Aug. 30, 2008
Recap |
Final Stats
HEAD COACH Liz Kritza
Overall thoughts on Saturday's match against Utah State
"That was more like it. That is the way we are supposed to play. It feels good to get our first win. You work so hard in the preseason and you come to a tournament like this, and if you lose the first match - or two matches in our case - there is a sense of disappointment. But there is also a sense that we know we can play better. For us, to improve our level of play - even more after playing BYU - and come away with a win, and a convincing one, I think is a really good thing for this team."
Overall thoughts on the team's performance in the BYU Molten Classic
"By no means has this tournament been easy for us at all. We are on the road, there is a lot of uncertainty going on with our school and our home town, and there is no getting around the fact that our thoughts and hearts are with everyone in the gulf region right now. I told our girls that this tournament will be an important one for us because of the teams that we are playing, but also for facing adversity. I'm very proud of this team. They made adjustments, they made the changes that we talked about and they did not lose their heads when they lost those matches. They came back and put forth a pretty good showing against a good Utah State team."
On the team's overall improvement over the weekend and the convincing win against the Aggies
"That is how we should play. Utah State would be a good Conference USA team. When we played teams like Missouri or BYU, they have a bigger block, they were not making as many mistakes and we were not as aggressive as we should have been. That is what we came here to learn. We came here to learn how to play, beat a top team and dominate not just when you are playing a team that is smaller than you and does not have a bigger block, but when you are playing someone who is comparable if not bigger."
On the performance of senior middle blocker Jen Linder
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Jen Linder had a great tournament overall. I am impressed with her improvement. She is playing like a true senior. She has taken an active role in the offense and she is a perfectionist. She works extremely hard. When I gave the team the challenge that we had to correct our blocking, she is the one who stepped up and did it. She comes away with six blocks today and we out-blocked Utah State by nearly double. That is because of our middles and it was Linder leading the charge in that."
On the performance of sophomore middle blocker Stephanie Stromath's against Utah State
"Steph answered the call. I actually talked to her between matches and I told her, `Listen, you have to get a good scout on Utah State.' She is a very knowledgable player, she has a good head on her shoulders and I wanted to see what she would do with that opportunity. I think she really answered the challenge and I think she did a really good job today for us. Not only did she do her job covering her position in the middle, but she helped our block to get better because she is more verbal and she understands how offenses are run. She is more comfident in the middle and I think that actually helped our pin blocking as well."
On the Green Wave setters spreading the ball around against the Aggies
"The system, the way we ran it in the third match, is the way it is designed to be run. The setters understand it, and there is a sense of satisfaction. What I like to see is the look on their face when they design the play, they execute it and they know that it is exactly how it was supposed to be run. That is good-level volleyball. If we can duplicate that and replicate it over and over, we can really play with anybody. It was good for them to get that confidence to know exactly how they should be playing. They know that play was exactly as they designed it in their head, and they got on the court, did exactly what they wanted to do and got a good result."
On the performances this weekend by Sara Radosevic and Bridget Wells
"One thing in our offense is keeping it balanced, but I think that Sara had a decent tournament where she knew she really had to carry a big load. She learned this tournament to go after big points more aggressively, which we are going to need. Next week, when we are playing Cal Poly and Nebraska, she is going to have to come up with those big points and they are going to have to be aggressive ones. We cannot take anything off of it when we need big points. Bridget Wells in this match had her highest attempts total. We are going to keep giving her that ball because she makes a big difference in our offense."
SENIOR MIDDLE BLOCKER Jen Linder
On the Green Wave out-blocking Utah State, 8-4.5
"I think we just got tired of looking at our stats and seeing the other team had 20 blocks and we had five. We just really worked on closing out the blocks, getting our feet there and getting back to the basics. We just said, `We know how to block, now let's just go out there and do it.'"
On her performance, as well as that of fellow middle Stephanie Stromath
"We had great passing. It all starts with ball control. Then if we don't have a block up, then the situation becomes just for me to crank on the ball. It was a lot of fun."
On winning Saturday evening's match in convincing fashion
"We were on fire. We were ready for a win. Having two losses under our belt after those first two matches, we were ready for a win, definitely."
On what the team takes from this tournament
"We learn from our losses. It's like Coach (Kritza) says, if we didn't execute on things against Missouri, we worked on that for BYU. Then, whatever we did wrong against them, we worked on for tonight. We were building up for this great win, which was sort of a blowout and a lot of fun to play in."
