Recap
No. 2 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Illinois
Nov. 19, 2014
UW Fieldhouse – Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
Opening Statement:
“That was a heck of a match by two teams that were laying it all out there. I think that was college volleyball at it’s best. Two teams that were fighting; we came out in game one and really, really put it to them. I thought we were serving aggressively, our offense was humming and they did what elite teams do. They came back and punched back. I thought our serving got a little bit lighter in game two. Then in game three, we all saw that comeback in game three. They had an awful big lead in game three and our kids just kept chipping away, chipping away and found a way to win. Game four we got a pretty good lead and were about ready to finish them off and they did exactly what we did in game three. They never doubted and they kept fighting. There in game four, we had those two miscues by Deme and Kelli, I think that got them game point or tied it up, but you are looking at the body language and looking at how they are communicating and they come right back to nail the next ball. They put 60 balls on Kelli tonight. They put 28 on everybody else so they were going relentlessly after Kelli like nobody we have seen all year. We haven’t seen anybody pick one person, they were not only trying to do it, but they were also executing. She was monstrous tonight. She was just absolutely monstrous tonight. Against McMahon up there, that was who she was matched up against, that kind of a block, to take the most swings and come up with some big time kills when the games were on the line. She showed an awful lot of heart and helped us do a really good job of slowing down McMahon. She is awfully, awfully good. Kelli was fantastic. The other thing I thought we did a really good job with was defense. Defensively, I thought it was two teams that were playing really hard. It was a fun match to be a part of.”
On the mindset of coming back in the third set:
“We don’t talk about winning or losing there. I think there is just a belief that, we are trying to play good volleyball. It is constant. Number one, you want them to make sure that, we felt like we had to embrace the challenges and deal with frustration. I thought that was key. You are talking about two teams that are the two best blocking teams in the conference, and have the two best back row digging numbers in the league. We knew that there would be a lot of frustration and difficult scores. So how do you manage that, you want to make sure that everybody is managing it all right. I thought only time that was a little bit in game three where we were a little bit frustrated. I thought we got over that pretty quickly and then we are just talking about adjustments and reassuring. There is a high belief in this team. When you put high belief and high fight together, then those things are possible. You are not going to guarantee that you are going to come back that big. If you have high fight and high togetherness and are managing the frustration, you are giving yourself a chance and that is what we did.”
On how important Taylor’s serving and Demi’s playing in the back row during that stretch:
“It was great. Deme (Morales) had 19 digs. It was clearly her best defensive effort of the year. There is no question about it. That is what I mean, I thought defensively across the board, there were some sick plays made that last half of the match by both sides defensively. The hitting numbers came down in game four; it was really hard to score. You saw two teams with a lot of heart just going at it. It was hard on both sides. The last three games were all two-point games that all went over 25. Any of those games could have gone either way. Somebody had to win and we were fortunate. I thought they played with a lot of heart as well. It was a great Big Ten match.”
On his emotion after a match like this:
“You are proud of your players. There are a lot of things, not just the win, but how they responded. We talk about it so much on how do you respond. On how our team responds, on how does somebody like Kelli respond when they are just constantly going after it? How do people respond when Kelli and Deme have those two shanks right there at the end? How do you respond form that? We challenge our group between games two and three with our serving. We come in and we have three quick service errors right away. So you are sitting there going how are you going to respond to that? So you are proud of how they responded. The second thing is we play in about 45 hours from now; a really fast turnaround on the road. We better get over this pretty quick. It’s was 45 hours, but after my talk it might be down to 44.”
Wisconsin Players
On feeding Bates at the end of the third set when she had five kills:
“I definitely had confidence in going to her in that third game. She was chesting up a little bit in that third game and she was getting more confident with every ball so I just wanted to keep feeding her. Even if she got blocked, I knew she was going to bounce back. I had confidence in her and she definitely proved it.”
On how the end of the third set reflects on the team:
“We have a lot of heart and a heart of a champion. We just tell ourselves that we are absolutely not losing this game. We are not going down 2-1. We just D-up and looked into each others eyes and said we are doing this together and we are doing it now. There is no letting up, we are going all the way through until we win this game.”
On going forward through the end of the year:
“Every game we play is a little bit more practice, a little bit more in our back pocket that we know that we can achieve and get to. We know that if we have to play at this level again, we are in that situation where we can pull it out and we can win those games.”
On how the team did tonight:
“It’s exciting, I would say. This team is unbelievable. The things that we’re doing right now are awesome. I couldn’t be more proud to be on a team like this, and with these two players besides me, especially Kelli. In the third game, I looked at Lauren and I said set her again. I’m normally the one in those situations where I want to be set to but she had her big girl pants on tonight, and I just thought she was just unbelievable.”
On how the end of the third set reflects on the team:
“I think we had a lot of confidence early because we kind of did the same thing at Purdue. We have been in this situation, we were down 14-21 and we came back to win it. Thinking about that, it made this possible. It kept our eyes open until the end of the game.”
On when she noticed Illinois was targeting her:
“I’m kind of expecting that going into every Big Ten match because I am a freshman. I feel like a lot of freshmen coming into the Big Ten, especially in this conference. This conference is so tough that not every freshman can handle it and I think that that’s always in the back of my head, that teams are probably going to target me and then if they don’t, then they don’t. I knew, especially after probably 10 points in the first set, this was going to happen all game. I think I handled it well. The girls were always telling me if the ball was in or out, they were just giving me a lot of confidence back there anyway. So it wasn’t as stressful as people would think.
It’s nice that I had a career high but at the same time, I really don’t think it’s that important. That was such a huge team win. There were certain people that made so many more critical plays than I would have. It’s just a number. I haven’t really thought anything of it.”
On what it’s like to have teammates trust you in critical part of match:
“It really is an unbelievable feeling just because I am the only freshman. They really only have to worry about me, but at the same time if I’m holding myself up then they really have nothing to worry about. So I think it’s just really reassuring that they know they can count on me, especially because during certain points I’ve gained a lot of confidence in myself in those points. It’s just really comforting.”
