The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
POST-MATCH QUOTES
12.10.2010 | Volleyball
Dec. 10, 2010
POST-MATCH QUOTES
TEXAS
Coach Jerritt Elliott
On tonight's game: The first thing I want to do is thank our fans. They were excellent. They were a big part of the win tonight and I am just so proud that we are Texas and the way they handled themselves and gave us that extra bit of energy when we were behind. I think we responded well, we were on our heels the entire night. I challenged the to change our serving mentality and get a little bit tougher. We made a great run in game four that gave us a lot of confidence and made some big plays defensively. So, there is something special about this team. Every time they get pushed they push back and find a way. We were looking like we were in trouble again in game three but we found a way to respond with some force from the serving line and blocking and defense. Overall we had a lot of fight but again, the crowd was excellent. We need them to come back tomorrow night against a very good Purdue team.
On coaching against Illinois Coach Kevin Hambly: I would like to congratulate Kevin (Hambly) and his entire staff on a great season. They went through a lot of the similar adversity things that we did with injuries. There are a lot of us young coaches who are starting to become head coaches and Kevin is one that I respect more than most of the coaches in the country, if not more than anybody. Just the way he handles and treats his athletes. He's a great trainer. That program is going to be really good for a long time.
On tomorrow's match against Purdue: Purdue is very physical. They are a very good serving team, like Illinois. They have great middles, and a libero in the backcourt that is very good. Any time you face teams from the big conferences whether it's the Big 12, Pac 10, or Big Ten, you're going to face a big battle and these teams are battle tested, they played Penn State and Illinois and all the great teams in the Big Ten. We're just going to have to play composed and play well tomorrow night.
Senior outside hitter Juliann Faucette
On coming back after set three: Well as a senior, I knew we had to win that game to stay in the match so the conversation in the huddle was too aggressive and go after it. We were being pretty tentative, especially from the receiving side and our passers stepped it up immensely, especially Sha'Dare McNeal and Sarah Palmer. We started putting pressure on them more with our defense and getting more hands on the block.
On the momentum swings: Anytime you are in a five gamer it's exciting. Especially on our home court. Our fans helped us out a lot and our team thrives off of those momentum swings and defensive plays. So when we could create those moments, that was when we were pushing back and were really in the match. I'm sure it was an exciting to match to watch, as well as play and we are really thankful for our fans.
On being on the winning side of a five game match: It feels great. Obviously winning when the match is on the line, and when your season is on the line. It feels good. We have been pushed all year in situations with four and five games in our conference so it feels good to be able to pull it out
Senior outside hitter Lauren Dickson
On her two aces in the fourth set: Coach had challenged us to put them on the defensive a little bit because they had been serving tough all match so I just went back there with the mentality of trying to be aggressive and getting them out of system.
Junior middle blocker Rachael Adams
On struggling through the first three games: I know we were having trouble getting our feet there on blocking and they were playing great defense. They were serving us tough so it was hard to find our rhythm as hitters and it kind of kept us out of our game.
Illinois
Head coach Kevin Hambly
General statement: I'd like to say congratulations to Texas. I thought that was a fun match to be a part of. It was real physical. [It was an] explosive, athletic match. I enjoyed being a part of it. I'm disappointed we didn't do a better job. It wasn't consistent. The match came down to what we thought it would be. If we could get them out of their system, we could score some points. We didn't.
On if Texas did anything different in this match than when they last played Texas in September: This match went exactly how we thought it would. I thought the team was the same. We just did a better job of serving [when we played them last]. I think the one thing I would say is they were playing a faster ball. They did a better job this time on that. We broke them down here and there, but we couldn't keep a consistent pressure on them.
On the atmosphere of Gregory Gym: There were 1,300 more people here [in comparison to the last time we played them]. It's tough. You know when you have 3,000 people in there. It was deafening. You couldn't even try to talk. It was a great college atmosphere, and it was fun to be a part of that match. For Johannah [Bangert] and Hillary [Haen] and Laura [DeBruler] to be their last match, in this kind of atmosphere, it was at least a lot of fun to be a part of.
Senior middle blocker Johanna Bangert
On what Texas did well tonight and how Illinois tried to counter that: A lot of their hitters did get high. We had a hard time. We were trying really hard to be aggressive with the serve, but they were just passing all of them. It made it really hard in the back because they had three options every time. It also made it hard on defense because they were in system and swinging as hard as they could. I think that was definitely the big thing, and in those last two [games], they were just on fire.
On if Texas did anything different in this match than when they last played Texas: The one thing that was really different this time was the environment in the gym. I think this was the toughest gym that we've played in this season. We were at Nebraska with 11,000, but it still seemed more crowded here. The environment was a really tough one to play in.
Junior outside hitter Michelle Bartsch
On what the game plan was going into tonight's game: We really focused on trying to get them out of system tonight. We executed at times, but sometimes we served, and it wasn't perfect. If we had gotten them out of system it would have been a better outcome.
Junior outside hitter Colleen Ward
On Jazmine Orozco: I thought she did a great job for us. She got around any ball, she would find the kill and swing high, which is what we needed. She played great. She stepped up tonight.