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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONALS: AUSTINDecember 8, 2016Yaazie Bedart-GhaniJerritt ElliottEbony NwanebuMicaya WhiteAustin, Texas THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We're joined by Texas now. We have head coach Jerritt Elliott, freshman outside hitter, Micaya White, sophomore outside hitter, Yaasmeen Bedart-Ghani, and junior outside hitter, Ebony Nwanebu. We'll start with an opening statement from coach, and then questions from coach and the student-athletes. Coach, if you want to start with your thoughts on the regional? COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, we're obviously excited and feel honored to be part of this regional. It's a very strong regional with Michigan, Creighton and BYU. We're fortunate to be playing this at home in front of our home crowd. And our team is playing some of the best volleyball it's played all season long, so we're going in with some confidence. But as I told the team, you're going to be put in front of the fire a little bit more and there will be more pressure put on you, and we'll see how we handle that. But I like what our mentality is, I like the way our team is focused and the way they're giving each other confidence and playing as a unit right now. So we're excited. We just need the city of Austin to come out and support us. It's a 3 o'clock game time, and that's the biggest thing we need to do is fill this gym. Q. Coach, how will your team adjust to the early afternoon match time? COACH ELLIOTT: We practice at 1:30 every day, so it's nothing that's different for us. We've played some preseason tournaments where we start earlier and TV matches where it's been earlier. So the timing for us is probably even better because we don't have to sit around and wait all day. The hardest thing to do is sit around and wait. So this earlier time, we'll be warming up at 10:15, that means they'll be there by 9:30. So the day gets flowing, and it's a nice routine for us to kind of get comfortable. Q. How does it feel being in your first NCAA tournament? MICAYA WHITE: It's exciting. I'm just trying to take it one match at a time. Q. Ebony, what is the pressure to win? EBONY NWANEBU: There is a little bit of pressure, mostly because of the name on our back, and people expect us to get to Final Four and advance every round, but it's important not to just assume that you're going to advance. So like Micaya said, we're just taking one game at a time, getting our job done one night, and doing it another night and just keep on trying to build on that until we get to our goal. YAAZIE BEDART-GHANI: Oh, yeah, I definitely agree with Ebony. Of course, we are Texas. People say well, Texas should be in the Final Four. But I think we've just been focusing on ourselves and our side of the net and doing what we need to do to advance. COACH ELLIOTT: For me, as a coach, I think since we lost to Iowa State there's been a completely different demeanor. I felt like we had a lot of pressure to succeed and be and win the Big 12. And since that loss, sometimes a loss can jump start you in different ways. We lost our last match in 2012 to Iowa State and won the National Championship. So the way they're approaching this now is they're super aggressive. There is a different mentality. They're kind of being the ones going after the teams instead of waiting and feeling. So it's been a nice blend and it's been consistent over the last five matches. So the pressure is more perceived than anything. Our goal is just to be able to take it one match at a time at BYU and that's what our girls are doing, but getting after it at the very first point. Q. Ebony, what will this rematch with BYU mean to you? EBONY NWANEBU: Yeah, most of the players that were in that semifinal are still on this team and seniors this year. So I think as a group we want to be able to have redemption for them and for this program. So tomorrow it's just important to show up, do what we can do best, and hopefully get redemption for that year. Q. You guys have been to the postseason before. How does that experience help you today? How does that benefit you? YAAZIE BEDART-GHANI: I think it give us a little chip on our shoulder just knowing that we've been here before and it's something that we can definitely do if we handle our business. So I think it gives us experience in this situation, and I think that helps a lot. Q. Jerritt, do you have to guard against them trying too hard with the revenge factor? COACH ELLIOTT: We haven't discussed it as a staff at all. It's two completely different teams. Our focus as a staff is just worrying about what we do as a team, and play Texas volleyball in the system that we have and be good at that. Those are more media hypes than anything else and good for the media, but our concern right now is just to play well against BYU and find a way to win that match. It's going to be a battle. We've been here before. We've got confidence in being able to do that. We've got our home crowd, but there's no guarantee. It's our mentality of just how we prepare, how we stay relaxed and compete over a long period of time. Q. What does BYU bring? COACH ELLIOTT: They bring balance. They've got, obviously, a middle that was there when they beat us who is 6'4" and can kind of go over the blocks. They've got good pin hitting. They've got a very good libero. They have a freshman who was a WCC Freshman of the Year, and outside hitter that can score a lot of points. So they've got a lot of different areas they can hit you with. So the serve-and-pass game will be a big part of it, and how we execute and control the ball will be a big part of it. At this level, everyone's good. Every round you advance, there are more weapons that you have to deal with. It's exciting, it's fun, it's enjoyable for these guys. They want to be in that position. It's why they've worked all summer long to be here and be part of that. This started last January, and they know that. So it's more about just keeping them calm and relaxed and trusting what we are because our brand right now is really good and what we bring to the table. If we play that brand of our ball, that could bring a lot of success. Q. Does it help playing here at home? YAAZIE BEDART-GHANI: It's awesome playing at home again. I definitely think that playing Gregory is a special experience like every time we go out there. So having our fans and being nice and comfortable at home, it's really nice. COACH ELLIOTT: I've given everybody permission to take the day off. There is a permission slip on our Twitter page at Texas volleyball if you needed to get off work or school. Q. My question is for any of the players, how does this work between finals and school, do you find any time to kind of just step back and relax? EBONY NWANEBU: Right after practice, Jerritt actually talked about it the other day, doing our studying early so that way at night we can sleep, and especially now since we have a game tomorrow. Like I have a final on Monday, but I've been studying all week for it, that way tonight I won't have to study for it, tomorrow I won't have to study for it, so I can just focus on it Saturday and Sunday. So I think that approach just takes stress off, just knowing when to do certain things. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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