Kentucky Volleyball Press Conference
2017 LEXINGTON VOLLEYBALL REGIONAL
MEMORIAL COLISEUM
DEC. 7, 2017
Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner
Opening Comment …
“We’re just excited to continue playing this season and have another chance to practice, let alone play a match. Just being together over the last few days and trying to figure out how we can get just a little bit better to play our best against BYU has been our focus. Congrats to the three other teams that are here in this regional. Should be a great day of volleyball tomorrow. Can’t wait to get going.”
On the toughness of the regional …
“It’s as tough as you want to make it. When you get to this point, in every regional, you can argue that any team could have a chance to be successful. You look at this one, it’s no different. You’ve got some great programs, great athletes and great coaches. That’s what you want this time of year. You want a battle, you want to compete and you want to earn what you get. It’s not going to be given to you. We know that and it’s exciting. Not very many teams and athletes get a chance to play in regionals, so we’re going to enjoy it, play our butts off and see what happens.”
On BYU …
“They’re good. I don’t know what their record is, it’s a lot of wins, not very many losses. They know how to win, they’ve been here before. They have experienced outside hitters that do a great job, they’re physical in the middle, their setter does a great job, they’re well-coached. There’s not much to say that there’s anything wrong with Brigham Young (University). I think it’s a good matchup for us. I think we are physical in every position, we’ve got a lot of experience, a lot of athleticism. You could go back and forth about what we have and what BYU has. The balance of what they do is something we have to do a good job of trying to minimize their ability to score points.”
On BYU’s blocking …
“They work on it a lot, you can tell. They’re organized with what they do. They spend a lot of time, you can tell, trying to read offenses, they have the size. You just become a good blocker because you’re tall. Tall doesn’t mean you’re a good blocked because actually, it give you more targets to hit off of if you’re a hitter. ‘Hey, there’s a hand, let me hit off of it.’ You can tell they work on it and spend energy on it. That’s why it’s a pretty interesting matchup because both teams are pretty physical at the net and their height has given them advantages and given us advantages all year long.”
On playing at home …
“It’s awesome, it’s awesome that we have a chance to do this and be at home and be with our friends and family and these (players) have a chance to go to class and do their normal day and routines. We’ll have a chance to look back and reflect on what we’ve earned when the season is over. We want to try keep this thing going as long as we can. It’s special, and we’re embracing that and taking advantage of each hour we have to try and get better. Being at home is a great thing.”
On whether the emotion of last week will be carried into this week …
“I think you have to be careful about being too emotional. You don’t want to be too emotionally high or too emotionally down. You want to try and be the same all the time. You win a match like that, it gives you belief and confidence that you can do it. We certainly don’t want to go into a game plan and devise a blueprint to get down 2-0 and fight our way back. Each match presents a different challenge. Tomorrow’s match will present something to us in the first couple of games. We will either ride what we’re doing, if it’s working or figure out how to adjust and counter-attack what they’re doing. Like LSU, like winning on the road at Florida, like winning some of the matches we did in pre-conference. It adds to our toolbox of things we can pull from in our next match.”
On the bond of this year’s team …
“That’s earned, too. These guys have to put themselves out there and be vulnerable and be willing to share with their teammates and learn about each other. If you’re willing to do that, it develops a bond. They’ll remember that stuff more than the will the wins and losses. It’s neat to see.”
#7, Kaz Brown, Sr., Middle Blocker
On the confidence they gained from their comeback win over WKU …
“I think this team is really competitive. Like, we really get after it in our practices and I think that kind of helps develop the toughness. It’s really hard to put the ball away in practice and score points. So, I think that helps us a lot transferring it over into game play.”
On whether or not winning in five over WKU helps take the pressure off knowing you’ve been in that situation …
“I don’t know. I think at this point any win is a good win no matter how you do it, any tournament win you’re lucky to have. I think, like we talked about, we were in that same situation against LSU earlier this season. So, I think understanding that we can do it and understanding that we just have to weather the storm and kind of take it one point at a time. So, I think having that confidence is good to have. Obviously like Craig said, no one wants to go into a match down 0-2, but if you know that you can fight back from adversity I think it gives us a certain special kind of confidence.”
On the team’s chemistry …
“We spend a lot of time with each other which for a lot of teams can be a bad thing, but for this team that hasn’t happened yet. I think, like Ashley said, we enjoy each other’s company. I think we – it’s obvious when we’re on the court playing with each other that we like to spend time with each other and I think that’s been a big part of the reason we’ve had so much success thus far.”
#5, Ashley Dusek, Sr., Defensive Specialist
On the confidence they gained from their comeback win over WKU …
“We just challenged each other in practice so much that it helps us in the game. We’re ready for anything, so we’re excited to play.”
On digging a ball hit 60 miles per hour and then standing up with a smile …
“I just really like playing the game. It’s fun playing around them, obviously. We have a great block so it’s easy for me to play around that. The girls are just so fun to play with and we have such high energy it’s just hard not to have fun.”
On the players remaining loose, but Coach Skinner looks intense …
“He is kind of calm to me sometimes. (laughter) Maybe I don’t look at him that often. Maybe I try not to? We just take each point like we have to fail in order to get better. Each point, each game even if we miss a point we have to look past it an on to the next one. We say that, ‘a great competitor looks to the next point.'”
On the team’s chemistry …
“We have such great chemistry. We’ve had potential to be like this on teams prior, but just our chemistry and how we’re all like really true friends – and we just love our company and playing while doing that is awesome.”
#13, Leah Edmond, So., Outside Hitter
On the confidence they gained from their comeback win over WKU …
“With some of the games we’ve played we’ve had the opportunity to see what our team is all about, like right at the beginning – like Creighton, Kansas playing that weekend. Then at LSU and Florida. We’ve had many opportunities to be in different environments, so I think that’s helped us out so much these last couple of weekends. “
