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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2015

Kelly Sheffield

Madison, Wisconsin

COACH SHEFFIELD: This weekend we felt like we got a little bit better than we played the previous weekend. We were happy about that. I thought we got -- I thought Kelli Bates and Haleigh Nelson, I thought both of them offensively took the next step and both them had nice weekends. I thought both of them behind the service behind put a line the pressure on our opponents and that was certainly good to see. I think Kelli has got a lot better with her serving and that's something we're needing out of her.

Transition attack has been something we've really worked hard on that, and our blocking and I thought both of those came along better. We had better numbers this week in both of those. Par far fun weekend with all the alums coming back. We are certainly appreciative of all of them coming back and looks like they were having a good time.

This weekend, it's pretty hefty duty tournament. We open up with Kansas State who might slide into the Top-25 this weekend. Creighton, who might have played the toughest schedule in the country, or one of them, up to this point, and really good and well-coached Arkansas team.

So we are excited to get back to work. We have a couple days off away from the gym just in lifting, and we are going to get after it this afternoon.

Q. Question of the week, related to playing time, you had Tori and Tionna in the middle, and Romana and Madison on the right side. Do you see it continuing that way or settling in before you get into the Big Ten?
COACH SHEFFIELD: I don't know if I'm in a real big hurry to -- we are just going to let it go and let them battle and let them try to show us what they can do, see who improves. It's always going to be a work-in-progress. The past couple years, what we have done and what we have looked like at the end of the season has not been what we looked like personnel and where they are at at the beginning of the season.

It's kind of the fun part about coaching is letting them figure it out. One of those actually was decided because we had somebody late for a meeting and when you do that, you are going to -- there's probably going to be playing consequences. Sometimes those plays help out, as well.

Tori has come in some spot play and she's looked good. Tionna has gotten dramatically better with her connections with Lauryn behind the setter. Her blocking numbers continue to climb. From the right side we have to get a little bit more production out of either one of them. I don't think there's any secret to that.

Neither one of them played a whole lot of -- Madison has been here, what, three weeks or so a month. So we are not going to write her off right now. Romana, she didn't play any for a year. We'll see how it goes.

Q. What steps has Kelli Bates taken in her game and why can't other teams stop her? It's not like she's 6-2. She's 5-10, 5-11.
COACH SHEFFIELD: I thought she came out of the gates and her attack numbers weren't where we wanting them but her ball control was really, really good and her back court has gotten a lot better.

Our attacking numbers were a lot better this weekend. Their passing numbers were out a little bit so we have to find a way to get all that. She's not somebody to worry about at all. That kid is locked in and she's trying to get better.

But she is very, very dynamic. She gets on the ball very quickly, for not just somebody her size. She's a very good blocker regardless of her size. She's a very fast switch. She's quick. She doesn't make a lot of mental mistakes because she's out to lunch. When you're that athletic, you're that twitchy and you've got that kind of volleyball IQ, you're going to beat up on a lot of people.

Q. Three matches in two days sounds aggressive. Does that speed up the preparation for what's ahead?
COACH SHEFFIELD: No, it's tough. We did that, what was that, opening week, we haven't done it the past couple weeks. You play three matches against some pretty good teams within 24 hours.

A lot of people are doing that. I personally, if it were up to me, I'd like to get rid of that. I don't really know the reason behind that and there's teams that are playing four matches in a couple days and to me, that's just -- I don't know, it's conducive to opening up injuries and not very good play and everything else. That's kind of how this sport is done.

We'll give a full scouting report on our first match who happens to be Kansas State, and the last two matches, you really shrink that down and you give them a lot less information because there's just a lot less time to get ready.

We would like to think that our preparation is one of the advantages we have. I'm sure just not every team in the country feels that way, but we really believe it. You cut that down, and it's not something that we would really like to do. Maybe one of these days we'll get rid of some of these multi-team tournaments but we'll see.

Q. Weight (ph) radio debut -- what's it like having him back in the field house?
COACH SHEFFIELD: It's something I think is -- you know, we have these -- we send out these surveys to the ticket holders, the marketing department does afterwards and it asks everything. This department is really -- it's important to them to have the fan experience really good. You know, they will ask about parking and concessions and the seating, their experience and other things about their education background and all kinds of stuff.

Our first year, we go to the National Championship match, and the surveys comeback and probably had about a half-dozen of them that sounded like just this but one in particular said, hey, coach she have field, you've had a great season, we appreciate everything that you've done but you're no Keith Weight (ph).

I'm sitting there going, man, what do we have to do. But he's from here, his family is from here. He's an unbelievable -- he had an unbelievable career. People think very highly of him. I think very, very highly of him. I'd like him to be around. My evil plan was to have him doing the rest of the matches and so we just suckered him and said, come back once and he'll be in the building.

But the evil plan is actually him having such a good time that we just sucker him in here for good. I think he's a brilliant mind. I think he just makes our product better. He's from here. I'd love for him to be around but again that's up to him. Hopefully he came back here and saw a lot of his former players and it sounded like he had an unbelievable reaction from the crowd. Sound like he might have had the biggest reaction from the crowd this weekend.

Hopefully he feels like this is a place that he wants the community to come back to and give back to the program because we can certainly use him.

Q. What have you learned about this team that you didn't know opening weekend?
COACH SHEFFIELD: You know, that maybe, just maybe, we might end up being an okay blocking team. Maybe, just maybe, we might end up being pretty good. Our transition attack might end up being pretty good. Maybe, just maybe, some of the down balls, free balls, easy balls coming off the block, that we might be able to control those and come back at our opponents with more ferocity than what we have done the first couple weeks.

Those are things that we have been working on a lot that have been pretty much non-existent the first couple weeks and we did a lot better job of that. And that's really, as a coach, that's what you want to see is that when you get in the gym and you spend some time, what does it look like when you get back out there against opponents, because you do this long enough and there's teams that you can spend all week working on things and you get back out there and it's not like you didn't do anything at all in practice.

You know, I think it further just show that is we just need time together; that these guys, that they want to get better, that they are working hard and then, you know, there's some improvements if we just do it in the gym.

So it's just an element of time. But I would say those are three things that jump out from the first couple weekends.

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