The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Kansas quotes
11.22.2008 | Volleyball
Nov. 22, 2008
TEXAS QUOTES
HEAD COACH Jerritt Elliott
Opening statement: I thought we executed and played relaxed and smooth throughout the first two sets. As a coach, you look for carry over from match to match and progression in terms of the things you work on as a team and individually. I think with the things we worked on with Juliann [Faucette], she really came back and responded. It was really good to have that swing back because there's a different velocity and different mentality. I was very proud of her for the way she responded tonight. I thought we did some good things defensively. In set three, Kansas played a lot better but we were able to respond late in the game. I just really like this team's demeanor when the game is tight. When the game is tight, they're very relaxed and play calm and that shows a lot of confidence in their team work and team chemistry.
On Juliann Faucette's performance: Speed, hitting on her way up and finishing in the court were the three big things we worked on. She did an excellent job with them and you can see the completely different power and speed.
On getting the players focused after the Nebraska match: It happened immediately after. I told them they could enjoy the evening, but as soon as they woke up on Thursday they needed to be focused again. This is about a process. Each match gives you an opportunity to win, and Nebraska was just one of them. I told them that we need to focus on our next three matches, and there's a process to doing that and that's what you want to do as a coach. Things that can get you are being passive, being over confident and not being able to emotionally challenge yourself. We told the players that we were going to push them very hard on Thursday, because we felt that it was an opportunity to give them a learning curve and teach them how to play hard matches back to back. We had many team meetings and we reset our goals.
SOPHOMORE OUTSIDE HITTER Juliann Faucette
On her performance: It feels really good. I lost a little bit of myself for a few matches, especially in my speed and attacking the ball. It all starts with working in the practice gym. That's where I started it and it carries over to the matches. It's cool to see there's improvement and that feels good.
On what she worked on in practice: We worked on speed, popping up through the ball and my vertical because I've been broad jumping lately. Also, I need to just get out of my own head and have the mentality to make sure that I want to attack the ball instead of being passive.
On the first set and set points Kansas would have saved: I think we just saw different stuff happening a little bit, we move around in the formations a little. I think it starts in the passing, and we weren't executing well in that area. I think we may have gotten a little too relaxed, but in the next game we turned around and brought it right back.
On the third set: I think Kansas came out really fired up. They had a lot on the line with this match and so did we. I think we had a little bit of anxiety coming into that third set and you could see it. I think Kansas played really well in that last set. I think that we just did well in the crunch time. When it was tight in the last points of the game, that's when we got fired up. Coach told us during the time out that he could tell there was a lot of anxiety and nerves, but we had to be relaxed and execute at the same time.
SOPHOMORE MIDDLE BLOCKER Jennifer Doris
On her blocking performance tonight: Blocking is also an area we put a lot of emphasis on in practice, along with putting speed into it, the intent to go after the ball and getting hip to hip. I felt that tonight I was able to do all of those things. Attacking-wise, I got into a good rhythm with Michelle [Kocher] and was able to put speed on the floor and put balls away, which was a lot of fun.