. Is that being demonstrative? my big word for the day on this on the sidelines. have not seen him coach. So I wonder if he's one of those kind of guys or if he just means a little bit of madness in the way that things will go in practice maybe that we'll see hopefully but yeah, looking forward to that as well. And then of course with Francois coming in that means Amy Paul Pauly is no longer going to be with Orlando. She's actually going to be in a way kind of like my coworker now. So Amy Pauly to the league to be a director of player personnel and recruitment. responsible for the strategic planning, coordination and execution of all player personnel operations for MLB, including identifying and evaluating prospective players at local and national and international levels. It's cool to see Amy on our our meetings this morning. And it's So great to have her as part of the team. Obviously, we know how great of a coach that she was has been in this league. First coach in team history for the Valkyries and amassed a 39 and 41 record overall in the three seasons. and you know, won the match for a million with Orlando in 2025. ⁓ Look, I've seen the reaction from you all. I get it. It's mixed and I understand. think that with these two franchises, especially being such great franchise, I mean, they have really good recent history and then also... You know, I get it. Amy Pauly is an amazing coach. so anytime that you have to move on, especially one year removed from winning a championship, it's a little, you can have the questions and that makes a lot of sense. Especially from a coach that maybe people don't know super well. And you know, you're like, why, why get rid of a good thing? I think that it makes sense just from what I, you know, and I, is sort of like secondhand information because I haven't talked to Amy about this directly, but I think She, from what I understand, she wanted to step away from coaching. So I don't think that she was going to be an option going forward. And so, ⁓ it seems like, ⁓ Salviani is going to be a great next choice, obviously. And we're looking forward to getting a good idea of more about him and his coaching philosophy and getting to know him better, ⁓ both as a person and as a coach going forward here. And then McGowan, especially too, I think that's an interesting case as well of. You had a good thing going with Robson heading into the postseason. And I think a lot of people were like, well, why, why, why are we getting, why are we not continuing this momentum? But keep in mind again, that, that Omaha had already said that he was not going to be the head coach going forward. So again, with McGowan seems to be identified pretty early and someone that they had their eye on. All I'm saying is I understand just based off some of the, the discourse and discussion that I've seen on volley talk specifically and other places. I get the hesitation. but I think also it's going to be exciting to see how these coaches do. And I think to me, at least the, the signing and identifying them early is a good sign to me. And so we're getting, we're looking, I'm looking forward to getting to these coaches more, getting to see how they mesh with the athletes. And I think it's going to be great to have them in and to establish their programs early. So yeah, some interesting news coming there and we're excited to see more announcements maybe coming up in the future too. Just to reset. There's the new teams in Minnesota, NorCal, DC. We know that Minnesota has Pedro Mendez already with their position filled. Excited to see what the coaching announcements are going to be for NorCal in DC. We know that Columbus has an opening as well. So yeah, some other announcements that looking forward to sharing with you really any day now. So that will be really exciting. We know that Minnesota announced one of their top players maybe will be their top player that they signed throughout the whole offseason with Stephanie Sandy going to Minnesota that is just so cool to see Stephanie obviously ⁓ being so many accolades but you being part of the Omaha team I think it was two years ago ⁓ and won that first that first championship with them but just you know more of her stats was in Japan's SV League the last two seasons get us more bio than stats sorry about that to keep confusing that but ⁓ yeah, I was in with Omaha the first season and won that championship. One of the top attackers on the international stage and just, and if I can inject a little bit my own ⁓ viewpoint there, her combination of height that she gets on her jump and her power on her hitting is, it's fantastic. I'm fortunate enough to see her in person many times and she's just such a great athlete. And in a sport of great athletes, she stands above. And I think too, one thing that really jumps out and I hope my memory is serving me correctly, ⁓ watching her on the world stage last year, her serving was impeccable and they would bring her in because the combination of speed and power that she has on the serve is unlike a lot of what other players are able to deliver at the international level or at least with U.S. players at the international level. And I know that whether it was in practice or in matches, when she would come in to serve, It was difficult to pick that up, to pick up both her spin and also her location with the serve and just the pure speed that Stephanie has is unmatched. I'm excited. Hopefully, you again, you probably know based on the title and description that if we maybe get to talk to her tonight at the Red Blue, but ⁓ no, I'm looking forward to seeing that back in our league here in MLB. So five time also all AVCA. ABCA All-American and two-time big 10 player of the year. You all remember her from Minnesota. One of the best athletes, one of the best players to come out of that Minnesota program. And as we alluded to current member of the U S women's national team made her debut in 2020 at the North Seca Pan Am cup and is obviously a strong candidate for LA 28. So that's just so cool to have Stephanie back in this league. You know, one of the, one of the best players in the U S and she's going to be with MLB. So we love that. Of course. Women's VNL roster selections for Team USA have been announced. ⁓ They've got that long list and then obviously they're going to pare that down as they go forward towards the weeks here, make their selections for each week. And that's a little bit, I'll explain a little bit more on the other side, but a little bit of what this red-blue scrimmage does as well is kind of gives the coaches more of, if they've got positional battles in their heads or if they have maybe, you know, just a mind of, okay, this matchup on week one. We're kind debating who do we want to see in this situation. And also what I've loved about red blue scrimmages in the past, at least the ones that I've been to is the competitive fire is certainly there. And I know you all know how even just the most casual of practice scrimmages or pickup games can end up being a little intense. And at least from what I've seen that these red blues can be that way. And it also gives the coaches maybe a chance to give another coach a ⁓ an opportunity to step in and make some decisions that they wouldn't typically do on a match day. So yeah, what is kind of unfortunate is I believe the closest for us this year, at least in North America is Quebec week one ⁓ in, and then they go to Philippines and Japan as the other stops. I don't know if I'm going to get any hate for saying this, but Montreal slash Quebec is not my favorite place on earth. been there twice. ⁓ Just the The experiences I've had with people, they're pretty mean. Maybe that's different. someone, you know, maybe that can change. And if I go again the next time, I'm not saying I would never go back. I've just, only been there twice, but yeah, interesting, interesting experiences in Quebec slash Montreal. But that aside, it is not too far of a trip for those of you on the East coast. If you want to go see them in week one, and again, some MLB athletes there, of course, that's why I'm telling you. speaker-0: So... speaker-1: So I'm looking forward to the red blue and looking forward to chatting with those athletes. And I've chatted with you enough here on this front side here. But this is the intro to kind of get into what will hopefully be me chatting with a couple of our MLB athletes there. I don't know who they are yet, but you might as we're going to head right into that. So without any ⁓ further preamble, let's get you to ⁓ at least what I hope is a couple of conversations with some of your MLB athletes, red, blue. speaker-0: Coach Eric Sullivan, head coach of the women's national team. you for joining us coach. First, let's just start with what are your goals for a scrimmage like this? Yeah. speaker-2: It's always nice to put the jerseys on and play in front of a crowd. ⁓ You know, as we're getting close to week one for VNL, I think this will give us a little more information about our group. ⁓ Hopefully see us compete at a high level. We're going to mix the teams around a little bit. So maybe give us some information about combinations of players. ⁓ I don't know. We're just excited to get on the court and play. speaker-0: What kind of things are you looking for specifically? I it seems like maybe some positional battles, maybe the way some athletes handle some serve receive, just little things like that. speaker-2: Yeah, for sure. Some execution on skill work. ⁓ but also some of the systems that we put in place to talk to them earlier, just about making sure that we keep that in mind. I, I'm sure there's some anxiety and some butterflies before this. And I think sometimes when you get that emotions, you lose sight of those things. So just reminding them of, you know, we've been working on these things for the last three weeks. Let's make sure we integrate it into our plan. speaker-0: coach some MLV athletes that we're familiar with and you're familiar with from being on this roster before, namely Morgan and Stephanie. What do they bring to the table specifically? speaker-2: Yeah, great athletes. You know, they fit well into what we're trying to do and we're excited to see them play. speaker-0: Is there any, it's a little bit of a broad question, but any kind of trends or specific things that you see from MLV athletes coming over from kind of at the right end of their season, right into the national team training and just, you know, what skill sets they bring if there's a common theme? speaker-2: Yeah, I don't know. mean, everyone, all of our players are playing professionally somewhere right now. So, you know, the fact that they can leave their professional leagues and come into our gym, I think is great. And, you know, a lot of times they're progressing as they go to the pro leagues and they get back into our gym and they're improved players. speaker-0: with a VNL sort of cycle under your belt going into it now this time around, like are there more things that you're doing to maybe adjust from what you did last year and any adjustments that you're making specifically to your coach? speaker-2: Yeah, some small things, not anything major. Obviously a little more comfortable in what we're doing. Our staffs, I think at this point where our staff had been together for three weeks, because they were kind of coming from all over the place. So now we've got a year, year and a half under our belts. I just think we're all a little bit more comfortable, not just in the practice gym, but also at match prep, all the other things that we're doing. speaker-0: Seems like coach, everybody's on like different cycles. As you said, some players coming in from, you know, right over, maybe it's just a couple of days ago, and then somebody might've had in the gym for longer. How do you manage that and balance with people being on such different schedules? speaker-2: It's challenging. think we have 33, 34 athletes in the gym right now. And they are all on some different schedules. So some players are in day one, day two, where they're just kind of ramping up. Some players have been here for four weeks. So trying to find that balance and how we train, make sure everybody's getting the workload they need in and the work that they need. It takes some scheduling magic to kind of organize the drills and make sure all that stuff's happening. speaker-0: And last one for your coach is going into a scrimmage like this. You know, I asked you about what the players and what you're going to be looking for from them, but your coaching staff, right? So what are you all going to be doing? I'm imagining there might be some situations for your staff or maybe you'll put them in situations they might see in VNL, but any shakeups for you, the coaches here? speaker-2: No, I'm going to sit back and watch and Rob and myself are going to sit back and watch and Brandon and Ty are going to coach the team. So I think it's a great opportunity for them. Also gives us the opportunity to kind of be a spectator and not, I don't know, I think you get a different perspective and see some different things that way. speaker-0: Looking forward to watching it. Thank you, Coach. Appreciate it. Morgan Hance, my first question for you is, do you have any setting that is below the dial to 11, like maybe seven or six? Because we're here in this red-blue scrimmage. You're still flying around all over the place. Yeah, I mean, really cool environment and Miracoast. A lot of people coming out and supporting. Like so many of us have said, it's always an honor to put on the USA jersey, especially for the first time this summer. Yeah, I'm grateful to be here in such a wonderful group of girls, too. Not your first rodeo here with the USA team. Do you feel like at this point you get into kind of your rhythm and you know where you need to be at at a certain point in the summer? I feel like the nerves and butterflies are always there, but I feel like that's a good thing. Everyone was talking about it. It just means like how much you care and it's a reminder of like how hard it and everyone's work to get to this point in their careers. This level is so fast. What do you notice going from your MLB season to this season? Maybe little changes, little differences that you have to make for your game for this level? Yeah, I feel like. speaker-1: Yeah speaker-0: you play in any team you're playing against. Everyone runs such a unique style. So it's getting familiar with hitter tendencies, setter tendencies, server tendencies, know, giving yourself grace to adjust to that. But yeah, there's always little nuances, but overall there's not that big of a difference. is it like to be back with this group and getting to see all the other women again in this environment? Yeah, I'm really grateful. I feel like when you're surrounded by women who are constantly trying to improve themselves on the court, but off the court. It's just like a really inspirational environment. So it's, yeah, I'm really lucky to be here. It's really cool to see just the different components that build this U S national team. What have you noticed? I know it's, know, not been that long, but just the way the roster has been constructed by Eric and the staff. What do you notice about it? Yeah. I mean, I feel like we, everyone brings a different strength to the table. And I think that is so important because we're going to face. Tons of countries who have different style of play. And so you want to be able to put out a lineup that matches best against that country. So we have great versatility on our team and a lot of passion, which I think is going to bode us well. Yeah. So kind of go back to one of my first questions about where the level you want to be at, you know, with with week one of VNL, I think it's just a couple of weeks away. You know, where do you want your game to be? Do you feel like you're at that level where you're like, OK, maybe I need one more week to go. But are you kind of like, I'm right there. Take me to week one. I feel like our entire group is just like. Craving more reps together just to get in rhythm. have so many girls, so you gotta take every opportunity to get to know the person next to you. Not just on the court, but off the court too, because that I feel like leads to better chemistry when we're playing together, because we don't have that much time. Morgan, you've been such a great person to talk to about the mental side of the game. know, not a lot of time for you to go back home and chat with Ollie and, you know, take him out of her walks, but you gotta go right into this. How have you mentally kind of compartmentalized? OK, you know, now my MLB season's over and I'm right into Team USA stuff. Yeah, I feel like it's just talking to the people and leading on my family and my friends. If I need to, talk to a sports psych, you know, just filling up those buckets and making sure I'm leading like a balanced lifestyle. So what's wonderful about wonderful about California is that the beach is right there. So I love getting to the beach. I actually just went down to Newport Beach a few days ago and there were dolphins there. And then, yeah, so getting outside and just like hanging out with the girls off the court, you know, just making the most of volleyball, but also life too. I co-sign on Newport being the best one. Last one for you, Morgan, just your overall thoughts. I should have led with this, but your overall thoughts on how this scrimmage went to me. looks as competitive as ever. Was it competitive for you on the court? Yeah, definitely. It's really great for us ⁓ to get a chance to play sixes before any group gets to go on the leg of V &L. Just to have that preparation. It's different than just being in a practice gym with no one else around. The fans were loud. It's hot in here. So it's good to practice being in this kind of environment before we hit the road. And thank you, as always. Yeah, thank you, Severin. Stephanie, first off, hopefully I'm the first of, or not the first, I'm one of many to welcome you to MLV Minnesota. We are so hyped to have you, but what was the whole decision process like and what ultimately led you to joining MLV? Yeah, I think for me it was a lot of discussion about ⁓ the possibility of bringing professional volleyball to Minnesota and how exciting that would be. just from the start, I knew that it was going to be something special and I wanted to be a part of it. I should have said rejoined because we of course remember you from Omaha, but also the level of competition that obviously you know from playing internationally to being here with this USA squad. What was that level like here in this scrimmage? Does look like everybody was still flying around as usual? Yeah, absolutely. Like the level here is amazing. Everyone here brings their A game. So it's so amazing to be a part of that and to compete at this level and try to improve. So it's amazing. Is there like at this point, where do you all want to be obviously with V &L week one coming up pretty soon? Is there, are there certain points in your game like little tweaks that you're making at this point? I think for sure just honing in on those connections with players, know, feeling comfortable next to each other and just building that chemistry for sure. But I think, yeah, everyone will go out and give it their all and go crazy. You've obviously been a lot of a part of a lot of teams, but it's to be cool, right? Coming back in the summer and getting to reunite with a lot of these women that you've gotten to play with before. And is it nice to kind of be back with everybody again here with the USA people? Yeah, absolutely. It's so much fun to, you know, we're here in the summer and then we go to our separate ways play and then we come back and it just feels like. No time has passed, so it's so cool. So it's fun. Just back to MLV Minnesota. Obviously you had just such an amazing career at Minnesota and then to be kind of like the hometown hero, if you will, coming back, just what is it going to mean to represent Minnesota again? Yeah, it's going to be such an honor to be able to represent Minnesota again. I loved playing at the U and I'm so excited to see how our team will do ⁓ this upcoming season. Yeah. And then just being here playing with Morgan, obviously getting to see that connection with, she makes an amazing dig and you make the amazing hit. Just what was it like to be out there with Morgan on the court? So much fun. She's such a competitive player. She's such a team player, keeps everyone together. And I love playing with Morgan. Well, Stephanie, it's always great to catch up with you. Thank you for joining us. And we're looking forward to seeing you the rest of the summer with Team USA and then with us with MLB Minnesota. Thanks for joining us, Stephanie. Thank you so much. Elena Scott, it was great to see you over on the sidelines with Basically all Olympians over there too. I first the thing I have to ask is, what do you talk about with everybody on the sidelines at a red blue scrimmage like this? Give us some of the inside details. speaker-2: So right now we're just like trying to get to know each other. It's my first time here. So just introducing myself and getting to know them and yeah, just good to be around them. speaker-0: Elena, how cool is it to be back in the USA, Jim? Obviously, I know it's like right from your MLV season straight into this, but just being with this group and the level of competition, obviously, that you've experienced in the training center to this point. speaker-2: Yeah, it's a quick turnaround, but I'm excited to be in the gym with them this summer and learn a little bit from them and get to experience some new things. So I think it'll be really fun. speaker-0: The libero room is obviously stacked here and you're right at the top of that list, but is it great to be able to watch Morgan and ⁓ everybody else that's competing and just kind of pick up little tips and tricks and stuff while you're in the training center? speaker-2: It's really cool to be around them and get to learn from them. Like I said, they've been in this environment for so it's really cool that I get to see them and see how their perspective on the game is and watching them tonight. A lot of oozing off from the crowd. love watching defense and I think it really helps them moment some of the game. speaker-0: I said tips and tricks like you need to pick up anything, which was ridiculous. But nevertheless, Elena, have you had any time? I mean, it's such a quick turnaround from, you know, going from the indie season to here, but, you know, to reflect, it was such a great moment to be able to see your entire group clean up on the awards at MLV Awards and just, you what was that like? And the really what's happened since is that group chat still going is what we want to know. speaker-2: think it's really special that all the players got those awards. I mean, well deserved throughout the year and shout out Lauren for transforming this team and helping us just become better people, better players. And I think a lot of people could tell how much fun we were having. And I just really enjoyed that season with the girls. I'm super grateful for them. speaker-0: I noticed that you and Lauren had a similar color with her suit and your dress at awards. Was there any coordination there at all? speaker-2: coordination. think we all love the color green around here. Even our coach Haley, think she doesn't see the color green. She doesn't think it's great to think it's other colors. So shout out to speaker-0: for VNL. k turn around with. I think of June. You know, what trying to, you know, fine from the outside and we see We see people on this nat don't look like they need any prep. But you trying to fine tune at speaker-2: think just the consistent training. think the biggest thing at this level is to be mentally prepared as long as as well as you are physically and just help you count. You can keep that consistent throughout the summer. It is a quick turnaround from a lot of our seasons, so I think mentally and physically preparing yourselves all the time on and off the court. speaker-0: It's fun from an observer standpoint to getting to watch, you people coming up to you wanting autographs, wanting you to throw them a ball. And obviously you have a lot of recognition with the fans, a lot of fans that came out here to Red Blue. But, you know, what is it I like to see your, I guess I'll call it resonance for lack of a better word with the surrounding community, not just in Indy, but even when you come out here. speaker-2: It's cool that we're able to make an impact on these girls and that they can come out and watch events like this and that the Russian volleyball is getting bigger in the US and it's really making a mark. And I think it's just really cool that this next generation gets to really see. speaker-0: know you kind of touched on it briefly, just what were your overall thoughts on the competition out here tonight for red blue? Nobody was taking any plays off, it looked like. speaker-2: Super competitive, the scores were tied on almost every set, so it was really cool to watch the girls. It looks like they had a lot of fun and worked hard out there. speaker-1: We are back on the other side of the USA volleyball red-blue scrimmage and hey that was a lot of fun that was super cool. This is about to be the most obvious saying ever or observation ever but I think volleyball is so much fun when it's played in front of an absolutely packed house and a full crowd and that's what was there over at Mira Costa which was just I mean it's a red-blue scrimmage and the place is packed and and there are so there's so much cheering And you'll hear me mention it a couple or you heard me mention it a couple of times in the interviews, but nobody was taking plays off. You've got Morgan diving everywhere, making some unreal digs and just everything you saw from this regular season was happening there. If you tuned into the live stream, ⁓ Stephanie just amazing launches and hitting the ball and went on her serving run again, I think to win one of the sets and Oh my gosh, it's just so much fun when it's in an environment like that you can see the passion that people have even for just a scrimmage. So that was great. Really glad that we got to go over and be a part of that. thank you before I get too far ahead to the head coach of the Women's National Team, Eric Sullivan, as I bat my microphone all around here. So while holding it steady, thank you to Eric Sullivan, to Morgan Hentz, to Stephanie Samdee, and to Alaina Scott for joining us to chat for a little bit. There's one more interview, it's a little bit of a secret interview that I'm so excited for you all to hear. can't share it yet, but ⁓ be on the lookout for your socials to our YouTube potentially. I'll give you a hint to player signing that we are so, excited about. yeah, ⁓ gosh, I wish I could share it, but I can't right now, but it will happen soon. But either way, that red blue is amazing. It's crazy how their volleyball nations league schedule. They've got like another week together and then they're right back into the swing of things. I was talking to Elena Scott and she speaker-0: I mean, I just got my car shipped here. It's crazy. You know, like it's every speaker-1: everybody, some of them just got there and you heard Eric say that, Coach Sullivan say that at the top just about how so many people are on different schedules when they come to that USA team and you we know it with our MLB athletes just finished their season and come straight out here to California and compete and they compete at a high level no matter what. again, lots of fun and thank you again to our interviews. ⁓ Just awesome stuff, awesome stuff. Okay, we're going to transition to the end of this episode with what I would like to think is a little bit of fun and idea that we're I'll say we're test driving it. It's not even you know, that's not even the right the right phrase. We are. Saw launching it maybe that's that's well put. So the idea came about from talking with some of the some of the people on our production staff here, where we want to do the set six awards. You know, you heard me chatting with Elena about how Indy speaker-2: You We're off- speaker-1: got a bunch of the end of season awards and we talked about them in last week's episode with Tristan Savage but ⁓ we thought it'd be fun if we did the set six awards for the awards that you don't always see that we don't give out trophies for. So for example, we are going to give awards out, the set six awards for the best celly, the best celebration. We're gonna give out the best bench performance of the year and we're going to give out ⁓ best dressed coach. I thought it was important to have an award there for that one. We're gonna... This one, I'm workshopping the title a little bit, but Cheerleader of the Year, again, I don't love that title. Maybe like, you know, most enthusiastic bench... It doesn't work to kind of come up with a title on the fly. So for now, the working title is Cheerleader of the Year. And then finally, we'll go with the set six, UMVP, underrated MVP. So I don't know, we'll see if this sticks. I think it could be a little bit of fun. What I want to do eventually is when we come back around this next year, I want to get your involvement with a little bit of a fan vote. I hope that you'll comment or email me with all the people that should deserve these Set Six Awards that I might not have included here, but it's all in good fun. And again, I hope to make this more of a thing that you're more involved with and kind of make it a bigger deal. But without any further ado, let's get into it. So first one, we got to talk about the Sellys. The Best Selly, the Set Six Award for Best Selly are your... Nominees were I'm calling it the Omaha slide. I don't know what it's really called But I think that was the coolest especially when they clinched a playoff spot Or a post a spot in the MLB postseason and I was behind them with a camera I got to still talk in the mic while I do this, but just see speaker-0: them rush out of the court and do their little speaker-1: and you've seen it, you know when they... speaker-0: They sort of dive onto the court and then get pulled back, ⁓ their legs behind them. you know, sometimes they'll do a little bit of weight. ⁓ speaker-1: by the person. or a little bit of motion, I thought that was awesome. So, ⁓ I'm just being behind that for the final point I thought was really cool. ⁓ So that's nominee number one. The Indie Scuba, which I only recently learned what the name of this actually was, which makes me incredibly uncool, but you knew that already. I'm not even gonna attempt to do it, because first off, podcasting is not a visual medium, and second of all, you don't need to see that, it'd make me even more uncool. But you know what it is, the Indie Scuba, it's iconic, what more is there to say? And the Dallas Dancing was one of the other ones that I went with with the nominees. Specifically, the Heisman for Mimi Collier was one of my favorites. So those are your three nominees and we'll, I'm not going to do drum roll the whole time, but a little drum roll for the first one and the winner of the Set Six Best Selly Award, we decided to go with the Omaha Slide. I think you probably knew from me talking it up at the start. just, thought the creativity, the way that it didn't get, not that any of the other ones got stale, but there was always something a little bit new to it each time. We've to go with the Omaha Slide. winner of the Best Selly Award, the Best Selly Set 6 Award there, the Omaha Slide. And please, tell me what the real name is too. I mean, I'm just calling it the Omaha Slide. I don't know what it's really called, so let me know. All right, Bench Performance of the Year. I only could really, I couldn't choose between these two, so I'm not even going give you a third nominee, and I'm going to give Co-Performance, ⁓ Co-Award here to the Best Bench Performer of the Year. and for a specific performance and I'm sorry because I'm not going really do a whole lot of lead up to this one because I just want to give this out to these two. ⁓ And this is one where you can probably come at me a whole bunch for ones that you were following with your team and your favorite athletes that you think deserve this and rightly so because there are a million ones that we could have chosen for this. But two that stuck out to me for matches that I watched. First, Allison Jacobs 4-11, April 11th versus Orlando. ⁓ 440 hitting, ⁓ 3 blocks, 1 ace, 6 digs, team high 16 points. I wrote 2 kills, that's not right, I think that's supposed to be 12. ⁓ But either way, on the April 11th, Allison Jacobs, great performance off the bench for San Diego. And then Candela Alonso Corsellas on March 13th versus Atlanta, off the bench 15 points on 9 kills, 1 ace and 5 blocks. I couldn't decide between the two, so we're giving a co-bench performance of the year to... Allison Jacobs and Kadella Alonso Corsellis, very well deserved. And I know there are a bunch of players from your favorite teams, like I said, that deserve that award as well, but those are who I went with. Onto best dressed coach, the best dressed set six coach. Now, this one probably will be really obvious if you take it from the spirit of the award of being best dressed. However, I give extra points for shoes. I, you know, today at the red blue, I got a chance to break out. speaker-2: All right. speaker-1: the special Air Max's that they gave us in Paris for the Olympics, which were really cool. I got a lot of style points from my friends for those ones. But so, needless to and I also, you know what, I'm not ashamed to say, I didn't like the final season, but I even got Stranger Things Air Max's for this final season too, so I'm partial to those. And I say that, that does have relevance. One of the nominees, I tied them. So Amy Pauli and Alicia Childress have some amazing shoe games with the Air Maxes. And so they are co-nominees here for just the great Air Maxes that they would wear to some of the matches that I got to go see. Lauren Bertolacci also has great shoe game and the way she paired it with the white t-shirt, I thought it was a good look. And then, you know, again, I really lead this one up a whole lot because I think she's the clear winner, but Kathy George. I don't even need to say it. She's got such a great style. It's truly... speaker-0: I'm not gonna re- speaker-1: Far and away the complete best dressed. ⁓ She's got the great kicks, she's got the great, I don't even know what they call it, the sport jackets, and the whole overall look is Kathy George, the winner of the best dressed coach. Far and away Kathy George, but I like the variation in style that we've got. Every coach I feel like has really good shoe game, but Kathy George for the overall ensemble takes away that award. All right, two more to go. I hope that you're enjoying this. speaker-0: This is not, ⁓ you know, again, want your opinion. Fun, you know, it's nice. speaker-1: in on it next year, but I think these are to have a little bit of extra in terms of the actual awards one. So two more cheerleader of the year again, workshopping the title, but we'll stick with it. So the nominees and not all of these were chosen by me, by the way, we had some, some good input from the staff as well. So unless you think these are just my opinions, we're getting good feedback here from, those who've watched all season. Alexis Shelton, first one, second one, Kendall White for the energy. Kayla Lund for the enthusiasm. She was the third nominee. Alexis Shelton is gonna end up taking this one because I think if what I've heard is that the overall enthusiasm, the dance moves and the the level of of I don't know is hilarity a word the level of what am I trying to say humor? It's really late here. So we're still going. Humor is the word I was with the the cheering. Overall just enthusiasm of Alexis Shelton is gonna make her the speaker-0: humor and the overall ⁓ the again workshop titled the cheerleader of the year. ⁓ speaker-1: We'll call it ⁓ Bench Enthusiast of the Year. We'll stick with Cheerleader of the Year is Alexis Shelton. And the final Set Six award, the underrated most valuable player, the Set Six UMVP. Your nominees are Natalie Foster for serves with 52 aces, Paige Briggs for positive reception, 61 % positive reception rate, and Reagan Pittman Nelson with the 68 block points on the season. speaker-0: however you want to call it for now. speaker-1: All of these athletes are well-deserved for the set six UMVP, but we are going to go with Natalie Foster with the 52 aces. Just an incredible year from the service line for Natalie Foster and she's taken home the set six UMVP. Okay. So now we are done with the set six awards, but hope you all found that entertaining and looking forward for, like I said, a little bit more of getting you involved somehow in that. Maybe we'll do an Instagram poll next year. ⁓ put in for what awards you want to see next year is another one as well. So thank you for the inaugural set six awards and listen to that. our closing segments, let's get two more for you. These have nothing to do with volleyball, but we'll just go with what grinds my gears and then what we were watching recently. So ⁓ one of these was sent in, which I did agree with from our production team, but ⁓ tails on shrimp when you get shrimp and pasta was something that really grinded ⁓ her gears. And I understand. You gotta work through your pasta, you get the shrimp, and then there's a tail on it. I mean, it's dangerous, first of all. But second of all, why are we leaving the tails on? Is it for etiquette? I don't think so. So I agree, tails on shrimp in pasta, when you get like a shrimp pasta dish. Take them off, I agree there. My second one, hopefully this is a little bit more lighthearted and not just complaining about something, but I do love a current trend. At least it's on my feed. I don't know if it's on your feed, but... Airport etiquette. Maybe you noticed these when you go to your away matches at all these MLV ⁓ matches towards the end ⁓ in Frisco or whether you were heading off to some of the final road matches of the season. I noticed some of this ⁓ going towards ⁓ some of the final stops along the way on the season. And I don't necessarily mean like cleanliness, but the specific airport etiquette that I'm referring to and the trend that I'm referring to if I would finally get to the point is stop walking. speaker-3: It's when people sort of speaker-0: and then turn around like no one else is even there and it's not doing great. speaker-1: I'm not doing job describing this, if you just look it up, it's... speaker-0: walking down and then they immediately stop and then just turn around and they'll kind of like walk into the phone. ⁓ speaker-1: which I think is a funny way that everybody is sort of realizing, oh, we all have the same airport experience. And sometimes when that person is walking in front of you and just doesn't seem to have that awareness, that's not alone in terms of your own experience. That's everybody else. We were all feeling the same way. So I just thought it was funny and it doesn't really ground my gears, but I think the trend is great. So, and last one for you, what I watch is my recommendation is if you're a horror movie person, I recommend going and watching Obsession. I was very skeptical, but my brother and I are big horror movie people. We also, just my tangent is we get made fun of sometimes because I say horror movie and most people are like it's a horror movie but that's a little bit of our East Coast coming out but my friends out here in California make fun of me for that. But nevertheless, the point being Obsession was one of the best horror movies I've seen in a very long time. I just thought the way they worked with lighting, the way that the themes were well done, I think it's, I think they do some stuff that... You know usually some horror movies are just all about jump scares and this one like they'll linger on a shot for so long and I'm trying to think of what I can say without spoiling it but this is the first thing that got me into the theater since ⁓ Project Hail Mary which we chatted about with Morgan on episode one so yeah just very much recommend Obsession it's a really really good movie so there you go a little bit of non-volleyball to end the show but hey as always whether you were here for the interviews whether you're here for the set six awards or the non-volleyball I'll talk whatever it may be. Thank you so much for tuning in to this little bit of a different kind of style episode here in episode 5 of the set 6 podcast. We appreciate you joining on whatever podcast platform you choose to listen to and stick around. We'll have a new episode next week. There are so many announcements that are right there that I just want to tell you about that we will in due time. So make sure you're checking our socials. Make sure you're checking back here in the podcast next week. Who knows what's coming in store so. Once again, thank you everybody. I'm Severin Lavinstein. Thank you for listening to Set Six, and we'll see you next time.