Waite Addresses Media
November 06, 2006 | Volleyball
University of Wisconsin volleyball coach Pete Waite addressed the media Monday afternoon to answer questions about his 10th-ranked Badgers upcoming four-match home stand.
Wisconsin (19-5 overall, 11-3 Big Ten) moved into a tie for second place in the league standings following two wins last weekend. Wisconsin is tied with Minnesota, which lost a Michigan last Saturday, two matches behind Penn State.
The Badgers host fifth-place Northwestern (13-10, 7-7) on Friday at 7 p.m. Eighth-place Illinois (14-10, 5-9) comes to town on Saturday for a 7 p.m. match. Saturday's match is Alumnae Night with several former Badgers returning to the Field House to be honored between games two and three.
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/Photos link to the right.
Pete, going into the stretch run of the Big Ten season, is the No. 2 spot something you're at a point now that you think you can hold on to and maybe still even hope that Penn States falls from No. 1'
Well, it's something we're working for all the time. Somebody 's got to catch Penn State and they do go to Ohio State coming up here. So there 's a shot there. But after that, it's going to be tough since they took Minnesota last week.
But actually this weekend, we were helped by Michigan by beating Minnesota at Michigan, so that was great for the standings for us to get us neck and neck with Minnesota (and) with them coming here next week. So that helps us a lot to be tied with them right now. And now we've got to take care of this weekend before we even look at them though.
Pete, what do you think really clicked for the team that has put it on this five-match winning streak' Something that took it to next level '
Well, part of it was getting healthy from some injuries. With the three starters that have been out, they really weren't practicing about half of each week and it 's just hard to have any chemistry. It started when Maria came back at Minnesota. That was the first time she was on the court for us for a while and she had really only practiced one or two days that week. It was just the first full match she played. After that, she came back and was able to train more all week and that helped it a lot.
Audra Jeffers is getting stronger all the time. Her back is getting stronger and (Amy) Bladow is getting a little bit stronger all the time. I think that was a big part of it. In combination with that, I think Jackie Simpson took a big step up in her game and just her confidence on the court, her composure, her decision-making. She is just dishing the ball out to the hitters so evenly that it's really tough for the opponents right now.
I think it was at Michigan State, we had five hitters on the court and all five of our hitters were in double-digit kills from 10 to 16. A lot of teams will have one or two people that'll go 15 to 20 and then the others will have two to four. And we can key on those kind of players and slow them down. It's very hard when we 've got five going at people or even four, which is pretty common for us.
Pete, in addition to that, which is all good stuff too, did you notice or do you think you'll get any residual effect from the Penn State win and then Ohio State, that great weekend, does that kind of carry you over and give a little surge of confidence'
Absolutely. Once our players finished that Penn State-Ohio State weekend, they were practicing at a higher level just walking on the court. Their confidence and just their focus was even better than it was before. And it's been a good team as far as listening and learning and improving and that's the biggest thing we told them. We knew during that stretch, we were hurting a little bit, that we just had to keep getting better and more healthy. And as we kept getting stronger, we'd make a big run at the end of the season and that's what's happening right now. They 're just catching fire and playing at a really high level that they haven 't played at in years. And they've finished well last couple years, but it's still another notch up because it's a more veteran team.
Elaborate a little bit on Jackie's play. You 've always thought her as having a high volleyball IQ and all of what sudden kicked in and what's really elevated her game'
Part of it is actually I spend time with her every week, after the weekend, looking at tape, just with her and going over her decision-making, things she did well and being honest with her on the things she didn't do well and needs to improve on. A combination of that and her defense has improved a lot. Even her time last spring when she was injured and had a broken hand, she was able to really get the mental side of the game down a little better because she couldn't be on the court for two or three months, so that helped her a lot.
She's got the mind of a coach and she wants to be a coach someday, so I think that helps a lot, too. For a while, I think she actually was too hard on herself and that did keep her down because she was just so focused on the mistakes she made rather than just moving forward and correcting things. And now she's just correcting them, talking to her hitters. If she made the mistake, letting them know it's not their fault and everything on the court is just going better because of her composure now.
Can you just kind of update us on how Northwestern and Illinois are playing' It seems like Northwestern has been playing better of late.
Yeah, they're just under .500 in the Big Ten I think and both of those teams are teams that right now are on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. In the Big Ten, there 's times we'll get six, seven teams coming out and they're right at that spot where I know they're fighting to get a big win to jump them up in the rankings in the RPI. And we know we don't want to be that team (that they beat) and so we need to take care of this weekend.
Can you comment on just how it's been at home ' I mean, your success at home has been unbelievable recently.
Yeah. I'll tell you what, it's not just that we're getting the wins at home, the level we're playing is something that's, it has just been unbelievable. The fans have been great. The numbers have been great, but the team has been so focused at home. It's enjoyable as a coach to see it because you can pretty much sit back and they've been on automatic. And as a coach, you can then add some things to what they're doing, but you don't have to do much. You tweak a little bit. And they're just so focused on the court that they're on automatic and it's been a blast. We're hoping to keep that up and they really did last weekend, take that same feeling on the road. And I think that's the burst that the Penn State, Ohio State weekend gave us.
