Good morning, beach volleyball fans,
This week in “Where Am I Writing This” I’m at the Residence Inn in Manhattan Beach, California, back in town for the first time since I moved from the South Bay to Tallahassee five months ago. Hard to believe it’s been five months; feels like yesterday I was driving down the 10 and my Honda Civic’s tire exploded and I was stranded in a little town named Deming, New Mexico for a night with my dad, watching Miami vs. Virginia Tech’s barnburner.
Now here we are, three weeks into the NCAA season, my ‘Noles are 11-1 after some heart-stopping comebacks at TCU this past weekend (ever seen a comeback from down 9-1? Me neither until Friday), Volleyball World begins next week, and the AVP season is a month around the corner.
It’s a good time to be a sports fan and, specifically, a beach volleyball fan. Especially when young talents like Toni Rodriguez are just coming into their own.
The week in SANDCAST Studios
This past week’s podcast featured Toni Rodriguez, the former LSU standout who put together an electric run to the end of the 2024 beach volleyball season, winning a hatrick of medals with Molly Shaw while also claiming the inaugural AVP League title with MVP Geena Urango. Now, Toni is switching things up — sort of. She’s sticking with Geena for the AVP League and moving to defense — why do blockers love playing defense? — internationally to split with Kyle DeBerg. Why did she do that? She explains here, and you can listen to the full podcast, which I recommend, below.
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
- Montreal is back on the Volleyball World schedule! But…it conflicts with the AVP Manhattan Beach Open. Why did that happen? It’s not that complicated. I explained, answering a number of questions we got in the comments and DMs on social.
- East Meets West this weekend. UCLA’s annual East Meets West event is this weekend at the Manhattan Beach Pier. It’s a flagship event of the NCAA Beach Volleyball season, and if you’re in town, come on by the Manhattan Pier on Friday and Saturday to see some of the country’s best — No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 LMU are both in the event.
- Watch SANDCAST Episodes Early! Become a member of our YouTube Channel and you’ll get every piece of content days before anybody else.
- Coming up on Wednesday we have Audrey “AK” Koenig, a former ACC Player of the Year — that’s no small feat in a loaded conference like the ACC — who is happily choosing beach (and we at Florida State are STOKED about it). Fun one with a player you should take note of; she’s a special talent.
Much Love to the sponsors
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: SANDCASTVB 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!
SANDCAST Team
