The Viral Volley Podcast

This week Kelly Belardi rejoins CVW Beach to recap the week that was for the Stanford Cardinal that had them reclaim the No. 1 AVCA Coaches' Poll ranking for 3rd time in 2026. Kelly also gives some insight on couple of the top 10 teams to watch in the final 3 weekends of regular season play. Last weekend, Kelly achieved the 100th Career Win milestone so she also shared how important her teammates were in accomplishing that feat. In addition, Kelly and partner, Avery Jackson were honored as the AVCA National and MPSF Pair of the Week! The Stanford Cardinal are "gunning for the top" hoping to defend their MPSF Beach Tournament Champion title but are aware that teams are better and deeper than ever! From there, we break down a couple of the hot teams during Week 6: #5 Florida St. & #3 Texas.

In the Week 13 recap, we saw a week were there were no upsets in the top 10, however it didn't mean there was a shortage of action! Long Beach St. took down Theo's Matadors twice, while Brad and his Tritons were in the battle but UCI found a way to get it done in 3 and 5 sets accordingly. Dan and his Flyers only had one match for the week in the Battle for Chitown on Rae Strong Night, where the Ramblers came out with the win in 4. UCLA is at 20-0 and looking unstoppable, while Pepperdine had a very important pair of wins Provo vs. BYU that cold prove important if an At-Large bid is on the line. Just a few samples of our discussions before we pick our "Ballers of the Week," NOTE: For those requesting time-stamps, we apologize for not posting them. Rob has to get the episode up within an hour of recording so we have to turn the episode around REALLY FAST. As always, thanks for watching or listening! iTunes: https://bit.ly/4uODVab Spotify: https://bit.ly/3NWZnt1 Podbean: https://bit.ly/40LqYQV YouTube: https://youtu.be/7bl1wmnhPiw

This week saw top teams like UCLA, Stanford, USC and TCU idle, however that didn't stop the rest of the other top teams from pulling off big wins, like #9 Cal over #4 Texas, and #16 GCU over #12 LSU. University of Hawaii's Sydney Miller and Rob review and recap Week 5 of the NCAA Collegiate Beach season as we inch closer to conference tournament time and begin looking at At-Large berth scenarios! Throughout the episode we discuss a few career milestones for some Mustangs, Seminoles and a Sundevil! Thanks for watching or listening!

This week we remember Ann Davenport after her unexpected passing last week. She was truly a volleyball pioneer helping the game grow in so many aspects. In our “Social Media Shoutout” segment, @lewismensvb is recognized for their viral post of the week—a celebrity doppelganger with one of their current OHs, Daniel Haber. We got through our Week 12 recap focusing on some of the top 20’s matches that received national attention, spending some extra time on the No. 2 Long Beach St. vs. No. 3 Hawaii matches, picked our players of the week, then dropped some “Whatcha Watchin’” matches for Week 13. To end our episode, “Jay’s Quick Hits,” brings some interesting questions about team culture and must-have equipment as the panel responds in not-so-lightning-quick speed.

After a two-week break, Sydney Miller of Hawaii and Rob Espero breakdown some of the top tidbits of the top-10-ish teams in the most recent AVCA polls. There were minor shifts in the top 10 this week, but all within expectations. A lot of discussion on East Meets West in Manhattan Beach and the FAU Invitational where a few unexpected results arose involving USC, Florida St. and TCU. Thanks for listening/watching and following!

As always, we start off "shouting out" some of our Men's Volleyball digital content providers, and this week it's Lee Feinswog of 900 Square Feet and @flicksbyry_! In the 300th episode (on Viral Volley Media) we’ve got an NCAA Men’s Championship Volleyball Recap in Week 11 that saw No. 1 UCLA remain undefeated—which beckons the question, “Can the Bruins be beaten?” Also, Penn St. makes a West Coast swing vs. Long Beach St., Pepperdine and USC as Coach Pav continues his retirement tour. Stanford snatches a couple wins against No 7 BYU that could prove to me huge come MPSF Tournament time while celebrating Volleyball Day in the Bay. The then-No. 11 UCSB Gauchos split their Big West series vs. No. 4 UCI behind George Breuning and the mustache-clad Cole Schobel. The Coaches’ Panel chat about a few other matches, then we go into the new HOT segment— “Jay’s Quick Hits,” and this one is a doozy! Thanks for listening/watching and following!

In Episode 299 CVW Men’s Top 20 is graced with the guest appearance of Princeton Head Coach, Sam Shweisky. Sam joins the crew to talk about some of the top 20 matches during the 10th week of the Men’s Collegiate season. Each week, the MIVA seems to have more mayhem as teams jostle for positioning for post-season play. The Waves split with the Bows for an entertaining series, Belmont Abbey and Mt. Olive are vying for the top spot in the Conference Carolinas, while the “Battle for LA” proved that the lone defeated team in the nation can turn it on in crunch time. From there the crew selects their “Ballers of the Week,” and matches they’ll be watching in Week 11. We finish the episode with a new favorite segment, “Jay’s Quick Hits,” where the coaches answer some interesting topics in Men’s Volleyball! Thanks for watching and/or listening! #NCAAMVB

This week, we go through our normal routine of recognizing digital content creators in the Men’s game. This week it was reported that the Official Fan Account for NCAA Men’s Volleyball, @ncaamvb surpassed 22.6 MILLION views! Great news for #ncaavb, but even better news for Men’s Volleyball! In our news segment we remember Steven Lee Sander, father to Taylor and Brenden, two wonderful personalities in Men’s Volleyball. Other news for the week, had former Stanford All-American Matt Fuerbringer being named as Head Coach of the USAV Beach Team as well. From there we go into the “Elephant in the Room,” that highlights the Coaching Panelists’ matches in Week 9, “Eye Catching Matches” of the week and finally, the panel’s “Ballers/Players of the Week.” New this week, is “Jay’s Quick Hits” segment where we bounce a handful of NCAA Men’s Volleyball questions/topics on the spot for a hot take! Thanks for listening and following! #ncaamvb #ncaamvolleyball #ncaavolleyball

This week’s episode brings on Arizona St.’s Arden Besecker and Kendall Whitmarsh fresh off the most recent AVCA poll and the first named conference pairs of the week across the nation! Arden and Kendall discuss last year’s journey for the Sun Devils as they had another great season under Head Coach Kristen Glattfelder being on the verge of heading to Gulf Shores! Both the Sun Devils share a little about their 2026 team and recap their 1st week of play which grabbed the attention of the voters in the most recent poll, as ASU thrusts up 2 places from #11 to #9. Along with the climb, Arden and partner, Zoey Taylor, and Kendall and her partner, Olivia McElroy went 4-0 on the weekend. The latter were named Big 12 Pair of the Week! We discuss what matches and results grabbed their attention in Week 1– which all happened on Queen’s Beach in Waikiki, HI at the Duke Kahanamoku Classic! Thanks for listening/watching!

In our Week 8 recap of the 2026 season the Coaches’ Panel (minus Dan out with the flu) discusses the action that happened in D1-2 Men’s Volleyball at our half way point! But first, we shout out our Instagram content creators @1stseedvolleyball’s John McNallly and Holly Wong of @hykchora for putting out excellent and engaging content in Men’s Volleyball! From there we discuss the start of a new D2 program at Mercy University, career milestones for Kevin Burch of Ohio St. and Shawn Olmstead of BYU. As always wee flow into our “Elephant in the Room” segment to our matches of the week and our Ballers of the Week. Our conversation flows into “Whatcha Watchin’” in Week 9 and we end with dropping a “Volleyball Hot Take”—for which I recommend you take a good listen! As always, thank you for watching/listening!

As we kick off the 2026 NCAA Beach season, Sydney Miller of Hawaii jumps on to chat with Rob about the first-ever AVCA Player of the Year Watchlist while breaking down the top-10-ish teams in the AVCA Preseason Poll. Of course we drop a lot of names because that list could have been bigger, but there is such an abundance of talent on teams' rosters-- to a point where some did not get mentioned! CVW BT20 will change format for this season (listen to the episode to find out why), but no matter what we'll have at least Sydney on the show for a chat of the Top 20 Tidbits/Results! Thanks for listening/watching! #NCAABEACH

Our Week 7 recap mean’s we’re coming upon the half-way point of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Collegiate Volleyball season! Tteams are turning heads as conference play in the EIVA and MIVA have made us expect the unexpected! Meanwhile, Non-conference clashes have teams butting heads to keep records unblemished, establish nonconference superiority and get quality wins under teams’ belts! The CVW crew runs down the Week 7 recap all the way down to the No. 1 team in the nation, but not before our special guests from the MPSF join us! From there, the guys pick their Ballers of the Week and drop the matches they’ll be keeping dabs on in “Whatcha Watchin’!” Thanks for watching/listening! Spread the word, and click on subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and/or on YouTube!

Illness and technical difficulties made this episode a little choppy but it didn’t matter as the Coaches’ Panel dropped their recaps, insights and opinions on an action-packed Week 6! Discussion includes “Social Media Shout Outs” to Vinnie Lopes of Off-the-Block Blog and a family of digital media creators of the Zapanta family (Jay, Rachel and Noah)! From there we chat about some of the top matches of the week, highlight play and other news items—like Penn St Head Coach Mark Pavlik’s 700th win and the debut of the first-ever AVCA Player of the Year Watchlist. As always, the guys pick their “Ballers of the Week,” and conclude with matches they’ll be keeping an eye on in week 7! Thanks for listening/watching!

"No Average Joe" episode!" This week we bring on Men’s Volleyball Influencer, Joe McCurdy (@jtmvball on Instagram and TikTok) on the show to talk about the happenings in week 5 of the NCAA Men’s Volleyball season from a digital journalist perspective. Joe and Rob bounce between select matches of the top 20 and highlight key performances in those matches. Of course they take a stab at top athletes of the week, then pick out some of the top matches to look out for in Week 6! Week 6 "Social Media Shout Outs" to @nekobavisuals and @buhlmedia and, @thevolleyballrecap!