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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2015

Kelly Sheffield

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: The Women's Volleyball Head Coach, Kelly Sheffield is here. We will have opening comments then take questions.

COACH SHEFFIELD: Thanks, Brian. Coming off a 2-1 weekend, strong tournament, strong competition. First match against a really good Kansas State team. I think they were 26th in the country. Lauren was a little bit off, she felt a little bit off, location was a little bit -- but I felt we got great performances out of Lauren Gillis and Kelli Bates, Taylor Morey. I thought those three were really, really solid. Last match we played -- we swept a good Creighton team, our last match. We lost to a talented Arkansas team.

I thought Haleigh Nelson and Tionna Williams, Romana Kriskova, I think those three had their three best matches in a Badger uniform, so now the question is can we get everyone on the same page and playing well together, but that's the challenge in front of us and I think we're headed in the right direction.

This week we've got Penn State, and been watching a lot of film, obviously once again a very talented team that seems to be getting better every week that's -- has an okay Coach, has accomplished a couple things, leading the -- that's accomplished a couple things, leading the way (Laughter.) The Ohio State team may jump into the top-10 in the polls this week, so we are certainly exited to get the Big Ten season under way

Q. Typical Penn State kind of team? All-Americans, all big hitters?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Gnarly, yeah. Their pins are better than anybody else in the country. Their lefts and their rights are crazy talented, and they have a sophomore middle that is wicked and nasty, you know? They've got a new setter, and I think she is getting a little bit more comfortable, a new libero, but the talent is there, well trained, typical Penn State team, meaning very, very good, yeah.

Q. You mentioned a new setter, Micah Hancock was one of the dominant players --
COACH SHEFFIELD: Who?

Q. You got an eye full of her over the last couple of years. How different are they without her?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Here is the thing, she had probably the best serve in the country, certainly the best serve on their team, and the new setter they have now is certainly the best server on their team, and she is really good. She is not quite Micah behind the service line, but she is no slouch and she is quite good. They're in fine hands, they're in fine hands.

Q. You tried Bates on the right side before I night. Is that something you plan to bring around again, or was it just to take a look at? Where do you see that shaking out?
COACH SHEFFIELD: That's a good question. I'm going to withhold that because if there is intrigue maybe we get 50 more fans to come out there and see what position Bates is going to play. Anything we can do from a marketing standpoint we're excited about!

Q. You may not be ranked as high as you were to start the season, you have lost two matches but are you a better team now than when the team first took the floor to start the year?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Good question. Absolutely! Pre-season rankings are so much about the previous season, you know, you see that in every sport. We understand why you have it, it gives people something to talk about and, again rates some interest and that's great, but I couldn't even tell you what we were ranked coming out of the gate.

It's not -- not even positive what we were ranked this past week. We don't really talk about it, we just talk about can we find ways of getting better. Here is what I know. We had three of our players at the end of the our last match play their best matches of the year, and the beginning of the weekend we had three players play awfully, awfully well, so our ceiling is getting higher with players, and can we find a way to mesh that up, and that's on the coaches. I have been changing things around quite a bit to try and figure out how these pieces are going to fit, and once the coaching staff gets out of the way and let's them go, I think we will probably have a chance of being pretty good.

Q. In the standings, obviously every game, every match is the exact same as far as worth in the standings column, but seeing Penn State, the opportunity to play them again in any way, does that mean more to your team?
COACH CHRYST: As a competitor, I would hope so. I mean, you are -- our goal is to try to compete for a national championship. You're going against a team that has won the last two, and although their personnel is different I think what it shows is you went up against a program that has storied excellence to it and our players to want feel that.

I think they're also equally jacked up to be opening up Big Ten, and I'm not sure who you would have in front of you -- our players are still going to be excited, might be more juice because of who it is. On the flip side, you know, we won a Big Ten Conference Championship last year, and that was something that was pretty big for us, and I'm sure there are quite a few players that are -- although they won the whole enchilada, I'm sure they feel it's rightfully theirs and they're probably going to be packing a little bit more juice as well.

Q. Looking at the Big Ten conference this year, always good in volleyball, but does it seem top-to-bottom it's one of the stronger ones that you've seen in a while?
COACH SHEFFIELD: I haven't been around that long, I'm still kind of a newbie myself, but coaches that have been around for a while, yeah, they all talk about this has got to be as deep as it's ever been. Funny thing is I heard that a couple of years ago as well, but it's hard to put your finger on too many teams that aren't better than what they've been last year or the year before. Almost everybody seems like they're better. This conference returns a lot of talent and it's a lot of -- a lot of coaches that have been here as well, you don't have any turnover, so you've got some people with familiarity.

Q. Kelly, wouldn't you rather play Penn State twice a year as opposed to only once?
COACH SHEFFIELD: Um, it's -- love playing against great competition so yeah. I mean, I don't sit there and waste a whole lot of energy on -- I mean, we're having great discussions, I'm sure most of the sports are, of how this scheduling is going to work out, and there are so many teams. You've got a 14-team conference, and you're trying to figure out a way to get 20 matches in, and it's really tough, and I'm sure all the sports are trying to figure out, all right, what's equal, what's fair, and it's kind of a tough challenge.

We're having discussions on the front-end of that, but once that schedule gets out in front, I don't sit there and judge at all, but if you're asking me to remove myself from that, would I have rather have played that team twice? Yeah. As a competitor you live for those types of matches; I know our players do, our coaching staff does. If you're a competitive junky, nothing is better than those types of teams.

Q. Penn State beats a lot of people, that goes without saying, but when you go over the last few years and they beat you this time and that time and the other time, how do you kind of keep making adjustments as a coach, or is it a recipe where you add a little of this and a little of that and hope it works? How do you keep making adjustments?
COACH SHEFFIELD: First of all, I appreciate the emphasis on "they beat you this time and that time and this time," and I thought you were going to add that for every single time we lost to them. We would have been here for a while! (Laughter.)

It's different personnel, their game is expanding but we have different personnel, and to me it's one of the great things about watching the amount of film we did. The first time you watch somebody, and it's almost everybody, you sit there and say, man, we are just going to get clobbered by this team, this team is so filthy. The more you watch them you start saying, all right, maybe we can do this, or maybe this is what they're trying to do, and you start figuring things out and that process is really, really enjoyable.

We go into every match believing that there is a way to win and we go into every match believing that we can win. It doesn't matter if it's them or whoever else but, yeah, there is a little bit of an element. We've gone back and watched matches we played against them last year as well and all right, what are they trying to do and you try to study that.

At the end of the day you probably have way more information than what you need and how do you get rid of the fluff and get to the essence of it and let the kids go out there and "ball!"

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? All right, thanks, Kelly.

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