Opening Statement: Russ Rose (Head Coach) –
“I thought we served really well. Our passing was a little shaky in the first couple of games but even though we weren’t passing very well we were still hitting about .380. I thought we had good distribution. They were having difficulty stopping Ari (Wilson), she’s been playing very well the last few matches. We had a game plan and we felt that we needed to do some things to try to contain their outside hitters and I thought it worked well. We dug some balls, we did some things that were characteristic of a team that was a little nervous as well, but I thought we got some great offensive performances this evening. I thought it was a nice effort.”
Nicole Fawcett (Junior Outside Hitter) – On handling Cal’s strong blocking
“I think we knew that they were a big blocking team, and going into that you know you have to hit shots and be aware and know that you can’t just hit straight down. I thought we did a great job of covering if we did get blocked.”
Russ Rose (Head Coach) – On being able to limit opponents’ total points in the whole NCAA Tournament thus far
“We’d like to keep our errors down. In the rally score era that we’re living in right now, you can win by scoring and you can lose by giving points away. We made a conscious effort to limit some of the errors that traditionally teams might be making. Like tonight we had about nine errors per game. If you’re giving up nine errors and you’re only giving up nine points that might be a high number, but it’s forcing the other team to score 60 percent of their points. And if we’re a pretty good blocking team and we can do some things well, that’s a good number for us.
The first couple matches of the tournament I thought we overpowered some teams we played and then last weekend we played great. I don’t think we played great tonight but I think we played well against an opponent that was riding high on emotion after a great win against Nebraska. Obviously, it more than had our attention that they beat the defending national champion 3-0. They led their conference in blocking and they led their conference in service aces. So we knew we had to pass well and we knew we had to beat the block, and try to limit the things they do well.”
Christa Harmotto (Junior Middle Hitter) – On handling Cal’s strong blocking
“I think just scouting teams allows us to be aware of some of their go-to hitters. We did a pretty good job of limiting their momentum and that allowed us to follow the game plan.”
Russ Rose (Head Coach) – On the team hitting such an impressive percentage throughout the NCAA Tournament thus far
“I think part of it is that we’re healthy at this time of year and in the last few years we haven’t been as healthy. That’s probably the most important factor in making a run late in the season is keeping your kids healthy. We have been fortunate to this point in time. I think our passing is good, I don’t think we’re a great passing team but I think we’re good at all five hitting positions and good at all six rotations on the left side and out of the pipe. I think those things can stress out some opponents. But also we got blocked a few times this evening because we were a little too easy to read as well. But part of it’s execution and part of it’s about having confidence, and the kids are excited about the opportunity and thrilled about the chance to play Stanford, who we had a great five-game match with earlier in the year.”
