Dec. 13, 2013
Penn State
Head Coach Russ Rose
Opening statement …
“First I would like to recognize the great effort by Michigan State tonight. I thought they played really hard, and forced us to challenge ourselves in a lot of areas we need a little work in. I’m pleased we were able to win the match, and would hope that we can get better effort from some individuals tomorrow. As I told the players earlier, for some of them the weight of the match is a really heavy load. It was even more of a challenge for them the way they lost the first game. Michigan State certainly played very well, and we had to make some adjustments. I thought that both teams were battling out there. Our serving was a little soft. I thought we got good effort. I thought Lacey (Fuller) came in and made some great defensive plays that really gave us a spark and gave us some confidence. Katie (Slay), even though she didn’t get a lot of swings, I thought she led the match in blocks and hit very well.”
On making adjustments after the first set …
“I just thought we were really tight. I didn’t think there was as much pressure on Michigan State as there might have been on us. It kind of escalated a little bit in the first game. We hit .170 and made a couple of service errors at 19. It’s tough to figure out what is going to get some players to be ready to play. I think we were a little flat coming out of the gate. Michigan State played well, did what a good team would do. They were comfortable playing here having been here last week. It’s part of the game. I’ve had teams that you play in a match like this and you never get it going and you lose the match and you wonder where it went awry. I thought we battled a little bit. We had opportunities in the first game, and certainly in the second and the third game. But we got a little tense again in the fourth game. Again, I think it’s the weight of the event on some people. But I thought that our passing was good. I thought we played good defense. We kept our errors low. We only averaged six errors a game. If you can keep your errors low you have a chance. I’m not sure that will do with tomorrow’s opponent, but maybe they just had to get that (first) game out of their system. I’m not really sure. I wish I could give you a real educated answer, but even with some teams that have some veteran players you shake your head sometimes after the match.”
On addressing his players ahead of the next match …
“I’m pretty direct when it’s time. It was time when it was going bad. I ask them if they’re okay or if they want somebody to take their spot. Sometimes people are just rattled and they just need somebody to give them a breather. We tried that a few times. Again, I thought Michigan State passed well. We served really easy, and if you serve really easy against a team that runs a 6-2 you are really going to stress your people out. I though our defense was good, we had more digs than them, we had more blocks, we had more aces, we hit better. We did all the things you needed to win, but we didn’t play our best and it’s because they’re a good team. They’re here for a reason. They beat us earlier in the year, they beat Nebraska. They had a good season, they have great talent and they do a terrific job on the bench. We have a lot of respect for Michigan State. We weren’t naïve enough to think it would be like we played last time. We played a great match at Michigan State, and tonight it was similar to the match at Penn State where both teams were battling and it could go either way.”
#33, Lacey Fuller, DS
On being a spark for her team with great defensive plays …
“Every time I come in I just want to give the team energy, and kind of be as confident as I can. Sometimes I can tell that they are a little nervous because it’s a big game. A lot of pressure I guess. I try to just be energetic and help them the best I can.”
On preparing for Saturday’s Regional Final …
“I think we need to be loose, and not be so tight. Just relax. If we make an error bring it in, we’re good, people make errors. Just try to get to 25 first, that’s the most important.
#16, Katie Slay, MH
On her eight kills …
“The first thing was obviously good passes. You have to have good passes to run middle, and Micha (Hancock) and I were doing a pretty good job communicating. We definitely can get better at it tomorrow.”
Michigan State
Head Coach Cathy George
Opening statement …
“It’s hard being in this position coming into a press conference (after a season-ending loss), but I was really proud of our efforts in rebounding after game three, which I don’t think we played the type of volleyball, we had 11 unforced errors in hitting but I think we rebounded and came back strong in game four with 18 kills and only four errors. Penn State is an excellent team. They were hitting on all cylinders and I think they were on a mission. I think, since the first time we played them, it’s kind of kicked them into another gear and they are playing really well and we expect them to do great things in the tournament. For our team, I am proud of what they have been able to do. This group of seniors came in and have really taken Michigan State to from a place where we were just getting into or not getting into tournaments to going back-to-back and pushing beyond. We have had a lot of incredible wins along the seniors way, knocking out some great teams and I am very proud of what they have been able to bring to this team. It’s never easy saying goodbye to seniors but we gave it the effort and I was glad in game four we got them to that 24 and that 24 was a hard thing to put off vs. a team like Penn State.”
On how she thought they would attack Penn State …
“One of the big mismatches we see (on the stats) is 11-4 in blocking. We are a better blocking team than that but Penn State did a great job of moving it around. It was difficult so Kori (Moster) had to work without a block being set. That’s a credit to what Penn State was able to do with us. But I though Kori’s defense was a great effort (20 digs in four games) certainly put us in a great effort to counter attack.”
#1, Kori Moster, L
On how she thought they would attack Penn State …
“There an amazing team and amazing attackers and as Cathy said they do execute from all cylinders. So I think just to keep balls off the court, keep plays alive and 70-percent of the game is in transition and keeping balls alive gives us more opportunities to put balls away. I think I had to change things a bit playing both middle-back instead of left-back and really just the whole point was to keep balls off the court.”
#12, Kristen Kelsay, S
On the first set …
“I think we sort of just stayed the course and that was what we talked with a very talented Penn State team. They are not going to throw balls away consistently. They are fighters and we knew we had to match that level of play. There were times during when we were down in that first game and we just kept fighting and I think we were just disciplined, where we lost some of that in game two and game three and picked it back up in game four and we were just cooking. We were able to get everyone involved and like Kori said our transition game was good. I think we lost some of that, and started pressing really hard and started hitting out of bounds, missing more serves and we sort of lost that gameplan. I am really proud of our team and how we came back and played in that fourth game and we could have laid over and died against a very good Penn State team but we didn’t.”
