USC-Minnesota Post-Match Quotes
August 26, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 26, 2011
(courtesy Penn State Sports Information)
2011 Rockvale Outlets/AVCA College Volleyball Showcase August 26, 2011 USC
Head Coach Mick Haley
Opening Statement
Haley: I knew this was going to be a tight match. We have not been practicing very well. We have been trying to find our identity. We have had some changes in the team. We got comfortable with one thing and had to come back and redo everything. We have a couple kids that did really well and a couple kids that did not do as well as they would have liked to do. The good news is that we have three seniors who allowed us to keep our patience and continue to execute. I thought Minnesota played the first two games with very smart volleyball. We have played like that. We decided to play a little differently this year so we have to learn our system. We have a lot of learning to do but I was really proud of our kids. This was a big sigh of relief.
Q: What was the difference between the first two sets and the last three? A: It's a matter of what we have been saying in practice, blocking, defense and making our serve be effective for us to dig some balls. Second game we were in the system. First game we weren't in system the whole game but still had a chance to win. Second game, we were in system and scored 16 points on our own but we gave up 21. You cannot win when you do that either. We were just trying to put together a full-game effort offensively and defensively and get in rhythm. Once we got in system you could feel it. Minnesota could feel it too but they haven't done this system long enough to be patient. I thought we were pretty good and had no errors in the fifth game. We have been working pretty hard on our fifth-game play. We had no errors in the fifth game and we would have liked a few more kills, but when you have 15 swings, five kills and no errors, that is pretty good.
Q: What does it mean to start the season off with a win against another good opponent?
A: It is a really big deal actually because I have started a season by losing three games like this, Minnesota was the third, and we had to fight all season but it set the tone for the entire season. We actually got back to the Final Four but Stanford stood in our way. It is really important to be serious for the team because they know that we can come back and play. It was important to see the seniors lead. That `Sr.' after your name does not mean anything unless you step up. They did pretty well. I thought Dixon for Minnesota was great; she was pretty much unstoppable. In that defense that we play it usually takes a month or two to play it well. Alex really got in hard and if you can't beat us behind the net you have to beat us in front.
Q: What is something that you need to do to beat Penn State tomorrow?
A: Get enough water. Actually, we don't know anything about Penn State. We don't know much about them. They are a new team. That is one thing that Russ (Rose) did not lie about today. They are a new team, they have all the tradition, history and pictures of how teams played well before them but they have their own identity. I am a little more worried about our team. I'd like to see how we get our team to play and match up because we would really like to see Penn State in the last week of the season and postseason. We need to learn as much as we can. If we win, great, if we don't win, we are going to at least try. We don't know what to expect but I think their size is going to be the biggest challenge because it really cuts down on areas to hit the ball. It really depends on who plays.
#7 Alex Jupiter, OH., Sr.
Q: What does it feel like putting together a new team this year?
A: Well I thought it was interesting because we have been preparing like everybody else, practicing against ourselves. Like Coach Mick said, we have a new system and we are excited to see the challenges we are going to have from other teams and deal with them. It was good to see that we started out down two games and came back.
Q: What were you thinking when you were down two games to none? What did you tell your young players?
A: We just tried to stay positive and not let them think that every mistake was the end of the world. We all get challenged in different ways and we figure out a way to get them back. We needed to keep working and we would get it.
#8 Lauren Williams, MB., Sr.
Q: What does it feel like putting together a new team this year?
A: It is kind of weird coming back for the first match. We are used to playing at home so it is kind of weird but this is our last year and we want to finish strong as well. We want to do our best.
Q: What were you thinking when you were down two games to none, what did you tell your young players?
A: We have to fight through it. The Trojan model is "Fight On." We were down 2-0 but we knew that we were hanging with them and it was just a matter of time before we got them. We fought through all of the hardship and finally did (get them) in the third set. We kept going and kept pushing and fighting.
Q: We could hear a lot of yelling from your coach, what was that about?
A: It was not too bad, it was very encouraging actually. We had some good plays and some bad plays but it was about making adjustments and that is what Coach did. He made a couple of changes on the fly here and there especially on defense and when we got it we took off from there.
