Waite Addresses Media Monday
November 14, 2006 | Volleyball
Wisconsin volleyball coach Pete Waite addressed the media Monday afternoon as his 10th-ranked Badgers (21-5 overall, 13-3 Big Ten) wrap up their Big Ten Conference home season with two matches this week in the UW Field House.
It's a battle for second place in the Big Ten when the Badgers take on 12th-ranked Minnesota (19-7, 13-3) on Wednesday. First serve is at 7 p.m. The teams are tied for second place in the league, just one match behind conference leader Penn State (14-2).
Wisconsin wraps up the Big Ten home season on Friday by hosting Iowa at 7 p.m. The match is Senior Night with the Badgers' three seniors being honored before the match. The final set of Badger trading cards will also be available.
Friday's match will be broadcast live on WTSO (AM 1070) with Eric Johnson and Andrea Nilsen providing the commentary.
A complete transcription of the news conference follows below. A video archive of the news conference can be found by clicking on the Audio/Video link to the right.
How anxious are you to get another crack at the Golden Gophers'
We've been waiting awhile. Obviously we weren't too happy with the results up in Minnesota. And since then I think we've responded with some high-level play. We've changed as a team and we're happy to have them here on our home court now.
How big of a match will this be, not just because it 's Minnesota, but also because of where you stand in the Big Ten and with the season coming to a close'
The fact that we're tied with Minnesota right now is huge. Penn State started the first half of the Big Ten season running away from everybody and nobody thought they could catch them and it was a second-place race after that. But since we beat Penn State and Ohio State beat Penn State, it's all tight now.
We have to take care of the rest of our matches here and somebody's got to help us by beating Penn State, but we're right there. So this is huge, a border rivalry. We always go back and forth with Minnesota and now the Big Ten race is still in play here. We're excited about it. It's going to be a great match.
Where have you changed most since that Minnesota match '
I think our ball control and our serving definitely has gotten better and that's something in our sport'you have to attack them with your serve and then if the opponent is on their heels and they can't start their offense as well or you can key on certain hitters, then your offense gears up again and from the other side of the net.
Between that and just the balance of our attack, we've been deep and we 've been four, five players strong and double-digit kills, and that's great. If we can keep that up against them. I compare this to the Penn State matches. It 's that big and the opponent is that big that you don't have to do much to get the team up for a match like this.
It might be a little early, but Friday is going to be the last home match for your seniors. What can you say about what they meant to the program and that sort of thing'
Well, it's been a good class as far as their contributions. Katie Lorenzen is in a position where she hasn't been on the court as much as we'd like and she 's probably like too, but she's been a great captain this year and just great as far as helping the younger players off the court more.
(Amy) Bladow has been an interesting player her whole career. She came in and started and then she sat for a couple years and really changed her whole work ethic and attitude coming into this year, and now she's contributing and brings huge energy to the team.
And then Maria Carlini has been on the court most of her career and doing great things and getting better all the time, and she's definitely one of the elite players in the conference. They've contributed a lot and I think as a core group of, those are our tri-captains, they've done a great job this year keeping the team together and creating a great chemistry within the group.
After several matches where you were playing at your best all season, you lost three games over the weekend. What do you have to do to get back to that level again'
That's a thing that's even strange to hear when somebody says that after you've been sweeping teams, that you lose three games. It's like it 's a close game in basketball or football, which happens all the time. And it 's just more the fact that we're playing such great ball to beat teams in three for a while there, they were in a great groove. And I think over the weekend it was a little more of the case of a little bit tired actually.
Just this point of the season, they were a little bit tired and I think it was midterm week and they just kind of dealt with a few things that way and a little bit more flat. But again, like I said previously, you have an opponent like Minnesota coming into town and that just erases everything. They're not going to be tired. They're going to be excited. The fans will come out even more.
I think over the weekend the teams that they were playing were middle of the pack and it was a more important match for teams trying to get into the NCAA tournament as far as our team's thinking. We try to tell them the whole time it's important because we need these wins and they did get the job done. They got the Ws.
And if anything, I almost look at it in which they were challenged more in those matches and they had to come through and they had to fight hard when things weren't always clicking. That's important for a team to show that they can stand up and put down an opponent's best play when they're off their game. If they can still get the wins, then I'm pretty happy about that.
Pete, you've got a couple weeks left obviously for the conference season, but is there any question in your mind that Brittney Dolgner is the freshman of the year in the Big Ten'
Well, I think she should definitely get some votes for it. (Megan) Hodge has done a great job for Penn State and I would say those are the two that stand out and I'd have to look at the specific stats, but (Brittney's) really coming on strong here late in the season and putting up some huge numbers. She put up 30 kills on Friday, which is the first time for any player any year on our team for the last six years probably. That 's pretty good on her part.
Have you seen many setters in the Big Ten setting better than Jackie has over the last month'
No. She made the biggest rise in her play. She gained the most confidence in the last month. And it was something, a combination of what the coaches are doing as far as teaching her and training her; the tape we're watching with her; and just her making the effort to make some corrections as she's been working on for the last two years.
And it's been fun because as a coach when they can take off at that point, then it 's just something she'll do naturally. And when she does that, she disperses the ball to any hitter on the court, front row or back row, in front of her, behind her and its really hard for the opponents to stop. And so that's where the balanced attack has come.
Can you just talk about the development of Brittney this year and did you expect her to make this big of an impact as a freshman '
I knew she'd be good, but I didn't think she'd be putting up these kinds of numbers. She started kind of slow and even had some shoulder problems, because even though she was used to taking a lot of swings, she had to hit it a lot harder now in the college game. But once she figured that out, got healthy, her game is coming around.
Now even her blocking is coming around. That's the area she's probably weakest in coming in, because you just don't have that opportunity in high school to have to block such big hitters. But now she's confident out there and she was the one that carried us in the match on Friday. We really needed her out there and she came through like a veteran.
You announced your recruits last week. Can you say a little something about what they're going to be bringing in next year '
We have Allison Wack, who most people know as Jocelyn's younger sister and she's just won a state championship for Westosha Central (High School). She's an outside hitter, a lot like Jo, a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger jump and she's got a cannon for an arm. She comes from a great volleyball family. Her brother, Nate, played at (UC) Santa Barbara, Jocelyn is here doing great things for us and Al is going to come in and do some great things also.
And then Kim Kuzma is out of Muncie, Ind., and she's a defensive specialist or libero, just took her team to the state championship in Indiana, took second place there. And she's a tough, feisty competitor and that's the biggest thing I like about her. She's done some work with the youth national team, so she's got high-level experience and some international play. She's just the kind of kid who makes players around her better and it's not just through her play, but just her attitude and the way she'll just drag them along to the high level.
On Saturday, Amy served for the first time all year. What went into the decision to let her serve, and is that something you're going to let her do the rest of the year'
Well, it's a strange position in the libero position, where only one of the middles can serve if they're subbing out. And Taylor (Reineke) had been a little off on her serve and her shoulder was hurting a little bit, so in practice we've been giving Amy some more reps and gave her that opportunity, and she went in and did a great job.
Before the match, I said, Amy, are you ready to go and serve today, how are you going to do ' And she goes, `I'm going to get 10 aces.' She said, `I 'll get 10 aces.' I said, `Alright, just get it in and we'll see from there.' And she did. She got, I think her first two (serves) might have been aces, which is pretty phenomenal because she's not been that consistent in the past as a server, but we need to have that option to have either player do it.
