|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 18, 2019Kelly SheffieldSydney HilleyDana RettkeMolly HaggertyPittsburgh, Pennsylvania THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Wisconsin Badgers Coach Sheffield and student-athletes Sydney Hilley, Dana Rettke, and Molly Haggerty. KELLY SHEFFIELD: Pretty simple, we're excited about being here. Excited about being in Pittsburgh, and looking forward to a great time here. Q. Molly and Dana, if you want to answer this. When you're going against somebody like Pressley with Baylor and you've faced her already, what about her is difficult to block? She gets really, really high. And I know you guys go against the best hitters in the country, but what about her makes her somewhat difficult to go against? MOLLY HAGGERTY: I think a hitter like her, she obviously jumps very high. And as a blocker, you could be set up perfectly, but somehow she just manages to hit off high hands or just go around your block. And that can get really frustrating as a blocker. But I think she does that a lot. DANA RETTKE: And going off of that, she has a pretty wide range of shots too. So that's always kind of tough to defend. And just blocking-wise, like Molly was saying, when hitters go high, sometimes blockers tend to go high. Got to stay low and over. She's a stud. She's going to get hers. Q. Molly, what did you think when Tiffany transferred, and did she talk to you first and did you visit with her about that? MOLLY HAGGERTY: That was a little bit ago. I honestly don't remember talking too much about it. She asked about the program, and she knew we pride ourselves in being gritty and we always are -- our main goal is to be right where we are now. I think she wanted to be a part of that. I don't really remember too much about our conversation, but maybe you guys do. SYDNEY HILLEY: I didn't know her before. KELLY SHEFFIELD: At what point does she stop becoming the transfer from Michigan? That was three years ago. She's Tiffany Clark, Wisconsin Badger. MOLLY HAGGERTY: Amen. Q. Sydney, can you talk about having a weapon like Dana? There's just not very many players -- I'm not sure there's any other players really quite like her. And what is that like as a setter to have her, along other weapons you have, but particularly having her? SYDNEY HILLEY: It's really nice. She's definitely an option in tough situations where a lot of other middles wouldn't be an option. For me to be able to throw the ball up there and know she's going to be athletic enough and tall enough where she can hit the ball over people and hit great shots and get other teams out of system still. But I do think a big part of her success is how balanced we are with all the other offensive weapons we have. Like Molly and Grace on the outside, Duello on the right side, and Dan in the middle, too, we have so many options. And a big part of that is our passing too. Our passers put me in a great situation where we can get Dana the ball a lot. So all credit to them on that. Q. You saw this Baylor team a couple months ago. We just talked to Coach Mac over at Baylor, and he says you win a lot more from losses than wins. And you guys might have an advantage because of that. What did you learn from the last time you guys played them, and do you guys think you have an advantage coming into this one because, like, you might have learned a lot more than they would have? SYDNEY HILLEY: I don't know. It's kind of hard to base this game off of that one just because it was so long ago and it's two different teams now. Our lineup is different. Watching the film, it's like two different teams. It's not even us and Baylor anymore. I do think we learned from that in the time and brought that with us, but I think that the film that we're watching now on them is a little more accurate on that. DANA RETTKE: I would agree, just two really different teams at this point in the year. But I do agree that we have learned a lot throughout the season. And, I mean, we're really thankful that we've taken some of that and learned from it. But yeah. Q. Dana, you guys have pretty much a brutal schedule going through the Big Ten. Comment on how much that helped you to actually get here and what it meant to win the conference title, too? DANA RETTKE: Yeah, the Big Ten every single night is a battle. Doesn't matter who is the on other side of the net, you'll have big battles. I think it prepares us really well for the tournament. The venues we play in too prepare us really well for the tournament. We play in venues that are packed, whether that's our home at the Field House or on the road. Usually a really good crowd at all the Big Ten schools for volleyball. But the Big Ten Conference prepares us great for these situations in the tournament, and we're just really excited about that. Q. Sydney, the match at the end of the season, I think second to last against Penn State, you guys lost that match, but you haven't lost a set since then. Was there something that maybe was -- you didn't want to lose that, but was helpful? Was that a good reminder in any way of maybe focus or whatever? What did you get out of that? SYDNEY HILLEY: I think a little of that was focus, but the biggest thing we learned was we have to stay mentally tough throughout the entire match. And in the tournament, especially, every single set is going to be two or three points away. So being able to be mentally tough and finish off those sets is really important. I think we've done a good job of learning from that and responding to that, and I'm excited because every game in this tournament is going to be a battle. So we're ready for it. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, you know what it's like to build a program, how hard it is to get back there year in and year out. I guess what are some of your thoughts on what Ryan's done at Baylor, which is not in any way a traditional volleyball program, and sort of coming in there and having the success that he's had? KELLY SHEFFIELD: What they're doing down there has been incredible. I think they're doing things the right way. Him and I -- I don't know if it was the last year or the year before, but him and I were sitting at a table at I think the All-American banquet, one of the banquets, the two of us sitting next to each other and picking each other's brains. And I told him then -- and it's funny that both of us are sitting here in the Final Four, but I admire the job that he's done down there. It's steady progress, but it certainly seems like they position themselves to be a place where elite players want to go down there. He's done an amazing job. And there's enough talent down there for there to be quite a few schools that are successful. And he's really done an amazing job, and certainly seems like the kids are having a good experience and enjoying themselves. Q. We asked the players, but what did you think having to play them again now, did you pick up anything from that past match that maybe could help you here this match? KELLY SHEFFIELD: We played a match without Madison Duello. She's kind of an important part of what we're doing. And it's really interesting of going back, like they said, and watching a match that you played, what, three months ago. And you're just remembering, oh, yeah, we used to do that. Or this person used to be in this position. Or just we were kind of trying to do this. At the beginning of the year, you're trying a lot of different things. Some things stick, and a lot of things you carve off. So you see a lot of things that you're like: What were we thinking? What were we doing? Well, we're trying to grow as a team and see what we could do. And so on our side of the net we feel like we've cleaned some things up. When I watch Baylor, you see a number one -- today they're the number one team in the country. They've only lost one match, and the confidence and swagger that goes along with that. They weren't that at the time. It was a really good team, but they weren't feeling probably on top of the world kind of going in there. And you can see when you're watching film right now a team that believes in themselves. And maybe not trying to prove themselves. They know they're really good and really talented. So I think they probably carry themselves even better right now, if that's possible. Q. In a sport that's played overwhelmingly by women at the college level, why do you think that you don't see more women head coaches, especially in a conference like the Big Ten that has poured so many resources into the sport? KELLY SHEFFIELD: I'm not sure I can give you a blanket answer to that. I'm not making the hiring decisions or anything. I think there's a lot of talent in this sport. There's a lot of coaching talent from the juniors and college. Why there aren't more, I'm not sure I'm going to have a really good answer for you. I know we've got some really talented assistants here on our staff to really help us out, and we've gone against some coaches on the other side of the net that it's pretty tough to go against them. But the makeup of our conference, I'm not sure. Sorry, I wish I had a better answer for you. Q. Is that a problem at all for this sport, do you think? KELLY SHEFFIELD: I'm just trying to win a volleyball match right now. My job is to build athletes, student-athletes that are ready to conquer the world after they're done here and have the confidence and be able to work through tough things and to teach them life skills. And if they decide to go into coaching after this, that would be great. We're going to be -- that would be fantastic. Is it a problem? I don't think so. I think anytime that you get into hiring and you go into something saying, Here, I'm just going to hire this, I'm just going to hire this gender, whether it's male or female, or, Here, I'm just going to hire an assistant coach or I'm just going to hire a head coach or something, I think you get yourself into trouble. I think you show that the sport matters and that the sport is important by hiring the best candidate, period. If I was an athlete, that's what I would want my administration to do. I would want them to sit there and say, Who is the best choice of leading this group that's leading me and my teammates, if I was a player. And I wouldn't want them to go in there thinking about gender. Now, maybe that's a little bit easier coming from a dude here that I would want them to say that, but I think -- do I see it as a problem? No. If all else is equal, if I was an administrator, hire a female, probably. Probably. But I don't know, I'm fumbling here. So I wish I had something better. I tried. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|