Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
We had a rare dip into the indoor volleyball waters this week when Marlie Monserez, a talent first at Florida then UCLA on the sand and now Atlanta Vibe of the PVF, on the pod. Naturally, I became more interested in the dueling professional women’s indoor volleyball leagues, between the PVF, now in its second year, and LOVB, which made its debut this January.
I was floored, then, when, on January 16, the PVF announced that its star franchise, the Omaha Supernovas, was leaving for…another league? Evidently, Major League Volleyball will be a thing next January, a 10-franchise league with funding from Jason Derulo and a bunch of other big names. That will make for three professional women’s indoor leagues in 2026, four when you include Athletes Unlimited, though most view that as a quick exhibition-style gimmick to make a few bucks and have some fun, and not a legitimate league.
Without Omaha, which has six of the top eight attendance records in the PVF, I’m not sure how the PVF survives. To me, then, it’s a two-horse race between the MVL and LOVB. Because we haven’t seen anything from the MVL, other than they poached the top franchise of the PVF, I’m betting on LOVB to be the final league standing. I’m admittedly biased, because much of that stems from our conversation last summer with Kelsey Robinson Cook, a founding member of LOVB and good friend of the pod (as is her hubby, Brian Cook, who provided tremendous Olympic coverage for us).
All of that said, I hope the PVF, and its players, can hold on for a little while longer, because I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with Marlie Monserez.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast featured Marlie Monserez, a former setter for Florida who popped over to the beach at UCLA, where she found a renewed passion for volleyball, before returning indoors to set for the Atlanta Vibe of the PVF. Her story is wonderful, and she was such a joy to chat with:
Valentina Gottardi MIC’D UP!
As part of our growing collaboration with Volleyball World and Beach Volleyball World, we have another edition of MIC’D UP! Today features Italian stars Valentina Gottardi and rookie Reka Orsi Toth during their matchup with China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia at the Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar this past December. Such a fun look at a wildly athletic team, and one with a blindingly bright future:
Previous mic’d up videos:
Coming up: Agatha and Rebecca
SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partners! You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- Nerdy ‘Noles set new record. Our Noles are smart! How smart? They just smashed the previous GPA record for the team, checking in with a frankly ridiculous 3.74 this past fall.
- Easiest way to help SANDCAST. Our financial numbers are in for 2024, kudos of our CFO Tri Bourne, and we had a total of $78k of expenses (videographers, SANDCAST Tour, etc.). We want to continue pouring into the show and delivering high quality content, and the best way you can help FOR FREE is by signing up for a free trial with Aura, which is back on with us again for 2025. It takes maybe five minutes to sign up, is easy to cancel, and the show gets $250 per sign up. It’s one of the most lucrative affiliate deals I’ve seen, especially when our fans don’t actually have to spend any money for us to get a kickback. We basically break even with the show — everything that comes in gets reinvested to produce higher quality content, with increasing quantity as well. So, signup, send the link to your friends (https://aura.com/sandcast is the exact link) and let’s make some awesome stuff.
- SANDCAST memberships are live. We’ve opened up memberships for anyone who wants to watch full podcast episodes on YouTube a day or two early.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Melissa Humana-Paredes and the Pod Mama herself, Gabby Bourne, chatting all things Olympics, life, city-living vs. nature. It’s an AWESOME conversation, and a pair we’re hoping to have more of throughout the year.
Much Love to the sponsors
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We’ve been with Wilson Volleyball since day one, and we love the products they make — the best ball on the market, hands down, no questions asked. With season coming up, if you’re looking to get some new equipment, use our discount code: SANDCAST63 for 20 PERCENT OFF.
SANDCAST adds another year with AG1. One of our longest-running sponsors, AG1, is back on the pod for another year. We’ve re-signed with the brand, and have changed our model with them, to a fully affiliate-model. So if you want to stay healthy AND help the show, please order with this link, which comes with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
We’re officially partnered with Better at Beach! Don’t know how this took so long, seeing the massive overlap between our audiences. So if you want to get Better at Beach, use our code SANDCAST for 10 percent off all of their products, from online classes to in-person camps and more.
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
Tri and Travis (and Savvy)
