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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 17, 2016Jerritt ElliottEbony NwanebuMicaya WhiteColumbus, Ohio Stanford - 3, Texas - 1 THE MODERATOR: Coach, would you like to make an opening statement. COACH ELLIOTT: First of all, congratulations to John and the Stanford Cardinal. I thought they did a really good job of just growing over the year and developing that team with so many young players. And they're going to be a force to -- in the years to come. But you have to execute at a high level with the size block they have. The areas that have been kind of our Achilles' heel throughout the season kind of exposed itself tonight. And I thought we were in the game, 18-15, we were up and our two-hitter rotations we passed, I think, 37 percent perfect pass on the night, which was down for us. And then our rotations, 5 and 6, were 27 and 37 percent in the first two games. So our two-hitter rotations just caught up with us and caused us some problems. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Micaya White and Ebony Nwanebu. We'll take questions for the student-athletes first. Q. You knew Stanford was a big team coming in tonight. What did you do to try to get by their block and throw them off a little bit? MICAYA WHITE: Just try to hit high hands. Like, I guess, I don't know. That's all we could do is hit high hands, try to hit around, make them move. EBONY NWANEBU: Yeah, we talked about (indiscernible) the block a little bit, and if one of the taller ones were back row, try to tip, make them go to the floor. Q. Ebony, you guys had a really good game three, you were slowing the slide down. A lot of momentum going into game four, and then it started poorly for you. I guess Fitzmorris six serves in a row there. What happened there? Was it just trouble with the serve/receive or what fell apart in the solid part of game three and early game four? EBONY NWANEBU: I think we let up a little bit and they took the opportunity to jump on us when that happened. And the more they scored, we still thought that we were fine and kind of like didn't really push back until we realized, oh, we're going to maybe lose this game if we don't start now. So we started pushing back. But at that point they were up by so much, and then towards the end of the game it was 24-20 and we said we can still do this. And, yeah. Q. Can you reflect a little bit on the season that you had and with an eye look toward what it might take to win this next year? MICAYA WHITE: I think this season was up and down. But our seniors showed us a lot of fight definitely for the young players like myself. I think we grew as the season went on. I think we didn't start off too hot, and towards the end of the season we were playing really, really well together. EBONY NWANEBU: Retweet. Q. Micaya, looked like you were struggling a little with your serving tonight. Can you talk a little bit about what might have contributed to that? MICAYA WHITE: I guess a little bit depth perception, lighting. But my toss was just off a little tonight. So that played a big part in it. And just not keeping it in the court, just trying to wail on it. Q. Ebony, when you transferred from USC, you said you wanted to come home. Now you've got one more shot next year at finally winning a national title. Just your thoughts on that? And you sat on the sideline last year, saw it tonight and got to partake in it. A little bit hungry getting it next year being your last shot? EBONY NWANEBU: It's weird to think I have one more season. I have one more season to win a championship. I know Caya said in the locker room that all of us need to work our butts to get to this point next year and have a different outcome, and I'm going to do everything in my power to do that. Q. A little early to reflect on lessons learned, but what do you take to build on the season? MICAYA WHITE: Sorry. I guess what I take from this season is we need to work on serving. Definitely me. Passing can always get better. And I think one thing that this team had a lot was fight, and we need to make sure we transfer that into next year's team, definitely. We get a really good class next year, but it's going to be a lot of young players. So I think that's one thing we need to show. Q. Ebony, you had a really good night tonight with your hitting, and I know the blocks were really hard with hitters that were 6'5", 6'8". Can you talk about, maybe, how you were able to work around those blocks? EBONY NWANEBU: Just, like, seeing where the hands were. I'm known for being a cross hitter, cross-body hitter. I figured that's what they would try to take from me, so I would go lines when I saw I had that open and go across when they tried to go line. And I think I was really successful with that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. That rotation change in four, where they had Fitzmorris starting, was that a big deal, do you think, in the matchups and maybe the serving getting her out front there or was it just circumstances? COACH ELLIOTT: We didn't take care of the first contact. We didn't get good swings with approach speeds and setting location hurt us a little bit in that rotation early on. They got some good touches and good transition points. And it's difficult with -- we were presented with having to kind of change our lineup. Yaazie hasn't played outside hitter all season since the first time we played Nebraska. But with Paulina struggling, we had to do -- we were against the walls and where we were going with that wasn't positive at that time. So we made a switch to her and it becomes a little bit more difficult because the young middle that came in was not experienced, and it makes us a lot more predictable. Q. You just touched on a little bit that Paulina struggled tonight. She had a great night hitting on Thursday. Just what did maybe Stanford do to get her off her game? And she never really got going. COACH ELLIOTT: Our first touches weren't as good as we had hoped, but I think early on that game our setting location was really off. And so I think her first five or six swings were pretty difficult swings, and I think it just got in her head then and she just kind of struggled from that point on. And because we were looking at the other numbers, everyone was hitting well above .300. So it was a big difference maker early in that game. That's the reason we made the switch, to give ourselves a fighting chance, to give ourselves some kind of momentum and it worked in game three. And I'm just so proud of the way this group fought. The young ones were kind of battling and getting in there and never-say-die attitude. That's the reason we were sitting in this match after being down to BYU in the Sweet 16. Q. For the second year in a row you seem to really have brought out the best out of somebody on championship night, huh? COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think they played extremely well. Hentz played phenomenal. I think their middles really hurt us which was kind of a common theme throughout the season when we ran up against good middles. But I thought Hentz was a big difference maker. And I thought Kathryn Plummer played very well tonight and played a good job. And the last few years we've had some limited situations, and that's what you're faced with as a coach. Things always change and that's the responsibility. So this is the group we had and that's the way they grew and they developed. I couldn't be more proud of what we did this year and the fight that we had. I mean, late October I don't think anybody would have picked us to be in the finals and we found a way to make that happen. Q. To follow on that, if I had told you in August, after you lost such a great middle, that you could make up for it and get here, you might have questioned it? COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean it's the reason why we were probably 27 and 30 percent with the two rotations, with the two hitters. I thought Mo really, really developed well throughout the season. But when you don't pass well, at 37 percent perfect pass, you know, setting the ball way off the net and getting predictable becomes overwhelming, especially when you've got Lutz out there blocking on the right side. So we have some pieces we feel like can develop. I thought Yaazie and Mo had a tremendous year and gave us this opportunity to have this run. And I think Mo is, Morgan is more of an M-2 than she is an M-1, but has developed now into a very solid player and we'll keep working on it. We're going to spend all spring just first touch, first touch, because we've got the pieces and physicality to have some more balance. Q. So Autumn Rounsaville really flourished throughout the postseason. Tonight I think she had a season high for digs. Can you talk a little bit about the future of Texas defense with Autumn and Cat McCoy next year? COACH ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think Autumn was really special as the year kind of went on. She started off really rocky, obviously the first time we played Nebraska which is normal for freshmen. She got injured. And then we tried to get her confidence back a little bit and it kind of just kept developing, and she spent a lot of time in the gym passing and there's something special about Autumn. She has a very calming demeanor. She sees the game at a very high level. And she doesn't get rattled. She just kind of just moves on. So we're excited. I think there's going to be some competition in that position obviously for next year. And it's what you need in a program to kind of keep getting healthier because competition for every position will be very tough. Q. Revisiting the Paulina situation concerning she's coming off such a great match and she started off struggling the way she did, how tough a decision is it for you, given that she's a senior to take her out of a match like that. I'm sure that wasn't an easy decision and something you probably struggled with? COACH ELLIOTT: Well, I mean as a head coach you're forced with situations where you have to make tough decisions and I'm not afraid to make those decisions. With Yaazie being in the middle, we had nobody on the bench. My only option was have Autumn play six rotations, and so we got stuck in that situation. And after Game 2, we had to make a change. We knew probably about midway through Game 2 that it just wasn't her night. She's had some of those nights and she's had nights where she's carried this team and done a good job, but because of my bench, I didn't have the opportunity to get anybody in there. And with our passing, we were forced to set 26 balls which wasn't ideal. Q. From a lot of what you said it sounds like you thought maybe this team may have overachieved a little bit this year. I wanted to ask about that and just what will it take to get that more win that's eluded the program for a few years? COACH ELLIOTT: I think this team was -- they learned a lot through this year. Every year you have a different story and a different theme and kind of how you kind of progress and we even grew through the season to kind of see where you're going to be. This team had its challenges. Obviously with our middle situation really put us in some situations that were tough. But Nicole Dalton and Paulina and Chloe and our captains were committed to what this program is about, and that's finding a way to kind of make it happen. We committed and spent a lot of time with them one-on-one, really catered to kind of the emotional needs of what this team wanted, and it built some trust. It finally started clicking and they developed that. And so the lesson here is when you face adversity sometimes good things can happen. And it was the reason all of our struggles were one of the reasons why the team got back to this point of fighting and wanting to get back to being in the Final Four and competing for a national championship. And balance-wise we have some difficult things and some limited -- if you're a coach you have the amount of film and you look at some of the statistical stuff you can see we were pretty patterned this year. And I think John is a good coach. I think he understood that, and when we didn't pass, it becomes very difficult to have that balance, where you see look at Inky and Fitzmorris and those guys are hitting big numbers in their middle and keep you off balance and can do a lot of different things. I walk away from the season obviously devastated we didn't win this because I really, really wanted this and I felt we had a good shot going into this match. I felt like we were prepared emotionally in every part of it. But when you're limited and you don't have a lot of subs and things go south and you're stuck with what your hand dealt you. But this team fought. I'll remember that. I think the young ones were just kind of battling. And seeing the way Autumn played and Caya and Mo and Yaazie coming in there, Yaazie put her arm around me on the way down and said, "We're going to get you one next year, Coach. We'll make this happen." So I'm very fortunate. I think we've got a great culture. One of the things we take a lot of pride in is the kind of women we recruit. So they're bought in. And we don't recruit every player in the country sometimes based on personality. But these guys are bought in, and they gave me and our coaching staff and our university and I think they made everybody extremely proud back home. It stinks going home with the silver or bronze medal. We're kind of ready to get back to the point of taking this in next step. I think we've got the pieces to do that. We'll see when we have the competition and all the chemistry and how I manage that, and that's going to be a big component of it all. Q. I know this is obviously pretty tough for you, but you've known John a long time, and it's been 12 years for them, which, when you're at the top of the sport, sometimes can seem like a long time. Can you reflect on just what he's meant now to the sport: He has five championships now and just maybe what this is like for him to get back in the winner's circle? COACH ELLIOTT: This sport is growing like wildfire, and it just continues to grow and the level of competition gets better and better. You're starting to see it in the second round of the tournament. That used to be kind of a walk-through for the top seeds. Now to get back to this point, I mean, you look at Stanford, how long it took them, I think was it last year they got back or the year before? I forgot what it was but it was the first time since 2008. Nebraska went through a period where they didn't get to go and then he comes back wins last year and he gets back this year. The consistency what we've been able to do has been phenomenal. We've got here a couple times here where maybe we didn't have quite the elite team and lost a couple of championships that we thought we could have won. But it's hard and the quality coaches like John, over 12 years, I know what this means to him right now, because as a coach you start doubting yourself, start looking at all the different things you can do better and you have a tremendous amount of pride, maybe not more so than what the expectations are but when you don't get to a Final Four at Stanford or Texas or Nebraska or Penn State, it's considered a poor year, and I guess for John it's a credit to the type of coach he is. He's such a great coach. And I dream to get to five championships. But he's stuck with it. And he's got a good group right now. And I know he's really excited about it. But he's meant a lot -- he's one of the older coaches that kind of helped me out when I was starting out. We've got -- our sport and our coaches have been great. John, I can talk about Ross, and there's a lot of people that want to help you out and make you develop. So it's not so cutthroat as in some other sports. So I'm happy for him. I'm crushed for me and our program. But the great thing about coaching is we get another opportunity. And for me it's about I have to walk away from this what these seniors have meant and reflect on how proud the program is and you've gotta do that sometimes. And I know we'll get back here and I know we'll win one in the next couple of years. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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