BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAYS

August 2, 2023

Chris Tamas

Brooke Mosher

Raina Terry

Illinois Fighting Illini

Press Conference

CHRIS TAMAS: It's great to be here again. It's awesome just to see the continued commitment from the conference to put on something like this and highlight our sport. Obviously we think it's an amazing sport, but I know there's thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands that think the same way, too.

Again, to have another year where we can do this and showcase our athletes and all the athletes around the Big Ten I think is a big deal, and I appreciate everyone for being here.

Q. Chris, you've finished seventh in the Big Ten the last four years. How frustrating is that, and how do you try to get over that hump?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, I think -- I tell the team all the time, it's like you can be one of those teams that's in that boat and still do really well, and we have. We've made it to several tournaments and have done much better than seventh place in the conference. I think at the end of the year that's what you're aiming for. You're trying to make the tournament and trying to get in.

With that said, obviously we're not happy finishing seventh place. I told the team this spring. I said, I didn't sign up to try to come here and hope to finish seventh place and then do damage in the tournament. We want to know that we can come in and place well in the conference.

But it takes a lot to find yourself in a good spot. You need to have a healthy season. Last year I don't think -- I know we didn't have a healthy season, and it was just kind of some random injuries that we had taken on and had to move some players around and maybe not the best design as you would have it in your head, but it was just how it works.

That being said, too, the conference is excellent, as it always is, and it's tough to finish well in the conference.

But the plan is to keep recruiting strong, keep getting players that have the mentality that you need to be in the conference and give it your best shot every single time you step out on the floor.

I think for us the goal is always to get better every year as a program, and that looks different for every team, but I think in our realm we're in the mix and we've got to figure out how to score a few more points when those big matches come up.

Q. What's been the shift back to setter? Is there a mentality change? What is it like going back from attacking to full-time setting?

BROOKE MOSHER: Yeah, I'm actually really excited for it. It's something I've been looking forward to. I think the biggest change is really just making myself just a little bit more of a leader.

Q. Is there anything technical, or do you have to refresh or change the mentality at all?

BROOKE MOSHER: No, I think just getting reps is really all I needed, and I think I'm really back into the swing of everything.

Q. Brooke, your versatility last year, building off that, was extremely dynamic. Obviously you were recreated as a setter originally. What is it about you that helped you thrive in that role?

BROOKE MOSHER: I had been playing basically every position my whole life, so doing that my whole life really helped a lot. And then last season I just really kind of went for it. That's all I thought. I didn't really think about it too much, I just told myself to just go for it.

Q. Obviously learning from Diana Brown, how did her leadership help you prepare for the moment that you're entering?

BROOKE MOSHER: Yeah, she's a great mentor. No matter any question I had, she had an answer. She was really sweet about everything. She knew that I was coming up with her, and she just helped me tremendously.

Q. How is it being around the team with new faces, new experiences? What's your biggest anticipation for this upcoming season?

RAINA TERRY: I think all the freshmen that we have and the one transfer we have, Vanessa, they're awesome. They've done a great job. They've come in and worked so hard in the summer.

And I think you can anticipate a really competitive season. We have a lot of fire. We compete with each other every single day, no matter how small the competition.

Q. Coach, obviously you get to expand your staff and officially promote your wife to the assistant coach role. How fun is that for you to get that experience?

CHRIS TAMAS: I think it's great, obviously. We've been doing this for a long time, not just here at Illinois but previous stops we've coached together. Obviously when that role was expanded to hiring a third assistant, it really does help.

All of our kids are kind of grown up, so it actually fell in really good timing that they're all in school now and she's got more time now herself where she can be around the team.

I think her being a mentor for the team is a big deal. She was the captain of the national team for almost a decade and was an Olympian herself. And she's a really good competitor, but she's also very good at handling teams and being really good about telling the players how it is and mentoring them through their journey, as well.

I'm really happy to add her officially to the staff. She's always been a part of it, but her role is going to expand even more as we kind of move forward here.

Q. Coach, in your first three years, obviously, you guys made the tournament all three years, making the Final Four being the big culmination year for you. The last two out of three years you haven't been able to make the tournament. Anything different you're doing this off-season to prepare for the season to try to get back to that point?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, a couple years ago we were in the Sweet 16 defeating a defending national champ. That's not an unfair statement. You're correct we didn't make it for two of those years. But it's tough to make it.

A lot of people asked me after last year if I was disappointed or whatever, and I wasn't because we had so many players that were playing different positions, and in some way I was impressed with how they handled it and how they went about it, and we went through the last weekend with still kind of a chance to make the tournament.

That's obviously always the goal. And again, the whole process of it all is you have to be able to be skilled enough. You have to have the players with the right mentality, and you have to make it through a season healthy. It's really tough to get through a season healthy, but we have to do our darnedest to do that.

The process really doesn't change. For us really it's just more along the lines of can we hopefully, knock on wood, not take some injuries that we took last year and just being able to -- again, just trying to become a stronger group through everything that's thrown at you during the course of a season.

Every season is going to have really nice highs, and every season is going to have almost painfully lows, and you want to make sure -- I tell the team all the time it's how you get out of those lows that are going to be able to dictate how your season goes because we're all going to go through them. This conference is as tough as ever. It always is, and we have to stick together as a team as we keep marching through.

Q. Raina, last year obviously making the All-Big Ten team, now this year being in the Preseason All-Big Ten team, can you just talk about your growth as a player and any expectations you have for yourself and trying to help the team this year, as well?

RAINA TERRY: Yeah, it's awesome. I always hold myself to a high standard, and I get very upset when I don't reach that standard.

But, yeah, I just try and come in and work my best every single day, and my teammates definitely help me get those things. I couldn't have done that without Diana last year, and Brooke is going to help me this year a lot. She's awesome, and she's going to fill an awesome role.

Q. You guys have been now on the team for multiple years. You're on the team that made the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Can you just talk about expanding your leadership now this year? Do you feel like your voice is growing within the locker room? Do you feel like you have more leadership qualities this year to help the new players step into the mix?

BROOKE MOSHER: I'd say definitely Raina does a really good job of leading our open gyms. She creates practice pins for us and they set us up for a lot of success.

I think for me personally, just being more of a leader on the court or creating opportunities off the court to hang out with each other is making a big difference.

RAINA TERRY: Yeah, I just try my best to lead by example, both on and off the court. You have to do the things right off the court if you want to be good on the court. Just trying to lead by example there.

And Brooke is doing a great job of stepping into this new leadership role. I've definitely noticed her talking a lot more in the gym, and she's getting pretty fiery and getting after it.

Q. Coach, now that you have a lot of new players coming in this year and now that you've had some time to evaluate them, can you talk about your group heading into this year and especially the new players, anyone you've seen stand out so far?

CHRIS TAMAS: Absolutely. I think it's always a team effort, and we had a couple players come in early to our team this year, graduated high school early and come to us, Taylor de Boer and Lily Barry.

It's always hard to predict who's going to do what because once the lights are on it could be more difficult. We have a player and grad transfer in Vanessa Pan who I've seen on film but I haven't seen live. We have a couple that came in this summer, as well.

I know from hearing from them that they're excited about the quality of talent that's on the team and, again, the quality of players that we have overall. As they both mentioned, at the end of the day it's how great of a team can we be, not a great group of individuals.

They've really -- we kind of put them to the test in the spring. You're going to need every bit of that when you go through these seasons. It feels like you're so far away when you talk about that back in February or so, and now we're here.

I think that excitement is building and they're ready to accept the challenges. They have already in their careers. Just looking forward to actually getting out on the floor and competing and having an opponent on the other side of the net with everything that goes on with having games either in the Big Ten or elsewhere.

Q. Chris, with Jen, did that just kind of happen, or was there a moment where you guys talked about it and you asked her if she would do that, take on that role for the team?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, for sure we had talked about it. It's a serious role. It's not just, hey, we've been working together for 10 years, we've been married for 14, we've known each other since college. Obviously that all helps with the trust factor of what we do here, but it's still a very serious role that we have to fill correctly.

And if it wasn't able to work with our kids, and my parents moved to Champaign back in 2019, they said, hey, we'll step up in any way that we can, it's just -- it's a family affair for us.

At the end of the day, we call Champaign home, but it's been home for us for a while, and it's really meant a lot to us to be there with everyone in Champaign because I know they feel the same way. I know the team is the same way, as well.

Just to have her on staff, we've been doing it for a long time going back to several stops before that, as well, and I just think it's a good addition to the staff.

She's a tremendous person, obviously, but she's a tremendous coach, and she was a tremendous player. It's one of those things where if I blindfold interviewed her, it would be -- I actually made her go through the interview process, just so you know. She passed the test tremendously.

Just looking forward to adding her. It's a great addition, and really looking forward to expanding her role even more than what it has been.

Q. Obviously we've already talked a lot about sort of the not wanting to finish seventh. In the media or I guess the coaches' rankings, you guys are picked to finish seventh in the conference. Obviously last year there was some five setters that you got to that didn't quite go the way. How do you change the mindset to make sure those losses turn into wins and you keep rising up in the conference?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, I tell the players, it's hard to guarantee that. It's better to be close than to not be there at all.

Like I said, even with all the changes that we had made or that we had to make throughout even just last season, if that's what we're going to focus on, to be in those five setters and to be within two points of victory, does it suck, yes, it absolutely does suck, as a competitor you want to win every single match that you're a part of it, but at the same time you can't be talking about that if you're not there in the first place.

For all the changes we had to implement last year, super proud of the team and how they competed, and that's why I know this year is going to be special. If that's the way it was with people out of position, what's it going to be like when people are actually in their position doing what they were recruited to do.

I love every team that I coach, and I know I'm going to love this one here in this upcoming season.

Q. Chris, in general, what is the importance of having a third full-time assistant coach? You talked a lot about your wife being in that position, but in general what does that do for the sport and you as a coaching staff to have a third full-time person?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, it's a great question. I think for a lot of staffs it can be tough. You've got a lot of things to do. You've got recruit, you've got camps, you've got obviously running the team and trying to be there for your team as much as possible.

Whether it's me having Jen on staff or any other program out there, I think as a sport we're just talking about, well, it kind of shows where we're at as a sport and showing we're kind of in that elevated status. Not to take away from any other sports out there, but I just think it's one of those things that showed the commitment not only from the school but from the sport, as well, to show that we're kind of on that stage.

And you're seeing that with TV selections, not only within the conference but now ABC is picking up the championship and so on and so forth.

I think it's just kind of one of those things that -- it's another box that's being checked, like, hey, our sport is getting to where all of us coaches think that it should be, and where maybe in some cases it already is.

So I'm excited about where the sport is heading, and a lot of changes in the last 10 years, and all in a good way.

Q. Brooke and Raina, how has being a student-athlete at Illinois positively impacted your life, and what does it mean to you to represent your university?

RAINA TERRY: I think being a student-athlete is a great experience. You have to learn a lot really quickly because we come in in the summer and school starts in the fall, and that's our season, too.

You have to learn how to balance everything, and it can be a lot. But as you go, you learn, and I think it's a really valuable tool to have.

And it's been awesome to be at Illinois, to be a student-athlete there. Chris is awesome. Krista, Eli, Jen, they're the best coaching staff I could have ever asked for, so they make that transition pretty easy.

BROOKE MOSHER: Yeah, and I think being a student-athlete at Illinois, it's amazing just to be a part of the school, too, and to be able to represent such a distinguished academic school is something that's definitely going to set us up for success.

Q. Raina, what's the process like when you get a new setter from your perspective? How do you build a rapport and build up the relationship between the setter and the attacker?

RAINA TERRY: You know, it takes a lot of communication, and at the start, it's not always pretty. We're trying to figure out everything, figure out the timing and figure out these little tweaks that you have to make, especially with a faster set, trying to figure that out.

You just have to talk to your setter and she has to talk to me. And I think we did a great job of that. And it took a while, but about halfway through the spring we really started to see that connection come along, and it's come along a lot more in the summer.

Q. How does the dynamic change knowing -- she was your co-outside hitter last year to now you have a different relationship with her? How did that change?

RAINA TERRY: I think Brooke, she's a great teammate. No matter what position she was in, she's done a great job. And I tried to help her as much as I could last year, and Krista also did a great job with helping her last year in trying to figure out how to play against a Big Ten block because it's a huge block and you have to learn how to use it and how to hit effectively with whatever you're given.

I don't think much has really changed. She's done a great job.

Q. You mentioned you're your own harshest critic. What areas do you have left to improve upon?

RAINA TERRY: Personally I'm working on my shots, my shots game. I look up to Michelle Bartsch a lot, and I'm trying to encompass a lot more of her game and trying to learn how to score in more ways than just relying on my heavy arm.

CHRIS TAMAS: She needs to be nicer to her opponents. No, she doesn't. Just kidding.

RAINA TERRY: No, that's not going to happen.

Q. Coach, can you talk about Brooke and Raina have now been on the team for a couple years. Can you talk about their growth as players and leaders, and what are you personally expecting from them to help the group this year?

CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, great question.

I think whenever we kind of get together every single year, we kind of give the reminder that it's not just about hanging banners and putting up a good win-loss record and finishing a certain way. It's about success all around.

I told them. I said, If all we did was come in here and hang up Final Four banners, that would be great, obviously the fans would love it, we would love it, but it's really hard to do.

At the end of the day, it's how you grow as a person. We want them to be great people and great teammates when they get away from the gym, as well. At some point their career is going to end, and whenever that may be, you've got to transition to the life.

I think they've both done a really nice job of every single year taking on more of a role or a leadership role or just being better versions of themselves than they were the year before, and they're constantly learning and growing.

And in some cases I had to throw Brooke in to play a position she wasn't designed to do. And Raina, when we first recruited her, she wasn't playing six rotations, but we told her, Guess what, you're getting in there and going. And last year she had a pass, just her and our libero on the court.

Those things aren't easy to do and handle kind of the mental pressures that go along with it, but they've done a fantastic job of doing that, and it's really -- when a team is looking at you for not just obviously vocal leadership but how do you handle each situation, these two have done an awesome job of saying, yeah, all right, here's the challenge, I'm going to take it head on and that's the way it goes. To me, that's a big way in how you have to tackle life, as well.

It's just been great to see both of them grow, as with everyone else on the team.