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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 23, 2013Kelly SheffieldTHE MODERATOR: The volleyball team wrapped up nonconference play by winning the NC State invitational last weekend. Carries an 11‑1 record into the Big Ten season. Badgers open conference play by hosting Purdue on Friday, Indiana on Saturday. Both matches will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Field House. Head Coach Kelly Sheffield is here. We'll have some opening comments and take questions. COACH SHEFFIELD: Had a good weekend out there at NC State and got challenged by three really good teams. Thought we played pretty well. I thought we had our moments of battling and figuring out ways to win. I thought Dominique Thompson was fantastic. Thought she had a great tournament. Her and Lauren Carlini have really been working hard, working on that connection. It hasn't always been smooth, but it's been improving. I think those two are working about as hard as anybody around to make that work. To see Dom walk out of there with MVP of the tournament was good. Got a lot of help from KT Kvas this past weekend, especially when our backs were against the wall, against a really talented VCU team. Looking ahead this weekend, we've got opening of Big Ten, really excited about that, playing Purdue here on Friday, Steve Lowe night. So we're hoping that we get that Field House packed. Hopefully, we get a lot of students in there as well because we're certainly going to need them. So we're excited about this weekend. Q. Kelly, what's the mindset going from nonconference play to Big Ten play? What do you change in practice? What's the intensity level difference from, say, last week to this week? COACH SHEFFIELD: You know, you just keep trying to find ways to get better. You know, they all count. Obviously, the Big Ten amps it up a little bit more, just the quality of the competition gets stronger. You play a team like Purdue who's really handed it to us over the years, a perennial Sweet 16 team that's very, very experienced.  Got a lot of seniors in their starting lineup. Most of their players are coming back, very, very balanced, a well‑coached team. You know, just‑‑ it's kind of next man up. They happen to be a conference opponent, and you have goals of trying to finish as high as possible in the Big Ten. Whether it's conference or out of conference, you're really trying to put your energies into the next opponent. So we know our next opponent is very experienced and has done a lot of winning. We're going to have to be on top of our game to give ourselves a chance. Q. Looking at the schedule there, a ton of ranked teams obviously coming out of the Big Ten. With you having such a young team, how do you keep that temperament level even keeled when they're probably looking at the schedule saying, wow, No.1, No.10, No.9, something like that? COACH SHEFFIELD: I think right now our players are a lot more‑‑ they're trying to figure out how to put on the boot or walk around on crutches or something like that, rather than who's next on our opponents. One of the things is, when you've got‑‑ there's eight teams that are ranked in the top 25, and there's been weeks where there's been nine. You can't look ahead. You throw a wolf out the side of the window, and you've got two coming in the back door. I mean, it just‑‑ it's constant and a really, really good club that's always up next. So I'd be shocked if these players are ever looking ahead. I mean, they're just‑‑ we're changing our lineup a lot. There's so much that we're trying to learn. We've played a good out of conference schedule. I think that's one of the things we've done a really good job with up to this point. I think our players have done a great job of staying present with who is next. That certainly has to be the case when you go through this conference, or you'll just get stung. Q. Kelly, how did Crystal look this past weekend? Obviously good to have her back. COACH SHEFFIELD: It was great to have Crystal back. She's an experienced player, really high IQ. She's been really ‑‑ rehabbing really, really hard to get back. She probably got back a week or two before she was probably even ready, but we needed her. She makes the game easier for other people. She doesn't have her explosiveness yet. That's still coming. But the thing with Crystal is every day she's getting a little bit better. Every day she's getting more confident. I'm not sure what we would have done this weekend. There's no way we would have walked out of there 3‑0 without Crystal Graff, I can tell you that. I would say one of the things, this week we should get a lot more out of her. We're going to need a lot more out of her this week. She came out of that, after three matches in 24 hours, feeling pretty good. I would expect we're going to be able to go to her a little bit more this coming week. Q. How much closer toa settled lineup are you, and what is the injury situation heading into Big Ten play? COACH SHEFFIELD: Well, we're getting healthier. We're not going to get any more bodies back than what we had this past weekend. Dominique Thompson is getting a little bit healthier. Lauren Carlini is getting healthier. Crystal Graff is finally in the lineup. The kids that aren't playing are moving in the right direction. We're probably two or three more weeks before we're getting any more bodies. We're heading in the right direction. Our training staff is working their rear ends off, I can tell you that. What we've got is what we're going with, but I think there's a confidence. We've been through this a few times, and we've come out with some wins. So there's not a panic of people are missing or somebody's not going to be in there and people are worried about it. There's a lot of confidence that's been gained based on every single week has been different. This will actually‑‑ what will be a positive is that this coming week should be the exact same lineup that we just played, and we haven't had that all season. So to be able to go through a week of practice and be able to anticipate, all right, now we're going into week two, and we can make some adjustments with this current group, that will make it a lot more fun to coach. Q. Kelly, was it equally intriguing to coach at Wisconsin as it is to coach in the Big Ten? You get my drift? COACH SHEFFIELD: Not quite. Q. I mean, getting that opportunity to coach in this conference, which is the‑‑ basically, the best conference in the country. COACH SHEFFIELD: Yeah. They're both awesome. I mean, it's just‑‑ you're at this school, and it's just‑‑ it's incredible. We've talked about that. Yeah, going into the Big Ten. And I've gone against other Big Ten opponents. We've done that every year. We've tried to schedule tough, and we've had some great rivalries with some of the teams in this conference. I'm not sure if they thought of us as a rivalry, but we certainly saw quite a few of the schools in this conference as a rival. But now you're going into a different animal where it's every single night that you're playing, and so you're not really getting up for a Big Ten team and then going down to different conference for a few matches. You're playing back to back against some of the best programs in the country. Yeah, I'm stoked to go against it. I think our players are. That's why they come. That's why you come to this conference to play against and with the best. I know our coaching staff is. We're looking forward to this opportunity. Some really good coaches that do a really good job of training. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? COACH SHEFFIELD: Thanks a lot, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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