Dec. 5, 2008
Saint Louis Head Coach Anne Kordes
Opening statement …
“I would like to start off with congratulating Michigan on a trip to the Sweet16. I thought it was one of the best volleyball matches I have ever been a part ofas a player or a coach. It was hard fought, so congratulations to both teams.”
On Michigan’s depth …
“We were hoping to slow some of their players. We knew they would be strong.Two of their players just caught fire and we needed to contain Michigan as much aspossible. I think it was hard for us to compete with Michigan’s hitting percentagetonight.”
On Bridget Fonke’s play …
“I think Bridget had one of the most amazing matches I have seen in a long timeor ever from an outside hitter’s position. Some of the stuff she did was extremelyhigh level. That is just a credit to how hard she has been working. It was amazing”
On Kentucky as a tournament host …
“I consider (the state of) Kentucky my home away from home. The University ofKentucky has done an amazing job hosting this tournament. I have been to the NCAAtournament as player, assistant coach and a head coach but I have never seen it asprofessionally run as it was here. We have been treated like queens the entire timewe have been here and I want to thank UK for treating us so well.”
On the tournament …
“We were able to go through a challenging Atlantic-10 season undefeated. Wedidn’t drop a set for a long time and that experience may have hurt us a little.It helps to go to five sets matches sometimes. We were very dominant in our conferenceand that may have hurt us. We have to turn around and get some mid-week non-conferencematches. We have a strong region and we will be looking to put ourselves in a betterposition to play stronger teams towards the end of the season.”
Saint Louis Players
#4 Bridget Fonke
On how she thought she played tonight …
“I was just trying to put the ball down and it think our defense played reallywell.”
#10 Sammi McCloud
On the fifth set …
“They got a couple of great serves. They put together a great offense and wetried to hang with it. Michigan had a great game plan played a terrific match.”
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
Opening statement …
“I’m extremely proud of our team, the way they played and fought. Oneof the players said in the locker room that it wasn’t pretty but it was a great,competitive match and that’s true. You have to be able to win points at theright time. Saint Louis is a very competitive team and they’re also very skilled.They run some things that are very hard. Every time we faltered, they were opportunisticand jumped all over it. I was really proud of our players being able to fight throughthat. Also, I’m incredibly proud of our seniors this weekend. We’ve saidall season that you’ll go as far as your seniors will take you so we road theirbacks this weekend. Kerry Nance had two really good nights. She was the top diggerin the gym last and she was the top on our team tonight. Beth (Karpiak) got the killstonight and that’s just outrageous. I’m just very proud of how our seniorsplayed. I thought our team played a very balanced game. We could utilize a lot ofpeople when we controled the ball well enough. They gave you some things to use onthe right side of the court. Both (Megan) Bower and Beth did a really job behindthe setter. We’re excited about going to the next level and we’re excitedabout getting the chance to compete in the next round.”
On coming behind to win …
“It’s a little bit of skill and a lot of luck. Our kids didn’tgive up or frustrated in that situation. We played a lot of 15-point games this weekin practice because we figured that at this point in the year if you’re goingto advance, you’re going to do it in long battles. We hadn’t played alot of fifth gamers this year and haven’t been successful in our most recentones. So we figured we would play a lot and we didn’t win a lot of them inpractice but I thought it helped the get ready to compete for it.”
Michigan Players
#2, Beth Karpiak
On their depth advantage …
“I think we’re a really balanced team and we have a lot of weapons inthe front row. Like coach said earlier, if we gave them anything, they attacked reallyhard. I think that’s why they were able to stay in so hard but when they decidedto take away one of our options, we had another one to hit them with. That’swhy we pulled ahead.”
