Oct. 1, 2010
Recap | Box Score
UW Head Coach Pete Waite and Player Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Northwestern
October 1, 2010
Coach Pete Waite Opening Statement:
We certainly put ourselves in position to win the sets but we didn't do enough of the right things to win the sets. And when you're right there 24-26, 24-26, you're right there with a top-25 team, we're showing we can do it but we have to still improve in a number of areas to get over the hump and turn those into wins.
We talk about a lot of things in practice- of being consistent and our passing has to be more consistent. Our blocking—we have to fight a lot harder to get our hands across the net and with the opponent down for the blocking stats (in the boxscore) to have 13.5 for them and two for us, too, is pretty anemic for us. Sometimes we have to show up and we just have to be animals at the net and much more aggressive than we're being.
On resiliency of Northwestern:
They hung in there. I knew by their roster they have a very good ball-handling team, and that's service hit and defense. There's times they're making some big digs and they can run their defense right away and they can run their offense right away. And that's a sign of a good team. They've got a lot of very strong seniors, I think there's at least four of them that are starting for them, and they're doing a nice job.
On the progression of freshmen Elise Walch and Julie Mikaelsen throughout the season:
I think it's been great, especially Julie. We didn't start her (and) she came in off the bench to get those kind of numbers, which is really fantastic, and I think that really motivated her. Mary (Ording) had been doing a good job in practice and she deserved to start for a couple of matches, but we needed a momentum change, and Julie came in and gave us energy, and gave us a lot of great kills. Hitting .727 and not playing the whole match is phenomenal.
On Northwestern's attack:
(Sabel) Moffett is one of the fastest middles in the Big Ten and one of the fastest in the country, so you just try to slow her down a little bit. And then you have to sort of try to keep them out of it, but when you pass the ball, and it is a very good passing team, it lets them run just about anything they want. We had our block and our defense set up to try and slow some things down, but they had a pretty balanced attack—11 kills, 12 kills, 11 kills, and the next one was eight—that usually wins you the match. And each of them also had high hitting percentages.
On emotions changing between a long rally and a short rally:
Allison Wack
You start not wanting it more than you want it in a short rally, but the crowd gets into it, and it gets louder and more intense, and everyone's scrambling and I think that's something on every point we need to have.
Kim Kuzma
Especially when you win though, it's just a big momentum, whether you're down or up. When you win one of those points, you probably get two at least after that just because you're so excited. And it's reverse, too-when you don't get that point, the other team.
Wack on the Northwestern block on her:
I think that our passing was a little off, especially early. When we're off, they can just camp out on the outside, and they're a great blocking team, so that's really difficult when you do that. They were digging a ton of balls, too—the balls are always getting through the blocks, they come up with these huge digs, and that's momentum for them. I think they just did a great job defending from all angles.
Wack on higher confidence of team to bounce back:
When we just got in here, I said, 'We haven't been playing our best these last couple of matches.' And a lot of these games are two to three points, and this is all stuff we can control. They did some great things on their side of the court, and yeah, their hitters were up getting good hitting percentages, but there's a lot of things that if we took care of on our side, we (would have) had these games. We have confidence in our ability to come back.
