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Post-match Quotes
No. 5 Wisconsin vs. No. 23 Minnesota
Oct. 18, 2014
Field House - Madison, Wis.

UW Head Coach Kelly Sheffield

Coach Sheffield’s Opening Statement…
“I thought it was kind of an uneven match. I thought both teams made quite a few errors. I think their errors showed up in the attack column and I think that our errors showed up in the serving and missed assignments.

“But there was a lot of positives to be taken out of this match. It’s hard to come out and sweep a top-25 team in the same week. I thought we blocked really well. I thought we served the ball really well, except for a few knucklehead service errors. I thought we put a lot of pressure on, especially in the first part of the match with our serving.

“The first part of the game, I thought we were a lot better than we were a couple nights ago and I thought our blocking was really good. Some things we are happy about and some things we felt we got to continue to get better at.”

On going back-to-back against Minnesota:
“It probably made it easier. How much more film were we gonna watch than going into Wednesday night’s match? We had our film, so you’re studying one film. You’re not breaking down 10 films; you’re breaking down one. That was great. Hallelujah.

“The thing I was a little bit concerned about was that we just swept a team on their home court and were we gonna lack motivation coming in? They got a lead early on but I thought we were dialed in and ready to go. That was my big concern as a coach— to be comfortable after just beating a team. I didn’t see that at all. We weren’t where we needed to be coming out of the locker room (before the third set) but at coming into the match we were dialed in. I think that’s a coach’s biggest concern playing the same team in such a short period of time but I didn’t see that at all.”

On what the high block numbers in Big Ten play shows:

“...but the funny thing about blocking is that you can do everything right and get nothing to show for it. You can make the absolute worst move ever and the hitter just makes a worse move so you get credited with something.

“I don’t think our blocking was as bad as the numbers were saying early, and I’m not sure our block is quite as good as what it’s showing now. I think our block is somewhere in between. It has been emphasized in practice, no question about that. When the other team get frustrated, they just start doing whatever.”

On the slow start to the third set:
"I think it showed that our team didn’t come out of the locker room with the right mindset. I don’t think game three was necessarily a character thing; I look at it that way. I thought we cleaned up a little bit better. The character that we showed tonight happened in the first set, not the third set because we were dialed in in the first set I thought. They jumped on us right from the get-go and we just kind of stayed with it and battled and went on a late-surge there. I was real proud of what I saw in game one, even though it wasn’t clean for the first part of that.”

On the seven-match winning streak:
“We’re not patting ourselves on the back at all; that’s not what we’re doing. Down in the locker room just then, it’s very similar to what it usually is— this is what we did well; this is what we’ve got to get better at. The only thing that was said was at the end, I said ‘nice win.’

“It’s about learning, it’s about grabbing on what works well and you try to carry that with you and you try to recognize what you’ve got to get better at. We really don’t look at winning streaks, losing streaks, anything like that— it’s one match. We put everything into that and that’s the feedback on that match right then. Then we go into the gym and work on what we need to work on and what got exposed because in this league there’s always something getting exposed.

“We studied our film really, really hard because we know everyone else is doing the same thing. There’s probably times when our team would be shocked by how many times we’ve won because we don’t talk about that and I think they’re feeling okay right now. They’re not jumping for joy in that locker room, I can tell you that right now, and that’s alright. We’d rather win than lose but we’ve got to get better. We don’t pull any punches, we don’t try to play head games, we just try to be honest and they all recognize it.”

On the large crowds attending the games:

“I think it’s just fun. I think that’s the most honest way of saying it. I think our team would compete like crazy if 100 people showed up. I think they compete like crazy when they go on the road and it’s packed or it’s not packed. I think we have a competitive crew and I don’t want to say we need to be in front of a large group for them to go, because that would be unfair to them.

“I can tell you what our players and our staff think - it’s awesome. I look out my window and I see people waiting to get in almost two hours before the game. I see a massive line and people holding up signs saying ‘We need tickets.’ You want to matter. At the end of the day, the worst thing isn’t people criticizing you, we can all handle that. The worst thing is indifference. What you do, you want it to matter. It’s just cool and it’s fun. The fans are doing a great job of pressuring people to open up that upper deck.”

Sophomore S Lauren Carlini

On the middle blocker’s performance tonight:
“They were driving tonight and they were going hard. They had great transition balls. They were always up. They wanted the ball so I gave it to them. I think they were really effective tonight. I think they were really upset with their performance the other night, I know at least Haleigh was. This is a little bit of redemption, I thought.”

On her serve tonight:
“I think a part of it was our defense. I know my serve was a little better tonight than it was at Minnesota. I had a really hard time serving at Minnesota. I had a little bit of a bounce back today and I was moving the ball around a little bit better. Our defense was doing great in our rotation so I think that is how I was scoring points in my rotation.”

On if anything changed from playing back-to-back matches:
“We didn’t change that much in our game plan. There were a few defensive strategies that we had to change. Other than that, we kept it simple and did what we did. I think I like it. I don’t really have a solid answer as to whether I like back-to-back games or not. It is definitely different. There was a different feel tonight. It’s a little weird but I wouldn’t mind doing it again next year.”

On selling out the match:
“It is great to have this type of support no matter what day it is. The fact that we sold out on a Sunday match for Maryland, that’s pretty impressive. We have great support from our fans. Our fans wanted to welcome Maryland to the Big Ten so that was pretty cool.”

Senior MB Dominique Thompson

On blocking Minnesota:
“Haleigh and I both talked about it and decided we wanted to change where we are placed in the Big Ten for blocks. We are definitely determined to do that. It is something that we definitely do talk about, we are trying to change and fix it.” On winning against Minnesota: “It feels great. After winning at Minnesota it was a great feeling. Being able to come here and take care of business, it’s a great feeling. It makes me really happy I’m at Wisconsin.”

Sophomore MB Haleigh Nelson

On blocking against Minnesota:
“I give a lot of credit to our pin blockers too. They put up a solid set up and they made it easy to close. Their hands being in the right places makes our job a lot easier.”

On stepping into a leadership role:
“It’s pretty cool. It’s nice to know that Lauren (Carlini) trusts me in big situations. When she does give me the ball, I know that it is my job to put it away.”