Post by klineam on Dec 8, 2012 0:12:46 GMT -5
www.usctrojans.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/120712aaa.html
NCAA Press Conference Quotes: Dec. 7 (Post-Match)
The Trojans defeated Wichita State, 3-0, to advance to the NCAA Austin Regional Championship match
Dec. 7, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery
2012 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship
Austin Regional | Hosted by University of Texas
Post-match Press Conference | Gregory Gym
** Transcription courtesy of Texas Athletic Media Relations **
USC HEAD COACH MICK HALEY
Opening statement
"I'm very pleased with our team. I really felt that the Wichita State team is an extremely good team. We did a great job on them tonight. They normally play much better than this. I have to think that we had a little bit to do with that, but this is a very good team we beat tonight and they didn't start out extremely good but I felt we got better as we went along. I'm real pleased to get this first match of the weekend out of the way and I'm excited to see who we might get a chance to play tomorrow."
On stopping the Wichita State attackers
"(Ashley Ashdale) has been hot. She has been one of the best players in the country the last three weeks and she's been going off on everybody and we were really fortunate we could slow her down tonight. Once we were able to take her out a little bit, then we could give a little bit more attention to the outside and we were really worried about their setters and really what the whole offense runs through all year. We were able to keep her under control. You're never going to stop her because she's really quite good and distributes the ball extremely well. The bottom line was we were able to slow down their attack and then got on them with the serve. That was the difference in the match. If they could have passed the way they wanted, they could have given us some trouble."
On what is most important in these postseason matches
"Serve and pass. It's the simplest things you teach your kids but it's the hardest thing to do under pressure. I thought Sara [Shaw]'s serving tonight was exemplary. She just threaded the needle with a high velocity and Samantha [Bricio] overpowered their libero a little bit, but I'm sure that youngster doesn't have that happen to her a lot because she's really good, so if she had a steady diet of that I think she would be much better the second or third time around."
On the strategy against Wichita State
"On their serve-receive, if we allow their setter to get close to the net, she becomes the third attacker, so the three rotations where she's in the front row, if we keep her off the net, then we can use our size to slow down their hitters, but where they've been beating people is the transition game. You noticed a couple times they were so quick on transition that they could snap the ball over into the deep-5 [position] and we didn't have a chance to get the ball. If they could have done that more, that's where they've been hurting people a lot, and they've been very good at it and we're just real fortunate we could keep them from having too many opportunities for that. That's really the name of the game. If you can cut down their opportunities have our digs-to-kill be better than their digs-to-kill, then it was a first ball kill game, and I see we won that after the first game. They won the first ball kill game in the first game and still lost that set, but we won the next two games. I think we were 80% and 82% side-out and that's going to win for you in the NCAAs."
On hitting like tonight consistently
"I'd love to have it at that level. Usually you're 65-70% if you're at all that high and a really tight battle would get you 56-62%, so you have to watch that real carefully."
On which team he would rather play between Florida and Texas
"I can't really care who we play, because I don't know enough about either team. When I looked at the stats this morning between these two teams, they are even in just about everything. It'll be real interesting to see who wins the match tonight because both of these teams are really playing at a high level right now and regardless of their seeds, it's what you do out on the court and Florida's had a good pre-conference schedule. In conference, they weren't expected to do as well and they kind of roared through that thing and now they're playing really well in the tournament. Texas did really well early, did well in the conference, and maybe had a little slip-up in the end there but that's the way it goes. Everybody anticipates the tournament starting and it's hard to keep everybody focused."
SAMANTHA BRICIO, Fr. OH
On the effort tonight
"We were really prepared and really focused."
SARA SHAW, Jr. OH
On the environment
"It feels great to see my friends and family, but then again I need to stay focused on the match and get focused for the next match."
On serving
"We have different tactics serving-wise and catching their passers off-balance and hitting them with an angle. I think our job tonight was to keep them off the net, keep the setter from getting over on the second hit, because she's pretty good at that, but I think serving tough was what we need to do."
On finishing out the first set
"When it gets close, we focus and we stay patient, because staying patient helps us get those extra points and those extra digs that we need to get to stay in the game, so I think we all did a really good job of staying patient with our game."
NCAA Press Conference Quotes: Dec. 7 (Post-Match)
The Trojans defeated Wichita State, 3-0, to advance to the NCAA Austin Regional Championship match
Dec. 7, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery
2012 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship
Austin Regional | Hosted by University of Texas
Post-match Press Conference | Gregory Gym
** Transcription courtesy of Texas Athletic Media Relations **
USC HEAD COACH MICK HALEY
Opening statement
"I'm very pleased with our team. I really felt that the Wichita State team is an extremely good team. We did a great job on them tonight. They normally play much better than this. I have to think that we had a little bit to do with that, but this is a very good team we beat tonight and they didn't start out extremely good but I felt we got better as we went along. I'm real pleased to get this first match of the weekend out of the way and I'm excited to see who we might get a chance to play tomorrow."
On stopping the Wichita State attackers
"(Ashley Ashdale) has been hot. She has been one of the best players in the country the last three weeks and she's been going off on everybody and we were really fortunate we could slow her down tonight. Once we were able to take her out a little bit, then we could give a little bit more attention to the outside and we were really worried about their setters and really what the whole offense runs through all year. We were able to keep her under control. You're never going to stop her because she's really quite good and distributes the ball extremely well. The bottom line was we were able to slow down their attack and then got on them with the serve. That was the difference in the match. If they could have passed the way they wanted, they could have given us some trouble."
On what is most important in these postseason matches
"Serve and pass. It's the simplest things you teach your kids but it's the hardest thing to do under pressure. I thought Sara [Shaw]'s serving tonight was exemplary. She just threaded the needle with a high velocity and Samantha [Bricio] overpowered their libero a little bit, but I'm sure that youngster doesn't have that happen to her a lot because she's really good, so if she had a steady diet of that I think she would be much better the second or third time around."
On the strategy against Wichita State
"On their serve-receive, if we allow their setter to get close to the net, she becomes the third attacker, so the three rotations where she's in the front row, if we keep her off the net, then we can use our size to slow down their hitters, but where they've been beating people is the transition game. You noticed a couple times they were so quick on transition that they could snap the ball over into the deep-5 [position] and we didn't have a chance to get the ball. If they could have done that more, that's where they've been hurting people a lot, and they've been very good at it and we're just real fortunate we could keep them from having too many opportunities for that. That's really the name of the game. If you can cut down their opportunities have our digs-to-kill be better than their digs-to-kill, then it was a first ball kill game, and I see we won that after the first game. They won the first ball kill game in the first game and still lost that set, but we won the next two games. I think we were 80% and 82% side-out and that's going to win for you in the NCAAs."
On hitting like tonight consistently
"I'd love to have it at that level. Usually you're 65-70% if you're at all that high and a really tight battle would get you 56-62%, so you have to watch that real carefully."
On which team he would rather play between Florida and Texas
"I can't really care who we play, because I don't know enough about either team. When I looked at the stats this morning between these two teams, they are even in just about everything. It'll be real interesting to see who wins the match tonight because both of these teams are really playing at a high level right now and regardless of their seeds, it's what you do out on the court and Florida's had a good pre-conference schedule. In conference, they weren't expected to do as well and they kind of roared through that thing and now they're playing really well in the tournament. Texas did really well early, did well in the conference, and maybe had a little slip-up in the end there but that's the way it goes. Everybody anticipates the tournament starting and it's hard to keep everybody focused."
SAMANTHA BRICIO, Fr. OH
On the effort tonight
"We were really prepared and really focused."
SARA SHAW, Jr. OH
On the environment
"It feels great to see my friends and family, but then again I need to stay focused on the match and get focused for the next match."
On serving
"We have different tactics serving-wise and catching their passers off-balance and hitting them with an angle. I think our job tonight was to keep them off the net, keep the setter from getting over on the second hit, because she's pretty good at that, but I think serving tough was what we need to do."
On finishing out the first set
"When it gets close, we focus and we stay patient, because staying patient helps us get those extra points and those extra digs that we need to get to stay in the game, so I think we all did a really good job of staying patient with our game."