University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOL VOLLEYBALL ANSWERS QUESTIONS FROM THE MEDIA
December 14, 2005 | Volleyball
Dec. 14, 2005
Rob Patrick, Head Coach
About seeing Tennessee at the Final Four
"Basically, about 30 people believed we would be here. Thirty people that came together this year, who believe in themselves and worked very hard for this. This didn't happen just because of this year, this happened starting a few years ago. These young ladies and their teammates have put in a tremendous amount of work and a tremendous amount of pride and sacrifice their summers to be here, I am very, very proud of this team. I told anybody that would listen to me, when we sat in meetings, I told them, that we don't need anybody else except who is in this room to be playing in the NCAA Finals, and they believed that."
"We are very excited to be here. We feel we deserve to be here. We beat some very, very good teams, who have been coached by some very great coaches, and hopefully the University of Tennessee volleyball program and these young ladies get the respect that they deserve."
About some of the things on the court that Tennessee has that make them competitive here this weekend in the National Semifinals
"We are a real diverse team, and we have a lot of weapons. I think the biggest representation of what our team is all about is we had four players names to the South Region Team. When we went up to Penn State and played in the regional semifinals and finals, three people made that region team, when Julie Knytych, Kelsey Fautsch, and Sarah Blum weren't even all-conference players. I think that tells you a lot about our team, that we can have a player not be playing their best game, or a team taking a player or two out of our offensive sets that you would like to get them, but we have always had another player step up. I think normally, this is my fourth trip to the finals, you normally have one great player to lead you and when I was at Stanford we had one or two great all-Americans, this team is a team. They play together as a team, and if you take one of these players out of the mix, we would not even be close to the same team that we are."
What is it on the court?
"It is because of these players. We are not talking just the six playing at the same time, we just eight nine players a match, and they finally found a groove where they have rolls. We were out of sync a lot at the beginning of the year because of injuries, we were out of sync because we were trying to find the correct positions for players, and starting at about the middle of the year, we finally got a set rotation, and the players finally understood what their rolls were."
Impact of Kelsey (Fautsch) coming here and the impact she has had for Tennessee to get here
"She is just one of fifteen players to be honest with you. She adds one-fifteen of our team. That is really the biggest thing I can say about this team. There isn't one player on this team that means more than anyone else. Kelsey coming over is a part of what we have been able to accomplish. We asked her to play right side at the beginning of the year, which I think is her most comfortable position. Then we had some injuries and moved Kelsey to the left side. She did a great job there and decided to keep her there. Julie has kind of been the catalyst for all this because she has been having to deal with different players at different positions, and they need different types of sets at those positions, and I can't say enough about how she has adapted to those situations. She (Kelsey) has really improved, and she has improved just like our whole team has improved. She has done a real nice job for us."
Analyze Washington, and what you are going to have to do after film work to do well tomorrow night
"I think one of the main things that we have to do is to figure out how to side-out against them. They have a very potent offense, but if we can side-out enough against them, then I think we can steal a point or two against them defensively. Maybe take some chances on some blocking schemes, or defensive schemes or serving. So I think that is the first thing we want to concentrate on, and then they have several different weapons, and if you just concentrate on one or two of them, one of those other young ladies is going to hurt you, so we have to figure out through serving and through some blocking schemes how we can slow some of their players down, and where we can take them from three-hitter situations make them become two-hitter situations. Also, figure out where they like to attack the ball from. They have been very efficient all year. They have played some quick teams all year, and no one has been able to that yet this year."
Amy Morris, Sr., OH
About playing without the pressure that Washington or Nebraska may have about being here
"We had a rough start to the season and no one really expected anything out of us. We were suppose to get swept or four games or less. I think it has really given us a chance to focus on what we need to do as far as volleyball wise, just play our game, just come out and it has been good enough this far, and hopefully that will be good enough."
Julie Knytych, Sr., S
"There is a lot of great competition here, and looking forward to playing a good match tomorrow night, and really not thinking about any pressure. Just looking forward to playing."
Expectations and things going on around you
"We don't really know what is going on, every couple of minutes it's 'You gotta do this next, you gotta do that next,' and we are just kind of going with the flow, and having fun with it. It is a really great experience."
What point in the season open your eyes to how good you could be, and you've been able to build on that confidence in the tournament
"I think against Louisville. We went five with them and we were running on all cylinders, and we go back to the locker room and we can be good again. We finally had some confidence back. Then when we played Florida and we saw that we can do it, I think it really propelled us to the end of the season."
Players' perspective as the key to the development of this season
"Hard work, and heart, and really be willing to give up as much time as we have and put as much hard work as we have into something that we love so much, at it takes a lot of commitment. Just hard work and always giving a little bit more."
