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Wisconsin vs. Penn State Post Match Quotes
NCAA Volleyball Louisville Regional
Dec. 13, 2014
Wisconsin Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
On the Badgers' bowing out of the NCAA tournament…
"It's tough. It's tough any time that your season ends and you're with people that you love and everybody is just moving in the same direction. We have an unbelievable senior class, so when that season comes to an end, when that career comes to an end, it's hard. It's a hard locker room. You know, you want to ease their pain but you can't, so you just wear it. As far as the match, I thought it was two teams that were just battling like crazy. It was a great sporting event. Along with Ohio State last night, it was just warriors leaving it all out there. From that standpoint, you couldn't be more proud. These guys hold their heads high. There's only one team that wins it. Certainly we're upset that we weren't able to do something that we set a goal of ours. One loss doesn't define our season or define our careers or anything. If someone is going to take you down, you want them to take you down when you're leaving it all out there. But it's a game of inches. In game three, a ball clips the net and drops right over, and another ball that we thought was just in that was just out, that's two points the other way. And then game four, two passes off of (Penn State setter) Micha Hancock's serve where Lauren (Carlini) is right there. Three hours ago she jump-sets and that's a three-option pass, but with a bum ankle she's not quite able to get there. What are you going to do? At the end of the day, I'm proud of these girls' effort."
On Lauren Carlini's ankle injury sustained in the first set…
"That was something different. In game one a player went underneath the net - a high ankle sprain. The doctor told me if we won this match that she probably wouldn't have been able to play next week. She got it really, really good - I mean everybody saw she looks like Willis Reed out there limping around. Unfortunately she's got to cover more ground than what Willis did back then. I thought our passers did a really good job of putting a lot of balls right where they needed to be so she wasn't running all over the place. It is a really hard position to run around with a high ankle sprain or a chipped bone in her leg, foot whatever it is that she has got. It has blown up pretty good already. But no, that was an injury suffered during the match."
On the seriousness of Carlini's injury…
"I don't know. The kid is in a lot of pain right now. The doctors are working on her and I think they are taking her to get x-rays. I mean who knows. The more important this is that - warriors is a term that you use an awful lot - but I think anyone that watched that match and watched how they went about it. I know my vocabulary is not very good to come up with something that is different. I mean we got a kid that is going in and we had to change some things of how we did and Courtney, the team didn't flinch when we had to do that. I mean Taylor Morey is putting her face in a table and Lauren is going with a bum ankle and about to dive into the scorers table. I am yelling at her no, I want her to see another point. They're just putting it all out there and we got beat.
On the Badgers' service errors…
"Penn State is incredible. There is a lot of punch and if they are in system then it's going to be pretty tough. One to 14, that's not a very good ratio. A couple of those errors from Lauren two of those were me not knowing she didn't have lift on her foot. We had to make some adjustments as we were going, trying to hit some better zones for her. We were letting it fly. You know, Micha (Hancock) I thought it was 50-50 her holding herself down. When she got in play I thought we did a really good job of passing. We were consistently off line when she got those in play. We had quite a few service errors, whether that was the difference in the match, I don't know or not. I know it wouldn't have been near as long if we would have put in lollipops. We just didn't execute them at the level that was needed."
Senior Courtney Thomas
On winning the first set…
"I think we have a game plan no matter who is in there. I used to be a setter, I've trained my whole life to be a setter, so it's not like that was a huge deal to me that I was just put in a setting position. I took a hold of it and the little time I was doing it I felt completely comfortable. I wasn't scared one bit to do that, and to do that for my team, as well. If there was anybody to go down and be able to step up and set, I would want it to be me. I think, a win is a win no matter who we had out there. Thank goodness for Lauren (Carlini)'s fighting spirit and the way she played in her confidence to come back in there and play for us."
On the overall game…
"I think the game just fell how it fell. I think both teams were playing really hard and in the end, they won."
On her final game as a Badger…
"It hasn't hit me yet. These girls are my sisters. They're my friends for the rest of my life, so it's not like I'm never going to see them again. Yeah, I'll never play volleyball again, but I love them, and this group of seniors is unbelievable. There are seven of us, and we've been together for so long. It's going to be hard. It's going to be really hard, but I hope the best for them next year and I hope they can pull it out and do even better than we did this year."
Senior Dominique Thompson
On her final game as a Badger…
"It's kind of hard to put into words. It was a good game. I wish it went our way at the end, but I'm really glad I got to play with all these girls."
