Amie Just and Erin Sorensen talk new 'Six Zone Duo' national volleyball podcast with Split Zone Duo

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Split Zone Duo dives into volleyball coverage with 'Six Zone Duo," hosted by Erin Sorensen and Amie Just

Volleyball has received perhaps one of the largest coverage bumps of any sport in the last five years, especially when it comes to the women's indoor game in the U.S. at both the college and pro levels. NCAA volleyball has begun to receive more and more high-profile television slots, including even some on broadcast networks such as Fox (eight matches this season) and ABC (an ESPN regular-season record 1.2 million viewers for Nebraska-Kentucky last year, part of a record-setting season for that company). Meanwhile, pro leagues such as League One Volleyball (LOVB) Pro and Major League Volleyball (formerly the Pro Volleyball Federation) have started to take off, with LOVB Pro's debut season in 2025 and MLV's in 2024 (under that old PVF name; the history of how it got to MLV with an attempted secession that turned into a merger is interesting). Given those developments, it's notable to see a new prominent national independent podcast on the sport, and that's what's launching today: Six Zone Duo, featuring well-known media figures Erin Sorensen and Amie Just, and from Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner's Split Zone Duo company. Here's the first episode :

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Here's more from their release on what to expect:

Ahead of Wednesday's debut for the show, both Sorensen and Just spoke with Bucholtz Sports Media via e-mail. Just (an award-winning columnist, features writer and enterprise journalist for The Lincoln Journal Star) said part of what appealed to her about this podcast concept was the chance to provide volleyball more national coverage in a thoughtful and detailed way.

"Women's volleyball is a fantastic sport that deserves more coverage. It's fast-paced and intense. It's played by incredibly talented and gifted athletes who often don't receive enough credit for their dedication to their craft. Six Zone Duo is the right forum for real journalism and real conversations about this sport because Erin and I know firsthand what it's like to cover the sport through those lenses. We're looking forward to broadening the conversation to a wider audience."

Sorensen (an award-winning journalist, storyteller and content creator who's spent more than a decade covering Nebraska athletics) said she thinks volleyball's increased recent prominence is more about it getting long-deserved recognition.

"I actually push back a little on the idea that people suddenly became interested in volleyball," she said. "I think the audience was there before the investment and access were. There are millions of people in this country who have played volleyball, have daughters playing volleyball, went to college volleyball matches or followed the Olympics. What has changed is that increasingly they're being given opportunities to follow the sport at a higher level."

She said the impressive recent numbers when those opportunities have arisen are a reflection of that.

"We've now seen 92,003 people show up for a college volleyball match in Nebraska. The 2023 NCAA championship between Nebraska and Texas averaged 1.7 million viewers on ABC. On the professional side, Omaha drew more than 152,000 fans across its 2025 home season, averaging nearly 11,000 per match. And LOVB reported that its average broadcast audience more than doubled in its second season while it continues preparing for national expansion.

"To me, those aren't signs of a niche sport trying to manufacture an audience. They're signs of what happens when a sport that already has a huge participant and fan base gets better distribution, investment and storytelling."

And she said that makes it a fascinating time to dive into covering the sport on a national level this way.

"Where it goes from here depends on whether the infrastructure continues to catch up with the interest. Can people easily find the matches? Can they follow players from college into the pros? Can the professional leagues become sustainable? Can media coverage turn casual viewers into year-round fans? I think that's the next stage and it's a really interesting time to get to cover it."

On the year-round front, the planned shift in focus between the collegiate game in the fall and the pro game in the spring is an interesting tack. Just said she thinks there are many fans who will follow the podcast through both of those areas.

"Women's pro volleyball is not a new concept. There have been longstanding leagues and teams around the world for decades now. The United States, though, hasn't been as successful historically with women's pro leagues. That has changed recently with Major League Volleyball and League One Volleyball. Because of the newness of those leagues, there is significant overlap between college volleyball fans and MLV/LOVB fans. My hope is that by discussing the pro leagues (and national teams, when we get to that point in the Olympic calendar) on this podcast, we can keep growing the game."

Sorensen said she wanted to create a national volleyball show that would appeal to her as a listener.

"My personal goal is to create the kind of volleyball show I would want to listen to every week," she said. "There is a lot of really good volleyball coverage already but I think there’s room for something that helps connect all of it in one place. I also really believe that if you build it, people will come. You go to volleyball matches now and see how invested people are, especially how young fans light up around these players. The appetite is clearly there. I want Six Zone Duo to give those fans a place where they can follow the sport, learn more about it and become even more invested in it."

Sorensen added that part of the goal is also to reach a wide audience, both of newer fans and of long-time followers of the sport.

"I also want it to be accessible without being watered down. You shouldn't need to have played Division I volleyball to understand what we are talking about, but if you know the game really well, we still want there to be plenty there for you too."

Just said Sorensen is the perfect person to team with for this project.

"Erin's credentials speak for themselves," she said. "Not only is she a talented journalist, well-respected content creator, and marketing expert, but she's also a great friend of mine. In this business, you need expertise and chemistry. I'm grateful that our duo provides our audience with both."

And she added that their chemistry and history with each other will make for an engaging listen.

"When Erin and I are recording, it feels like I'm just talking with one of my girlfriends about a sport we really care about. I think that's the difference. Is there a script? Sure. I don't want to get facts wrong, and I want to make sure I pronounce names correctly. But my hope for our audience is that they feel like they're just listening to their friends talk about a sport they care about, and maybe they'll learn something along the way."

As for Sorensen, she said Just's knowledge of the game and reporting skills will elevate Six Zone Duo.

"Amie has an incredible amount of ball knowledge, which is something I don't pretend to have at her level," Sorensen said. "She sees things happening within a match that I don't always see, and more importantly, she can explain why they're happening. She's also a reporter. That's really important to me. She understands the people, programs and stories around the game, not just rotations and matchups."

Sorensen added that their different backgrounds and approaches mesh well together.

"I also think we complement each other really well. I’m naturally going to come at something from the storytelling, context and “why should people care about this?” side, while Amie can take us deeper into what is actually happening on the court. Neither one of us needs to prove we're the smartest person in the room. I think that makes for a much better conversation."

On that reporting side, Just said she approaches podcasting in a similar fashion to reporting for a written piece.

"Reporting is reporting. The medium is different, but prepping for recording a podcast episode is very similar to how I get organized before I write. I write an outline for the topic or topics I want to address. I look up teams, names, stats and press conferences. I peruse social media to see if there's anything interesting and topical. The big difference is, in addition to writing, I'm also speaking on camera and into a microphone."

Another notable element of this is this show coming with Split Zone Duo, the very successful independent college football podcast from Johnson and Kirshner, and serving as that company's first foray into another sport. Just said they've been tremendous resources for building Six Zone Duo.

"Richard, Alex and the entire Split Zone Duo family are the perfect people to work with. I've listened to them for years as they've grown their podcast into a must-listen for any football fan (myself included). So, for them to reach out to Erin and me about this in the first place was a no-brainer. Their expertise at our disposal has been invaluable throughout this process."

And Sorensen said Kirshner and Johnson have shown a great ability to cover a wide-ranging sport in a way that works for fans with different levels of knowledge.

"One of the things I’ve always liked about Split Zone Duo is that they take the entire sport of college football seriously," she said. "Their whole premise is essentially that something doesn't have to involve the biggest brand or the College Football Playoff to be interesting. They cover the entire sport and they trust their audience to care. That philosophy translates incredibly well to what we want to do with volleyball.

"Richard and Alex also understand how to make something that is smart without making it inaccessible and informative without making it feel like homework. That's exactly the balance I want for Six Zone Duo. They’ve built their brand around a really engaged community and getting to learn from what they've built while creating something distinctly ours felt like a really natural fit."

We'll see how the Six Zone Duo project turns out, but there's definitely a lot of potential here. And it's notable to see a pair of prominent media figures try a national volleyball show this way, and to see Split Zone Duo expand into another sport.