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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 29, 2014Kelly SheffieldCOACH SHEFFIELD: Got done with a tough week. We started out and got our butts kicked by Penn State pretty good at our own game. We had a tough video session afterwards. But I was really happy with how the team responded coming out of that. And I thought especially our captains got the team together and had them moving forward. Against Ohio State, yesterday, I thought we responded the right way against a team that's very difficult to prepare for and I thought the team was ready to go. I thought our coaching staff, the assistants did a really, really good job of having the team prepared and ready to move forward. We've got Northwestern on Wednesday. This is a short week. Today's an offday. So we basically have one day to prepare with the players before we hit the road against a 12 and 1 Northwestern squad and Illinois team this weekend, who I think is probably one of the top 10 teams in the country. Q. Since you made the national championship, it's been praised, you've been asked about that huge accomplishment. There's been banners, ceremonies, this and that. Can losing a match like you did on Wednesday be a positive bringing these girls maybe back to earth a little bit? COACH SHEFFIELD: You know, I don't know if it's a back‑to‑earth thing. It's just‑‑ I think when you get it handed to you, you don't play the way you want to play. I think you're able to really look closely, especially when you're playing a really talented team. You get to go back, get to evaluate and look at all the different ways you gotta hand it to us. We weren't just outplayed. There was better communication on the other side than that. Better executing of game plans on the other side than that. More celebrating. Being there and creating momentum for your teammates. Out‑coached a lot of different ways. Better hustle. And when you go back and you look at those things on video, like what we did, it was back and forth, this is what they looked like, this is what we looked like, this is what they looked like, this is what we looked like. And we've got a lot of players that have a lot of pride. And it was a, when you have a lot of pride and you see proof that you're just getting outplayed and out everything, it's very hard to take. And I don't think last year has anything to do with it. It's just sometimes that's how we approach things when we're trying to get better. But I've always felt this great competitors, after things aren't going well, you want to know what it is. I think there's a hunger to get in front of the video and watch that, find ways so that you are getting better and certain things don't ever happen again. And so I thought it kind of cleaned the slate, kind of gets some of that bad taste out of your mouth a little bit. And this team, Sunday was too long for some of our players after Wednesday night. I think they would have liked to have played shortly afterwards. I think no matter what happens in a previous year, you're always trying to find ways to get better. And hopefully what we saw on film is something we'll be able to sustain going forward. Q. The differences between these two teams you're facing this week, Kelly? COACH SHEFFIELD: Northwestern, they've got a really nice freshman setter that's coming in. And I'm really impressed with her. They're running a very fast middle. What we call a zero tempo. The middles are up in the air and that just causes a lot of problems. You've got to decide whether you're going to commit on them or not. Defensively, these guys are holding teams to the second lowest hitting percentage in the league. I mean, I think teams are hitting about a buck 20 off of them. So they're really getting it done defensively. Illinois, very experienced team. All the way across. They graduated one player that was in the rotation from last year. And that was a really, really good solid squad last year that got us pretty good at our own place. They're very experienced, very powerful, very big. This is a tough road trip this week. Q. Obviously sweeping Ohio State was helpful, but did you finish more strongly at the net hitting and blocking the ball all the way across? COACH SHEFFIELD: Yeah, I thought we had Caroline Workman in the rotation for the first time this year. First time she's been in played pretty much I thought she did a solid job especially behind the service line. We had Taylor Morey playing the middle back for a few rotations, and I thought that helped us out defensively. Our server C patterns were a little bit different going into that match. There were still some things that were a little bit rough that with limited practice going into that I thought we did a good job. I thought Courtney Thomas had a great balanced back match at the net from the previous match. We really tried to get our middle involved. Our outsides numbers, Ellen and Kelli, their numbers didn't look great, but we haven't really the past couple of weeks set them very much when we're in system. They've been having most of their sets in transition or when we're out of system. So usually that defense is set up for them. So their hitting errors were down, but we're really kind of putting them in a tough position to score, but mentally they're both staying with it and letting the game plan play out a little bit. Yeah, I thought we were very physical at the net. We got some really nice blocks. Closing on that, that's something that we've really been emphasizing in practice. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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