Nov. 12, 2014 Recap | Box Score
Wisconsin Coach Postgame Quotes Wisconsin vs. Michigan Nov. 12, 2014 UW Fieldhouse – Madison, Wis. Kelly Sheffield On his opening statement: “I think it was a match where two teams were playing pretty hard, and getting after it. We just played five sets about five days ago, so there was not a lot of time to get over that. So we probably had two teams where emotions were pretty high, and excited about playing. It was a good win for us.”
On if the short time between the last match up with Michigan got the team more fired up: “I don’t know if our team was more fired up to play them. I thought all week it was kind of business approach from our team. Just the next team in front of us. I think our team has been really good at being consistent with their approach and taking each match as it comes. Yeah, we just saw them a few days ago, but I didn’t really notice anything different. Our team this week is what they’ve been.”
On what they did better tonight compared to the last match up: “We swept. That was better than winning in five I guess. Haleigh (Nelson) got set a lot. Both of our middles, our right side… those guys got a lot of swings. That was something we were trying to do. We were trying to attack the middle of the court. We got a lot of swings. We got our middles involved a little bit more than what we did last time, and I thought that was key.
“I thought our passing got better as the match went on… I thought that was a key as well. The big part was I think we weren’t letting them… it was a defensive struggle for both teams. Neither team hit for a very high percentage (and) neither team hit for a very high percentage a few days ago either. Two teams that were just playing hard.”
Wisconsin Player Post Game Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Michigan
Nov. 12, 2014
Haleigh Nelson
On how the tough match against Michigan a few days ago affected the team going into tonight’s match:
“We just knew we had a lot to work on in the gym this week before we played them again, and we had a couple of defensive strategies that we needed to make sure we stuck to the second time around. We cleaned up our block a lot, the pin blockers did a great job shutting down the line, and we just really worked on sticking to our game plan and fixing what we really didn’t do right the first time.”
On whether the team stuck to its defensive strategy:
“Yeah, also on the block too though. We really worked on that a lot this week, really pressing low and going all the way to the antenna and stuff like that, so the block and the backcourt really worked well together tonight, and that was what we were hoping for.”
On how it feels to win 14 matches in a row:
“It feels like we just won one match and we have another one in a few days. It’s kind of just next game, train keeps moving and we forget about the other ones. The streak is awesome, it’s kept us in the lead in the Big Ten so that’s great, but we are already focused on Iowa.”
Lauren Carlini
On whether the team stuck to its defensive strategy:
“There was a lot more discipline, blocking and back row working together. Last game, we were kind of all over the place, throwing our bodies, we weren’t really in the right position, and I think this game we just focused a lot more and again, stay disciplined.”
On whether being able to move the ball around to different hitters gave the Badgers an advantage over Michigan:
“Yeah, it’s a great problem to have. Being able to set any of my hitters and them having the ability to get kills makes my job way easier. And again, like Kelly (Sheffield) said, tonight in the middle of the court, forcing the ball there was one of our big strategies this game. I was able to do that with good passing and great defense by our team, so we just need to keep attacking that and it’s going to frustrate the other teams.”
On whether any team had an emotional advantage after playing so recently:
“I mean this definitely had to be a statement match. We had to prove to people that the other game wasn’t entirely who we are. They stuck with us and played a great game, but we didn’t do all that we could do. So, we came out today and said ‘We have to show them who the real Wisconsin Badgers are.’ We are a lot feistier than we showed, and today we came out and we killed it. We did really well.”
Kelli Bates
On whether she is becoming more comfortable in the back row:
“Yeah, definitely. I’ve gotten a lot more training since being in preseason, and just adjusting to the speed of game I think was going to be the toughest thing for me defensively. There are so many talented players that have so many shots, and it’s obviously a lot harder than it is in club and in high school. But I’ve gotten a lot of really good training, so that’s definitely become more of a comfortable skill and I’m actually starting to enjoy it lot more too.”
