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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 1, 2012Pete WaiteTHE MODERATOR: The volleyball team continues its home stand this weekend with a pair of matches at the Field House, which is Michigan State and Michigan. The Badgers and Spartans play on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The match will be televised by the Big Ten network. On Sunday, UW hosts Michigan at 1:00 p.m. Head coach Pete Waite is here. And we'll have opening comments and then questions. COACH WAITE: We hosted Penn State on Friday night and found out why they're number one in the country. They're very, very good. Bret had a quote, don't let a team beat you twice. I think unfortunately we might have had that happen. I think, on Saturday night against Ohio State, we had such a slow start, I think it was left over from the night before. Penn State is such a strong team, they kind of rocked you and keep you on your heels. And then we found out they went to Minnesota the next night. I think Minnesota was ranked top ten for sure about eighth. They beat them in three and beat them 25 8 in one of the games. It's a very, very strong team. Unfortunately, we started slow against Ohio State, lost the first two, but then won the next, won the third, and had it going and couldn't quite finish it off. This is one of our cases in our sport, when you play back to back nights against different people, depending on the travel partners and who they are, you've got a couple of tough teams coming at you all the time. This weekend we’ve got Michigan State coming to town, and then we have a day off for the football game, and then Sunday we’ve got our game against Michigan. Both very strong teams. Michigan State has a transfer from Northern Illinois. Wicinski, who is leading one of the top attackers in the country. So that was a nice get for them. Because they graduated four kids. So she's really doing well for them. And Michigan is in the top 25, so that's a very strong team also. So they should be some good matches. Q. Have you seen that before where a team comes in and beats you pretty handily, and then the next night it happens again? Do you see that a lot? COACH WAITE: I wouldn't say a lot, but it does happen, where that's why some teams, they really like   with us and Minnesota, usually, that's a very good travel partner because it's a good team that they'll play them the night before. If you have a team like maybe an Iowa, Nebraska combination, it's a little different, high and low in the conference. It has not happened to us that often, where you really get hit that hard. Penn State is just that strong right now. They're just really playing some great ball. It tends to shake your confidence a little bit. They're hitting over the top. They're hitting shots you're not used to. You can't defend, and your kids think they're doing all the right things. Realistically as a coach, I understand that, but it's hard for them to understand that sometimes. Q. How do you get their confidence back? COACH WAITE: Get back in practice this week, have some meetings. You talk to them about leaving it behind you and just moving forward and improving your own game. That's one thing. Some of the teams will obviously bring out your weak areas, and you need to improve a little bit more, tweak some things, but give them a positive feeling and make sure they're healthy and happy as they go to play. This is also the grind where we're about halfway through the season, where we may shorten practice some, go a little lighter, and just make sure they're feeling healthy because they can feel pretty banged up. You’ve still got somebody like Crystal who's coming off the knee injury and still getting back into it and there’s some lingering effects with some of those things when you go back to back nights. Where a week ago we played Friday, Sunday, and she had good days on both nights, on both matches because she had rest in between. Q. How much does it help to be home all week, and you don't have to travel either end of it? COACH WAITE: I don't see, honestly, a big difference in it. A lot of times when we leave, they're sometimes more well rested and less distractions when we leave on a Thursday night. But it's always nice to be home. The crowd was great Friday night especially. Obviously, student T shirt giveaway night was awesome. Had a good crowd there. The band was here because they didn’t travel. So it was all a good environment. It was all good in that respect. Q. I don't want to get ahead of things and all. This is an important time of the year obviously for you. These two matches here are almost critical, aren't they, because they're at home? COACH WAITE: I'd say so, yes. Again, I'll say last year we won at Ohio State. They beat us here. And it just happened just now. So hopefully, we'll get back to their place and get them on the rebound. It is important because you've got to start getting at least splits on the weekend in the Big Ten play if you're going to make the tournament. That's the challenge. I think these are two teams that we're very similar to. I think we've got a good shot at. We've got to feel good about the game and ourselves to get the wins here. Q. I know that Penn State was big and Ohio State was flying and hitting some pretty good shots too. Are you happy with your block along the net, your play along the net right now? COACH WAITE: It's something we were working on all week, and we still, I think, our players were not identifying where the hitters' tendencies were. They were going in our seam a lot between the outside and middle blockers, and that's something we work on all the time. We've got to be more disciplined with that because I think we could have had more blocks on the night. That just shakes the confidence of the opponent when you do that. I will say though, if I'm remembering right, we out blocked Ohio State 15.5 8 or something like that. So that really was good But there were more opportunities, I felt, because that's always something we've done well in past years. But we could have done a better job. Q. Mary Ording, it's her final year here. How has she developed as a player and even as a person? COACH WAITE: She's always been a confident, outgoing leader type of personality? Kind of a kid that got thrown in the mix this year in the middle blocking position, which is new to her. So the pre-conference play was a little slow, it built, she got better and stronger. I think our first weekend of conference play, she did pretty well against Illinois and Northwestern. Now, this last weekend, they kind of took her out of the mix. I think, just because of the size and the power and the speed of the outside set, she was not as much of a factor. She's going to come back swinging, and she's going to do the best she can and lead the team. She just said it herself. She doesn't just want to be a Band Aid thrown in there. She's someone who wants to be a positive factor for the team. So she's going to bust her butt. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? All right. Thanks. Pete. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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