VBM Supplier Spotlight: The 2017 indoor and outdoor volleyballs

VolleyballMag.com continues its long-standing tradition of bringing you the latest in volleyball-related equipment, gear and apparel. We kick off our new-and-improved Supplier Spotlight section with a look at the latest in indoor and outdoor volleyballs. Please visit the supplier websites for further information.

Indoors

Molten setter’s volleyball
The Molten setter training volleyball (model V5M9000-M) is designed for the athlete committed to reaching a higher level of competition. At 14.1 ounces, the V5M9000-M promotes strength and quickness to bring out each setter’s peak performance on the court, Molten notes. Slightly lighter than a typical setter’s ball, it is intended to be used in game-like situations and drills and is ideal for high-repetition setting practice. The unique panel shape, modeled after Molten’s elite FLISTATEC volleyballs, dramatically increases the ball’s visibility in flight, the company adds. Features a micro-fiber composite cover and is nylon-wound.
www.moltenusa.com

Wilson i-Cor HP volleyball
Wilson’s i-Cor high-performance volleyball offers the ultimate combination of control durability and power, the company states. Covered in Japanese full-grain leather and built with latex power lining and proprietary i-Cor construction, the ball provides a premium touch and feel on every shot, Wilson adds. The i-Cor has an inner structural layer that provides a strong foundation to the ball, while the outer structural layer allows for better control and durability.
www.wilson.com

Baden Perfection leather volleyball
The Baden Perfection leather volleyball is a top-of-the-line volleyball for all aspects of the game and for all levels of play, the company notes. Baden’s innovative tanning process softens the feel of its leather to battle the sting on touch blocks or digs. The blended cotton wrap ensures shape and air retention for reinforced strength and durability. A butyl bladder provides the optimal weight for velocity and performance hit after hit. Baden adds.
www.badensports.com

Mikasa MVA200
The new Mikasa MVA200 indoor volleyball has a unique 8-panel design and aerodynamic dimpling that offers better stability and ball control, the company notes. With Mikasa’s exclusive Micro-Fibre cover, the touch and feel of this ball has brought praise from players and coaches worldwide and has become the indoor ball of choice for all nations,” Mikasa says. The MVA200 is the official FIVB game ball.
www.mikasasports.com

Tachikara 5W-PRIME
Tachikara’s 5W-PRIME elite competition volleyball is the company’s latest innovation in Tactile Technology. Featuring a new T-TEC Micro-Leather that is specifically engineered to provide an enhanced tactile playing experience with increased ball control, Tachikara notes. The ball is NFS approved and ships inflated and ready for play.
www.tachikara.com

Outdoors/All-Around

Spalding/KOB tour and replica balls
Partners Spalding and King of the Beach and Queen of the Beach recently released their official 2017 tour balls and replica ball of the 2017 Spalding King of the Beach and Queen of the Beach Tour. The premium composite leather construction on the tour ball is unmatched and is a favorite ball of players on tour, the companies note. The re-design includes a gold foil for the King of the Beach logo, and the white Queen of the Beach logo ball allows players to color in their favorite design. The balls are available nationwide at select sporting goods retailers including Sports Authority, Target, Walmart, Big Five, Dicks Sporting Goods, Academy Sports, Dunhams, Hibbets, VolleyballUSA.com and Kohls.com, as well as on the websites www.kingofthebeach.com and www.spalding.com. KOB, which features brand ambassadors Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith, has more than 1,500 tournaments scheduled nationwide in 2017 with 52 tour locations.
www.spalding.com
www.kingofthebeach.com

Mikasa VLS300
The Mikasa VLS300 is the outdoor ball used by all national teams as well as in all FIVB competitions worldwide, including the past 2012 London Olympics, the recent 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The VLS300 model features a unique 10-panel design and the blue/yellow/white curved-panel design enables players to pick up on the movement or rotation of the ball with ease, while improving control when passing or hitting. The cover material is a “Super Composite,” which is high-grade supple material that is extremely durable yet flexible and resistant to water, which is extremely important when playing in inclement or humid conditions, Mikasa explains. The VLS300 is made from patented lock-stich construction that enables the ball to maintain its true spherical shape.
www.mikasausa.com

New AVP game volleyball
The new Wilson AVP volleyball is a collaborative effort where player feedback directed the design of the ball. The ball offers premium graphics for better spin detection, as well as a microfiber composite leather cover that provides superior touch, Wilson states. The pebbled TPE cover allows for enhanced durability and control during play. The 18-panel machine-sewn construction reinforces optimal shape retention. Made with a butyl rubber bladder for extended air retention.
www.wilson.com

Molten Light Touch volleyball
USA Volleyball approved, Molten’s Light Touch volleyball is a lightweight indoor/outdoor volleyball designed for athletes ages 12 and under. The ultra-soft-cushioned polyurethane cover provides a soft touch, allowing young athletes to __play comfortably while providing the durability needed to withstand __play in any environment. The ball is machine stitched.
www.moltenusa.com

 

Baden Sandshark sand volleyball
The Baden Sandshark is a premier sand volleyball used by the USC beach volleyball team. The hand-sewn microfiber cover endures the elements of outdoor sun, sand and sweat. The butyl bladder provides the optimal weight for velocity and performance hit after hit, Baden notes.
www.badensports.com

Tachikara PARTY SofTec volleyball
The new Tachikara SofTec PARTY volleyball is made with a soft foam-back composite for virtually no sting during play, the company notes. The fun starburst patterns and colors make it a great all-around volleyball for all levels.
www.tachikara.com

Volleyball science: Physicist/beach player Heureux examines the float serve

The float serve, when hit well, confounds opponents.

Pete Heureux, who graduated with a degree in physics from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), is not only an avid beach player for more than 20 years, he’s our go-to guy to break down the float serve.

We asked him to examine the physics of the float serve: What makes a serve float and how a server can maximize float. What follows might be more than you ever considered about serving a volleyball and perhaps information that might just make you a better player.

Pete Heureux is not only an avid volleyball player but a physicist and student of the game/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Watching the video of Dalhausser serving four aces in a row at Long Beach inspires me to improve my serve, but I have to be realistic. If I put all my energy into a hard-hit jump serve I’d have nothing left over for the rest of my game. At 53 I also need to be kind to my shoulder if I want to __play for another 30 years.

But I still want those aces!

I love it when I contact the ball just right and it sails smoothly to the net then starts moving all over the place. The changes in my opponent’s facial expressions give me great satisfaction as his emotions pass from confidence, to focus, to concern then rapidly through alarm, panic and despair. Watching this unfold is so distracting that I often forget to run back into the court to defend against the one-over that is the best offense the other team can hope for.

If only I could do that every time. Problem is that I have no idea how I did that serve in the first place, other than to hit it flat so it doesn’t spin.

The high-speed top-spin serve is daunting, but at least it is predictable. Anyone who has had to face a typical jump serve knows how the ball behaves. It dives. The faster it is coming or spinning the quicker it plummets toward your feet or drops behind your shoulder. The physics of the jump serve is straight forward. As the ball rotates with top spin it drags more air under the ball, which must move faster than the air on top to get by in the same amount of time.

Bernoulli’s Principle states that faster air has lower pressure so more air pressure on top and less on the bottom forces the ball down. A player has less time to react to a jump serve but one can still develop intuitive responses to the predictable flight path.

By contrast, the physics of float serve guarantees that you cannot know where it is going to go. A non-rotating ball is subject to the unpredictable interactions between drag, lift, and a narrow window of opportunity called the “drag crisis.” With a better understanding of the details of these forces we can begin to improve our intuition of how to manipulate the two things we can control on a float serve; the contact speed and angle. Once it leaves our hand we trust physics to take over to generate the ace for us.

Air moving past a sphere travels in a ‘laminar flow’ as the speed of the moving air increases from zero. Friction between the ball and the moving air causes a boundary layer of air to form close to the surface.

At very low speeds the air that touches the ball does not move at all (with respect to the ball), from the leading edge to trailing point. As it rubs against the next layer the air is slowed down. The thickness of a boundary layer is measured by how far away from the surface the air speed is the same as the air before it contacts the ball (the straight lines in figure 1). The “drag coefficient” is a measure of how tenaciously the air sticks to the surface of the ball. When the ball is moving faster through the air is more difficult for the air to hold on the trailing edge. As these molecules lose their hold the ball becomes less sticky and the drag coefficient decreases.

Eventually there comes a speed where the boundary layers are no longer able to hold together at all and they break away, somewhere along the trailing edge of the ball. This state is called “turbulent flow.” (see figure 2)

After the ball is fully into the turbulent state, the drag is significantly reduced. The transition from laminar to turbulent flow is known as the “drag crisis.” There are many factors that contribute to determining at what speed a particular ball will suffer this dramatic change. The size and shape of the ball, the smoothness of its surface, the air it travels in as well as the weather all interact in a complicated way that cannot be predicted, only measured, in a wind tunnel. Physicists have combined many of the factors that contribute to this change of state into a single figure they call the “Reynolds Number.” The Reynolds Number (Re) accounts for the mass density and viscosity of air (which depend mostly on temperature), the diameter of the ball, and the speed of air passing over its surface in the following relationship.

While all of these factors can change from day to day or from ball to ball it is the speed that makes the biggest difference from one serve to the next. The velocity at which a sphere reaches true turbulent flow is called the “critical speed.” For a typical volleyball the Reynolds number at the critical speed can vary from 170,000 to 300,000. Numbers like those are hard for me to feel intuitively so for practical purposes I will instead refer to the ball speeds they represent, which gives us a range between 10 meters per second and 25 m/s, respectively. Since the slowest you can serve a ball from the baseline and expect to get it over the net is about 12 m/s and the best pros can launch a jump serve around 30 m/s this is the range in which a float serves must exist.

When the scientist in me looks at the graph below I see a world of information about the physics of a sphere in flight. As a volleyball player I am struck by one thought: My opponents are in big trouble next time I step up to serve.

Figure 3 describes the results of wind tunnel tests done in Japan back in 2010 on the aerodynamics of a new volleyball designed by Molten. The graph shows the relationship between the drag on a sphere and the speed of air moving across it, specifically in the range we are interested in. Takeshi Asai and his colleagues from various universities around Japan found that a perfectly smooth sphere (thick dashed line, above) went through an abrupt drag crisis in the neighborhood of 25 m/s going from a very high drag coefficient to a very low one. The conventional volleyball they tested, a Molten MTV5SLIT (thin dashed line above), finished with a similarly low drag but with a critical speed significantly lower than the reference sphere. Their newest ball, a Molten V5M5000 with the honeycomb patterned surface, began with similar characteristics to the standard ball but had lower critical speed and higher final drag. Though they did not publish the details, the Japanese engineers also tested the new Mikasa MVA200 dimpled ball and found it had a critical speed slightly lower than the conventional ball.

In order to explain my new-found serving confidence let’s take a look at how drag coefficient tells us what forces will be acting on the ball after it leaves our hands. The force exerted on the ball due to drag is dependent on a number of things.

The most important thing to notice is that the drag force goes up as the speed squared. That means that twice as much speed turns into four times as much drag! Now if we rearrange Newton’s second law (F = ma; force equals mass times acceleration) we see that the acceleration (well, really the deceleration) of the ball is

Taking a look at figure 3 again imagine that we strike the ball hard so that it starts with a higher medium speed, say 22 m/s. Drag will cause the ball to slow down (moving your finger along the solid line from right to left) until it reaches the critical speed. At that moment (hopefully just as it crosses the net) the drag suddenly increases dramatically, the ball seems to fall out of the sky, and your opponent curses while diving to the sand.

The variability of air friction during flight alone would be enough to make for an effective serve but there is more. Drag is not the only force in __play during the drag crisis and turbulent flow. The same wind tunnel tests done by Asai and his team also showed forces perpendicular to the direction of travel, which scientists call ‘lift’. Unlike an airplane wing, a volleyball is radially symmetric so lift can be in any direction around the ball at a right angle to the path of its flight.

While in laminar flow the boundary layer is uniform and so there are no lift forces measured on the smooth sphere or either type ball. Figure 5 below is a comparison of lift forces to Reynolds number for the Molten balls. During the wind tunnel tests the balls experienced a sharp, unpredictable sideways force at the drag crisis and then a small but steady lift under turbulent flow.

The collapse of the boundary layer at the beginning of the drag crisis causes a chaotic swirling of air in the wake of the ball as each small vortex breaks free from the surface. At Peking University in China, Wei Qing-ding and his team believe that the random nature of the creation of these vortices causes the separation line (a ring around trailing side represented by the dashed line in figure 2) to form off-axis to the flow, which probably accounts for the lift we see at higher speeds. Asai speculates that the orientation of the ball panels controls the direction and force of deflection.

One guy I play with is convinced that striking near the valve affects the direction a float serve will drift. Regardless of the cause, it is clear that even if you hit the ball fast enough that is stays in turbulent flow, the effect of lift will cause the ball to veer left or right, float long, or add to the downward effect of gravity.

And my favorite zig-zag serve? Wei also found that early in the drag crisis there is a narrow range of velocities where the boundary layer can shed vortices from alternating sides (see Figure 6) causing the lift force to switch back and forth from one side to the other.

When you put all these factors together the result is an unpredictable serve? But just how unpredictable is it?

Asai and company used an impact-type ball ejection device to launch non-rotating volleyballs with precise contact speed and angle to answer this very question. They ran tests on the two styles of Molten balls and the Mikasa dimple ball. Each was served twenty times and with three different panel orientations. The very tightest landing zone they achieved was one meter wide by two meters long (area A in figure 7 below) for the honeycomb ball struck on the main panel. Most other balls and orientations resulted in a possible area about 1.5 m by 4m (B). The Mikasa ball, struck perpendicular to the panels, could be expected to land anywhere inside an oval five meters long! And that is with no wind.

Now that we know what happens to the ball in a float serve, and have some idea of why it moves around during its flight, how do we make it happen? Let’s quickly review the physics.

1. Volleyballs experience a drag crisis (a jump from low to high drag) as they slow down. The speed at which this happens is dependent on ball type and air conditions. Smoother balls have a higher speed drag crisis. Higher air temperature equals a lower critical speed.

2. During higher speed turbulent flow a volleyball will experience both drag and perpendicular lift which increases as the square of the velocity.

3. The unpredictability of a float serve is from 1 to 5 meters of landing area.

4. All of the effects listed above ONLY occur with a non-rotating ball.

What should we do when we step up to the line to serve?

1. Eliminate rotation! Even the smallest tumble reduces lift and restricts it to the direction of rotation. Spinning also forces the state of turbulent flow, keeping drag coefficient in the region above the drag crisis.

2. Assess your equipment for the best way to get your ball to pass through the drag crisis.
a. Smooth balls can be served faster than rough balls
b. Bigger, lighter balls can be served faster than smaller heavier balls
c. Off-panel contact may result in more movement.

3. Assess how the conditions will affect movement
a. A headwind can be served into faster to get more lift and drag but a tail wind can be served slower and closer to the drag crisis.
b. Standing back from the service line gives more time for lift and drag to move the ball around but slower serves from the baseline are easier to control when targeting the critical speed.
c. Serve slower when it is hot and faster when it is cold if targeting the critical speed.

4. Choose your ball trajectory to account for the range of movement.
a. Higher arc serves start and finish faster because of gravity. Perpendicular movement may be a bit greater as the ball is falling down from a height but drag only slows the ball down without changing its trajectory. Flat serves are easier to manipulate because they rely almost entirely on contact speed.
b. Aim inside the lines. Float serves are supposed to move. Target your landing spot at least 1 meter from the sidelines and 2 meters from the net or baseline.

5. Eliminate rotation!! It bears saying again. In my experience the harder I strike the ball the more difficult it is to hit it just right. The closer I stand to the baseline the softer I can make contact and the more precisely I am able to target the center of the ball.

Since researching this article my float serve is generating many more aces. I am better able to see the changes in ball movement. Slowly my intuition for how the wind and feel of the ball and my position will combine to create the most unpredictable results. Now I just have to stop watching my beautiful float serve and hustle into my defensive ready position.

1. Asai T., Ito S., Seo K., Hitotsubashi A. (2010)Aerodynamics of a New Volleyball. In 8th Conference of the International Sports Engineering Association, Procedia Engineering 2, Elsevier.
2. Wei Q.D., Lin R.S., Liu Z.J. (1988) Vortex-induced dynamic loads on a non-spinning volleyball. Fluid Dynamics Research 3, North-Holand.

Houston area dominates VolleyballMag.com Fab 50

Lexi Sun of Santa Fe Christian tops the VolleyballMag.com Fab 50 list/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

The Lone Star State reigns supreme. And particularly the Houston area.

So says the 2017 VolleyballMag.com/Triple Crown Sports Girls Fab 50 list, which was revealed exclusively Sunday at the Triple Crown Sports Preseason National Invitational Tournament at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Some players were actually playing at the time and some could not attend the Triple Crown Sports NIT, but those on hand from the Fab 50 and 25 Underclassmen gathered for this photo/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

Known as the longest-running girls youth volleyball players’ rankings, with a lineage dating more than three decades, the Fab 50 showcases the top 50 senior girls’ players in the country each season. The Fab 50 list is voted on by a panel of NCAA Division I coaches.

This year’s list features eight players from Texas, including seven from the Houston area: Taylor Bannister, Brooke Botkin, Brionne Butler, Cami May, Jaden Newsome, Yossiana Pressley and Avery Skinner.

California ranked next with six players on the Fab 50 list, while Illinois had five and Minnesota and Iowa had four each. Twenty states are represented overall.

Sydney Hilley of Champlin, Minn., and MN Select

In terms of which colleges hauled in the most top recruits, the honor goes to Wisconsin with five (Danielle Hart, Sydney Hilley, Grace Loberg, Dana Rettke and Mariah Whalen).

Grace Loberg of Geneva, Ill., and Fusion

UCLA had four Fab 50s, while Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky, Maryland and Illinois have three each. We’ll break this aspect down further later this spring with the release of our annual women’s college top recruiting classes.

Mariah Whalen of Wausau, Wisc. and Wisconsin VBA

On the club level, suburban Chicago-based Sports Performance and Minnesota-based MN Select tied for the most players on the list with three each.

Lexi Sun leads an impressive top-five list/NORCECA photo

Our panel of Fab 50 voters also were asked to rank the top five players in the class of 2017. Coast VBC’s Lexi Sun, the 2016 VolleyballMag.com/Lucky Dog Volleyball Girls’ High School Player of the Year earned the top spot.

Ashley Shook of Plainfield, Ill., and Sports Performance

Sun garnered nearly 70 percent of the first-place votes for tops in the class. Sun’s soon-to-be college teammate Brionne Butler (an early enrollee at Texas) finished second, giving the Longhorns the top two recruits, in addition to Sports Performance setter Ashley Shook (who also received votes in the top-player ranking).

Madison Lilly of Overland Park, Kansas, and KC Power

Wisconsin signee Sydney Hilley was third, Minnesota recruit and Florida prep standout Stephanie Samedy was fourth and Kentucky signee Madison Lilley was fifth. A total of 15 players on the Fab 50 list received votes in the top-player ranking.

We also present our 25 Underclassmen to Watch list, which sheds a little light into the future. Our Fab 50 voters also were asked to vote on who they feel are players worthy of keeping an eye on in the junior and below classes. This list does not reflect necessarily who are the top underclass players in the country, rather players who warrant future attention.

With this list, Penn State has four players who have verbally committed, while Washington, Florida and Nebraska each have three.

An impressive 93 percent of junior-year players on the 2016 Underclassmen to Watch list graduated to this year’s Fab 50 list. Two others on the list, San Gabriel Elite’s Serena Gray and Lexington United’s Kaitlyn Hord, were on the 2016 Underclassmen to Watch list as sophomores and remain there for a second year as juniors.

These players from the list got together at their tournament in Dallas, from left, Taylor Bannister, Yossiana Pressley, Jada Gardner, Avery Skinner and Preslie Anderson..

VolleyballMag.com Fab 50

Name, Height, Position, High School, Club, College
Preslie Anderson, 6-3, MB-OH, Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.), Aspire, Cal
Taylen Ballard, 6-3, OH, Clovis (Calif.), Tsunami, BYU
Taylor Bannister, 6-6, MB-OH, Fort Bend Christian (Sugar Land, Texas), Texas Premier, LSU
Dani Barton, 6-1 RS, Brighton (Cottonwood Heights, Utah), Club V, Utah
Brooke Botkin, 6-4, OH-S, Pearland (Texas), AVA Texas, USC
Brionne Butler, 6-4, MB, Boling (Texas), Houston Juniors, Texas
Jayme Cox, 5-4, Libero, St. Ursula Academy (Toledo, Ohio), Michigan Elite, Michigan State
Gabby Curry, 5-8, Libero, Buford (Georgia), A5, Kentucky
Samantha Drechsel, 6-3, OH, Cedar Park Christian (Woodinville, Wash.), WVBA, Maryland
Lauren Forte, 6-4, MB, Corona Del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.), Aspire, Cal
Jada Gardner, 6-1, OH-MB, Steele (Cibolo, Texas), Alamo, Maryland
Paige Hammons, 6-2, OH, Sacred Heart (Louisville, Ky.), KiVA, Florida
Sara Hamson, 6-7, RS, Pleasant Grove (Utah), Club Utah, BYU
Danielle Hart, 6-3, MB, Ocean Lakes (Virginia Beach, Va.), Coastal VA, Wisconsin
Sydney Hilley, 5-11, S, Champlin Park (Champlin, Minn.), MN Select, Wisconsin
Taryn Knuth, 6-4, MB, Johnston (Iowa),  IPVA, Florida State
Kylie Kuyava-DeBerg, 6-4, OH, Hudson (Iowa), CIA, Illinois
Alexis Light, 6-5, OH, Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove, Calif.), Five Starz, UCLA
Madison Lilley, 5-11, S, Blue Valley West (Overland Park, Kan.), KC Power, Kentucky
Grace Loberg, 6-2, OH, Geneva (Ill.), Fusion, Wisconsin
Kayla Lund, 6-0, OH, Flintridge-Sacred Heart (La Canada-Flintridge, Calif.),  San Gabriel, Pitt
Jasmyn Martin, 6-3, OH, Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.), MN Select, Minnesota
Piper Mauck, 6-1, S, Roosevelt (Des Moines, Iowa), IPVA, Iowa State
Cami May, 6-3, MB, Cinco Ranch (Katy, Texas), Houston Jrs., Penn State
Mackenzie May, 6-3, OH, Wahlert Catholic (Dubuque, Iowa), Adrenaline, UCLA
Chesney McClellan, 6-3, MB, Maryville (Tenn.), K2, Nebraska
Meghan McClure, 6-0, OH, Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.), Laguna Beach, Stanford
Jen Mosser, 5-11, OH, Lakeville (Minn.) South, MN Select, UCLA
Jaden Newsome, 6-0, S, Clear Brook (Houston, Texas), AVA Texas, Colorado
Sara Nielsen, 6-0, S, Benet Academy (Lisle, Ill.), Sports Performance, Minnesota
Meredith Norris, 6-2, OH, Corunna (Mich.), Michigan Elite, Michigan State
Tyanna Omazic, 6-1, MB, Northwest (Olathe, Kan.), PVA, Illinois
Elizabeth Orf, 6-3, MB, Villa Duchesne (St. Louis, Mo.), Rockwood Thunder, Marquette
Brie Orr, 5-10, S-OH, Eagan (Minn.), Northern Lights, Iowa
Yossiana Pressley, 6-0, OH, Cypress Falls (Houston, Texas), Willowbrook, Baylor
Erika Pritchard, 6-2, OH, Middletown (Md.), Metro, Maryland
Dana Rettke, 6-8, MB, Riverside-Brookfield (Brookfield, Ill.),  1^st Alliance, Wisconsin
Mikayla Robinson, 6-2, MB, Harvest Christian (Elgin, Ill.), Sky High, South Carolina
Emily Ryan, 6-4, MB, Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, Md.), Metro, UCLA
Stephanie Samedy, 6-2, RS, East Ridge (Clermont, Fla.), Top Select, Minnesota
Lauren Sanders, 6-5, MB, Glacier Park (Snohomish, Wash.), WVBA, Washington
Ashley Shook, 6-2, S, Plainfield (Ill.) Central, Sports Performance, Texas
Avery Skinner, 6-2, OH-MB, HSCYA (Houston, Texas), Houston Skyline, Kentucky
Katie Smoot, 6-1, OH, Notre Dame (Belmont, Calif.), Encore, Arizona
Lexi Sun, 6-2, OH, Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach, Calif.), Coast, Texas
Jazz Sweet, 6-3, RS, Shawnee Heights (Tecumseh, Kan.), Topeka Impact, Nebraska
Marijke Van Dyke, 6-1, OH, Munster (Ind.), Sports Performance, Illinois
Mariah Whalen, 6-0, OH, Newman Catholic (Wausau, Wis.), Wisconsin VBA, Wisconsin
Deja Williams, 6-1, MB, Peachtree Ridge (Suwanee, Ga.), A5, Florida State
Lauren Witte, 6-3, MB, Lake Catholic (Mentor Ohio), Eastside Cleveland, Ohio State

Top 5 Players In the Class
1. Lexi Sun (Texas)
2. Brionne Butler (Texas)
3. Sydney Hilley (Wisconsin)
4. Stephanie Samedy (Minnesota)
5. Madison Lilley (Kentucky)

Serena Gray of Temple City, Calif.

25 Underclassmen to Watch

Name, Height, Position, Year, High, School, Club, College commit
Karson Bacon, 6-4, MB, Jr., Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.), Tstreet, Oregon
Gabby Blossom, 5-9, S, Jr.,  St. Joseph’s (St. Louis, Mo.), Rockwood Thunder, Penn State
Diana Brown, 6-1, S, Jr., St. Francis de Sales (Columbus, Ohio), Mintonette, Illinois
Shannon Crenshaw, 6-2, OH, Jr., Bishop Moore (Orlando, Fla.),  Top Select, Washington
Logan Eggleston, 6-2, OH, Soph., Brentwood (Tenn.),  Alliance, Texas
Serena Gray, 6-2, MB, Jr.,  Temple City (Calif.),  San Gabriel, Penn State
Marin Grote, 6-4, MB, Jr.,  Burroughs (Burbank, Calif.), San Gabriel, Washington
Mia Grunze, 6-2, OH, Jr., Waterford (Wis.),  Milwaukee Sting, Ohio State
Thayer Hall, 6-3, OH, Jr., Dorman (Roebuck, S.C.), Upward Stars, Florida
Nicklin Hames, 5-11, S, Jr., Webb School Knoxville (Tenn.), K2, Nebraska
Jenna Hampton, 5-6,  Libero, Jr., Berkeley Prep (Tampa, Fla.), OVA, Penn State
Kaitlyn Hord, 6-4, MB, Jr., Henry Clay (Lexington, Ky.),  Lexington United, Penn State
CC McGraw, 5-9, Libero, Jr., Prior Lake (Savage, Minn.),  MN Select, Minnesota
Megan Miller, 5-5, Libero, Jr., Alexandria (Ind.)-Monroe, Munciana, Nebraska
Marlie Monserez, 5-11, S, Jr., Bishop Moore (Orlando, Fla.), OVA, Florida
Brooke Nuneviller, 5-11, Libero, Jr., Corona del Sol (Ariz.), Aspire, Unknown
Erin O’Leary, 5-10, S, Jr.,  Novi (Michigan), Legacy, Michigan
Asjia O’Neal, 6-3, MB, Jr., Carroll (Southlake, Texas), TAV, Texas
Jonni Parker, 6-1, S, Jr., Miami East (Casstown, Ohio), Munciana, Ohio State
Ella May Powell, 6-0, S, Jr., Fayetteville (Ark.),  Ozark Juniors, Washington
Kylie Robinson, 5-9, S, Jr., Claremont (Calif.), San Gabriel, Oregon
Adanna Rollins, 6-0, OH, Jr., Hebron (Carrollton, Texas), TAV, Minnesota
Callie Schwarzenbach, 6-4, MB, Jr., Kearney (Mo.), KC Power, Nebraska
Brooklyn Schirmer, 6-1, OH, Jr., Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Long Beach, USC
Haley Warner, 6-2, RS, Jr., Fayetteville (Ark.),  Ozark Juniors, Florida

Volleyball today: Cal’s Feller retires, NCAA polls and D-III All-Americans

Cal's Rich Feller coaching against Stanford in 2012/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

We now have our 10th coaching change among the power-five conferences as another veteran has called it a career.

Cal’s Rich Feller, who will turn 66 in May, retired Monday after 18 seasons in Berkeley. Associate head coach Matt McShane has been named interim head coach and the school said that “a national search for Feller’s replacement will begin immediately.”

Also, the AVCA released its final NCAA men’s Division I-II  and Collegiate Beach polls and also announced its men’s Division III All-American team.

All is quiet on the court, as the Division III final eight men’s teams start __play Friday in Springfield, the Division I-II men don’t get together until the play-in matches May 2 in Columbus, Ohio, and two NCAA beach leagues have their tournaments this weekend, the Big West and Pac-12.

Cal becomes the fourth school in the Pac-12 to make a change and more than half its coaches have been at their posts for three seasons or less.

Previously, Stanford coach John Dunning retired after his Cardinal won the NCAA title and he was replaced by Kevin Hambly of Illinois, Arizona State replaced Stevie Mussie with assistant Sanja Tomasevic and Oregon’s Jim Moore’s spot was filled by assistant Matt Ulmer.

What’s more, two other Pac-12 schools have coaches entering their second season, Colorado’s Jesse Mahoney and Oregon State’s Mark Barnard. And Washington’s Keegan Cook will enter his third season in 2017.

Among the other power-five conferences, the ACC had four changes (Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Clemson), the Big Ten had one (Illinois) and the SEC had one (Georgia). There were no changes in the Big 12, which has nine volleyball programs.

At least four Division I head-coaching openings remain at Southern Illinois of the Missouri Valley, Saint Peter’s of the Metro Atlantic Conference, Coppin State of the MEAC and San Francisco of the West Coast Conference.

“I just feel like this is the right time,” Feller said in a Cal news release. He leaves as the winningest coach in Cal volleyball history with a record of 329-229.

Cal’s Rich Feller in 2012/Cal photo

“I’ve had a long and rewarding career. I believe I have always given everything I had to the teams and players I have coached. In return, I have received rewards beyond anything I could have ever imagined and built relationships that will last a lifetime. Coaching is a noble profession and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to coach for so long. I have my health, intend to stay active and am looking forward to what comes next.”

Cal, plagued by injuries and tough losses, had a rough past few seasons. After finishing tied for fifth in the Pac-12 in 2013, the Bears went a combined 8-52. They were 9-21 overall in last fall, 3-17 in the Pac-12,

Feller took over the Cal program in 1999 and by 2002 had the Golden Bears in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years. That began a run of a program-record 12 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, during which Cal got to the final four in 2007 and 2010 and he was named national coach of the year both times.

Feller, previously the head coach at Colorado State, coached 17 All-Americans, including 2010 national player of the year and 2016 U.S. Olympian Carli Lloyd. He also had the only Pac-12 player of the year in program history, Hana Cutura in 2009.

“What I will always remember about Rich is his consistency of character,” Washington’s Cook said. “He has treated me with respect and sincerity in all phases of my coaching career, from undergraduate manager to rival head coach.  In all circumstances he has shared his time generously and his thoughts openly. “

USC coach Mick Haley has seen three of his long-time contemporaries hang it up this offseason in Feller, Dunning and also Hawai’i’s Dave Shoji.

“I wrote the letter that helped him get that job in 1998 when he was my assistant with the national team,” Haley said. “That’s a job he always wanted. His dad went to school there. He did a nice job over the years for them. The program was always competitive. He took them to a final four, he had the player of the year at least once. He did quite well.”

NCAA men

Division I-II poll: Not surprisingly, the top four teams are the top teams in the final six of the National College Men’s Volleyball Championship that begins next Tuesday at Ohio State.

In the final AVCA coaches poll of the regular season, Long Beach State stayed No. 1 and got 20 of the 24 first-place votes. Ohio State is No. 2 and got the other four first-place votes. Hawai’i, which beat BYU in the MPSF Tournament, is No. 3, trading places with BYU.

UC Irvine stayed No. 5 and there were no other changes until No. 12, where Penn State moved up a notch. Penn State plays Hawai’i on Tuesday with the winner facing Ohio State, while BYU faces Barton with the winner getting Long Beach State. Barton is not ranked, but was the next closest team to the last spot in the 15-team poll.

Division III All-Americans: Four players have been honored for the third time in their careers, top-ranked Springfield College’s Luis Vega and Ricardo Padilla Ayala, Carthage’s Griffin Shields and SUNY New Paltz’s Steven Woessner.

Click here for the full AVCA D-III All-American list.

The D-III coach of the year will be announced Wednesday and the player of the year will be announced Thursday at the AVCA banquet.

NCAA beach

AVCA poll: In essence there was no movement. The top eight teams stayed the same — USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, Florida State, Long Beach State, Hawai’i, LSU and Arizona — with the first change at No. 9, where Florida International moved up from a tie for 10th.

Georgia State is No. 10, followed by Grand Canyon, South Carolina, TCU, Florida Atlantic and Stetson.

The National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship is May 5-7 in Gulf Shores, Ala.. The eight-team field will be announced at 7 p.m. Eastern Sunday on this link on NCAA.com.

Wisconsin’s Lauren Carlini: “I’m so excited to see what’s ahead”

The Wisconsin crew at the AAU Sullivan Award ceremony in New York, from left, Tony and Gale Carlini, Lauren Carlini, Kelly Sheffield, and UW's Terry Gawlik and Diane Nordstrom

Lauren Carlini is having a blast.

In May she’ll graduate from the University of Wisconsin and move to Anaheim to train with the USA national team.

In the last month, the 6-foot-1 setter became the first volleyball player to win the AAU Sullivan Award during which she made her first trip to New York, was honored with the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor, has worked on some instructional videos and done photo shoots.

And sometime in the next couple of weeks she’ll sign with a Italian pro volleyball team and will __play there next fall.

When she started at Wisconsin in 2013, her freshman bio in the media guide had this:

How would you like to change the world? Make volleyball a more popular and highly watched sport

She’s doing her part.

The four-time All-American from Aurora, Ill., a 2020 Olympic hopeful, took a break from the whirlwind that has been her life to catch up with us.

Lauren Carlini, right, with the other Sullivan Award finalists atop the Empire State Building/AAU photo

VBM: Let’s start with the trip to New York. That must have been so special.

Carlini: Well, first off, I’d never been to New York City and that was super fun. (Wisconsin coach) Kelly Sheffield came with us and he lived there for like seven years and he was like our tour guide and he just wanted to run us all over the place.

We got to see the 9-11 memorial, we went to this awesome bakery, we went to Rockefeller Center and some rooftop bars. My parents (Tony and Gale) were there and (Wisconsin senior associate athletic director Terry Gawlik and sports information director Diane Nordstrom) so I had a whole crew with me.

The other part I was with the other finalists, six Olympians, all gold-medalists, and that was super fun to be able to get in their heads a little bit and be able to talk over dinner. We went to the Empire State Building one day and then we did interviews and photo shoots and got to go up to the 103rd floor. It was crazy. It was like the smallest little walkway and the barrier is at your hips and, whew, you had to be careful. It was pretty scary. It was so cool to be able to talk to them. They were like totally normal kids like anyone else going to college and we’re just blessed with these awesome talents.

It was just a fun two days with a lot packed into it. Then that night ending up winning the award, that was just insane. I’ve seen the video and I have this super-surprised ugly face and I was like, “Me? What! There’s got to be some mistake.”

VBM: You told me you won two of the four categories, the popular votes and the AAU committee vote.

Carlini: Yeah, that’s how I won it. It was just a great night and the AAU was spectacular in hosting us, as well.

VBM: I loved the picture of you after, leaning on a balcony and having a glass of wine.

Carlini: It was on the 30th floor of the hotel (at the New York Athletic Club, where they stayed and the ceremonies were conducted). It was a super cool way to end the night. It was a really nice place and my room had a straight-on view of Central Park.

Lauren Carlini and Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield/AAU photo

VBM: I know it’s not lost on you that you’re the first volleyball player to win the Sullivan Award. It’s pretty cool for our sport.

Carlini: I think it is. And one thing is I’m a little disappointed in myself because I didn’t know the sheer importance of this award before I was a semifinalist. I had never even heard of it until last year. Someone brought it up and asked why I wasn’t considered and I said I didn’t even know what it was. And then coming into this year and being a semifinalist and then being a finalist I started doing a little more research behind it and seeing all the athletes who have won it before me and oh, my gosh, I wish I had known about this before. It’s something I would have loved to have worked for and set as a goal for myself.

Looking at all the athletes who have won, they were the best in the world when they were competing in their sport. And then coming up through the pipeline of AAU when you’re in club I think it’s so important for these girls to know that this award is possible and it’s something that everyone should try to work towards in the sport of volleyball.

VBM: And of course you played in AAU nationals in Orlando as a club kid.

Carlini: Every year. We won the national championship my senior year and went to God only knows how many semifinals and finals.

VBM: So how does it feel after all this time to not be a school volleyball player?

Carlini: I don’t know, it’s kind of weird because I’m still practicing with the team and I’m still in school here. We just had our Buckinghams (where Wisconsin honors its student-athletes), so I’m not sure it’s sunk it yet, since I’m still practicing with the team and still in the weight room.

But it is kind of bizarre to think I’m kind of in no-man’s land right now and I’m trying to figure out my pro contract and I’m getting ready to move to Anaheim in less than a month, so there’s a lot of change going on, but I’m super excited to see what the future holds for me.

VBM: You signed with Stefano Bartocci, an Italian agent and he flew you and your mom over. Tell me about that.

Carlini: It was the beginning of March and we watched the final four of the Italian Cup and we explored a lot, went out to dinner and we able to meet some owners of different teams as well. He’s been super helpful and we also went to Florence.

Lauren Carlini, who can touch 10 feet, jousts in a match last season against Rutgers/UW athletics photo

VBM: What are your thoughts about becoming a pro and moving to Italy and all that comes with it?

Carlini: It’s a little scary, it’s scary knowing that you’re going to be overseas for eight months of the year and you’re not going to have an American on your team, there will be people who speak English but there will be hard times, as well. So I’m kind of mentally preparing myself for that.

In terms of becoming a pro, it sucks for volleyball because there’s not a lot of information on it. There’s not a lot of information on finding an agent and how you go about that process. The types of teams and leagues that are overseas. Who are the strong ones and who are the weak ones? There’s just so much information on college volleyball and the NCAA and then you get shoved into this whole ‘nother world and you have to rely on other people who have been in that position.

I can’t even name the amount of people who I’ve been in contact with. National-team coaches, prior national-team girls, current national-team girls, just texting them and emailing about anything I could get information about. And I’m so grateful because they’ve been so helpful. Everyone is kind of in this together and I think there’s a really good culture going on in USA Volleyball right now where if you need any help with anything overseas or being a pro they’ll give you an honest opinion on everything. It’s been super. It’s been information overload at times, but having them help out and give me their honest opinions has been super helpful.

VBM: I would think it’s pretty good to be Lauren Carlini right now. You’re having the time of your life and you realize it.

Carlini: I’ve been telling everyone how these past few weeks have been such a whirlwind for me. I knew the month of April would be super crazy, but between winning the AAU Sullivan Award, getting the Big Ten Medal of Honor, being able to go out to Colorado and and developing my brand and creating videos that are going to be able to help kids, coaches and parents in all age groups, and preparing myself to be on the women’s national team in less than a month. And graduating! There’s just so much going on right now and it’s been so crazy and so super busy.

But I’m so excited to see what’s ahead and see where this takes me. I’m excited to sign my pro contract and, honestly, I’m ready to go make history with the U.S. national team. I’m so ready.

Reid Priddy Q&A as he embarks on his new beach career

Reid Priddy in action in the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medal match/FIVB photo

Reid Priddy waited patiently last August, barely playing for the USA men’s team in the Rio Olympics before having a super match against Russia as the Americans claimed the bronze medal. It was Priddy’s fourth and final Olympic Games.

Now the 6-foot-4, 39-year-old has hung up his shoes in favor of boardies and brings a fresh and thoughtful perspective to the beach with the hope of reaching Tokyo in 2020.

The product of Richmond, Va., who played collegiately at Loyola Marymount before embarking on a long and illustrious career visited with VolleyballMag.com about not only hitting the beach, but his new book, the Rio Olympics, problems with volleyball and the AVP contract situation.

Reid Priddy hits past the block of Russ Marchewka during the AVP San Francisco tournament, August 14, 2009/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

VBM: What attracted you to beach?

Priddy: In my mind, volleyball has so much potential to grow. That potential is something that I’ve always wanted to help move the needle. The way I like to say it, is that I think volleyball grows in two ways, exposure and opportunity.

So many great entities are providing opportunity. Coaches, clubs, we’ve got a great tour, multiple tours, we have a national team, NCAA women’s sand, boys volleyball is growing, all of these are opportunities. The thing that we don’t have on a larger scale is exposure. It’s my fundamental belief that there are fans out there that would be engaged fans, and would provide a healthy fan base to make the opportunities even greater. That’s sort of the step that I’ve been focusing on. I love to __play volleyball, and it would be great if I could be one of those top players, but that’s not what I’m banking on.

VBM: How does one go about finding a partner when you have zero points?

Priddy: My personal journey in beach began with a lot of partner discussions back in the fall. I felt like a freshman entering college in the fall not knowing what to major in or even what to look for.

In not having a partner in the off-season, it proved amazing, because I got to __play with everybody. Everybody had weeks where their particular partner was gone, so I was able to play with almost everybody, and just train and play both sides and play both roles and split block.

Players typically approach a season by identifying their partner first, then working from there. I’m sort of taking a different approach. I’m taking a longer view on things and trying to establish an infrastructure or framework that is similar to what I’m used to, trying to build a team around me like in indoor volleyball that can help me reach my max potential on the beach faster.

That’s been my focus, and people really get taken aback when the partner scenario is not my primary focus. At the same time, the reality is, as much as we would like it to be, professional volleyball really isn’t. There’s a very select few that are making that a reality, and I would love to be one of those select few, but I’m not. I’ve been working really hard on the business end to develop a business that could support my volleyball passion.

I would love to train full time and have that be all I do, just try to get better at beach volleyball. Plus I’m absolutely stimulated by the things that I’m partnering with to build.

VBM: Chaim (pronounced “Kame”) Schalk competes with Ben Saxton for Canada on the world tour and recently married Lane Carico, which enables him to play on the tour. Tell us about pairing up with him:

Priddy: We just decided that was going to happen. He didn’t know when he was going to get permission from USA Volleyball.

We haven’t played a ton together because he’s still playing with Ben on the World Tour, but we’ve had a handful of practices and he’s a very established beach player, he’s had great results, he has great experience (two bronze medals on the world tour in 2016), we’re going to split block, and hopefully our ability to side out and serve will allow us to hang in the tournament as long as possible. That’s our whole goal: How long can I stay in the tournament, because every match is another opportunity to learn. I’m excited, I’ve been training mostly on the right, but with Chaim, I’m going to play on the left. I’m probably a better attacker on the left.

VBM: Between the two of you, you have quite a volleyball pedigree. So how do you feel about grinding it out in the qualifier?

Priddy: I’m certainly prepared to play in the qualifier if need be. In 2000, 2006 and 2009 I got through the qualifiers and made the tour … so I feel like I’ve gone through that route. I don’t anticipate or expect a whole lot of wild cards, but it would be great to have wild cards in these first few events.

VBM: Now that we’re eight months past it and you’ve had time to reflect, tell us about your experiences with the indoor team in Rio 2016.

Priddy: In 2014, when we went to Bulgaria, I was really struggling with where we fit with that team. I had been on the team for 14 years, but now we had a new coach and a bunch of new players. I just didn’t know where I fit. A lot of my teammates were moving on or being cut. When we went to Bulgaria, got sweaty in warm-up for a big match with 10,000 people, the anthem is playing, and the adrenaline is pumping, I was just like, “This is why I do this. I still love this. I love competing at the highest level.”

Then that night, we got down 0-2, but recovered and won in five. I could really clearly see the role that was open for me to play and the role that this team needed was that veteran leader.

It was the next night that I tore my ACL. It was a tacky floor, tackier than usual, and it was just a bang-bang play.

It’s just one of those non-impact injuries, my foot just stuck, it was a very tacky floor, more tacky than normal, I landed and the ACL just ripped right off. Without the night before , I don’t even known if I would have come back, but I now knew clearly that there was a spot for me, and I was motivated to make this comeback. It took longer than I would have liked, and there were so many mountains to climb, but coming into Rio, I was prepared to lead from the front, but I was sort of asked to lead from the back. I had to work through those two weeks and figure out what that looked like.

I came up with four areas in which I could contribute, my role, and when we lost against Italy in the semifinal, up to that point I was able to stay engaged and contribute without touching a ball, but when that loss happened it was pretty devastating. If was very difficult to recover over those next 18 hours before the next game.

For me, it was sort of full circle from the whole journey and that Saturday night is when I was just sort of reflecting, and trying to figure out, like, I’ve been able to manage positivity up to this point, and the last thing I want to do in my last game, is harbor any kind of bitterness, you know? And so, in that space, it was just clear to me that it was worth the sacrifice. All the hard work, it was worth it, it wasn’t about wins and losses, it wasn’t about playing time, it was about the relationships and the experiences that happened along the way, and even though I’m wearing the same jersey, I’m not the same person filling that jersey. I’m a different person because of this experience, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. And so in that place, I just felt tremendous gratitude, by the time that match started, on that last day, I was absolutely content. I had already won. It was already a success. I anticipated not playing, and I wrote in my journal. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m ready for anything,” whether I played or didn’t play.

When my number was called, I was absolutely clear-headed. There was no sense of having to prove anything to anyone, I was just ready to play, and I was able to reach my maximum potential, and play to the best of my ability. It was because of that process and I knew that the result did not matter. It was an opportunity to go out and play, I was grateful for the opportunity, I was prepared for anything. That’s what took place in that game.

(The USA came back from 0-2 to win 23-25, 21-25, 21-19, 25-19, 15-13 behind Priddy’s 17 kills and an ace).

VBM: After retiring from indoor, what motivated you to publish your book?

Priddy: The way that got started was that I filled in on two different events. One was a camp for Matt Anderson when he had to leave the country early and the other one was Casey Patterson had a speaking engagement that he wasn’t able to make. Both those guys, on separate occasions, said, “Hey, can you go do these things?” so I did.

I didn’t know what was expected. I just sort of shared my story, shared my expertise, but mainly it was my story. The response from both of those events led to multiple other events, which continue to snowball. It became very clear to me that my message, my story, was a very human story. It is filled with failure and overcoming adversity. I felt tremendous satisfaction that people were connecting with my journey and being inspired by it. The book just came from all of that.

I never sat down and had a plan to write a book, believe me. People have always been saying, “You have to build a brand, you have to do this and that,” and I never understood what that meant. In sharing in this format, I really feel like I’ve found my voice, and hence, my brand, the stuff that I do stand for.

When you’re playing volleyball, especially for a pro indoor player, there’s no off season. There’s no time for reflection. It’s just constant motion. I think this down time of not having to be at a certain practice on a certain day has really helped slow things down and the book came out of this and it was a totally awesome experience writing it and the feedback from people has been inspiring me to keep being honest and keep answering questions.

VBM: Finally, now that you’ll be part of it, what’s your take on the AVP player agreement situation?

Priddy: I think I’ll let somebody else answer that question. I don’t know that I can answer that properly at this time, everything is so fresh. I do think that the AVP brand and name is extremely valuable. It was here long before any of us players were involved and will be here long after we’re all done playing. It’s the brand that America knows about.

In my mind, I am extremely fatigued with squabbling amongst ourselves. The only thing we should be thinking about are the fans. How do we add value to their lives? How do we engage or offer something that they would invest their time or money in. That’s all that matters. This player-centric ideal goes nowhere. The sponsor-driven model goes nowhere. We need to figure out a way to come together and build and service a fan base. That’s the problem that I’m trying to solve. And I’m not relying on any entity to do it.

I once held that the notion that if I could just win, if I could be the best and win a gold medal, I had this weird expectation and hope that things were going to come after that. USA volleyball is a $30M entity, but it’s not a marketing entity. They don’t grow fan bases. They offer opportunities for players, amazing opportunities for players. I think we have this ideal and expectation that these entities are somehow going to provide great opportunities beyond us spiking and that’s just not what they’re designed to do.

I think it’s going to take players like myself who have lived the life cycle to try and connect the dots and see if we can’t campaign together to tell a more complete story and give something to fans that they can sink their teeth into, get excited, and get engaged with. That’s where my focus is.

So honestly, I read the agreement yesterday for the first time. I’m way more focused on how to build a fan base. If we can grow a fan base and provide value to them, and be in the customer service business, the opportunities are going to be exponential. I have a great relationship with (AVP CEO) Donald (Sun),  I support the AVP. 

Priddy’s Maximum Potential Playbook can be downloaded for free by clicking here. 

NCAA: USC wins Pac-12 beach, top seeds make men’s D-III semis

USC celebrates its team-title win over UCLA/Pac-12 photo by Bert Thomas

USC lost for the first time in almost two years, but the top-ranked Trojans bounced back in a big way and are the Pac-12 beach volleyball champions.

In the Big West beach tournament, Long Beach and Hawai’i are headed for a Saturday showdown.

And in men’s NCAA Division III volleyball, host Springfield, Stevens Institute, defending-champion SUNY New Paltz and Wentworth advanced to Saturday’s national semifinals.

USC wins again: But not before losing to UCLA for the first time ever. The second-ranked Bruins beat USC 3-2 to snap USC’s 62-match winning streak, which sent the Trojans to the elimination bracket in the tournament at the University of Arizona.

They responded by by sweeping Washington before coming right back and winning a 3-2 thriller over UCLA for their second straight title.

All this was in preparation for next week’s National Collegiate Beach Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala., where USC will likely be the No. 1 seed and UCLA probably solidified the No. 2.

In the final, the Pac-12 Network directors were working at breakneck speed because all five duals mattered.

USC’s Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes worked quickly against UCLA’s top pair of Megan and Nicole McNamara to claim the first point 21-8, 21-16. Southpaw Nicole McNamara was forced to serve and spike with her right hand following a shoulder injury earlier in the day, and the McNamaras would withdraw from the pairs competition. The Bruins’ Jordan Anderson and Izzy Carey tied it by sweeping Abril Bustamante and Katrina Kernochan 21-18, 21-9.

Trojans Sophie Bukovec and Allie Wheeler beat UCLA’s Kamila Tan and Madi Yeomans 21-10, 18-21, 15-13.

But then it was tied again when Lily Justine and Savvy Simo battled back to beat Jenna Bolton and Jo Kremer at No. 5 10-21, 21-14, 15-13.

That put all the attention on the No. 2 pairs.

After a 13-13 tie in the third set, the Trojans’ Sophie Bukovec and Allie Wheeler clinched it by beating UCLA’s Kamila Tan and Madi Yeomans 21-10, 18-21, 15-13.

The day started with UCLA knocking off USC and Washington upsetting Arizona.

UCLA’s victory came down to Anderson and Carey beating Bustamante and Kernochan 22-20, 22-20. The Bruins pair stood 21-1 for the season at day’s end.

Eight Pac-12 pairs remain: Once the team tournament ended, the pairs competition began and the top-eight seeds held serve and are in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

And the names are familiar. Complete coverage of the tournament and pairs competition can be found at the Pac-12 tournament page.

Match 1: No.16 Campbell/Anderson, CAL def. No.17 Trueman/Choy, UTAH, 21-10, 22-20
Match 2: No.15 Bark/Rodberg, CAL def. No.18 Agost/Raskie, ORE, 21-14, 21-15
Match 3: No.6 Bukovec/Wheeler, USC def. No.11 Berridge/Okaro, ASU, 21-16, 26-24
Match 4: No.7 Plummer/Gray, STAN def. No.10 Hallaran/Mcdonald, ARIZ, 21-16, 21-14
Match 5: No.8 Zappia/Van Winden, UCLA def. No.9 Anae/Barton, UTAH, 13-21, 21-18, 15-11
Match 6: No.3 Arellano/Follette, ASU def. No.14 Vander Weide/Van Sickle, ORE, 21-13, 21-19
Match 7: No.4 Scambray/Jones, WASH def. No.13 Chang/Vanjak, STAN, 21-11, 21-16
Match 8: No.5 Witt/Witt, ARIZ def. No.12 Strickland/Schwan, WASH, 21-11, 21-14
Match 9: No.2 Tan/Yeomans, UCLA def. No.15 Bark/Rodberg, CAL, 21-18, 21-13
Match 10: No.1 Claes/Hughes, USC def., No.16 Campbell/Anderson, CAL, 21-5, 21-7

Long Beach, Hawai’i win in Big West: Long Beach beat Sacramento State 4-1, while Hawai’i beat Cal Poly by the same score. The two __play each other Saturday, with the winner moving into the final and loser having to __play back in as USC did Friday in the Pac-12. Click here for the Big West tournament website.

Juniata’s Sean Cavanagh attacks the Wentworth block of Alex Potts, left, and Collin Ritter/Chris Unger photo

Men’s D-III down to four: The host team, Springfield (27-2), opened the Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship by sweeping Hunter 25-13, 25-13, 25-16. 

D-III national player of the year Luis Vega led the way with 11 kills in 14 swings and no errors to hit .786. He also had one of his team’s 15 aces and one of its 14 errors, one of the more remarkable team serving stats of the season on any level.

Kyle Jasuta had eight kills in nine errorless swings to hit .889 and Jonathan Rodriguez added six kills on eight swings with only one error to hit .625. Their team hit .473. Ricardo Padilla Ayala had six aces and five errors.

Hunter (28-7) hit .167 despite Springfield having just two blocks, including a solo by Rodriguez. Steven Tarquino led Hunter with five kills.

Springfield, which lost in last year’s title match, will play Stevens Institute, which beat Dominican 25-21, 25-17, 28-26, 25-23. Stevens improved to 31-5, while Dominican’s season ended 26-3.

Freshman David Lehman led Stevens with a career-high 19 kills and hit .300 as his team hit .410. Gabe Shankweiler added 13 kills and hit .478 and had five digs and three blocks, one solo.

Michael Kawa led Dominican with 19 kills and Luke Spicer had 18.

New Paltz (26-8) moved into a semifinal for the fourth consecutive season and will play Wentworth (28-6).

New Paltz swept Vassar 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 as Jake Roessler went off with a career-high 26 kills in 35 swings with one error to hit .657. His teammates, led by Steven Woessner’s 10, combined for 25 kills.

Vassar, ending its season 26-8, got 10 kills from Matthew Knigge.

Wentworth swept Juniata 25-20, 25-17, 25-21. The Leopards got 12 kills from Jake Reed, who hit .400, 11 from Jon Roat, who had 11 and hit .333, and 10 from Sean Mullen, who .500 and had two of his team’s eight aces and four of its eight errors.

Juniata’s season ended 22-11. Quinn Peterson and Sean Cavanaugh led with seven kills each.

Click here for the D-III bracket and tourney info.

Most AVP players acquiesce and sign contract, exclusivity agreement

The AVP was given a vote of confidence Friday as a significant player boycott was averted/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

As the midnight-Thursday entry deadline for AVP Huntington Beach approached, it appeared that a boycott was on.

But no longer.

According to a source who demanded anonymity, a top men’s player, taken aback by the AVP’s threat to close down the 2017 tour, signed at the last minute. What’s more, that player communicated that to the other unsigned players, nearly all of whom put their names on the dotted line in the 11^th hour.

As the deadline passed, the remaining holdouts for the men are Casey Jennings, Bill Kolinske and Robbie Page, while the remaining women are Brooke Sweat, Summer Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings.

Sarah Day, a member of the AVP player committee, discusses the player issues/Ed Chan, VBshots.com

“This is not the first time that we’ve discussed the exclusivity clause and it’s not the last time,” said AVP player-committee member Sarah Day. “With any sort of business outside of volleyball, there would be some sort of exclusivity or non-compete clause. You can’t work as an independent contractor for Samsung and moonlight on the weekends for Apple. It just wouldn’t work.”

The AVP has eight stops this season and the first is in Huntington Beach, Calif., May 4-7.

Many of the pro players took issue with the AVP’s four-year contract and its exclusivity clause. In the past couple of weeks, many of the pros had meetings about it on the heels of the announcement that Walsh Jennings, the American icon of beach volleyball, was suing the AVP over a different issue. What’s more, it came at a time when a rival tour, the NVL, announced that it was joining forces with former AVP CEO Leonard Armato and his FIVB event, the World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach in July.

“I’m hoping that the term of the contract could be reduced from four years, as any athlete would,” said Priscilla Piantadosi-Lima, who has a unique perspective, having played at the tail end of the AVP’s glory days in 2004-2010 and has competed most recently on the NVL tour.

“Four years is a long time,” Piantadosi-Lima, said. “We want to make this a profession, and honestly, it’s tough to call it a profession when many players have to work hard outside of the tour to make ends meet. I __play because I love it, my profession is running my club. You cannot make a living off of eight events. Even if you could __play both AVP and NVL, for 12 events, it would be tough.

“I think that it’s so important that the players get together and try to come to common ground with the AVP on something that would be good for everyone. “

The AVP did not release an official signup list, but the unofficial lists on the website BVBinfo.com, which is a reliable source for entries and results, showed that as late as Thursday night the men’s AVP holdouts included Olympic partners Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

The list also showed that the following players (in alphabetical order) were not attending: Angela Bensend, Lane Carico, Emily Day, Amanda Dowdy, Kim DiCello, Betsi Flint, Lauren Fendrick, Brittany Hochevar, Kelley Larsen, Caitlin Ledoux, Whitney Pavlik, Irene Hester Pollock, April Ross, Summer Ross, Emily Stockman, Sweat, Geena Urango, Kendra VanZwieten, and Walsh Jennings.

Obviously all that changed for many of them.

The AVP is run by Donald Sun, who purchased the AVP out of bankruptcy in 2012 and has rebuilt the tour with steady increases in prize money. But the rival NVL also upped its ante with its recent announcement.

“It was a few months of process, discussing with individual players, groups of players, discussing what concerns they had,” Sun told The Associated Press. “We all made it. I think we’re all pretty happy.”

The NVL-Armato merger included a bump in NVL prize money of $150,000 for the season with the hope of attracting top talent and offer additional opportunities to players at all levels.

“I wanted to work with Leonard to increase players benefits, opportunities, and prize money,” NVL CEO and co-founder Albert “Al-B” Hannemann said again this week. “We have big plans this year and in 2018 and all players are welcome to play in all of our events.”

For its part, the AVP said then that “We don’t discuss details around our contracts as those discussions are private and ongoing.”

That included talks with Walsh Jennings.

“I respect her decisions,” Sun told The Associated Press, “and I wish her well.

“But in the meantime, we’re just geared up. All the athletes that are signed are fired up to play Huntington Beach next weekend.”

Day, who has two fifth-place finishes on the tour and is expecting her second child in August, participated in Monday and Tuesday afternoon meetings with AVP staff.

“I thought the meetings were positive,” Day said. “I thought the brand was doing the best it possibly can, especially considering the hostile environment, and I feel like I understand where the AVP is coming from. They are trying to protect their brand for the longevity of the sport, not only for the players that are currently playing, but for players coming up through the pipeline, and I truly believe that that is important to the AVP.

“They are starting up their academies, we have AVPNext, we have AVPFirst, which is giving back to the community, I think the outreach is there, and it’s not just there to look good, but it’s there to get grassroots players through the professional door. I think it looks really fluid and genuine.

“I walked away from the meeting thinking that the AVP staff was trying to allow for the growth and protect the players so something could happen for themselves in the future.”

On the men’s side, former Long Beach star Taylor Crabb said he is looking forward to the competition.

“We’ll be signing the agreement tomorrow,” Crabb said last week. “I won’t be boycotting, I’ll be there. Hopefully everyone will come to an agreement. I’m hoping all the best players will play, I want to compete against the best, that’s all I really care about.”

Theo Brunner, who is partnering with Casey Patterson this year, told us he’s concerned about the current state of beach volleyball.

“It’s a messy situation. I signed, I have faith in Donald, I think that what we have now is much better now than it was five plus years ago,” Brunner said. “Seeing all the international stuff canceled shows that volleyball is in a tough place right now, just one year after the Olympics. To have a tour, and have the money being increased, by a good amount over the next four years, is something to hold onto, and not take lightly, and we shouldn’t push it to the point that we might not have it.”

Day largely agrees.

“I truly believe in the AVP brand and the direction of the brand, everything from the grass roots to the professional level. I think that Donald’s version of the AVP will be successful, it just takes time. We have to allow for that process to happen, I think that he has proved in the last four years that we are headed in the right direction, and that’s a positive note,” Day said.

“People want to see huge changes after four years, but you can only take baby steps. You have to learn to crawl before you get to walk. Donald deserves a lot of credit for taking this on, I don’t think he’s scared of a challenge, I really think he has his whole heart in making this work, I truly believe he is finding a way to build a business that has longevity, and hopefully in the near future will be able to support a lot of players. For the qualifiers that feel this way now, I get it, but I’m hopeful for them that in the next couple of years, if they buy into the AVP family, they will be rewarded.”

Day took issue with putting a negative spin on the contract.

“I think we’ve taken this word exclusivity and made it this really bad word,” Day said. “Really, exclusivity not only protects the AVP brand, but it protects the players as well. I think that’s really important as a takeaway. It’s not to hurt anyone, it’s to protect. I believe that any successful business should have the right to protect your brand.     

All that aside, the players want the opportunity to make enough money to make competing worth their while.

“When I was playing with Angela (Lewis) we were playing 16 tournaments a year minimum,” Piantadosi-Lima said. “I could then pay for an international tuition as a full-time student, paying my way through college taking 13ths,  17ths, and ninths because there were so many tournaments then. I think it was 2006-2009. We were, what, 16^th, 18^th in the country, and I didn’t need a full time job. Granted, I live in Louisiana, it’s cheaper than most areas of the country.”

“Less tournaments is fewer tournaments to make money. I understand that they’re building, and it’s a new owner, building from four events when they first started, so I’m seeing progress.