Postmatch Quotes: Washington State vs. Marquette

Quotes from players and coaches

Volleyball December 01, 2016

Postmatch Quotes: Washington State vs. Marquette

Quotes from players and coaches

Washington State Quotes
Head coach Jen Greeny
Opening statement:
"I'm very proud of this Washington State team for advancing against a very, very tough opponent in Marquette. I'm extremely proud and happy to be onto the next round."

On what this win means to her:
"It's huge. I'm very invested in the program, that's why I came back, to right the ship and get it to this level. It's not really for me that I'm excited, I'm excited for the players and that they get to experience this."

On how they prepared for tournament play:
"I think we were just trying to emphasis how good Marquette was. It's hard when you're going to play somebody that you don't know very well, so we were just talking about how good Marquette was and I thought they showed that tonight as well. They're fantastic at running a slide, we really had a hard time with stopping that tonight."

On how to not let lack of playoff experience be too big of a factor:
"Playing in the Pac-12, every single night in our conference is like a tournament-type game in the quality of opponents that we play - night in and night out. So we didn't really discuss too much about being in the tournament for the first time in a while, we just tried to focus in on how to stop them and treat it like a non-conference, regular-season game and not make too much of a big deal out of it."

Hailey Bethune
Senior Outside Hitter
On being a good blocking team
"We're from the Pac-12 Conference, we see a ton of huge blocks every game of conference and even in our own practices. We're pretty confident in blocking teams so it was nothing new to us, just keep the game on our side and do what we have to do."

On setting a career high:
"Before going into the game, my only thoughts were that I had nothing to lose. In the tournament, you never know when it's going to be your last match, your last game, your last point. So my attitude coming in was that nothing was going to take away from how I was going to play today and I've been working on getting that mentality over the last couple games and I hope to continue it tomorrow."

Kyra Holt
Senior Outside Hitter:
On adjusting her play coming into the game:
"Our coaches did a great job with the scouting reports so we knew what areas on the court were open so I could just play my game."

On what this win means to her:
"It means a lot, I came here to make a change and us coming to the tournament is starting to make that change. It means a lot to do it for the coaching staff and my teammates."

Marquette Quotes
Head coach Ryan Theis
Opening statement:
"We thought the University of Wisconsin did a nice job as host and we certainly appreciate their hospitality. In terms of experience in the match, I thought it came down to not sustaining good play long enough. I tip my cap to Washington State. I thought their offensive output through four straight games was awfully consistent in terms of putting pressure on us. We just couldn't get enough pressure to keep them off balance. I don't think we sustained the level of play we had in the first two (sets)in three and four. But I'm proud of our senior class and the opportunity to go to four straight NCAA tournaments. I was happy for those guys, I thought they did a nice job."

On positive takeaways from this experience:
"Our good is awfully good, that's what I'll take away. It's always how good is your good and how bad is your bad, especially when you're playing best of five for two hours. Our good is awfully good, but we just have to get the bad a little bit better and hopefully sustain good play for longer. If you can't sustain good play, you're not going to win against good teams."

Senior Meghan Niemann
On her last NCAA tournament:
"I feel really blessed to be a part of five of them, that's something not many student-athletes get to do and being a part of five was great. Thanks to Marquette for everything that they've done for me personally as a student-athlete to help me succeed. This week, it was super fun and exciting to prepare for another NCAA tournament, the score always resets to 0-0, and you kind of get one last shot to make your mark. So tonight we didn't get to go as far as I would've liked to, but we had a great run at it."

On what gave them trouble against Washington State:
"I think they're a team that's bigger than us, and we hadn't seen that very much. So tonight they did a great job always getting four hands up on us and making sure to get hands in our face."

Sophomore Jenna Rosenthal
On how important the relationships made on the team are going forward:
"It's what you do. You can't play a division I volleyball season without becoming incredibly close to the people that are there with you on that ride. These are friendships that we'll have forever. Some of them might be going, but some of them might be staying closer, and we're all part of something bigger than us. I'm very glad I can call these people my friends forever.

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