Sports by Miller

Dear Readers~     Welcome to the next NCAA Division 1 indoor volleyball game. In this game we have #8 Texas A&M (which I will simply call A&M for today) traveling to Fort Worth as they take on #15 TCU at the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena for the matchup that took place on Wednesday, September 10th. For those who don't know, in the previous week, A&M was ranked #11 while TCU was ranked #24, so as you can see, both made quite the jump in their rankings. TCU actually made the biggest jump up at a total of 9 spots out of any of the teams that stayed in the top 25 the previous two weeks. Going into the game, TCU was sitting at a record of 3-1 while A&M was sitting at a score of 5-1. With A&M coming off of a loss to SMU (Southern Methodist University) while TCU is coming off of their 3 straight wins (two of which to UCLA, both in Fort Worth during the previous week) and a loss to Pittsburg in their first game of the season, let's get into this game and see how the...

Dear Readers~     Welcome to this very special blog of the 2025 AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) Manhattan Beach Open. Last week I covered the women's weekend while this weekend I will cover the men's weekend. As mentioned last week, I got the ability to attend this one in person as well as see some of the players and friends I've made over the years.  This week will cover all three days of the men's games I watched. Due to the NCAA only having beach for the women but indoor for both, I don't know as many of the male athletes, so I don't have a lot of pictures with the athletes. If you want to see any of those, stay tuned until the end for those. Let's get into this week's AVP coverage to see how it goes.     Keep in mind that this was a double elimination tournament which means that if you lose your first game you get moved into the contender's bracket and if you lose again, your weekend is over. The only exception to this rule is if yo...

Dear Readers~     Time for the second game I'll be covering of the 2025 NCAA Division I indoor volleyball season. I'll be covering #1 Nebraska as they take on #4  Kentucky in Nashville, Tennessee at Bridgestone Arena as part of the Broadway Block Party on Sunday, August 31st. Just like with the previous game I covered, no team is home or away, which means this is a neutral game. Going into the game, Nebraska is sitting at 3-0 while Kentucky is sitting at 2-0. With each team being undefeated and both ranked in the top 5, who do you think will come out on top? Let's get into this game to find out.      For those who have seen my coverage of the NCAA beach games back in the spring, I explained the difference between the beach and indoor games. For those who don't know, the way indoor works is you have to win 3 sets, whether it be all 3, or 3 of the 4/5 sets that are played. As for the scoring, for the beach, it's played first to 21 while indoor is played first...

Dear Readers~     This week and next will cover the special AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) blogs I've been talking about over the course of the summer. I'm of course talking about the AVP event that happened in Manhattan Beach, California back in the middle of August. This was my 6th time going to the event so I have made many friends over the years (some you will see here and some next week) and have heard of a lot of the players (yet this year I think I knew fewer players than any other year before including my first year attending). Due to the NCAA only having beach for women but indoor for both, I know of more of the women compared to the men as a result of that. Let's get into this week's coverage and find out who all I watched compete and who all I met.      Keep in mind that this was a double elimination tournament, which means that if you lose your first game you get moved into the contender's bracket and if you lose again, your weekend is...

Dear Readers~     Welcome to the first blog of the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Women's Indoor Volleyball Season. The first game I will be covering has #1 Nebraska taking on #6 Stanford at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, as part of the AVCA First Serve tournament. This is not technically Nebraska hosting Stanford, it's more of a neutral tournament with neither being the home team . This game took place on Sunday, August 24th at 2:30pm Central Time. This is Nebraska's second game of 2025 after a previous 3-1 win against #3 Pittsburg while Stanford is coming off of a 3-1 victory of their own against #16 Florida. With this being the second of only two games each would play here in Lincoln to start their season, let's see who can go 2-0 to start their 2025 season since they both won their first game.     For those who have seen my coverage of the NCAA beach games back in the spring, I explained the difference between the beach and indoor games. For t...