Recap

NCAA First Round Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Western Michigan
Dec. 4, 2014
UW Fieldhouse – Madison, Wis.


Wisconsin Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
On his opening statement:
“We’re really appreciative of the crowd that came out tonight, and how energetic they were, and the fact that they stuck around even though we got started probably 45 minutes late on a school and work night, we’re certainly appreciative of that. I thought we came out and Lauren (Carlini) got us going pretty early, I thought, moving the ball around serving, and hitting her zones and putting a lot of pressure on them. Defensively, we were digging and we were converting. We got off on a nice little lead, got everybody involved. Game two, I thought Western Michigan did a really good job of attacking with their serves. They really got their offense going behind the setter with their middles and with their right side. That was giving us some fits there for most of game two. We made a little bit of an adjustment in the locker room for game three, and I thought we defended that a little bit better. First win, first match, first win in the tournament. We’re moving on, so we’re happy about that.”

On if there is a benefit from having to work in the second set after lopsided scores in the first and third sets:
“I guess there’s a benefit. We’re really trying to find the positives, so yeah, you’ve got to work through it a little bit. Like I said, I thought we made adjustments between two and three. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make those adjustments on the fly in game two, we’re going to have to do a better job of that, but credit Western Michigan. After getting a pretty lop-sided score in the first, then they came back and right from the beginning of game two, they showed an awful lot of fight, and they were doing that in the end of the season. We kind of expected that out of them. There’s benefits, certainly, of having to fight and scratch, because you’re certainly going to have to do a lot of that in this tournament going forward.”

On how they plan to prepare for the next game in such a short amount of time:
“They’re going to go sit in the cold tanks for a little bit tonight, stretch, and tomorrow get up and eat some breakfast. We’ve got a couple video sessions tomorrow, and that will help. That’s one of the challenges of the tournament, and it’s one of the challenges we’ve got in front of us. We haven’t really had to play back-to-back days. It’s a fast turn around. You’ve got to be ready mentally - your body’s got to hopefully be fresh. It’s important to try to take care of business and not let matches extend. All those types of things play into it. One of the things that they’ll see is we start - in practice, we did a lot of talking about our first opponent, but there were some things we were working on in case we were fortunate enough to get to that second night. We’ve worked a little bit on both of our potential opponents, they just don’t know it yet. They’ll start watching film, and they’ll be like, okay yeah, we were working on that. That makes sense.”


S Lauren Carlini
On if Western Michigan targeting her in the back row effected how the offense works:
“I think it just helps momentum for the team. I think with me digging and Courtney (Thomas) being able to set every ball and us stay in system, it’s just a huge advantage to us, and it absolutely helps the offensive numbers and I was just trying to keep balls in play and stay in system.”


MB Haleigh Nelson
On her take on the match when it goes from easy to hard:
“I would say it was just a really great opening match. Western Michigan is a really tough team to face in the first round. They really brought everything they had tonight, and things were going our way in the first set, we were taking care of our assignments. And in the second set, they changed up a bit, and we didn’t respond the way that we should have, we just didn’t pick up on it quick enough. I think that it was good for us to still be able to grind out a win even though we weren’t making the assignments that we should have. It was good practice in just sticking with it and being able to get points here and there, and pull out the win anyways. When we go in the locker room between sets two and three and buckle down and figure out what we need to change, everyone’s on the same page and come out in the third set and be on top of our game is just a really great way to open up the tournament I think.”



Western Michigan Head Coach Colleen Munson
Opening statement: 
“I think it was a really nice opportunity for our team to be here. Wisconsin is obviously a very, very good team. I was very proud of the way our team handled the match. The second set was a great set, and we wished that the first and third were similar, but it’s a tribute to how good of a team Wisconsin is and how well they are trained and their players individually.”

On coming into an environment like the UW Field House and how it affects the game plan:
“It was fantastic, great fans, a great environment, and we loved the energy that was in the building throughout the entire match. Obviously a very good team, individual players are very talented, very well trained. I thought our girls gave it a great fight, and point for point we were right there with them.”

On what was changed between the first and second sets to give Wisconsin a harder time:
“We just relaxed. Obviously coming into this tournament, although it’s well deserved, there’s a different expectation individually and collectively. We just went back to what we know we can do and just had fun. We just relaxed and tried to put the pressure back on them, and our goal, as simple as it was, was for Kelly (Sheffield) to call a timeout. And he called two timeouts in the second set, which sounds very simple, but that is where we had to start.”

OH Ali Gossen
On whether they were expecting to see Lauren Carlini in the backcourt and how it affected their plans for the game:
“Honestly, I think we expected everyone to be making plays. They are all very talented, and I know I’ve played against some of them prior to tonight, as well as our other players. They’re a big team, but I think if we stick to our game plan and go out there and give it our all, that we can make things happen like we showed in the second set.”