Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. Ohio State
December 12, 2014 | Volleyball
Wisconsin vs. Ohio State Post Match Quotes
NCAA Volleyball Louisville Regional
Dec. 12, 2014
Wisconsin Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
On the battle with Ohio State…
 "It was a mother of a match, it was tough. I have been on the other side of this where Ohio State is right now. They played really well. The job that he has done this season and getting his team to play at that level and execute a game plan, congratulations on a great year to Ohio State. This wasn't a ting of great beauty when you look at the numbers. It was a struggle for us all night long, a real, real struggle but we just stayed with it. We just battled and we just stayed with it. If you do that then you give yourself a chance. We gave ourselves a chance but just not worrying about the consequences. I never noticed that when we were talking and we were able to make some adjustments. They were just countering very well. We were two teams that were just punching at each other. You have a coach in front of you that is just very proud of his players.Â
Kt Kvas came off the bench just at a time that we needed just a little bit of sunshine. She gave that with some really tough serving runs and I think that gave us a shot of caffeine or something. It didn't mean that we were just off and rolling, it just came at a time when we really needed it. Kelli Bates down there certainly didn't look like the youngest player on the court there tonight. She was really, really good and for large chunks of the match she was carrying us. This was a tough match early on for Courtney Thomas but when it was winning time, she came through in a big way with some blocks and some kills. Just a great time effort and I am proud of them."
On the overall match…
 "You know, you've got a group that's just - it was a real struggle, we were having tough time scoring; we were having a tough time slowing some of those things down. And they're serving on the whistle, which is trying - making this go really, really fast. You know, we're trying to call our plays and they're getting set up and the official is blowing the whistle. They just never allowed us to take a breath. And so we had to just learn to roll with it. And was there a time we were frustrated, or I was frustrated? I don't know if I was frustrated. What we were trying to get them to do was to embrace the challenge. You know, we're getting hit, hit back and we're getting hit again, hit back. Just embrace this, it is what we were kind of saying at the very end of game four and end of game five. This is, trust me, this will feel like one of the greatest wins of your entire career. Just stay together and it's going to feel unbelievable afterwards. And so you're just trying to keep everybody's eyes on what matters, and out in front of you, rather than back behind."
Sophomore Lauren Carlini
On her serving late in the fifth set…
"We love it. That's all I've been practicing this whole year. That's actually been one of our main things this past two weeks in practice. We've been serving when the game's on the line, and we embrace that moment. We want to be the ones serving. So I was pumped, I was like, 'I'm not getting off this service line until 15.' That's kind of the mentality I went in with, and so I tried to serve aggressive."
On Ohio State's play…
 "They played a great match. They came out with everything they had and they left it all on the floor. You know, I think we at first were a little surprised by it, and we didn't know how to respond. But I think we did a great job of bouncing back and just staying with it and being consistent, and that's kind of been our M.O. this whole season. So great job to Ohio State, though, they played an amazing match."
Senior Courtney Thomas
On the emotions of the match…
 "I embrace that moment, I really enjoy it. You know, being a senior, I live for those moments. I think the team has a lot of confidence in me, and Lauren feeds me the ball in those situations. So I try to keep my confidence high for the team, and know that they can look at me no matter how I'm playing and what I'm doing, and know that they have confidence in me and I have confidence in them."
Freshman Kelli Bates
On finding open spots in the Ohio State defense…
 "I mean it was pretty difficult. They were a great scrappy team. Their execution of how they defended me- it was just really hard to find an open spot because everywhere I went or anything that was obvious, they read it and they just picked up a bunch of stuff. And so I think that was really hard, but at the same time I have people on our team that are yelling out shots for me that are open. So I think that's another reason I got the kills that I got."
