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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 18, 2015

Omaha, Nebraska

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you would begin with an opening statement.

COACH ELLIOTT: Well, obviously this is a great opportunity for us and we're fired up to be here. I think it's a tribute to the young women that are in this program and their unity and their will to play for each other. I think that's the biggest thing that stands out to me as their coach.

We have a tremendous amount of respect for Nebraska. I think the fans are going to be all over us because it's Texas, and we're excited about playing in this National Championship match representing our university and our state.

Q. Amy, could you address this? There's going to be a lot of people dressed in red tomorrow. When you're playing for a National Championship and you're not at a neutral site and you're basically in someone's home gym, could you comment on just the degree of difficulty that adds to the task?
AMY NEAL: I honestly think it's kind of fun that it will be packed with Nebraska fans. I think that whenever we have gone to their home court, it's smaller but it's still a huge arena filled with people. But I think it's fun when the crowd is against us.

They will be all over us like Jerritt said, but I think we embrace that. I think it will be a lot of fun. I don't think they will be causing us to have too much pressure. I think we'll just want to play. I think it gets us fired up.

Q. Your coach last night gave you high praise in this press conference, and just your ability to take on the role -- can you talk about your mind-set and how you've embraced what's been asked of you this year?
NICOLE DALTON: It's definitely a new role, but I love playing defense and I love back in the back with Amy and Cat and everybody who plays the defense. If I had to choose, I would love to be a libero, actually, if I were to be asked that question.

But I love it. I love playing defense and passing. Next to these girls, especially. We've created a tight bond just communicating. I've enjoyed it this year. It's been a learning experience but it's been a good one.

Q. You guys have won 12 consecutive matches, played pretty strong this tournament. Do you feel like the team is hitting its stride as they approach the National Championship game?
COACH ELLIOTT: Well, numbers don't lie. I think last night we played at a high level. You've got to approach each match differently, and there will be some challenges for us. Again, it's about how we execute and how we stay confident and how we're able to play our game.

You like as a coach the way they played last night. I think they will be threatened coming into tomorrow night which is a good sign for us. You know, hopefully we can continue the level we are but I feel like that was one of our better matches last night and we can build off of that.

Q. The first time you played Nebraska, Ebony was so involved. Do you seen look at that match much? Can you put much into it or is this two completely different teams three months later?
COACH ELLIOTT: Who said she won't play tomorrow night? (Chuckles).

Yeah, it's a completely different team. They have switched some players around. We're a completely different team in terms of at that point in the season, we didn't have Nicole passing for us and the different lineups. I think that's way too far back to be able to consider anything. I think both teams are obviously playing really well, and completely different situations.

So we'll approach it the way we always do, and get good with our routines and get the team prepared.

Q. Amy, Molly, Cat, seems like you helped loosen Coach up a little bit but he seems especially loose this year; why?
CAT McCOY: I think Jerritt just has a lot of trust in us and what we can do and what we can bring to the table. This year has been like a lot of fun and we can joke around with him and he jokes around with us. It's been a really fun ride so far, so I just want to keep it going.

MOLLY McCAGE: Yeah, sure, we definitely have the coach to player relationship. Everyone involved, we're also just really good friends. So if anything, that builds trust within us. But we can have fun on the court and that's really what it's all about when it comes down to it.

COACH ELLIOTT: I can address that some more. I think as a coach, your job is to manage people. And when you have great leadership and great unity, and you're trusting where they are and seeing their actions and how they are handling themselves, your job is just to kind of steer them in the right direction.

So when they are this good, like in 2012, my hands are off. I'm not doing anything really right now except making sure their routines are good and we're preparing them and they are in a good mind-set. We'll review some things with them but again, I'm more relaxed because I've got 120 percent trust in this group.

Q. You had 67 swings last night, is that just a routine night for you? Do you expect about that load tomorrow night, too?
AMY NEAL: I don't think it's a routine night at all (laughter). But I mean, I don't know, being an outside, you're going to get sets whenever there's a crazy dig or a bad pass, you're going to get out of system balls you just need to put in.

So I think that was a factor to why I got so many swings. I don't usually get that many in-system. It was just how the game went. I think Chloe did a great job moving the ball around. I guess I just ended up with that many for some reason.

Q. John was in earlier talking about it's obvious that you were both in the Big 12, from a city standpoint, Austin and Lincoln tended to not be that friendly toward each other and the athletic departments were in such competition, but the volleyball programs he said have such respect; and you guys continued playing each other even after the conference breakups which we haven't seen in other sports with conference breakups. Can you talk about the decision to do that and the respect that you have between you and John?
COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think it's one of the great rivalries in college volleyball. I think the Nebraska fans are very well educated. I think they are one of the programs in the country that do it right and they have invested a lot of money into it and grown their fan base and really grown the start and been a big part of that.

When I took over, we weren't quite at that point right now. Our goal is to get to that point. But I think both cities enjoy the competition when they come into town, they are sellouts and it makes it great for our sport.

For me, it's also about these young ladies having the opportunity to be in those environments. That's why you come to college, to play fun games and enjoy those opportunities and to challenge each other. For us to be able to play Nebraska early in the season every year, teaches us a lot.

And so it's a great learning tool and we know that they are going to be good year-in and year-out. So it's something that I felt was really important. I think John did, too, and we are lucky to be able to both agree in that one area.

Q. What do you see as the challenges of Nebraska's lineup that they are using now in the tournament?
COACH ELLIOTT: Well, I think they have got a lot of balance. You know, they are a very good passing team. So they can stay in system for long periods of time and they have got some effective blockers and a great libero that can control the ball. There's a lot of different facets they can hurt you at, and we'll see kind of what match-ups we'll start off with.

But to be able to do that and be able to off set that, you have to be able to control the ball. We've been able to do that, too, and we have a lot of trust in our service game. The longer the rallies go will be great for us, and I think we can manage that and use our live arms and hopefully take advantage of some of the skill sets that we have.

Q. Ebony had 22 kills in that match earlier this year. Did she get hurt in that match? Can you shed some light on what unfolded there? And how much of the dynamics of the team changed after her absence?
COACH ELLIOTT: Well, she was hurting after the match but we didn't think much of it, and she showed up the next morning and she couldn't walk. And at that point, she went into -- I mean, she was out of practice probably almost -- I can't remember the springtime, but many, many weeks, and she's kind of just starting to get back into some partial practices now. But she's had some other setbacks.

You know, I think the great thing about coaching this age group is they forget things pretty fast and they move on. So that was a long time ago and the season is a long time. Yaasmeen moved over and we kind of built that slowly after looking at a couple different lineups. If anything now, they have got just as much confidence in Yaasmeen and I think that showed last night the way that she handles herself, the things she says in the huddles, the things she talks about and the way that she shows up on a daily -- she shows up daily at practice.

So, yeah, we lost Ebony but we have developed somebody that's a pretty darned special freshman right now. We're fortunate to have that kind of talent and the kind of leadership to get her comfortable in the role that she's playing.

Q. You mentioned a little earlier, when you came in, you came in after the first season Texas had never made the NCAA Tournament, and you turned it around really pretty quickly. I know you missed the tournament one year, but after that, you haven't since then. Can you talk about what it took to make that turnaround that quickly? It can't be just recruiting. It has to be a lot of other things.
COACH ELLIOTT: Well, it didn't happen as fast as I had envisioned in my head, but I was young. I took the program over when I was 32. They were 10-18, as you said. I had a big task to take.

I think a big part of the whole process was how do I manage this group and how do I change the culture and how do I create something that's a winning mentality and especially with the state and making sure the state is behind me.

It happened a little slowly. There was some players -- the first meeting that I had, was that you're welcome to stay in this program, we want you hear. But if you feel this is not the right place for you, we'll help you find another place. And a couple players took me up on that.

Then throughout the years, we had a couple players that were bad apples. They were removed and they were transferred. And then we were able to kind of find the right kids. The first part that were kids that were good enough to make use better, but they weren't the elite of the elite. Then we started getting a couple in-state kids. We got Destiny that was a hidden gem. Ashley Engle was a big catch for us out of California that didn't want to look at us, and then we started gaining some momentum.

But more importantly we were recruiting the kind of kids that had great personalities that were great people, and creating a culture around that. You guys have no idea about how hard it is to manage the group and you've got different people from different backgrounds: You've got kids from married families, single parents, inner city, affluent. You have to be able to create a culture on that. It's constant work, constant trust. Some years are better than others, and I think now we have been able do create a culture.

I think what we always say, and I think what I've noticed is when they become seniors, they realize how fast it comes about. They want to leave the program in a better place than they found it, and I think Molly and the group that's sitting up here really embraced that. They really want it to be a team. It's not about themselves. You heard a couple days ago, Amy say that she would be willing to give up her First Team All-American so Cat, Brooks and Cole could win a National Championship. She wanted to do it for them.

Now it's kind of flowing a little bit easier. Now we can get into everybody's home or get people to come to campus and pick and choose the right personalities and see what we need to continue this remarkable run that we've had.

Q. Everything is fine with Chiaka? Was she feeling okay to practice today?
COACH ELLIOTT: She was fine. She went through practice today. We limited some of the stuff that she, did but we feel like we can get her back. We're confident. We have a doctor here and we have a phenomenal trainer. We have all of the -- we have got massage therapists and other people that are here. We just bring the whole hospital when we travel sometimes.

THE MODERATOR: Like to thank Coach Elliott and the Texas student athletes for joining us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 18, 2015

Jerritt Elliott

Molly McCage

Amy Neal

Nicole Dalton

Cat McCoy