The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Iowa State quotes
12.13.2008 | Volleyball
Dec. 13, 2008
TEXAS QUOTES
HEAD COACH Jerritt Elliott
Opening statement: First of all, congratulations to [Iowa State head coach] Christy [Johnson] and her staff, her university and her program. What a tremendous run they had. I think the first time that we played them this year, I told the team I felt like they were going to be the toughest team in our conference in terms of mentality. They're fighters, they compete extremely well, they have a never-say-die attitude. Any time you have a heart of a champion like they do, it's scary, and that's a tribute to their staff and those players. They had a remarkable run. They probably didn't think they'd get this far, but again it shows what heart can do to make a run. I'm just proud of our team and how they responded. To beat a team that is that good three times is very difficult. Four of the six games during the season were won by two points. Last year, we won 18-16 in the fifth [set]. We've become a very competitive rivalry and they've kind of come out of the dark really fast.
But I can't say enough about our team. I don't think people realize sometimes how hard it is to get to a Final Four, the steps that it takes. It goes from stuff behind the scenes, great leadership from the captains. I just thank the players that came before them since we've been here, our alumni base that has helped us get there, and most importantly this current team for taking that next step, getting to a Final Four after two years in the Elite Eight. It's so nice for me to be able to sit here with these captains, but especially Lauren Paolini, who has given everything. For her to end her senior year this way, it's very special. There are a lot of people that had a part in that -- our event staff, our academic area, our training staff that did a phenomenal job. We have so many wonderful support systems and also coaches that I've been able to ask a lot of questions: Gail [Goestenkors], Jody Conradt -- we went out to coffee before the season -- just really trying to pick their brain and figure out what it takes to get to that next level. Without those little educational pieces giving you some thought process, it's organization, it's commitment to our team and it's overall dedication that this group has shown. I'm just so pleased that they get to have this chapter in their life, they'll never forget this opportunity to possibly win a National Championship. By no means do we want to end the run here.
On using the disappointment from the previous two seasons as building blocks for this year: In coaching, there are steps that you've got to take to get your program to the next level. This is the most difficult stage. We lost the first year to a very good Stanford team, who went to the finals. We were the lower seed in that. Last year we went on a very special run, and caught a team in USC that played phenomenal, and kind of hit us in the mouth and we didn't know how to respond. I would say that [this year], probably more than 80 percent of our players don't even know what's going on in the rest of the tournament. They haven't gotten caught up in the hoopla. There was no celebration when we found out we were a one-seed. We've been putting in their lockers every day that there was only one team in front of us, and it didn't matter who it was. The process was to learn from the past, in terms of where we were successful, communication behaviors, building trust and having the leadership to make that happen. We've had very good chemistry over the years since I've been here, but to be a captain is difficult and to have a great, strong captain is very important. I think this year more than ever, they've been able to call people on issues they've been having, they've been able to work them out and they've been very womanlike in terms of their responsibilities in leading a team. People don't realize, they think volleyball is just playing a sport, but there are so many times that these girls are together, pretty much 24/7. You become a family and learn how to work out those issues. We've got a lot of egos on this team and that's what you want as a coach. You want to recruit egos that are good people. There's a lot of All-Americans and all-stars on this team, and you have to make sure that they all mesh and bond together, and understand their roles so that we can be successful as a group.
On where the confidence in Michelle Kocher comes from: She comes from a tremendous program in Sports Performance, they do a lot of training. In terms of her ability, she probably set 20 million balls before she got here. For me, there wasn't a whole lot of training that I had to do in terms of getting her ready. It was more about the mentality. She thought it was a dream come true that we offered her a scholarship. We found her by watching the number one recruit in the country, and she decided to train on that team. I really liked her hand speed and composure. The coaches thought she had an incredible mind. Ashley [Engle] set all spring and we thought she'd have a great chance at that. Then we had a recruit drop out last second of her [letter of intent], so we really had to have Ashley pass for us. We had to get Kocher up to speed and Ashley welcomed that with open arms. She's kind of the right personality for this group. She's very stoic, she's not very high or low - we've got Juliann [Faucette] and Destinee [Hooker] that can take care of that role. Her composure was tremendous as a freshman dealing with all these pressures.
On the team's success out of timeouts: That's not coaching, that's them taking responsibility. We had a little anxiety at times. In game three, Iowa State really turned it up a notch on their serving. We made a lot of uncharacteristic errors and our passing game fell apart. I thought our attacking became very irresponsible. That was the discussion in between games, that we'd been training all year in this system and we had to stick to that. Our strength is not passing, our strengths are being physical and making good decisions as attackers. We've gotten significantly better in that area. Our defense has gotten a lot better. The biggest concern we had was number 14, [Jen] Malcom tonight, and we had a different serving trend to eliminate her tonight, and use our physicality to our advantage.
SENIOR MB Lauren Paolini
On reaching the Final Four in her senior season: None of us have ever been there. Only a couple of our coaches have experienced it before, and they've always talked about how amazing the feeling it was. But I never knew it would be this awesome. It's the best feeling I've ever had in my entire life.
On the 19-2 run in the fourth set that seemed to seal the match: I felt like there was one point where we were executing really well and they just started making a lot of errors. I felt like that was the point that I felt the game turn around and I knew we had it.
On the team's mentality after losing in the regional final for two straight seasons: That definitely had a huge impact on this year, just knowing that I wasn't going to let the same mistake happen again. This is my third time and third time's a charm for me. With that last ball dropping, all these memories came back, everything that I've ever done in this program, and all the seniors before me that I wanted to win this for.
JUNIOR OH Ashley Engle
On the importance of the crowd tonight: Our fans are unbelievable. The past two matches, they have been there every step of the way, picking us up when we were struggling a little bit. It's been a long season. This team hasn't had it easy. We've had a lot of struggles within our own team system, lots of ups and downs. Winning tonight has made it all worthwhile. I'd go and do it all over again three times. It's been a great ride.
On the postgame celebration: It's all about the dog pile. We haven't [done that all season]. We had some great pregame talks with one of Coach Elliott's best friends and his little thing was, "It's all about the dog pile." It's a great thing to have in the back of your mind, especially when you're playing a great team like Iowa State. If we were getting down we just had to refocus. That was the greatest dog pile of my life.
SOPHOMORE OH Juliann Faucette
On bouncing back from the third-set loss: Like we've stated many times before, Iowa State is a great team, and like many of you saw last night, they were down 2-0 with Oregon and came right back and won it. We were ready for that and we were expecting that. They just came out really fired up and we couldn't answer in that third game. But as you could see in the fourth game, we came back and had a different mentality. We wanted it bad, but it was all about the execution. Coach said that at half time and I think that was the most important thing for us going into that fourth game, shaking off that third game and coming right back out with a good mentality.
IOWA STATE QUOTES
HEAD COACH CHRISTY JOHNSON
Opening statement: It's never fun to end the season on a loss. But, obviously, I'm tremendously proud of what our team was able to do in the NCAA Tournament. I think we not only reached out potential, but also maybe overachieved a little bit. I think that's why we're here and that's the most you can ask of your team. I'm so excited and proud of everything that they've done. I wish Texas the very best of luck, and I think they are a tremendous team. They are incredibly athletic and very physical. They are very deserving of being in the NCAA Semifinals. I don't feel like we played our best match, but a lot of that was because of what Texas was able to do and the pressure they put on us. I know they have been working towards this for a few years and have come very close the past couple of years. I'm real excited and proud of them, and I'm excited to see what they're going to do at the NCAA Semifinals.
On if it's easier to end the season as a coach instead of a player: I think right now, with where our program's at, it's easier to be a coach because we don't have pressure. People are plenty happy with the fact that we are just here. I'm still in that state where I don't feel quite as much pressure. As a former player on the team I was on, we were expected to go to the National Semifinals and expected to win a National Championship and that was a tremendous amount of pressure. As we look to next year, we've now set that standard. It's not going to be an easy standard to maintain, but it is something that we want and is a good thing. Along with those standards comes more pressure. Right now, it's a little easier to come into these matches, because you feel a little bit looser and you feel as though you have nothing to lose. But, you don't necessarily want to be in that position. We want those high standards and we don't want to be the underdog. We want to come into these tournaments and become an elite team and have to deal with that pressure.
On their errors tonight: I think part of it was their block. We actually blocked more balls than they did, but mentally, you know the size of the person on the other side of the net. It forces you to make different decisions than you normally would. When we weren't passing so well, our hitters were forced to take some tough swings off of sets that weren't great. I think a big part of it was just knowing we were hitting against a big block. If we don't swing smart, the block was going to take over. But, we did block pretty well and out-blocked them.
On what she told her team at halftime: I gave the same speech as last night when we were down 0-2 [to Oregon]. We certainly had that belief that we were going to win. I told them to not worry about who we're playing and not to worry about the score. I told them that we were going to win, and that it was just going to take some time. Part of it was just that encouragement and telling them that we're fine. Tactically, we tried to do some different things. [Juliann] Faucette was using our block pretty badly in games one and two, so we tried to do a better job on her. We tried to do a better job on [Lauren] Paolini, although I don't know if we did that. Tactically, we tried to make some adjustments. We flipped our lineup and flipped from where we started, and I think that helped us a little bit coming out in the third game. At this point, a lot of it was mental, but certainly physical. Texas is a much more physical team than we are right now. But, we've got to make sure we're playing aggressive and well in order to match up with that. We were just encouraging them to stay aggressive and stay with it.
On having to handle multiple hitters: It's very difficult. You have to constantly catch up with who's hot and who has gotten the last three or four kills. At times, we guessed a little bit and committed to a block. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong. We got Paolini a couple of times on the block when we committed our middle blocker to her, but she is still a good enough player where she will get kills even when you commit to her. We got [Destinee] Hooker a couple of times when we committed our block that way. But, the problem with Texas and the other top teams in the country is that when you commit one way, they are going to beat you the other way. That's the challenge they present. Texas has enough weapons where if you pay too much attention to one hitter, someone else is going to hurt you. That's just what happens.
FRESHMAN OH RACHEL HOCKADAY
On Texas' height advantage: We all knew coming into the match that Texas was a big team and probably the biggest team we've played all year. Coach just trained us to hit with high hands and I think that was something that we knew coming in that we needed to do.
On their season: I definitely did not expect this and this was such a great opportunity. Everybody has just been great this season, the team and the coaches. It's just been a lot of fun.
JUNIOR S KAYLEE MANNS
On the mentality after the second set: Going into the break [between sets two and three], we told ourselves that we could do this again, just like last night. Once we won the third game, we kind of thought that we might have a repeat. But, we came out in the fourth game and had a lead, but then we started making some errors and some unorthodox things that we haven't done. We weren't passing very well. Texas did a great job and got us out of rhythm completely.
On reflecting on their season: We didn't expect this at all. When we started this year, everyone was hoping that we would just make the tournament. To have this run was completely unexpected, but towards the end of the season, everybody started playing their best volleyball. That was when we needed to peak and that's what we did.
On the Texas crowd: Texas fans are always a little more rowdy than anywhere else we play. Texas fans really bleed that orange and they are really hardcore. When you're out there serving, there are always people behind you telling you that you're going to miss it. It's a really tough place to play, and that's great for Texas and getting opponents out of their groove.
