Opening Statement: Rich Feller (Head Coach) -
“Not often that I don’t have any words. Thar was two really really good teams playing each other. Penn State just had some answers for what we tried to do They served really well, we served pretty well. The hit us a little harder than anyone has done in a while and my hat is off to Penn State, they’re a great team.”
“This team went farther than any Cal team in history and we’ve accomplished so much this year, it’s a shame that every fairy tale doesn’t have a happy ending. I’m so proud of these guys and these two seniors right here carried us on their shoulders all season long. They took on a leadership role that we asked them to do from last January and physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually they grabbed this team and took them to the Final Four, I will always remember that.”
Angie Pressey (Senior Outside Hitter) – Concerning her career
“Reporters are so funny, talk about my career being over, you want me to cry don’t you? That last point was funny because I couldn’t breathe. It just hurts because, that was not our best. To play, going out on your best that’s one thing, but that was not us. Penn State did a really nice job, but I know we are more than that, that is what really hurts. But at the same time it feels good to be here. It’s funny you get cocky, you beat Nebraska 3-0 and you think I don’t just want to be here, I want to win. And that is what state of mind we were in, so just to be here, that wasn’t good enough.”
Rich Feller – Concerning a tough night blocking.
“It’s hard to say, Penn State was running pretty fast at us. Maybe we were just not making the right moves, not making the right reads, sometimes we weren’t technically right. I think Angie just said it perfectly, that wasn’t our best game and if you don’t play your best game here it’s going to be really hard to win. We were trying to patch things up and nothing seemed to grab hold.”
Ellen Orchard (Senior Middle Hitter) – Concerning Penn State’s performance, specifically blocking
“Part of it was they were in system a lot more than we were, so we had a harder time keeping up with them and we were pretty predictable and we hit right into them half of the time.”
Angie Pressey (Senior Outside Hitter) – Concerning the Finals
“Go Pac-10. They are our rivals but a couple of the girls we know, they’re our friends. When it comes down to it, we want the Pac-10 to win. That is who we will be cheering for, we’d like to cheering for ourselves, but we will be at the game, so we’ll be going for the Pac-10.”
Rich Feller – Concerning Penn State’s ability to limit their opponents
“I think it’s the same thing we do, they block and they serve. That is probably the best serving team we’ve seen this year and normally we are the best serving team that we see. That puts a team on their heels and with the block they have, it’s hard to run any kind of offense.”
Ellen Orchard (Senior Middle Hitter) – Concerning taking this team to the Final Four and the legacy left at Cal
“Not many people expected us to get here, but we knew it and our team knew it. It’s neat to know that we left an amazing team to do even better next year, we expect to get here and actually play our best and win.”
Angie Pressey (Senior Outside Hitter) – Concerning the level of attack of Penn State
“The speed of play was about the same as we see in the Pac-10. I think what Ellen said before, they were in system more. When you are in system more and have big hitters it’s tough, it’s tough for any team. Again, their in system and when their in system it’s hard to predict. Thank God I am not a middle so I don’t have to decide which way to go, That is really tough on our middle, because they were in system so much.
Rich Feller – Concerning what made this team so special
“One I already talked about, our senior leadership. In the years that I have been at Cal, these two have provided that leadership better than anyone else. We also believed, we worked hard every weekend, we made small adjustments. We tweaked practices and asked them to do more and more and when we pushed them, they accepted it. We did a lot of things, that a lot of team’s wouldn’t have been able to handle and these guys were able to handle it and advance. They are really smart, they learned other teams very very fast. They have good volleyball IQ’s, that combination with the leadership helped us get this far.
Angie Pressey (Senior Outside Hitter) – Concerning what made this team so special
“I’d like to add to that. With Ellen and I, she is so quiet and I am so not, we balance each other so well. In previous years, I didn’t feel that from my seniors. I didn’t understand what it took to win games in the Pac-10, to win games against No. 5, No. 4 in the country. Ellen and I would talk all the time, we really realized that in order to get there it is a top-to-bottom thing. Ellen stepped out of her box and she would be yelling on the court and for me, I didn’t have to say as much. It was such a great relationship, that I am really truly going to miss.”
