University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE VS. WASHINGTON - POST GAME QUOTES
December 15, 2005 | Volleyball
Dec. 15, 2005
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Head coach Rob Patrick
General Comments
"First off, I'd like to congratulate Washington on playing a great match. They didn't do anything that we didn't think they would do. They put a lot of pressure on us to try to get to the net. We had a game plan; it was the best game plan for the match. I thought the players carried it out pretty well, but Washington put a little pressure on us with their serve. We didn't handle it well, I thought we should. We did not dig the ball or control the first ball over as well as we needed to, to be successful in this match. I felt our team played very hard and never gave up. "I'm very proud of these young ladies for how they represented the University of Tennessee this year, and for their careers and as individuals and how they carried themselves through their careers. They're hard workers, play with a lot of heart, and I'm sorry that this season is over.
Game plan to Washington
"I thought we could side-out against Washington. When we were able to pass the ball, I thought we did a real nice job of attacking their right side of their defense. The passing had gone down at the end of the match, it wasn't as efficient, so we weren't able to keep the splits in the blocks as we were earlier in the match.
What did Washington do that you found tough to defend
"We knew where they were going to hit the ball, and we normally don't have a defense in the manner that defends that type of hit they hit. They hit a very deep ball to the corner, and we don't normally defend that, we usually defend that with our blocks. They do a great job of hitting around or right past the middle blocker's hands, and we had devised a defense to get our middle back over in that area and to play our left back a little deeper than the line. We didn't carry that out as consistently as we needed to. We did it for parts of the match, but when you are trying to make adjustments for one match, that big, it is completely different positioning for a defense. It was one of those things where we are in a middle of a play and the ball goes out and we are supposed to be in a certain area that's brand new, we are not as crisp as we need to be. We just didn't carry that out. That's what happened.
What did you see that Washington that didn't allow you to have a good of match with Kelsey (Fautsch) or Yuliya (Stoyanova) as you would have liked?
"I think a big part of our offense has been incorporating our middles a lot, and we have been really effective on the sides. I wasn't thinking it wasn't so much that Yuliya and Kelsey didn't have as good of a match, we tried to concentrate on hitting the ball to the middle a lot more.
Importance of first game setting tone for the match
Amy Morris, L/OH, Sr
"I think that for our team the first game is always pretty mental. Washington is coming in 30-1, and playing against a team like that, it's just like when we played against Penn State, I think winning that first game for us was more mental. Once we get the first game we get a lot of our confidence, and release all of the fear we have playing.
"I think if we would have won that first game, it could have been a different match.
Washington just seemed to have so many options and others getting a lot of hits
"We didn't serve as tight as we needed to. We needed to get them out of three hitter situations and we did not do a good job of that. "We started to do that at the end of the match, however our passing broke down, and when our passing broke down we had to hit the ball high outside and they were able to defend our outside hitters better than we were able to defend their outside hitters.
In both Regular and here in the championships, compare Washington to other teams that you have faced
Kristen Andre, MB, Sr.
"They were the better team tonight and they have a lot of offensive weapons and they played well defensively. I would rank them as the best team we played."
"I think the main thing with Washington is that they played defensive. They put pressure on our net. They put pressure on you the whole game tonight.
Washington Quotes
Head coach Jim McLaughlin
Opening Statement
"I thought we played pretty good from start to finish. I thought we were good offensively and we were good on the defensive side. We did what we needed to do. There was no magic. We just worked hard and stayed on task and stayed on our assignments for the most part. I thought our transition was good.
On the possibility of playing Nebraska and if that's the match they are looking for...
"We've always talked about us. We've always approached this in a real internal way. Honestly we've never talked about winning. We know what we've got to do. We've got some capabilities to play at a high level. It doesn't matter where we are, it doesn't matter who we play or what we play. We've got to go do the things we need to do. I look forward to the Championship match anytime. We've worked hard and that's the payoff. It's gratification for all of the hard work and we want to finish that.
On comment made by the Tennessee coach on how well they (Washington) controlled the first ball...
"To me, that's the key at any level. Great teams can control the ball; they handle the ball well. That's been an emphasis for us. We've put a lot of time in on it. We have expectations to be very good. Candace (Lee) is always good. Her standard of play is extremely high.
Courtney Thompson, Jr., Setter
On the comfort level tonight compared to last year...
"It was a lot different. We were real comfortable. The whole day it just felt like another match. Last year, I know we said that and I don't know what it is, it's hard to say, but it's kind of a quiet confidence. There wasn't a whole lot of `here we go guys, okay this is it.' We all know what we need to do and we attacked it like we attacked every game in the match. We felt good out there. We felt focused.
If there was a point in the match they felt they took control...
"It felt like we were in control the whole time. You try not to get that feeling too early because you never know. I said this before, being in a tournament, these are great team we're playing all the way through and they can get hot and the match could turn around. It's such a game of momentum. We respect the other teams. We respect the game, so we try not to let our guard down.
Christal Morrison, So., Outside Hitter
On how last year's experience has helped them...
"Last year it was tough going home after the first night. We learned a lot from it and we all said we were going to come back and make it to that second night. We're on a mission right now. We learned a lot from it. We're just going to go out and approach it the same way we have all year. We're on a mission.
Brie Hagerty, Sr., Outside Hitter
On how last year's experience has helped them...
"We knew that we didn't want to feel like that again. That feeling set in and we all promised ourselves that we were going to do everything we could do to get back to this point and take it above and beyond last year and I think we're on our way to doing that. All we have to do is keep our focus.
