Recap | Box Score
Oct. 12, 2014
Post-match Quotes
No. 4 Wisconsin vs. Maryland
Oct. 12, 2014
Fieldhouse - Madison, Wis.
UW Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
Opening Statement: “We were talking before the match and there were matches last year that we were playing in front of 2,100, 2,500 (or) 2,600 people and today we knew that we would be playing in front of over 6,000. We asked our kids to never take that for granted. One of the great feelings is walking out in the Field House and hearing people get excited for you and so the fact that we had, again, so many people that are coming out is awesome. We appreciate the support and you can tell that there’s momentum that’s behind us and we don’t take that for granted. We can feel it so we’re very appreciative of that.”
“We had a hard week at practice and I thought the things that we were working on at practice we were really trying to execute. A player like Kelli Bates, her line doesn’t look really that impressive but we just kept talking to her to stay with it. The things she was attempting to do were things that we worked on all week in practice and so those will be things that will come around for her as she continues to work. But I thought what I saw today is a team that’s going out and really trying to execute and expand their game and the things that we were emphasizing this week in the gym.
Maryland had a lot of errors that they made, whether it was serving way out of bounds, hitting the ball out of bounds or serving into the net. How did you tell your team to utilize those mistakes and how did you guys turn them into positives for you?
“We didn’t really talk about their errors at all. Courtney (Thomas) was right, we talked about what we need to do, what they’re trying to do and what we need to do. We don’t really talk about other team’s errors or any previous play that we do. We try to keep our mind in the present and the future rather than the past: this is what they’re likely to do right now and this is what we need to do right now. It’s more that type of communication.”
A big game for Courtney is nothing new, but her line was pretty reflective of her all-around play.
“Yeah, she got aced a couple times, which she’s going to be pretty ticked off about. But other then that she did a lot of things. It wasn’t just her hitting percentage. One of the things she hasn’t been very good at is implementing off-speed shots into her game and she came out and I think three of her kills were off-speed shots, roll shots or tips, and that’s exciting. I told her if she gets good at that, it will change her game. It’ll be a game changer because everyone can just dig in on her and they know she’s just about bringing heat all the time. She’s one of the people that I’m excited about that’s adding more tools to the toolbox.”
Was this kind of a taking care of business week?
“I don’t know, we look at it as another opportunity to get better. We were excited to play this week and No. 1, we hadn’t played either one of those teams. There’s a lot of talent. We’re not silly and we know that there are better players that have been hurt. Every coach that’s been in the game for a while knows you have those kinds of seasons where people are just dropping. We were excited about playing them. They’ve got some unbelievable talent. That freshman middle for them, (Hailey) Murray, her line was very good and she’s going to own this league one of these days. I think anyone can see it just once she puts the pieces together.
“There were some good athletes there and we didn’t really take it as let’s just get to business, it was another week where we adapt to get better. And in practice there is so little of that that we are able to really do. We practiced really hard this week and I thought we got better. The weekend is where you get judged and do the things that we emphasized this week (that) I saw in our matches. I saw us attempting to do that and to be good at that and we’ll take that.”
Wisconsin Players
Senior Courtney Thomas
In the Big Ten season, there’s been a lot of stuff already, Nebraska loses today, Penn State loses yesterday, how important is that for you as the season unfolds?
“I think we’re really trying to work on our game and not necessarily worry about other teams in the Big Ten. As you can see, there’s really no predictions anymore and you never really know who’s going to win on any given night. I think we need to take care of business on our side and as long as we win out we’re going to be in good shape.”
You didn’t let them ever get much of a footing. Taking care of it right away, taking command of sets, is that what you set out to do, not let them have any spark?
“I think that we’re coming to play every single night and you’re going to get our best shot and whatever happens on the other side of the net is what happens. We’re playing our best on our side, the best that we can, and we’re out there to beat teams right now.”
Sophomore Haleigh Nelson
Haleigh you had a lot of kills tonight, mostly off of slides, how were you able to make that effective throughout all three sets tonight?
“Slides are something I’ve really been working on in practice lately, hitting all types of different shots and not just in one area of the court over and over. So tonight, I really just tried to spread the ball around and show them different looks behind the setter, whether it was a quick or D all the way to the pin, so I just tried to mix it up a bit.”
Courtney hit .750 today, what’s your observation playing alongside of her?
“She’s a boss. Tonight she just owned it back there. It brings a lot to the rest of the team when she can put up big numbers like that and be a big emotional leader on the court. I think on paper it shows a lot about Courtney but also just the energy and reliability she brings too is really great.”
