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Season 4, Episode 19 Division III Coaches Huddle
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KP Sits Down with NCAA Division III men's volleyball coaches to preview the 2026 NCAA men's volleyball playoffs. Joining KP is Glenn DeHaven (Juniata), Evin Giglio (Wentworth), Doug Burchett (Dominican) and Rob Wingert (Misericordia). Also, Coach Alex of Curry joined the show.
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Well, KP here, and welcome to the Kevin Pratt Podcast. We are thrilled to be back. We took a little two-week break. We had some spring breaks for the coaches and myself. Really good to be back. The timing couldn't be better because it is we're ready to dance. It's playoff time. It's the best time of the year. And we've got some great coaches on, and we have a wonderful guest tonight. So why don't we do our introductions real quick? We'll go to um the Midwest. We got Coach Doug, who's doing some great things at Dominican. Coach, why don't you say hello?
SPEAKER_01It's up, KP. Thanks for uh having me again. Things are good here in Chicago. Weather is warm, I think, all week, which is great. My team is dancing in the tournament, so life couldn't be better.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, congratulations. Been obviously following you guys closely, was rocking my Dominican uh shirt this weekend and uh heck of a job, coach. And I uh I could see you doing some damage in the tournament. That'll be good stuff. Uh we have the fabulous coach Glenn, who uh is also tournament bound, uh Juniada head coach. Coach Glenn, why don't you say hello? KP, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00Two-week hiatus was actually, I think, good and refreshing for everyone, but ready to be back and talk some D3 volleyball, especially at a really important time of the year.
SPEAKER_03Yes, and Evan should be joining us a little bit later. He's getting ready for his tournament, and they're gonna be traveling on the road. I think he'll be calling in sooner rather than later, and we should be hearing from Coach Rob a little bit later, too. So we will get going, but very importantly, we have a friend of the show, a very talented coach who is at Curry and Coach Alex, he is involved with the women's volleyball program there and is the head men's volleyball coach. So uh, Coach Alex, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for always supporting Division III volleyball and the Kevin Pratt podcast. Why don't you uh introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, hey everyone. KP, thanks for having me on this week's episode. I'm super excited to be here um and talk with some great Division III coaches as well. Obviously, Coach Alex uh been at Curry now for two years going on three. Um basically start a new program up in Massachusetts from square none, and that was an awesome experience. And seeing, you know, growing from year one to now finishing year two and has been super great. Uh I love Boston, love everything about Boston. Um I'm originally from Long Island, New York, so I'm Nassau County. I'm on the the west side, not far far east. Uh played at Sport Time, played at Elmira College, one of the UVC institutions, and know that gauntlet pretty well. Graduated in 2022 and then I was an assistant there for two years. But um super excited to be on the podcast this week.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so coach, I'm gonna start with our questions, and I know the panel has some for you. You know, you've been it now curry for two years, uh kind of two-part question. Do you like the trajectory of where your program's going and what are some things that you are continuing to work on? And then also like what is the most fulfilling part of your job? I know that's a lot to unpack, but have at it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, I'll kind of do the second question first. Um, I think the most fulfilling thing about my job, besides creating something from the ground up and kind of making it my own, was seeing the success of each of the players, you know, from freshman to sophomore year or freshman September to freshman year April. Um, I think my guys have put in a lot of work over, you know, a year or six months, and to see them achieve many goals that we set out on index cards in the beginning of the year, um, I think that's what's super fulfilling to me. Um, you know, and then on the other side to answer the first part, I definitely am very excited to see the trend that we've been following on and seeing where we can go year three. Um, I think it's one that we're excited for after finishing year two.
SPEAKER_03So well, congratulations. Uh keep up the good work. I know some student athletes that play for you and they seem to really be enjoying it, like your coaching style, and obviously Boston's a really cool city. It's I'm like I said, we're really excited that you're on the show. We got a question from Coach Doug. Why don't you fire away?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Alex. So a two-part question. What do you think is the biggest difference for you, if any, in coaching your men's teams versus your women's teams? And then the second question is do you try to bring things over from either side into those respective gyms?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, I think our, I would say culture is a little different on the men's and women's side or how we define our culture, you know, like brotherhood versus, you know, that family aspect. I think they mean the same thing, but how we explain it is a little bit different. And then I think, you know, just more on the technical side on the men's team, we were very heavy this year on blocking. Um, and what our blocking scheme looks like kind of redid, revamped our blocking scheme a little bit from last year to this year. Then on the women's side, uh it was a little bit more defense-oriented to create some solid offense. But I tried to bring that into the men's game, you know. I think a really good defense creates a really good offense. Um, so and I think the other thing that kind of balanced back and forth was service pressure. So, you know, I think my women's team was really good at serving this year, and I think that's something that we needed to grow upon on the men's side was serving in general and serving pressure. So I think bringing that into our our gym this year was something that you know tried to recreate. But I think there is some similarities and differences on on both ends of men's and women's game for sure.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. And then uh Coach Glenn, what do you have for Coach Alex?
SPEAKER_00So my my kind of thought is if you could talk to us about you know your transition from being a player to an assistant at Elmira and then your transition to to being the head coach at Curry. Why was Curry the right fit for you? You know, in this, I I believe this is your first head coaching opportunity, correct? Yeah. So why was Curry the right fit there? And then maybe get into you know the the jump that your your program has made from you know from not existing to 14 and 15 this year, honestly, in in year two competing at the varsity level, I think is really impressive.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, so it's a lot to unfold. I think to start off, like why I chose Curry when I was applying for some jobs and saw that this was an opportunity for me to kind of create something special. Um, you know, when looking at different programs and being like, oh I can revamp this, or you know, I wanted to start new and you know, make something my own. You know, and I have to give thanks to Dan Miranda, who's at Buff State, and Ryan McDonough now, um, which was the old head coach at Almira for everything that they've done for me as a player and kind of getting to where I am today. I think coming out of college, I really didn't have an idea on what I wanted to do. I had a degree in education, so wanted to do something with, you know, maybe teaching and doing volleyball club wise. And I think having that assistant position right from graduation really truly made me feel that I could do that for, you know, a profession in my job. And I think, you know, Ryan definitely helped me get there after I decided like I wanted to pursue coaching as as of my career. But I think the transition from player to assistant coach was a little bit tough, you know, being 22 at the time and having players that I recently coached or recently played with, sorry, um, was definitely a tough transition on like the respect side and trying to figure out how to have them earn my respect, um, but also kind of having that fine line of being their friend, you know, when they're in the office and stuff. But the transition from assistant to head coach, I think, was a little bit easier for me. Being in a new place like Boston, I was away, kind of reflected on my time at Elmira and seeing like what can I bring to the table, what do I need to do different. Yeah, I think Curry is a right fit for me. I think the tight knit community that Curry offers was something that I was looking for personally. I'm a big family-oriented guy, something I was brought upon since I was younger. Kind of Curry's definitely that feel. We're kind of secluded um in Milton Mass, uh kind of nature, but also you got the city life. Obviously, we're like 20 minutes outside of Boston, so looking at place I wanted to be kind of wanted both the best of both worlds. Like I was a fan, like I said, I was a very family-oriented. Um, I have family that live about 20 minutes from Curry, and I didn't really get to see them growing up, and now I see them, you know, once a week. So I think that was a huge opportunity for me to kind of be closer to family um and you know, try something new. But um I think the the jump from year one to year two, you know, had really no expectations going into year one. I kind of wanted to get the footing down and and culture set and all that, and then wherever we landed was kind of going to be that thing and build upon that from year one to year two and going into our preseason and you know our non-traditional season, we sat down as a group and really said, like, what do we want to accomplish this year? And a lot of if not everyone wrote on their index card. Uh, we do little index cards about team goals and personal goals. Um, they said we want to hit 500, we want to be a 500 team. And I said, Okay, great, but how do we get there? Right? How are you gonna get there personally? How are you gonna help us get there? But as a team collectively, what are we gonna do in order to get that? Um, I think that just kind of proved itself. I think our play style was very scrappy throughout the year. Something else that everyone wrote down was, you know, we wanted to outscrap our opponents, but you know, we kind of are the underdog in every match that we went into this year, and I think that gave us a little bit of an edge of playing every game, you know, like it was our last, or you know, that it was a national championship on the line from every match. So, but I think that jump was really cool, and I'm excited to see where year three takes us. Awesome. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's great stuff, and you know, for you listeners out there, Boston's a great location. Milton's a fun little town outside the city. Coach Alex is definitely building something special there. Um, definitely give his program an Instagram follow or check out their uh, you know, website about you know who they're playing, what conference are and all that good stuff. So uh he will be at nationals and all that stuff on the recruiting trail, and that's a place that you guys might want to consider when you're making your collegiate decisions. But like I said, it's a very, very exciting time in volleyball and at the Division III level, it is playoff time, and the format over the years has been shifting and changing. So I wanted to have one of our experts, Coach Glenn. Can you just kind of paint the picture of kind of what the playoff format looks like, maybe some new rules that have been implemented or some uh teams that are or more teams are getting added, all that good stuff. And the floor is yours, Coach Glenn.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so this is year 10 for me at Juniata. You know, uh obviously very blessed to to make multiple NCAA tournament appearances throughout my time as head coach. And today was selection show day. You know, uh yesterday was was the final week, uh, weekend, final Sunday of a lot of conference plays. I think there were three championships that were played yesterday. Most others were played either Friday or Saturday, the days before that. So today, 21 teams were selected for the NCAA tournament. Honestly, really big day. It's the biggest Division III tournament field ever. It's it actually grew two teams larger from last year's 19. You know, and in my first year at Juniata and 17 when we made the NCAA tournament, it was only nine teams. Um, really fun to see the expansion um, you know, of the tournament throughout my time. Uh that you know, I think the growth at the high school level, the growth at the club level, and now the growth at the college level is, you know, it's it's fun to see the NCAA tournament catch up. So, like I said, 21 teams selected today. Um, we were lucky enough to see Coach Rob grace us with his presence. He was um a part of the selection show, honestly. He was kind of the the one of the analysts that uh gave his feedback and thoughts on the tournament today as the as the field came out and was released. Four top seeds for the tournament. Uh Springfield was the one, Juniotto was the two, Carthage was the three, Stevens was the four. Those teams, three of those four teams were actually automatic qualifiers. There are 14 automatic qualifiers this year, and that basically means for those who don't know, those teams won their conference tournament. So they release they received the automatic qualifier bid from their conference to represent their team in the NCAA tournament. And then there were seven at-large bids granted. So that's seven next highest NPIs. So the National Power Index, I believe, is basically how they determine a team's success. And as I'm talking about him, he appears out of a mist. Um and in the background, Coach Rob has joined us as I talk about MPI. He probably heard NPI announced and his ears started to tingle. But Rob, are you there?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I thought that was the uh spicy burrito I had on the road and didn't realize someone was talking in. Uh but yeah, you're happy to happy to call in, long time listener, long time caller.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I so my my task was to explain who made the NCAA tournament and the format. So I had worked through 14 AQs. I talked about the top four seeds, and then I was currently explaining how the final seven teams are chosen for the tournament. So if you'd like to relieve me at that point uh and kind of give us your feedback, we also talked about you being on the uh the selection show today.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, as we've discussed with MBI before, every game is given a mathematical value and it weighs your 13 best wins.
SPEAKER_03Well, Rob, thanks so much for calling in. We appreciate you. And I know that you looked great on selection show. And uh I know that uh you'll be following the playoffs very, very closely. So, Coach Clinton, was there anything else you wanted to add on before we talk about some players to look out for and stuff about the playoffs?
SPEAKER_00I don't think so. Honestly, I think the NCAA committee did an amazing job. They found a way to create you know the matchups, you know, not only to the best of their ability, but it's fun to see a tournament where number one and number eight ended up in the same regional, and that's Springfield and SUNY New Paul, and number two and number seven, Juniata and Messiah, Carthage and Southern Virginia, that is the 3-6 matchup, and Stevens Kowloo, which is your your four-five. So NPAI determines those rankings, and it's really awesome that they have the opportunity, you know, to get them all in the same groupings, and they were actually pretty close beyond that. NYU's in with Springfield and New Paul's as your as your nine. Randolph Macon comes to Juniata to to play Messiah in the 710. So it's it's been really cool that they've been able to kind of work through some of that. And you know, in Division III in the past, it's you know, it's not always capable based on funding to make sure the matchups are what they're supposed to be. So once again, with the growth of you know our tournament, you know, our our funding and and all of that has kind of come a long way to make sure that the tournament is as balanced and and fair as possible.
SPEAKER_03And one question I had for you, obviously, like St. St. Joe's and MIT or St. Joseph's and MIT are gonna play Buffalo State, New Jersey. Do they play those matches? It's not looks like they play the day before the rest of you guys play. Do they play like is Evan, who just jumped on? It's great to see you, Coach Evan. Is Evan going to be playing Wittenberg at Juniata?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Okay, so that match will actually so they're they're calling those the play-ins at each each regional has at least one. The Stevens regional actually has two. So um, you know, at the Juniata Regional, Wentworth will play Wittenberg on Thursday night at 6.30. And the two play-ins at Stevens are MIT St. Joseph's and Endicott Lancaster Bible. Those are those games are at 4 and 6.30, respectively. Um, and then Buff State plays New Jersey City at 6.30 in the Springfield regional for the right to play the top seed Springfield. And then Doug is also playing in a playing game, uh, a Dominican versus Teal at 6 30 at the Carthage site. Cool.
SPEAKER_03Well, Coach Evan, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us. Uh, anything you want to say before we head into the players to look out for?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, sorry, just uh trying to prep uh for my playing game. We're going to Huntington, Pennsylvania. I have no idea what it's about. All I know is it's probably gonna take us 10 hours on the bus. And we gotta go. Uh so just uh a lot to do tonight to prepare. Uh I'm probably about eight minutes away from Alex's campus uh over here in Milton. Just trying to get ready to hit the road tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03Well, you're gonna have a lovely time in Juniana because yours truly was there this year. Great place, uh very um rural area and uh drove there from Pittsburgh. It was a snowstorm, but oh man, gracious, gracious host, Coach Glenn and his fans. It's gonna be a ruckus crowd there, Evan. I'll tell you that.
SPEAKER_04We have some work to do if we're gonna play against Glenn, but I I texted Glenn. I I am excited to go there. I maybe I might change my mind, but as of right now, I am excited to go to it's a lot better to be the first one. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. It's a lot better to be in the NCAA tournament than it's not be in the NCAA tournament, so I'm happy to go wherever that might be.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, then we'll go right to the players to look out for in the playoffs. There's obviously some very talented young men playing in this, and also shout out to all those student athletes that played for fantastic schools that didn't quite make the uh playoffs, but we're gonna right now focus on the playoff guys. Why don't we just get right into it? Let's start with Coach Evan. Who are some guys that you're looking out for, or you think they're gonna do some uh good stuff in the playoffs?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you know, I was trying to find some guys that weren't on other people's lists, and I realized that Glenn had every single guy from the pod, his pod, except for a Wentworth guy, so we gotta circle back to that maybe. But uh I'm gonna be looking out for Tyler Lindville at Kowloo. He was hurt a little bit this year and maybe didn't get as much love as some of the other guys, so I think he's gonna have a big tourney. I like Aiden Icovelli from Endicott, senior. He's been around for a long time, you know, really grown into that 01 role. I've got the Springfield crowd, you know. I know uh Juniata puts on a good group, but Springfield is always in it as well, and so that crowd will be pretty raucous. The fingertips of Messiah's block is a as a watch. Okay, they call their own touches. So I think you gotta see uh if if Randolph Macon's hitting high hands, or how many touches they get in there. So uh and then the rookies of MIT, MIT on a great run, winning the UBC, and so they're playing three, four freshmen depending on the day. So pretty something you don't see a whole lot um in our game. And so very exciting to see those guys.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, speaking of MIT on my Boston trip, as you know, Evan, I got to see you guys battle and it was fun to play Springfield. And then I I checked out an MIT practice, and you're right, there's a lot of good rookies from Illinois and California on that team that are doing some really good things, and uh Coach Todd's doing some good stuff at MIT. Coach Alex, I know as an avid uh men's volleyball fan and also uh head coach at Curry, I know you're gonna be following the playoffs closely. What are some guys that you think are gonna make an impact in the playoffs?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um before I go into some players that I'm looking forward to watching in the tournament, I want to just shout out some of my own guys um just because I I don't feel they necessarily get the credit that they deserved for this year. Um versus my setter, Nico, freshman setter from uh Florida, really just came in and and created a new pace of play for us. Um finished with like 830 assists on the year as a freshman. His brother's at uh Concordia University of Irvine, so big volleyball family over there, and then uh my sophomore outside Chris Milford uh basically almost had a thousand attempts this year. So his shoulders pretty fried, but um you know had like 370 kills on the year, basically stepped up in a huge way to get us to where we where we finished. So shout out to those guys and super excited to see their pre progress for you know the rest of their collegiate careers. But I think the two players I wanted to mention was A. Nycavelli on Endicott. We went to Endicott and he did some damage against us, super heavy arm, sick vert. You know, he's pretty solid on serve receive. You know, you don't want to get him too heated because he'll put it back in your face. Um then the other guy I have is Gavin Wolchetsky from Buff State, super fluid serve receive attacking. You know, I think seen him on the grass a lot in the past couple years, uh at like a post down and has a very fluid grass game as well. So I think if Buff State can get him going. And you know, I think that match against NGCU is going to be pretty good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I uh love that you uh gave some of your players also some recognition. I uh I'm familiar with uh your setter. He's he's great, and you're right. He comes from uh awesome volleyball family, and it's it's good to see that he's running your offense and over 800 assists. That's that's big time. And so let's go with Coach Doug. What do you got for us?
SPEAKER_01First off, I want to give a shout out. We didn't start this earlier. Coach Glenn was named the region coach of the year, so we got to give him a shout-out for representing our uh our crew nationally. So congrats, Glenn. Appreciate it. Um uh the teams that will be I kind of focused on the teams that will be at Carthage this week. We gotta talk about Ryan Morey, who is the Carthage setter. He was named um MAP of our West Region. Uh he's had a phenomenal season, big presence at the net. He's a really, really tall setter, runs a great tempo when he gets outside the pocket, distributes the ball well to a wide variety of hitters that Carthage has. I believe he's number three in assist per set in the country right now, and then Carthage has the uh number two hitting percentage. So I think he's someone to look out for. I had not got a chance to watch Teal play until today when I started scouting them. Ezra Osterling is one of their outsides, uh 4.09 points per set and 3.34 kills per set. Uh so he's someone to look out for on Teal, and uh looks like he's a pretty powerful arm. For Loris, we know they run a unique offense out of the middle of the court. But Bo Brainard has been on kind of everyone's minds this year as a 6'8 middle, uh hitting 434, which I believe is seventh in the country in hitting percentage right now. Coach Glenn uh recently saw SVU, but uh you know they they're a really strong service team. Garrick Tolman is uh someone to look out for, you know, last couple matches hitting 500, 600. So, you know, that will be kind of my first look at SVU uh live this year. Um, and then for Dominican, our guys, uh one person that's made a huge comeback this second half of the season after coming back from an injury last year and then starting off this year with an injury was uh lefty opposite uh Casey Goss. He's had a phenomenal second half of the season, you know, going into this this postseason. I'm excited. Um and then lastly, the Dominican fans, if we can uh pack the stands. I feel confident in our play. We we turned out at MSOE this past weekend for a conference championship. So see if they can turn out again.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. And Coach Glenn, what do you have for us?
SPEAKER_00So Coach Evan's right. I did highlight everybody from our pod except his team. I was actually gonna ask Evan like who's the guy that we should look at. Evan likes to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you want a free scatter report? Is that what you're trying to tell me?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't need one of those. We're good. But you know, I know you don't like your guys very much, so I wanted you to have to say how much you love them and how much you're looking out for them.
SPEAKER_04But it's I think you called my libero today to ask him what ladder we were gonna run, if I'm not mistaken.
SPEAKER_00I did twice. He didn't pick up. What the hell? Uh so I got I got Messiah, obviously Alex Kagoro. He was named, I believe he was named Region Player of the Year in Region 3 today, averaging over six points a set for his team. I guess is okay. He's done a really great job and he's kind of been a rock for them. He's even played through a lot of injuries this year to kind of get them where they where they need to go. My own team, a shout out for Will Sear. He's done a phenomenal job running our offense. He was National Player of the Week a couple weeks ago. He was the most outstanding player of the CVC tournament. He kind of makes our offense go. Great athlete, great player, great volleyball IQ. So kind of excited for him to get some of the recognition that he did. He was also named All-Region. Randolph Macon, Bryce Matthews, uh 6'8 opposite for Randolph Macon, that's was kind of their leading attacker. It's really been fun to honestly watch him develop over the last couple of years. You know, he hit 327 against nationally ranked opponents and and was also named an all-region player today. Um, and then, you know, outside from Wittenberg, who gets to take on Evans' group, Eli Halverson. Uh, actually think they have a really nice pair of lefts in Michael Yerk and Eli Halverson that can do a lot of damage. I know we had a chance to play them last year at our place, and uh they they gave us everything that we could handle. We ended up beating him in five. So shout out to Evans Libero since that was the name he dropped. So we'll we'll look out for him and what he's gonna do this weekend uh for that group.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's definitely a lot of talented student athletes playing. I've had the pleasure also, we you know, Sonny Newples. I don't know if we mentioned a lot of their guys, but I saw those guys live. They got a really good setter that's a transfer from George Mason. They got an outside that runs all kinds of different routes and they set them everywhere on the court. That'll be fun. I like that uh Coach Evan mentioned all the rookies from MIT. I mean, it's just gonna be a fun tournament. You know who I like on Wentworth, he was one of my favorites. I like that lefty that you uh bring in for the serving sub. A lot of a lot of energy, and he's got a little bit of a rifle of an arms.
SPEAKER_04Juan Zuniga. So he uh he's a lib from Club GSL in Utah, and in high school he was a setter and he led the country in aces in high school.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's he's got a cannon and he he embraces his role great, comes in and lets it just unload on his serve, but then also like he's you as you have a big bench and you guys are very uh rowdy bench, and it was cool. I I really enjoyed going to that match while I was in Boston.
SPEAKER_00It would have been a little more fun if we beat Springfield in five, but you know, instead of losing, but shout out to Zanega, that's who I wanted to shout out as part of my group, but Evan didn't want him being talked about.
SPEAKER_03So let's move on to the playoff predictions. I know that maybe some of you got like all of you guys are in the playoffs, so you might not want to predict too much to uh have uh bulletin board material, but if you guys don't, then I'll just do my predictions too. But let's start with uh Coach Doug. What big playoff matches are you got circled on there? Any maybe predictions that you want to throw out?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I guess if if I was looking at my region, the one match I think that's um gonna be interesting. I could make a comment on would be Southern Virginia versus Loris. It's a rematch from earlier this season that they have in the Sweet 16 round. SVU won earlier uh this season, be interesting, you know, on a neutral court at Carthage. SVU is number three in the country in aces per set in first uh versus Loris, which has a unique offense with uh uh uh three middles you know going on. Uh Bo Brainard and and Roman Rothenal are number seven and eight in hitting percentages in the country. So I think it's gonna be a close match. You got uh strong service uh side with with SVU and a strong middle attack uh from Loris. So I think if SVU can control the surf pass game uh with the service pressure, they win in four.
SPEAKER_00I will say this too. Garrick Tolman did not play in that last matchup because he got hurt the night before against Wittenberg. So I I do think that that changes what they're doing offensively a lot, too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, and uh any predictions you want to throw out, Coach Doug, or keeping it tight to the vest?
SPEAKER_02Alex, I think he said you. All right. I think my my match that I'm most looking forward to is the new Paul's NYU rematch from conference. Uh being in the UVC myself as a player, I think, you know, always gonna kind of root them on and and just knowing how much of a dog fight that the UVC is and having three teams in from the UVC this year, I think is pretty wild. But I think that match is gonna is gonna be really good on, you know, Springfield's turf. Um and seeing that matchup and then the other one I'm looking out is the End of Cott Lancaster Bible match, then post that whoever wins against uh Calloo um going all the way to that region over there. I think it's anyone's game, that match, Lancaster Bible Endicott match, talking about there. Haven't really seen Lancaster Bible play, but I know the the UE is pretty new and obviously seeing Endicott kind of know what what they're bringing to the table, I think, with the run that they've been going on the past 18 games of their season. I think they're they're on a hot streak. So um seeing if someone can cool them down a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Cool.
SPEAKER_02And Coach Evan, what about you?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, uh, you know, looking at these pods. I played Stevens this year. I've played them every year, it seems like, for the last couple years, either in the regular season or the NCW attorney. Uh we went out to Callo Cal Lutheran, we played them this year, we played Endicott twice, and we played MIT twice. So I'm pretty familiar with that pod. A bunch of good teams. My bold prediction here is Kalloo comes out of that pod. That's my pick in that group. Uh I like uh this, believe it or not, this is like the easiest Kowaloo has it in terms of travel and matches, because they're used to playing four matches in three days or five matches in three days, and uh they're used to traveling, so I think that they're better or as well prepared as any of us are, if not better prepared for what the NCAA tournament format is like. And they they just played up at Santa Cruz, which is always tense. They have a big rivalry, and and they beat up two times in a row on back-to-back weekends. So I like what uh Kalou's doing right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and uh Coach Glenn, any predictions for us or what big matches you're looking at?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I think I actually had New Paul's NYU as well circled. Um, but I know I think another fun match that we're gonna see this weekend is actually the rematch with uh Randolph Macon and Messiah. I think Randolph Macon's playing really, really good volleyball right now. Um they're they're also very imposing. Messiah's got good size, but they're not the biggest team. And Randolph Macon can get big in front of you really fast. 6'7 on the left, 6'8 on the right, uh, you know, in a pose. And you know, I think it comes down to you know who's who does better from the service line, like most of these matches that'll be played. But um, that one particularly I think will be kind of heavyweight knockdown drag out opportunity for you know Randolph Macon to kind of a little revenge match based on their earlier matchup this year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's just so many uh fun matches happening. I'm curious how MIT does because they're so young and I think they can go on a little bit of a run. That NYU, Sunny New Pulse you mentioned. I think it's also going to be really interesting to see the home teams that are hosting if they can kind of roll and do really well and win a few games and get all the way to the final four. I think being home is a huge advantage. So it will definitely be a lot of fun to follow those uh matches throughout the weekend. And uh, you know, we'll definitely uh, you know, see who make the final four. And we wish all you coaches the best of luck. But before we uh sign off and move on, we want to do our questions from the fans. And we had one question that I found very interesting, and any coach can chime in is does your routine or strategy change when you start coaching in the playoffs? So all you know, Doug, Glenn, and Evan, you were all coaching in the playoffs. Do any of you want to chime in on that?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I can I can talk about this actually. Interesting in our in our five-set win versus LaSelle in set four and set five. We played a lineup we've never used before, and it certainly wasn't plan A, but we had to have some contingency plans because some guys were out and uh LaSalle was doing a good job defensively against us. And so I don't know that I coach differently necessarily, but I think you have to be able to react in the moment and you know, try to try to stay relatively not making emotional decisions and stay focused on what's working or what's not working. And like I had no idea. I'm not gonna say I'm like, Oh, I had it all figured out, right? Like we rolled the lineup out there and it worked and it was cool. And so you just gotta be adaptable and ready in the playoffs because you just don't know what you're gonna see. You're playing a team a second or a third time, you've watched 10 matches of them, you know all their guys, they know all your guys, and so you're just trying to find an advantage however you can, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Coach Glenn, any thoughts on that? I think I think routine and is it's something that we all, you know, kind of hope for in terms of you know, things are consistent, things are the same, whether you're on the road or or at home, when we eat, uh, when we arrive at the gym, all of those things for me, you know, we we really try to keep those the same. You know, we do scouts on the day of a game at home the same time we would do them on the road, just so that guys can kind of get mentally prepared the same way for for each match. And you know, I think we're blessed as as a part of the C VC to, you know, our our playoff run is very similar to an N Civil A tournament. We had uh we had to beat number sixteen, you know, Rutgers Newark in the semis and and then Southern Virginia number six in in a final to receive the AQ and win the conference. So there's not a lot of difference in terms of you know how we're gonna prep for, you know, NCAA tournament games from conference tournament games as we go. I mean, I I maybe Evan could answer this in terms of did you have a weekend where you played three games in three days this year prior?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, when we went out to California, we had uh three ranked maxes in a row in Calloo, Santa Cruz, Baldwin, and then BW and Wabash in the same day.
SPEAKER_00And and I think that's honestly something that's really cool. I think I think three games in three days is harder than three games in two, or even four games in two, just based on, you know, that that third day, your body kind of doesn't want to do what you want it to do. And you know, I've had a relationship with uh JW out of Carthage for the last couple of years and been lucky enough to, you know, host and and travel and play in the frog jump. And we've always agreed to play that that first night, um, whether it be Thursday or this upcoming year when it's at Baldwin Wallace, it's actually Friday, and we're playing Friday, Saturday, Sunday because it's hard to play three games in three days. So let's see if we can do it. And depth becomes really important, like Evan talked about in terms of you know kind of being able to mix and match some lineups. So there are definitely things that change. There are definitely strategies that can change, but I think strategies change based on who you play. I mean, Doug mentioned, you know, Loris's uh, you know, three middle offense. You know, I think the benefit for SVU in that rematch is they've seen it already. You know, the the hard part about preparing for it is if you can't mimic it in your in your practice gym, how do you prepare for it, you know, in gameplay? So I think that's a huge advantage for SVU going into that match that they've seen it before. Um, you know, but we're all tweaking stuff. We're all, you know, we've all prepared little wrinkles. You know, I think it's just you know what it takes, obviously, to get through a long season.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and um, you know, Coach Doug, do you have anything you want to add on that question?
SPEAKER_01Me or no? Yeah. Uh I think the one thing I really liked with our the the NAC conference this year is we switched to a final four host for our conference tournament. And so this past week with going up to MSOE, um, you know, having to be on the road and getting the 50-minute practice walkthrough and on both days, it was really good prep for my guys going into this week that it's it's gonna feel the exact same like what we just did. Like like Coach Glenn said, uh, you know, just trying to keep the guys in a routine as much as possible as you can. And, you know, not it is a different experience and it's a bigger experience, but you you gotta try to make it as normal as possible.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And uh um, you know, I agree with all those things. I wish you guys the best of luck. I think it's really cool that three of our four coaches that are consistently on this podcast are in the playoffs. It's pretty cool. And um, so why don't we go around the horn and our we can say our goodbyes. We'll start with Coach Evan. Coach Evan, thanks for coming on today. Uh, anything you want to say before our next show?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just uh looking forward to an opportunity to compete versus Wittenberg. It's a team we've never played in our history before, which I think is pretty cool to see a team that you just have never seen before. And uh watch them on film. I think they look really talented and really athletic. So looking forward to a competitive NCAA tournament and seeing Glenn and you know, it should be a good time.
SPEAKER_03And then, Coach Alex, thanks so much for coming on. We really appreciate, like I said, all you're doing for your university and all you're doing for Division III. Anything you want to say before we sign off?
SPEAKER_02Not much, but appreciate you guys having me on this week. It was awesome talking with you guys about volleyball in the playoffs and excited to watch you guys play this weekend. I'm gonna have them on my on my phone while I'm down in Orlando this weekend. So I'm excited to cheer you guys on and good luck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and Coach Doug, what do you have for us? Anything you want to say before you leave uh sign off?
SPEAKER_01No, thanks for having us. Uh good luck to all the teams, players, coaches participating in the NCA tournament this week. Enjoy the moment and don't take anything for granted. You know, you never know if you're gonna get back there and just have have fun with the ride.
SPEAKER_03And last but certainly not least, we have Coach Glenn. Anything you want to add before?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I just want to wish everybody you know good luck in the NCAA tournament. I'm excited that Evan gets to make his first trip to somewhere PA as he referred to it earlier today. Very excited, excited for him to see what it's all about. Obviously, we recruit against each other a lot and excited that he'll have that experience, but also excited to shout out Doug for you know making a run and not being the top seed in his in his conference tournament, but finding a way to win and get to take his team dancing to Carthage, I think is really exciting. And I wish everybody the best of luck. It should be a fun week.
SPEAKER_03Well, thanks so much, and we will definitely be checking in in the next couple weeks. And it's exciting, exciting time for NCAA Division III volleyball. Guys, have a great night.