Good afternoon, beach volleyball fans,
No matter who you voted for, what your religious beliefs are, or if you mix your Thanksgiving plate or keep everything separate, there is one thing that can unite us all: Fall is the best season.
And nobody loves the fall more than Evan Cory.
In the fall of 2022, he made the semifinals of the Dubai Challenge out of the qualifier, and made the main draw in three straight Challenge events. Last weekend in China? How about qualifying with Cody Caldwell and then winning the whole damn thing?
As he told me in the wee hours of Sunday morning: STATEMENT. MADE.
Indeed.
Some love also must be given to Molly Shaw — another who loves a good fall Challenge — and Toni Rodriguez, AVP League champ, who took a silver medal out of the qualifier. Pretty good weekend for USA Volleyball.
More Americans will be in action this week as the Beach Pro Tour moves to Chennai, India, where both of the aforementioned teams will be in the qualifier once more.
Here is the men’s entry list. And the women’s.
You know who doesn’t miss qualifiers? Yours truly.
We talked a lot about my vastly different future on this week’s podcast, the ever-popular mailbag.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This week’s podcast featured, well, us, and a whole lot of you, who submitted, as always, fun questions for us to answer, including, of course: With me moving to Tallahassee to coach FSU, what’s going to happen to the pod? What’s Tri’s future look like? (he answers that here) What NBA players would make for the best beach volleyball players? You know, the important stuff.
Bukovec and Bansley Mic’d up!
As part of our growing collaboration with Beach Volleyball World, we have a ton of fun things coming down the pipe. Fantasy beach volleyball? Happened last week at the Rio Elite16. International podcasts? More of them coming. Mic’d up content? You know it!
We put some mics on Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley during the Joao Pessoa Elite16, and Sophie, as ever, delivers.
Watch Sophie and Heather mic’d up!
FUN NEWS! SANDCAST and Volleyball TV are partnering up. By the end of the year, the Road to Paris will feature highlights and clips from Volleyball TV to complement the coverage. Better yet: You can get 20 percent off your VBTV subscription if you use the code SANDCAST20.
News Around the Beach
- Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft qualify for Beach Pro Tour Finals! Three straight Elite16 medals, a feat accomplished by just three teams this year, earned Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft a berth into December’s Beach Pro Tour Finals, and a crack at the $150,000 check for the winners. Awesome.
- Sally Perez and Maggie Boyd: LEGIT. Everyone, including me, figured not a single team in the NCAA would touch TCU’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno this season. They’re coming off a fifth at the Paris Olympics, after all, and are straight into Elite16s, ranked high enough to qualify for the aforementioned Beach Pro Tour Finals. And yet, this past weekend in Huntsville, Alabama, for the AVCA Pairs Championships, UCLA’s Sally Perez and Maggie Boyd swept the Spaniards in the finals. The talent is thick this year on the NCAA, as expected. Full results here.
- Stevenson upends Webber for men’s beach National Championships. Yes, men’s collegiate beach volleyball is a thing. And Stevenson, a school just north of Baltimore — my high school’s 13th grade, as we called it — just took home the natty, upsetting Webber by winning 15-13 in the third set on court two. It was a fun one to watch. Go ‘Stangs.
- 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 the most beloved photographer in beach volleyball: Mpu Dinani. Don’t miss this one.
Much Love to the sponsors
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.
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.
Introducing Balltime, the AI platform making breaking down film and statistics EASY (FINALLY!). Use our link for a discount and give it a try!
Need to get hydrated? Waiakea has all kinds of fantastic deals online, and good news for you (and us), you can get 20 PERCENT OFF using our discount code, Sandcast, at checkout. Aloha, y’all.
SANDCAST is fueled by a lovely mix of three main ingredients: We LOVE to do it, people enjoy listening to it, and sponsors fund our ability to do so. We only partner with sponsors we love, and we are so fired up to have Athletic Greens join the show! And they’re hooking up our listeners with a full year of Vitamin D for FREE, as well as five totally FREE travel packs!
Appreciate y’all for listening, reading, and loving the beach like we do.
Have a great week!
SHOOTS!
Tri and Travis (and Savvy)
