Oct. 26, 2008
Recap |
Final Stats
TULANE HEAD COACH Liz Kritza
Overall thoughts on the match
"That fifth set for us is what I was looking for from my team from the get go. They realized that they were underperforming in three very important areas. We did not pass like we should have, we were not running our offense properly - it is usually a much faster, much more aggressive offense - and we were allowing Houston to score on us at will. We had to keep their sideout percentage down and we had to get back up to closer to 70 percent. That is what you have to do in order to be successful in this game. If we play without those three things intact, then we struggle as we did earlier in the match. I was proud of the way we were able to turn things around and started playing an organized game for us."
On what she told the players after falling behind 2-1
"The good thing about having players who have played together for so long and have played for me over the years is that we have very, very good communications. I usually do not have to say very much. They realize what the expectations are and they know when we are underperforming. All we have to do is give them corrections for their skills. Both assistant coaches doles out some very valuable corrections for individual players, and the team responded with an increased level of intensity. We recognized the need to create more motion in our offense and found greater success. Early on, we were a little stagnant. We were just relying on high, outside balls to our strongest hitters. There is no way any single player can carry an entire team for five sets. We had to go back to our strength, which is to mixing up our offense and try to keep the other team off balance. Once we did that, we played much better."
On the job junior right-side hitter Ksenija Vlaskovic did Sunday against the Cougars
"Ksenija is a really unique player for us. She can play a much bigger role than she has been, and I think today was a good, breakout match for her. When she is not scoring at a higher enough percentage, our whole offense changes. Ksenija is one of the first players we should be going to. It should not be a case where she gets fewer sets as the match continues one, she should actually be getting more. She is responsible for hitting a faster-tempo ball and blocking, so we should be getting her as many balls as possible. She is a very capable attacker, she has had some ups and downs this season, but I think she is the reason we were able to pull this thing out today. We needed some offense because Sara(Radosevice) was not able to score at her usual pace, I think Ksenija changed her mentality a little bit and was the reason we were able to come back aggressively"
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On Tulane having five players with double-digit kill totals
"We had five players with double-digit kills because we started running our offense, not theirs. That was the only way we were going to come out of this with a win. We went back to spreading the ball around properly and the individual leaders made sure they came up with their share of the offensive load."
On the job Jenn Miller did, despite being under the weather all day Saturday
"There was a situation today of great concern about Jenn Miller's health. Here was a kid who was extremely ill yesterday and her first physical activity was coming to our pass-and-serve before the match today. She was hardly able to keep any food down. I never had a moment's question that once our trainer gave her the green light to play that she would be ready to go. I knew that she was going to give us everything she had today. It was really a good showing for the rest of the team because she personified what this team is about. It is about giving your best every day. Her best today was not what it normally is and she knows that, but she gave everything that she had, as did her teammates."
Closing comments
"A lot of good things happened today. Yes, it was too close at times and we gave up some unnecessary plays today where we allowed Houston to test us perhaps more than they should have. I am not taking anything away from Houston. That is a good ballclub there, and they have an excellent coach. Bill Walton always does a very good job of making our players truly earn their points, which they had to today. I think we got better as a team, not just volleyball-wise, but we learned that sometimes sheer effort - if you play at a high enough level - will get you where you expect to be."
JUNIOR RIGHT-SIDE HITTER Ksenija Vlaskovic
On her performance today against Houston
"The team worked really hard today. This was a very important match for us and I just wanted to go out there and do my best. I kind of had a bad match on Friday and I wanted to bounce back today. That was all the motivation I needed."
On the team's ability to bounce back from a 2-1 deficit
"In previous years, the second half of the season had been tough for us and we didn't do very well. We are aware of that and we made it a point to show that we are improved this year. We are prepared for this and we are not going to let happen what happened before. After the second set, we decided that was not us, that we needed to come back strong. Fortunately we were able to do that."
