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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 17, 2015Hugh McCutcheonHannah TappDaly SantanaOmaha, Nebraska Texas - 3. Minnesota - 1 (26-24, 27-25, 23-25, 25-21) THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from coach. COACH MCCUTCHEON: Good evening everybody, obviously congratulations to Texas on a well played match and I think tonight a well deserved victory. Thought it was very close. Obviously the score would reflect that. It's a shame we couldn't turn a couple more plays at the right time, but certainly to Texas's credit they were able it make the plays when they counted and we wish them all the best moving forward. THE MODERATOR: We'll open the floor to questions. Q. The slide was very effective tonight. Why was it affective, why couldn't Texas seem to have an answer for it? And could you or should you have gone to it morph you could? COACH MCCUTCHEON: As far as Texas's ability or inability on the slide that's probably a question for Jerritt. We just were thinking we had a good matchup there and obviously it was working so we went back to it. The other phases of our offense I think were functioning, we just maybe weren't as good as we have been in other weeks in this tournament. But we hit 270, it's not like we got rolled out there, so, yeah, I'll leave it there. I think that, just to summarize, I thought that we ran what we thought was working, as for the rest of it, some of that had to do with some offensive range, some of had to do with some good blocking by Texas and some good defense on their part. Q. Did you feel like maybe other than game three where you guys got them in some trouble, seemed like you were serving zone one quite a bit and it was pretty effective. Do you feel like you could have served tougher tonight, put them in more trouble and gotten them in some passing issues? COACH MCCUTCHEON: It's possible. I thought for the most part we were doing a nice job in the serve, serve, receive battle. But because they were hitting so well out of system that that was the difference. Clearly for us the goal is to try to knock them out and then throw up our blocking D accordingly. But both of their left sides hit for a good number out of system. So what was a strategy that had been pretty effective for us so far this year didn't really pay dividends tonight. Q. When you guys got that third set, do you think you had swung the momentum in the match or did you feel it was still kind of -- COACH MCCUTCHEON: Not at all. I don't think things shifted. Really it was a couple of heavy weights going at it. It was a couple of good teams and if you look at the balance of these teams coming into this match, you knew it was going to be close. We didn't certainly take it for granted like all of a sudden, hey, we have won the third, the rest is going to be easy. I mean it's the NCAA Final Four. Every point's a battle. Q. How much was Bedart-Ghani part of your game plan, your focal point? She's kind of been in and out of the lineup a little bit but playing very well this post-season and obviously had a tremendous night? COACH MCCUTCHEON: She was phenomenal, yeah. We thought, at least on paper, we knew a lot of what was going to happen. But it's a little bit different rhythm and we didn't really adjust well for a long time. I thought towards the end of the match we were getting at least in better spots to get some touches, but, yeah, she did a nice job. Yeah, she was very good. So obviously it's one thing to talk about it, it's a whole different thing to do it. Q. Daly, what did Texas do, do you think that made them so tough tonight? DALY SANTANA: I think that, just like Hugh mentioned, I think they were hitting really, really well out of system and I think that our plan was to knock them out of system a lot and obviously that wasn't working as well as we thought. But props to them, they did a really good job. Q. When Ogbogu goes out for them with the cramps, you go right after their freshman middle. Did you think at that point, okay, we got them in a bad spot? COACH MCCUTCHEON: Again, we were just looking for another weakness to try to exploit. And it was an unknown. We don't know the middle blocker how good she is, we just knew that it was someone new and maybe we could try and find something there. I say that, I think we had a pretty clean offensive plan, I think Sam did a nice job trying to execute, so it wasn't kind of a clutching at straws tactic, but clearly it makes sense that perhaps she's not quite as effective as the person she replaced, so we thought it was worth a try. Q. Daly, you didn't have a lot of success with your tips, now some of those might have been out of system sets or other kind of problems, but did you get that sense that Texas was really, really getting to your tips and did you try to stop doing that or we noticed at the end of each set it was just pound, pound, pound and you got away from that. But talk about the tips part, please. DALY SANTANA: Yeah, I would say obviously you come into the game looking for different shots that might work all night long and if they're not working, you make sure that you use, that you use the ones that are working. And so I think I just, I guess I adjusted to that and my swings were working better than my tips and so I think I kept doing that. Q. A lot of close moments in this match, and you're very calm on the bench. At times you went into a deuce set or match point or a set point, you're not moving much, what goes into your demeanor or your approach in those moments? COACH MCCUTCHEON: Well, I guess, I guess, for me, if I want my athletes to be composed in those big moments, then it would be a little strange for me to be freaking out. I have a lot of trust in this group. So, it's very easy for me to be clear and present and thinking about what do we have to do to win the next one versus getting caught up in the emotion of the moment. So, yeah, I just don't see what yelling and screaming is going to do at that point. It's not that I don't have emotions, I'm not a robot, I do have a heart and everything. But it's just, I'm trying to help this group and I thought that just part of this whole event is managing the moments. And that's about emotional control. So I felt if I could exhibit some of that, perhaps it might help our athletes. Who knows if it does or not. You can ask them. Q. For both of the athletes, losing the first two sets by such excruciatingly close margins, both those sets were close all the way through, what was the team's mindset at that point and how did you remain positive? DALY SANTANA: I would say that we were here and it would take, I guess, as long as it would take, if that makes sense. We were here to compete. Doesn't matter how long it took us. And two sets, really close, we're right here, I guess that was our mentality, we're right here, we got this. Come into the third set and it's 0-0. Take it one point at a time. Q. Hannah, what was this week like? What was it like managing this week and people traveling, family, friends, folks contacting you, immediate why and everything that went into this season Big-Ten championship and coming to this event? HANNAH TAPP: Yeah, there's a lot of shiny stuff, so I think it was just managing and keeping our unity and not really like getting sucked into all the distractions, I guess and just maintaining what we have because what we have is really special. Q. All three of you, could you reflect briefly on what this season has meant for the Gophers program, what it's meant to you personally and what it means going forward for the Gophers. DALY SANTANA: I think it's been a great year. I think I'm extremely proud of this group, I think that we did such a good job and I guess changing the culture of Minnesota volleyball. And that's something that is really hard to do. I guess that was one of our goals and I think that we did it and I think that we had an amazing season. HANNAH TAPP: I would have to agree with Daly, very proud of how far this team has come. COACH MCCUTCHEON: Well said. Sad that it's come to an end. It's a great group and it's been a great journey. But as Daly said, I think this group's laid a wonderful foundation and you hope from this we can continue to build the program into the future. But a very special group, this 2015 team, and very proud of all their accomplishments and we'll learn from tonight and move on. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. COACH MCCUTCHEON: Last thing, I just, I asked to make a statement. Women's college volleyball is a really exciting sport and we're just grateful to have this media attention and your interest. We think it's a game with a lot of potential and plenty of room to grow and hopefully you guys agree. But thanks for your support. We really appreciate it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you to Minnesota for being part of this year's championship and congratulations on a fine season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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