S2E3: SoCal Cup Roundup, AVCA Rankings, and NCAA Champ Picks

In this episode, we explore:
• SoCal Cup roundup
• Game results and reflections on tournament performances 
• Insights into coaching strategies and player growth 
• Discussion on AVCA rankings and predictions for upcoming matches 
• Anecdotes from tournament chaos and life in volleyball 
• National Champion predictions

Transcript

Volleyball Coaches Reflect on Recent Tournament

Chad Gordon 0:00

Someone was asking how's life going and I was like , well , I'm coaching , we're doing this AI business in volleyball . All volleyball we have a podcast that I drive down to Morgan Hill for once a week . It's about volleyball .

Arielle Houlihan 0:10

To talk about mostly volleyball .

Chad Gordon 0:13

My girlfriend also coaches volleyball and then some afternoons I go play some beach volleyball .

Matt Houlihan 0:19

Can I eat volleyball for dinner , bob , can I eat volleyball for dinner ?

Chad Gordon 0:22

Bob .

Arielle Houlihan 0:28

Welcome back to the coaches group chat . We all have lost our voices .

Chad Gordon 0:34

I'm doing okay .

Arielle Houlihan 0:35

Oh yeah , but your better half is . She took one for the team Bobby is home , not able to speak right now . I'm getting closer as we speak . I'm feeling it for sure . This is the first tournament that I didn't double duty like AM wave , PM wave , but still my but it was my voice is a struggle . Pm . Wave is a killer .

Arielle Houlihan 0:57

Yeah , pm wave stinks , it's the worst PM wave to PM wave and then , like , we were there till like eight or 9 o'clock in the gym and then you have an 8 am match . Yeah , it's a crazy turnaround .

Matt Houlihan 1:09

Yeah , it's not . It's not ideal Usually . That's why most of the open divisions are in the am .

Arielle Houlihan 1:13

Chad's . Like I've been in pm every single weekend Just keeping my mouth shut . This is his first time that he wasn't . He wasn't . P's a beautiful thing 15 open . We were in pm every single tournament yeah , we , we've been am the whole time . This is our first time , so , and I hated it should we hop into our docket ?

Matt Houlihan 1:34

we have many things to discuss . Chad's on a tight schedule here . He's got to be up for polish , polish happy hour and four hours is that hour ?

Chad Gordon 1:43

That's not how time works 8 am . You never know .

Arielle Houlihan 1:48

Polish happy hour Is that 8 am .

Chad Gordon 1:50

Polish happy hours . It's not a lifestyle .

Matt Houlihan 1:53

Let's hop into a little SoCal Cup action . Let's talk about some finishes . You want to start us off ? You had the best finish so you can . I guess you can go first . You want to start at the ?

Chad Gordon 2:00

top .

Arielle Houlihan 2:07

I first . You want to start at the top of the bottom ? Hey , easy , uh , yeah , we got third it . I mean , I don't know , for us it doesn't feel great , but we , uh , we were close . We played balboa in the semis . We had a great match against sports performance in the uh quarters .

Matt Houlihan 2:23

Um , or , we played great I saw that you guys look . You guys looked sharp in that one .

Arielle Houlihan 2:26

Yeah , we looked sharp in that game . We were battling with our own selves the entire weekend . I think it was . We missed 52 serves on day one . It was a nice little . We just started trying to figure out exactly what we're doing , Hoping that the aggression on the serve is paying off by the end . But really we got beat on the serve at the end .

Matt Houlihan 2:50

Yeah , Um you got beat by your opponent's serve yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 2:53

Like they .

Arielle Houlihan 2:54

They were cracking serves at us and they were aggressive in and yeah , and so , um , we're trying to get to that point , I think , and we weren't there yet and we were still close to them , I think . Our just numbers wise , we weren't even . We were not there at all . So , like , I'm actually glad that we were that close and didn't play really close to our potential , but had some really good moments with my team this weekend . So I'm I'm actually pretty satisfied with where we are at at this point in the year , um , and very excited about the summer with this group .

Matt Houlihan 3:30

So , yeah , 18s group going into high school season , last high school round . The loyal listeners are gonna remember this well . But last time , one year ago to this day , to that event , uh , the 15s I was coaching last year , we finished ninth loss in the first round of gold . It was one of those matches where , like , the chain was just like wasn't fully off the bicycle , but it was . It was like kind of off , yeah , and you're trying to get it going and just keeps on .

Arielle Houlihan 3:54

That's not clicking . We felt that last tournament .

Matt Houlihan 3:56

That was a . That was a little bit of the 15s again this weekend in the struggle . So , kyle Chamberlain my , it's been my sister the past two seasons . We see this , the court we get scheduled on for the final day of play for soaking up . It's the same exact court . Oh , and we were like bad omen . Bad omen right here redemption arc . Uh , yeah , a little bit of redemption we did . We won the playing game so we didn't finish ninth , but we did end up losing . Uh to 630 15s . Uh , we just yeah , they just beat us .

Matt Houlihan 4:25

We did not play our best game and we certainly had a little bit of the uh , the chain off the bicycle syndrome yeah um , but yeah , like , uh , like we talked about last year very similar to this year as well was a lot of really cool progress . This is a team . I asked them all at the end of like where , literally where were you last year ? This time , our 14 ones guys were . They lost in the finals of the bronze division .

Matt Houlihan 4:49

Last year at this event , three of my guys were playing in the ncva girls power league kickoff tournament at san jose , this is an improvement yeah , all right hi one of them was playing in a girls tournament in washington , that's wild , definitely redemption and one of them wasn't playing volleyball at all .

Arielle Houlihan 5:06

Yeah .

Matt Houlihan 5:07

And so it was like a a yeah , a huge variety of where these kids have been at and what they were doing now .

Arielle Houlihan 5:16

Um , it's so funny how that conversation keeps going at each level of like . I had the same conversation with Rafa of like we're devastated after these losses because it hurts so bad . And then you're like , okay , let's talk about where you're at a year and a half ago . Like you're like the , the , the climb in this like trajectory of these kids . It happens so quickly when they get to a next level and the next level and then it almost hurts worse at the next level and it keeps becoming like something that they're reaching for and it's just like a cool . It's cool that we all are kind of having those conversations of like where were you at ?

Matt Houlihan 5:52

yeah , Jackson's ready .

Arielle Houlihan 5:54

He's telling Chad it's your turn and emotional support animal with you when we talk about come on down how we doing .

Chad Gordon 6:02

Okay , I need you to lay down . That'd be great . All right , I'm moving the feet , yeah no okay impose your will full butt slam , all right we thought this was chad cam . This is actually jackson's camera I can't wait to cut to this where he's just like I don't care what you need right now . Hello , welcome , yeah , 17s . Uh , good , tournament won the silver division for us . Um , it's not too bad right now . Played a really strong match against 949 in our day two pool that yeah , we were up .

Chad Gordon 6:33

We were up really big in the first , like a lot of people there for that yeah , no , we were playing good ball , um , you know , we had played our , our premier team , our twos team , right before um , and got a good win against them , because that's a really talented team . And then , yeah , I mean , we're just , things were kind of going our way against nine , four , nine , and then all of a sudden kind of death by a thousand cuts . Yeah , um , they chipped , they started chipping , yeah , yeah , and you know , end up on the new on the podiums . So , no , it was , it was good . I mean , we finished out the tournament . Two wins , two , three setters . So , parents , you got your money's worth .

Chad Gordon 7:11

And you know , I thought the best thing for us was , like the last point , to win the third . You know , whatever , 1512 against a breaking was , you know , setter digs , great communication , like slower steps in such this great high ball and Miguel , like rips high , high , flat off the hands , it goes over the middle backside and we're like the exact shit we've been like trying to work on . Yeah , I'm like guy digs , great communication , here's this ball , here's how you hit this thing , like for that to like be that last point , it was like oh okay , better we're getting better you know , and of course for our guys it's just , and you know , for for alex and I too , right it's just .

Chad Gordon 7:45

It's frustrating because you see the success of everybody else in the club and you know those guys want part of that too yeah yeah so , but it was a . It was a great step , for sure , yeah so in due time , boys , in due time .

Matt Houlihan 7:56

That's how it goes , that's good . I mean soca cup on the on the hole , obviously a lot of like . There's some tension coming into the event with all of the wildfires and things going on around . There were a few teams that dropped across the event . None of our teams dropped . We had a few families that did opt out Not a ton .

Arielle Houlihan 8:14

I think that a lot of the teams that did drop were all some teams from out flying in .

Matt Houlihan 8:21

There's definitely more to lose for them if something did go wrong .

Arielle Houlihan 8:29

So it was kind of more of a situation there , um , but overall packed convention center , nothing . There was nothing about downtown that I felt was much different than normal .

Matt Houlihan 8:39

No , yeah , it was its own normal , crazy los angeles so let's talk about los angeles man , oh man , yes , let's get in Los Angeles . Man , oh man , yes , let's get in that . But real quick . Let me give you one thing here on just this general event . We've been there . Now what four or five ?

Arielle Houlihan 8:57

times , yeah , it's been about four or five times , yeah , last couple years .

Chad Gordon 8:59

Five times yeah .

Convention Center Logistics and Hotel Woes

Matt Houlihan 9:01

I love me some Anaheim Convention Center , like probably my favorite place of all time .

Arielle Houlihan 9:07

It's just nostalgic . You've played there .

Matt Houlihan 9:09

The size the hotels all the stuff that's around . It's also just very family friendly Disneyland .

Arielle Houlihan 9:15

You got Disneyland right there .

Matt Houlihan 9:16

Even Vegas , vegas , at least hotels . You know you're going to have a ton of hotels .

Arielle Houlihan 9:21

People feel split on Vegas , though I get that yes .

Matt Houlihan 9:24

Everyone's flying in , but it's honestly , it's a little . It's cheaper than people feel split on vegas in general of like bringing youth sporting events into vegas like yeah , yeah , whatever well , downtown la was the worst city it was wild , not not because of wildfires , not because it was just wild , because it was like . It was like an apocalyptic place for three days .

Arielle Houlihan 9:47

It's like somebody took a bunch of things in Sims and just dropped them all on the same place . It's like I'm going to add 57 billboards on one building and it's going to be extra , extra , extra large and there's going to be a little bit of space and we're going to forget that we have to clean it . Extra , extra , extra large and there's gonna be a little bit of space and it's just gonna like , and we're gonna forget that we have to clean it . Yeah .

Chad Gordon 10:08

I know I guess some homeless lady was outside the hotel like was banging on one of the doors with the hammer security kind of shoes . Her away goes around to the other side because , like like , the AC and the mox are kind of like two things ends up coming back to the middle and , just like again from our producer bobby , just smashes this hammer into like I don't know , it's a 20 foot piece of like glass , glass like so you know , people are like walking out of the hotel in the morning it's all like taped up and whatever .

Chad Gordon 10:34

Like what happened here points to those guys . It was up and fixed by the end of the day , but they got a good glass guy down the home . The homeless hammer was coming in hot at like midnight or something like that .

Matt Houlihan 10:45

The homeless hammer was crazy . We're walking out , I mean it's also . Did you get this on film when we were walking out ? Yes , I was filming a video . I screamed . I was filming a video of the hot dog cart vendors , of that's a dog .

Arielle Houlihan 10:57

Hot dog hot dog , hot dog , hot dog .

Matt Houlihan 11:06

Just getting berated for for hot dogs Also , the smells of that make me want to vomit . Every single time the 7.15 am bacon hot dog and there's always someone buying one .

Chad Gordon 11:08

That's what's crazy . The smells of that make me want to buy one . What are you talking ?

Arielle Houlihan 11:12

about ?

Chad Gordon 11:13

No , not me I don't know which camera I need to look at , but they're wrong , I haven't purchased one yet , but I'm overdue . You're overdue for for food poisoning ? Yeah , but was a hot dog for halloween , as we'll all remember I love a hot dog .

Arielle Houlihan 11:26

I just something about the smells of that at seven in the morning when we've been drinking till three in the morning you gotta want it not for me . Up your commitment , it was , it's hilarious .

Matt Houlihan 11:36

I think it's very funny , so I was filming a video of it . When we're walking out on day three and as I'm filming that video of everyone yelling hot dog , hot dog , hot dog at us and literal explosion goes off right outside the convention center , I look over the sky and there's just stuff like plume of smoke there's a plume of smoke and there's these like bags just drifting through the air and we look over and there's this whole like group of adults on bikes .

Arielle Houlihan 12:01

They just start like adults is a strong word yeah , but they word .

Matt Houlihan 12:04

It wasn't like 12-year-olds .

Chad Gordon 12:06

It was like .

Matt Houlihan 12:07

They're 20-year-olds-ish and they all just start scattering .

Arielle Houlihan 12:12

Everyone's going . Don't be suspicious . Don't be suspicious .

Matt Houlihan 12:15

You look over , there's a concrete trash can that has been blown up . There was a literal explosive device inside of this trash can . They blew up .

Arielle Houlihan 12:26

It must have been a firework or something .

Matt Houlihan 12:28

And it was the loudest bang of all time . It was just a spectacle .

Arielle Houlihan 12:34

If that would have happened somewhere else , it would have been potentially national news .

Matt Houlihan 12:40

DC yeah , like Washington DC yeah 100% , if that would have happened .

Chad Gordon 12:44

That was business as usual down there . We had to break the news on our podcast , like that's how normal that is down there .

Arielle Houlihan 12:50

It was actually like if that would have happened and there was like a major event going on like uh the grammys , the emmys , all that stuff set the peacock theater right there . That would have been right there I really do think that that's like national news , when something like it could have killed somebody . Yeah , for sure , 100% could have killed somebody .

Matt Houlihan 13:07

The massive concrete trash can was crumbled Like that thing was put to abyss .

Arielle Houlihan 13:13

So all these stories short , this place is not a tourism place anymore .

Matt Houlihan 13:24

It's definitely not my top choice , is it ? In your bottom choice oh yeah , I would , I would take me to anaheim san diego las vegas in the country to be fair , I would rather fly to la than connect pretty much anywhere . Okay , that's okay that I do . I do understand , okay okay , I do .

Arielle Houlihan 13:48

I do agree with that , because the indiana thing was like ridiculous about how long it took .

Matt Houlihan 13:52

Yeah , yeah , it just takes forever yeah .

Chad Gordon 13:54

I agree with that .

Arielle Houlihan 13:55

I'll deal with it , but like there , we have got to get out of .

Matt Houlihan 14:00

LA . They're not . They're not going anywhere out of LA . We didn't even finish the last of the stories . The last night , the go-kart roundup was .

Chad Gordon 14:06

Oh my gosh , the go-kart roundup . Yeah , We've been there a few times , right . And so we have these guys that are on like regular , like bikes not bikes , but like motorcycles , right and it's like a group of maybe like 50 or 80 of them and they'll just take over the street and they'll be going blowing past red lights whatever they're loud , but it's kind of fun and like they're hitting wheelies . That's cool . I'm used to that . We've done this before this time .

Chad Gordon 14:31

Little solo like Mario cart kind of size go-kart like little go-kart things , yeah , like you're like flat on the ground and there are these guys is doing these burnouts , I don't know 50 or 80 people kind of in that . In that mix the cops come on in . They try to kind of box them in their go-karts . They're faster than the little Ford escapes and so they're trying to round them up . They're like fleeing out the backside . They're going like under the little metal things Like cause the arm doesn't need to go up if you're in a go-kart .

Arielle Houlihan 15:00

It's like Mad Max meets Mario Kart .

Chad Gordon 15:02

Basically , yeah , and you know now . They're like blocking traffic on a pretty busy street , like the cops are trying little go-karts , flipping them off and then going the other way because they're just maneuverable . Yeah , it was what was the Joker ? It was like the PG-13 . I thought it was the R-rated version of Mario .

Matt Houlihan 15:20

Kart .

Chad Gordon 15:21

It's like Grand Theft Auto meets Mario Kart . Basically , they had balloons on the back . Honestly they should have . That would have made way more sense , but missed opportunity .

Matt Houlihan 15:31

They were throwing street hot dogs rather than the manas .

Chad Gordon 15:34

And to your point , this is just whatever 1 pm on a Monday .

Arielle Houlihan 15:39

This was yesterday .

Matt Houlihan 15:41

Oh my gosh , what a time .

Arielle Houlihan 15:44

I get how hard the convention center stuff is , but man LA is maybe my least favorite . The hotels are not .

Matt Houlihan 15:54

It just logistically speaking the convention center is at its capacity for this event . For what boys volleyball is ?

Arielle Houlihan 16:04

How many courts ?

Matt Houlihan 16:06

They've got to be like near 90-ish courts in there .

Arielle Houlihan 16:08

Maybe 80-something .

Matt Houlihan 16:10

Yeah , I mean when you get banished to the West Hall like the 15th .

Arielle Houlihan 16:12

Sid , that's a tough time over there . Yeah , yeah , yeah , we . You get banished to the West hall like the 15th that's over there .

Chad Gordon 16:14

That's a tough that's a tough time over there . We two were banished . Yes , yeah , I got hit by more stray volleyball . I was in that place . I don't know if the level's just low over there but , like Jones . Jones got hit in the face .

Matt Houlihan 16:30

I got hit in the West Hall , that's all I'm saying , but the real part of it is the hotel situation . Hotels are very tough in LA . There's nothing that's attached , there's small ones that are close , in walking distance . No one will work with you . No one wants to give you a block bigger than like 20 rooms . Logistically for clubs it's difficult . I would love to get back to a place where you're at and I have , because Anaheim is one of the largest convention centers , so you can scale up and do it . Hotels are obviously abundant and close and everywhere .

Matt Houlihan 17:04

And it's just way more family friendly . But yeah , that's . That's the other reason why I said about Vegas is like Vegas is less family friendly , but at least everyone's like you're attached .

Arielle Houlihan 17:13

Yeah , I'd way rather go to Vegas . You have a choice of where to stay . You have a choice of , like , what you want to do . It's .

Matt Houlihan 17:20

Yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 17:21

The casinos are good . The casinos .

Matt Houlihan 17:22

But theoretically , yes , there's a lot more ways you can get in trouble in Vegas if you are inclined to that Sure , to that lifestyle .

Chad Gordon 17:34

You can probably get in trouble in downtown los angeles .

Matt Houlihan 17:36

You may have missed the bomb that went off . Yeah , I would rather . I would rather my kids walk from the mandalay bay to the convention center than my kids walk from I would the jw marriott to there's more security in these casinos ?

Matt Houlihan 17:47

yeah , there's no , yeah let's get into the meat potatoes of what we do . New ABCA rankings , let's go . Ucla lost badly , by the way , to Ohio State . It was an ugly loss , and so we have a new number one . According to the ABCA , our new number one and favorite for the national championship is Long Beach State .

Arielle Houlihan 18:10

How many people voted for Long Beach ?

Matt Houlihan 18:13

I think there's 23 votes and Long Beach State got 22 of people voted for Long Beach . I think there's 23 votes and Long Beach State got 22 of them . Who ?

Arielle Houlihan 18:18

got one .

Matt Houlihan 18:19

There's one rogue vote out there , we'll get to it . We'll get to it . Long Beach State number one . Irvine number two . Ucla drops back to number three . Hawaii hangs at number four . Still Number five is BYU , who is the lone other number one ranked team . They got one singular vote for first place . We can put on our tin hats and make a conspiracy theory on who we think that is so .

Arielle Houlihan 18:47

BYU got the one vote .

Matt Houlihan 18:48

BYU is the other team that received a vote for number one . This is a ranking by the coaches on the they get to kind of cast their vote for one through 20 , and then they tally up those numbers and that's how they kind of certify the rankings . So when you get a number one vote , they put that in there .

Arielle Houlihan 19:08

I'm just explaining , for all the people that need to know Somebody voted for BYU , was it you ?

Chad Gordon 19:14

It was Keone for sure .

Arielle Houlihan 19:18

I think that it was . I mean , it's got to be BYU , right .

Matt Houlihan 19:26

Vote for yourself . Yeah , I wonder what that ? What's that they used to publish the results ?

Arielle Houlihan 19:32

Give me some transparency . We don't like any non-transparency .

Matt Houlihan 19:36

That way we could call out the people who are just doing a bad job voting .

Chad Gordon 19:39

They're just not paying attention obviously this is copy and paste from last week .

Matt Houlihan 19:42

Yeah , last week and then like oh , if they saw that you said I lost they adjusted .

Chad Gordon 19:46

Do you think Nipe is someone who wouldn't vote for his own team at one ?

Matt Houlihan 19:56

That was one of the things I was thinking . Maybe Knipe voted for BYU as a joke , no , just to give his team something else . You're not unanimous .

Arielle Houlihan 20:01

Oh , I love that .

Matt Houlihan 20:03

You're not a unanimous number one .

Arielle Houlihan 20:06

No , I voted for us .

Matt Houlihan 20:08

Also , aren't they playing BYU ? No , it's not this week or next week .

Arielle Houlihan 20:12

I was like that's a funny one .

Matt Houlihan 20:13

That would have been funny . They play Ir not this week or next week .

Arielle Houlihan 20:15

Oh , I was like that's a funny one . That would have been funny . No , they play , they play .

Matt Houlihan 20:17

Irvine this week . No , byu does Long Beach plays .

Arielle Houlihan 20:20

Long Beach plays .

Matt Houlihan 20:22

Pepperdine .

Arielle Houlihan 20:22

Pepperdine correct .

Matt Houlihan 20:24

God , I'm an almanac of .

Arielle Houlihan 20:26

No , you just studied right before this .

Chad Gordon 20:28

Or you might be confidently wrong .

Arielle Houlihan 20:30

We're not actually sure actually sure we're not fact-checking this at all . That's true , I'm not fact-checking it .

Matt Houlihan 20:34

You're wrong , I'm right , nice try , that's not bad . What do we think ? What do we think about these rankings ? Any adjustments ? I think Stanford bumped up to nine after beating Penn State , ohio State , loyola's , the ten , no , the eight , that I'm not confident on , but I know that ball state stayed , uh , stayed above Stanford , so they lost to BYU .

Arielle Houlihan 21:02

They lost to BYU and they stayed .

Matt Houlihan 21:05

Yeah , they're happy he was ahead of them .

Arielle Houlihan 21:06

So he was number one according to according to maybe , maybe , ball state voted for them as number one .

College Volleyball Matchup Analysis

Matt Houlihan 21:12

Classic Donan .

Chad Gordon 21:12

Donan could have .

Matt Houlihan 21:13

Donan could have been like we lost to the number one team .

Chad Gordon 21:16

Yeah , game theory , yeah , I don't know . I mean I watched . The only UCLA I've watched was really that like I watched half of the Ohio State one .

Matt Houlihan 21:27

That was the bad game to watch .

Chad Gordon 21:28

That was , but I think a pretty telling game to watch . I mean , I don't know , they didn't play that great at the beginning of last year too . They're I mean , they have some stuff they got to figure out like without champlin , like they're , yeah , passing the rock very well . That's the biggest thing I saw like like rowan is still playing really fast . Like you know , david like hit a lot of balls out of bounds . That was pretty interesting .

Matt Houlihan 21:51

Um , like both lefts did some like really impressive stuff and then like just yeah , soft block , soft block yeah , they had a couple defensive plays where they like just fumbled the ball like they had absolute golden opportunities and whiffed it . But yeah , I think the biggest thing I agree was there just doesn't look like they have a glue guy , like champlin was 100 .

Matt Houlihan 22:14

Their glue guy last year made the team go even when they struggled , yeah , they were always in it and they always looked yeah , together , they looked put together . Even when they weren't like , the chain wasn't fully on the bike , they still looked like they could could beat anyone yeah yeah , I wonder , I wonder who .

Chad Gordon 22:31

Who's the leader on that team right now ? Yeah , who steps into philadelphia ?

Matt Houlihan 22:34

is it ? Is it cooper robertson ? Is it rowan ? Is it ? I don't know ? I don't know who fills that role and you know that I'm sure will become more clear , but that was , and you know that's sports . Someone's gonna have to fill into that to be a top team . Yeah , but it was clear and it was a testament , I think , to champlin of how important he was for that squad Alex Knight too .

Chad Gordon 22:56

Yeah , yeah , let's not discount Knight also .

Matt Houlihan 22:59

Two guys . That Knight didn't play as big of an all-around role but when he was plugged in , as was shown by his most outstanding player , of the tournament . Yeah , he was super stable .

Arielle Houlihan 23:11

That should be an award given most outstanding stability .

Chad Gordon 23:15

Most stable , most outstanding stability .

Matt Houlihan 23:16

Most stable .

Arielle Houlihan 23:16

Stable stability .

Matt Houlihan 23:20

We got some big matchups this week , though , that I'm very much looking forward to .

Arielle Houlihan 23:24

I'm trying to go to a Long Beach game . I think that Long Beach is just so exciting .

Matt Houlihan 23:30

I definitely want to go to a Long Beach game , no doubt . I wonder when we go down there for the Equinox tournament . I wonder if that's the same .

Arielle Houlihan 23:35

You should look at that . You want to go to a Long Beach game , no doubt . I wonder when we go down there for the Equinox tournament .

Matt Houlihan 23:37

Oh yeah , I wonder if that's the same . You should look at that . You want to do a slab shot again ?

Chad Gordon 23:40

No , I'll be in Poland .

Matt Houlihan 23:41

Okay , fair enough yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 23:43

We can go ?

Chad Gordon 23:44

Yes , we can , or you guys can come to Poland .

Arielle Houlihan 23:46

Nah , I'd also like to do that go to that Equinox tournament .

Chad Gordon 23:52

I can take a hint .

Matt Houlihan 23:54

The matchup of the week for me is none other than the UC Irvine Anteaters playing the BYU Storm and Mormons . It's at Irvine and I think it's going to be a show BYU's kind of running the gauntlet the next two weeks . They got Irvine and then Charlie Wade and the Rainbow Warriors are coming to town to play BYU at .

Matt Houlihan 24:16

BYU in two weeks , which you know . Your boy Keone's head circled on the calendar for the moment . He entered the transfer portal and decided on BYU . So some big , big time matchups for them . And then the other matchup , and I'll let you guys layer on your thoughts . Here we got USC number six gonna have their first real test . Take it on my boys c sun at number 15 at the matadome for the first one . Oh they're getting smoked ?

Chad Gordon 24:47

you think so , s he's getting smoked , you think s he's gonna smoke is happening I'm I'm not gonna lie .

Matt Houlihan 24:52

It's hard . It's hard to root against CSUN at the Matadome . For me , I think that is a but . This is the test , right , like is USC legit or can they handle ?

Arielle Houlihan 25:03

a team with that much firepower . I don't know if this says if USC is legit or not .

Chad Gordon 25:06

Yes , this is the only match that will matter this will determine everything I don't think that this is the .

Arielle Houlihan 25:12

This is definitely a . If they don't win , they . This is the . This is definitely a . If they don't win , they're not but like if they win .

Chad Gordon 25:20

Oh , not conclusive .

Arielle Houlihan 25:22

Yeah , not conclusive .

Matt Houlihan 25:23

No for sure . But I would say USC for the past couple of years has been Underwhelming . They've been up and down Like they can beat Sure .

Arielle Houlihan 25:31

They beat Irvine last year Totally .

Matt Houlihan 25:33

But they you , but they take your pick of who they lose to . They're just an up-and-down team . To be at number six , to be in that top grouping , they're going to need to be at a really high consistent level , even if they lose to a CSUN at home . I think CSUN's under-seeded . If they go toe-to-toe with CSUN at the Matadome and then get a win at home , okay , that's a legitimate team for sure . But CSUN's going to be a major test because they're veterans , they game , they will talk a bunch of shit and they will back it up , so will SC .

Matt Houlihan 26:07

Exactly . But will they back it up is still the TBD question mark , because they can do it , but they can also flounder in it as well . So it's a good test . I think that'll be a really good early season matchup for two programs that I think could make some waves this year . Usc , to kind of meet the expectations and for CSUN to showcase were the real deal and I think they are a like we kind of talked about . One of the first episodes was just that of the juggernaut slayers . I think csun's one of them , because they can get hot enough , they can play at a level uh , just emotionally , that will take them really far . But it's kind of like driving your car on nos right , like to quote dan or asai . You can , you can definitely hit the nos and and hit that turbo speed , but if you run on NOS the entire time , your car's going to fall apart . That's what kind of CSUN has reminded me of as well . I'm interested to see what they can bring out of this .

Arielle Houlihan 27:05

We get it . You love CSUN . Yeah , this is clear .

Matt Houlihan 27:08

This is clear . We saw my boy , neil , this weekend too . Neil Finnegan shout out that's my guy . You guys have any thoughts on those top matchups ? Anything that you're looking forward to seeing in these ?

Chad Gordon 27:19

I like the Irvine matchup . I think that'll be a good just another good indicator , right of like hey , these guys were serious last year , they're serious again this year , and then we'll see how that weekend goes .

Arielle Houlihan 27:31

I'm interested to see if Pepperdine can do anything against Long Beach .

Matt Houlihan 27:35

Yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 27:38

I think Pepperdine is an interesting one that hasn't been showcased at all . I don't think that they're at elite level .

Matt Houlihan 27:48

Not juggernauts .

Arielle Houlihan 27:49

But I don't know if they can get one off somebody . I need to see more Pepperdine . I'm interested to see if it's just a 3-0 clap or if it's actually something . Yeah .

Matt Houlihan 28:04

What's the level of resistance ? What can they do ? Also I mean for Long Beach too . Yes , they obviously have some very juggernaut tendencies's they've got some yeah I want to see what they're . They took lewis , took a game off of them at at lewis . What does ? What does their consistency look like ? Are they , are they ? I don't think any team is unbeatable at any point . Like nikilov obviously is a beast from watching that Lewis game against Long Beach State . He kind of willed them to the finish line .

Arielle Houlihan 28:39

Yeah .

Matt Houlihan 28:39

But I think there's someone out there that's going to take him down this year and it's , it's . Let's not be surprised when it does happen .

Chad Gordon 28:45

I think it's also an interesting one because you know , teams kind of fall in these different categories . Right , you have like a Stanford who's very young , right , and these guys are like hey , we're putting our stamp out here and like let's go you know , show these guys what we can do and , you know , get some nice wins over .

Chad Gordon 28:58

It seems like ohio state . You have some squads that are maybe more like irvine , where it's actually a lot of the same characters from last year , right , and they keep a lot of their pins and all that . So it's . You knew that they were good and could they get over the hump last year . Okay , no , they push again , you know , in year two . And then you have some uclas , some byus , some . I guess long beach is probably a pretty good example of they . Obviously they retain a lot of talent , but even long beach right , like they've lost a lot of really good players too , yeah . And so , yeah , you may have a talented setter , but like these guys are also still finding their footing against really strong teams and you know .

Chad Gordon 29:33

So . Like the same way we see or saw UCLA kind of flounder this past weekend , it's really like can these guys , can these staffs , find their footing and get the ship going in a good direction with what is , admittedly , a lot of changes ?

Matt Houlihan 29:47

Yeah , 100% , we'll see . I think USC falls in that kind of category as well . You've got those groups that you're melding a lot of new pieces together , or melding different pieces together , and you're trying to find all that balance as you're working through the course of a season . That's where the Penn States of the world have a great advantage . You just got to get through your tournament , but for the Big West and the MPSF it is very much a . You got to perform right now . You got to win these out of conference matches because you can't risk losing the tournament at the end of the year and not getting that at large .

Matt Houlihan 30:21

There's just not enough . There's not enough leash for you to uh , to flounder and that's why we bet the house on the matadors yes , I'm on the train bring it all . I'm telling you , we need to make a trip . We got to make a trip to the matadome we were not that far away you could yesterday yes , but I had a job to do yesterday I want a full like you want the full , full experience I want to go and I want alex jones to take me to yeah , to the local watering hole with Faulkner .

Chad Gordon 30:54

Yeah , what am I talking about ? Obviously , I need Faulkner there 100% .

Matt Houlihan 30:58

I want to sit in the stands . Kyle Stevenson .

Chad Gordon 31:02

You're invited .

Matt Houlihan 31:03

I would like Kyle to come . Who else could we name Travis Magorian ? There you go . Can I get some other ? What other CSUN legends can we pull out of the woodwork here that really tall Polish middle blocker that had a wicked float serve . Whatever his name was , I want that guy too , yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 31:20

They had some big dudes . Other national championships this week yeah , UDIA national championships happened .

Chad Gordon 31:25

I'm sorry . What is that that's ?

Matt Houlihan 31:27

a fake name .

Arielle Houlihan 31:29

Guys . College football national championship happened , if you know anything about the most important sporting event that happened this weekend . It was not the college football national championship . You know anything about the most important sporting event that happened this weekend ? It was not the college football national championships , it was the dance national championships in Orlando .

Matt Houlihan 31:43

And just like we go to Orlando , is this the one where they jump in the ocean ? No , that's a different one .

Arielle Houlihan 31:49

That's the , the Juco . Actually , I don't know . Are there beaches ? There's not beaches in .

Matt Houlihan 31:51

Orlando ? No , not historically the Juco one , actually , I don't know . There's not beaches in Orlando .

Arielle Houlihan 31:55

No .

Chad Gordon 31:57

Not historically . There are alligators , though . Look out , there are swamps everywhere .

Arielle Houlihan 32:01

What beach do they go to ? I feel like they go to Orlando , palm Beach or something it's Wide World of Sports , and then they run into the ocean after . But what ocean Is it like a fake ocean .

Chad Gordon 32:13

Call in if you know .

Arielle Houlihan 32:15

Wait , I'm super confused about that . I'm going to look that up after this Well dance . National championships happened and UNLV won hip-hop and Ohio State won jazz . And the Ohio State jazz one was amazing . I know nobody gives an actual flying F about any of this , but I do .

Matt Houlihan 32:34

No , I'm intrigued . Is there NIL for college dance ? Yeah , are they paying for top talent ?

Arielle Houlihan 32:40

100% .

Matt Houlihan 32:42

You said that very confidently .

Arielle Houlihan 32:43

How much is the top ? These girls are more influencer than anybody in volleyball 100% . Great Now my whole for you page right now is all dance right now and that's actually exactly where I . My whole for you page right now is all dance right now and that's actually exactly where I want my for you page to be . I don't want it to change at all that's funny .

Matt Houlihan 33:03

My whole for you page is alligators and orcas .

Arielle Houlihan 33:07

So , the usual , I can't stop watching alligators and orcas which makes sense , because Florida watching alligators and orcas , which makes sense because florida same thing I think of for you page like what's actually going on inside people's brains and so like . In my brain is like national championship dance competitions . In your brain is just alligators and orcas yeah , throwing some like bodybuilding I don't have tiktok okay , but like what's in your brain of like what do you get fed instagram ? Instagram reels oh it's .

Chad Gordon 33:33

I mean it's like Nakoba and Nakoba adjacent stuff .

Arielle Houlihan 33:35

So you're just volleyball .

Chad Gordon 33:36

Yeah , it's a lot . Someone was asking like , hey , how's life going ? And I was like , well , I'm coaching , we're doing this AI business in volleyball , all volleyball we have a podcast that I drive down to Morgan Hill for once a week .

Matt Houlihan 33:47

It's about volleyball , To talk about mostly volleyball . My girlfriend also coaches volleyball and then some afternoons I go play some beach volleyball . Can I eat volleyball for dinner ?

Chad Gordon 34:01

DoorDash founder volleyball guy . Yeah , there you go .

Matt Houlihan 34:05

We can get you some volleyball-shaped dino nuggets . Honestly , yeah .

Arielle Houlihan 34:10

If you could be separated from volleyball , what would you like ? Do you have any hobbies ?

Chad Gordon 34:20

Honestly , I swear I used to and now I don't to , and now I don't know . Now I don't know .

Arielle Houlihan 34:22

I don't know because even like the analytic stuff and I was like , yeah , I'm gonna post some stuff yeah , well , now it's volleyball .

Chad Gordon 34:24

Yeah , because like quit the real job . That was , like you know , business , intelligence stuff yeah yeah , don't do that anymore , don't go to like those conferences which is fine we all need to pick up he's niching down over there , chad's just niching down .

Matt Houlihan 34:36

What if ?

Arielle Houlihan 34:36

we all pick up one hobby this year , that is non-volleyball .

Matt Houlihan 34:40

I have one Orcas .

Chad Gordon 34:43

CSUN .

Matt Houlihan 34:52

I'm going to have the greatest compilation . End of your video of me plugging CSUN in like 70 episodes .

Chad Gordon 34:59

And us just cackling at it , they better not

Early Season National Championship Predictions

Chad Gordon 35:01

blow it . Do we pick a national champion ? Oh , you guys want to do that now . We don't have to we could wait until later in the season .

Arielle Houlihan 35:08

Should we wait until after the national championship to pick our national ?

Chad Gordon 35:11

champion . I feel confident that I could do that .

Matt Houlihan 35:14

Let's do an early season one , we'll do a mid-season form , we'll see where people are at . Okay .

Chad Gordon 35:20

So we are two weeks into the season .

Matt Houlihan 35:23

Yeah , we're coming up on week three here .

Chad Gordon 35:25

I'll go first . I think it's Niff , I think it's Irvine . I think , based on what I saw with UCLA a lot of unanswered questions have the roster to do it . It's a tough problem to solve . There's a lot of expectations . It's tough if you don't have a bunch of senior leadership or something like that . I think Irvine has the experience . I think they're overdue . I'm taking that . I like that .

Arielle Houlihan 35:48

I love that .

Matt Houlihan 35:49

They were my Big West champion pick . I'm going to go the opposite . I got Irvine winning the Big West tournament and I got Long Beach winning the national championship for the early season . Of what I've seen this far , I'll go with Long Beach but I do love the pick .

Chad Gordon 36:03

Where does CSUN finish for you ?

Arielle Houlihan 36:06

Second .

Matt Houlihan 36:07

CSUN making the tournament , csun on the Big West . I think I had them , I think .

Chad Gordon 36:13

I put them third , so not making the .

Arielle Houlihan 36:17

Could make it Biggest snub . Yeah , he has CSUN as the biggest snub .

Matt Houlihan 36:23

I probably got CSUN as the first one out . Yeah , first one out , that's what I'd say . But can you get three Big West teams in there ? I think it'd be tough .

Chad Gordon 36:30

It's a tough snub , it would be tough .

Matt Houlihan 36:36

CSUN would have to beat everybody . But if ucla has has a couple more bad losses and they end up winning the tournament or stanford or whatever , whoever usc , whatever it may be like , I could see a big west getting three . It's possible , because big west I don't know . Yeah , I , I agree it's probably tough , but yeah , I got , I got c sun as my three in the big west . I got them . I got them taking down Hawaii .

Chad Gordon 36:57

Ooh , interesting .

Matt Houlihan 36:58

Hawaii's got to go to the Matadome this year , yeah , so that's why I go there .

Arielle Houlihan 37:04

I'm going to pick . I want to pick something that you guys don't pick , but I'm going to pick Long Beach still , because .

Matt Houlihan 37:12

We can all do a dark horse pick too , Loyola . Stanford , yeah , homer pick , love that .