	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 15, 2016

Columbus, Ohio

Texas - 3, Nebraska - 0

THE MODERATOR: We've got head coach Jerritt Elliott, student-athletes Ebony Nwanebu, Cat McCoy and Micaya White.

COACH ELLIOTT: First of all, congratulations to Nebraska. They were the top team all season long. I thought John did a tremendous job with that program and the way that that team was playing. And to draw it up this way, I don't think anybody expected it.

We have a lot of self-confidence as a team going into it. I've been to a lot of Final Four and this is the calmest I've been going into it. I just had a feeling with this group that they would perform at a high level tonight. And they proved that.

And sometimes when the road isn't as smooth, you gain a little bit of character. And it allows you to become a little bit more hungry.

And so throughout the season we've struggled and we've had our ups and downs compared to other Texas teams that we've had in terms of how easy it's been to win, just kind of going through the business and this group has stuck with it.

And they've grown tighter together. They've worked harder. And their continuity is better because of what they've done. So tribute to them. People have been questioning our serve/receive maybe for 10 years since I've been here.

And I'm just so proud of what our passers did tonight and being able to step up and play the game that they did tonight. And it's a just tribute to them and the belief they have in themselves and the commitment that we have in our gym.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Ebony, seemed like everything they threw at you tonight you guys had an answer for, even when they strung a few things together you came back and just steam rolled them. Did you kind of feel at some point like nothing could go wrong out here, we're just rolling tonight?
EBONY NWANEBU: Well, something could always go wrong, but I feel like everyone was just really calm. I feel like that's the calmest environment I've ever been in it and it's the most hectic tournament ever.

So I just think everyone's emotions were in check and that really helped us win tonight.

CAT MCCOY: I think everyone stayed calm and communicating what everyone's jobs were. And I think Morgan stepped up tonight, did some really good things. I just really like the fight of this team. We're never going to back down. So it's exciting.

MICAYA WHITE: I think a lot of our seniors did a really good job of just saying it's another game, and definitely keeping, like, myself, a freshman, this is my first time, and Autumn as well, just keeping us calm and not letting us get too frazzled. So our seniors helped us prepare.

Q. Ebony, it seemed like at some point you guys were just overpowering them. They were having a really hard time stopping you. Did you sort of feel like you guys were just, from a power standpoint, were really the stronger team tonight?
EBONY NWANEBU: I feel like Nebraska -- I mean the scores most of the time were pretty close together. So I feel like we both fought really hard, and I just think we really, really wanted this. So I think that's what really pushed us further.

Q. Ebony, about Chloe, she's not up here so can't speak for herself, but I thought she did a phenomenal job tonight. She got everybody involved. Made so many plays and set the tone for you guys, no pun intended. But what do you think she brought for you guys tonight? Do you think she was the difference for you guys out there tonight?
EBONY NWANEBU: Yes, Chloe is a great leader for our team and she gets everyone in the game and she demands greatness from all of us. That makes all of us step up.

So Chloe is Chloe. I don't know how to describe her. She's at a whole different level.

Q. Cat and Ebony, Cat, after last year's NCAA title match, how gratifying is it to beat Nebraska in the Final Four and for Ebony for not being able to play in that match last year how gratifying is it to play on this stage against them?
CAT MCCOY: Last year, that was really disappointing. It was really-- I don't know, it's been fueling our fire ever since that loss. So we always talked about it. And we were really excited to be matched up against them.

They're a great team. And it's a huge rivalry. Everybody wants to see Nebraska play Texas. So just coming back and getting to face them in the semis and just playing how we did tonight, it just shows us a lot about who we are and our program.

EBONY NWANEBU: I guess it's kind of frustrating to kind of like have to sit on the sideline and watch. So to come out and get to play this year, I just wanted to go out and do my best and get redemption for everyone.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Last year the Rolfzen twins had a big night in the finals. Tonight you took them out of the equation pretty much. Was that by design? Talk a little bit about what you did to neutralize them.
COACH ELLIOTT: I think until game three we had the matchups that we wanted. We felt like we could do some things serving to eliminate their libero. And we feel like she's the top passing libero in the country. So we really focused on keeping the ball off of her. I think she got two or three balls and those were all by mistake.

Last year we had Amy Neal, who was spectacular for us, but she was undersized. And now we replaced her with Caya and you start seeing what we can do with a physical block. We're okay with leaving her some one-on-one and doing some blocking schemes. I thought we did a good job with that and got some early touches.

I thought our blocking tonight was really, really good. We got in front of them, we got good touches, we positive touches to transition on and then took good transition swings.

Q. Coach, the last six points there, Ebony had three kills, and I believe she had eight in that final set. When she transferred to your program, is this what you imagined she'd be doing in a game like this knocking off the top team to go to the national final?
COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, she has that capability for sure. She was national freshman of the year. She was physically pretty beat up. Our staff did a tremendous job kind of getting her healthy physically and emotionally and getting her back on that. I thought Chloe did a really good job finding her.

That's what we wanted towards the end of the match based upon the matchups that we had. We found some good quality swings. It just (indiscernible). And when you start doing that it becomes overwhelming for teams.

Q. Can you talk about the role of Paulina Prieto Cerame and how it's evolved tonight? Really put a lot of pressure on Nebraska with the hard angle kills. And then they started to make some movement and she moved down line to really kind of keep them on their heels a lot. And then I think that opened it up more so tonight than I've ever seen her before, especially earlier in the year?
COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean Paulina has been such a joy to coach and she's one that has a lot of fire. And she can get pretty emotional. And so getting her in the right mindset was the key for the season.

I told her before we got on the plane the other day that this team will go as far as she does emotionally. So she had a great attitude all the way through. You could just feel it today and just the hour that we had in serve and pass today. You could feel that she was going and she was going to will this team. And our seniors didn't play well last weekend against BYU and they played really well tonight.

And she was an emotional leader. They tried to make some matchups on her and, yeah, she can hit that hard angle but they started moving the block and we were trying to get balls hit a little bit wider so we could score down the line.

Q. Could you elaborate a little bit more on the matchups that you felt like you liked, are you thinking offensively, defensively or both?
COACH ELLIOTT: You know, I feel like saying no. We have one more match to go. Yeah, we did some things that we wanted to do from our server side, really being able to kind of eliminate based on the matchups that we had with our serving. I thought that was a very big rotation for us, a lot of times people don't look at serving matchups.

But I felt if we could get some line-to-line and keep the ball off the libero and get them in some systems, I thought they struggled in zone one a lot. And we served a lot of line when we could, when the libero wasn't over there, and that eliminated some things.

And we just did a nice job. And the matchups you think are always good on paper, I've thought many times I've had really good matchups and I was wrong. So just worked out today that our servers did a nice job and we were able to kind of execute from our side.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297