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NCAA WOMEN'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 13, 2012Lexi DannemillerLexi ErwinMark RosenLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY Texas – 3 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a opening statement from Coach Rosen. COACH ROSEN: Obviously we're disappointed to not being moving forward. But I certainly give Texas a tremendous amount of credit. They played great tonight. They did a great job, especially down the wire, the match, and certainly wish them the best of luck. I'm very proud of our team. We're disappointed, didn't want to finish this way. I'm extremely proud of how this team came together. One of the things they've really taken great pride in is being a great team. And I thought we did that tonight after the first set, and the way that started, it could have gone a negative direction, and I thought our team did a great job of pulling through and competing extremely well. So I'm very proud of them. Very proud of our senior, Claire McElheny. Thought she had a great year, did a great job leading our team. I'm proud of this whole team for collectively what they created in the culture of our gym. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Lexi, you guys have prided yourselves on being a balanced team‑‑ Erwin, I'm sorry. So you guys have prided yourselves being a balanced team all season. Today you carried the team and had a spectacular night. Talk about exactly what it came down to for you to come down with the points you did. LEXI ERWIN: I definitely think the tempo of our offense helped a lot. They're high flyers, big blockers. I think if it wasn't for the speed of Lexi Dannemiller sets out to the pin, I wouldn't be having those seams. I think Jen and Claire did a great job, and KG did a great job holding the middles. They were barely being late sometimes and I could sneak that ball in. Q. Both of you, they were able to put up a great block in the first and the fourth set. How are you guys able to adjust in the second and third? And I guess talk about how that was a big factor in the game. LEXI DANNEMILLER: Same thing like that happened with (indiscernible). When we saw a big block, we knew we had to make adjustments and make‑‑ try and get seams like by spreading it out or going fast to both pins. And then the hitters just adjusting how they hit, if they hit high into the middle of the court or hitting the line or tooling off the blockers. And they make good adjustments, especially after that first game. Q. Miss Erwin, talk about they seemed to dominate that first set. What was the message coming in after the break? And you guys seemed to just play really loose at that point. Just talk about those next couple of sets at that point. LEXI ERWIN: Yeah, I think we kind of joked about it after the first game that everyone literally made like every single error that you could in the first game. So we got all those out of the way. So the next set we kind of were like, you know what, they have a three before their name. We don't. We don't have the pressure on us. And so we kind of just played loose. And it definitely is hard to kind of forget that. I mean, you go down 25‑11 in the first game. But I think our team just came out with this fearlessness mentality, and it worked for the next two. Q. Have you seen a team play as well as they did maybe in the first set? And then you called them high flyers. Have you seen a team just along‑‑ can you explain a little bit more on what you thought of their athletic ability and stuff? LEXI ERWIN: Yeah, I think we saw it against Stanford against our first game. They were just clamping us, and I think we see that a lot in the Big Ten with Penn State and Nebraska, just huge teams. And I think what we kind of talked about was how we were going to change. We didn't really dwell so much on we just got smoked in the first game. We kind of were like you know what, what can we do? Jen was looking at me like: What can I do, what can I do? And we talked about speeding up the tempo and passing closer to the net so that Lexi could distribute the ball better. It worked. Q. Lexi, talk about do you guys feel like you left it all out on the floor there tonight? LEXI ERWIN: I definitely think we do. It was a heartbreaker for sure. And in the locker room we were really sad that we lost. But I think I was more sad that this group of girls just can't be together again. And Mark talked about we can't go to practice tomorrow, and it was just such a fun year. It wasn't always easy. We definitely had a lot to figure out at the beginning of the season. We had some chemistry issues, but I think we were really honest with each other and figured out our differences in order to be connected. So I'm really sad that I'm not going to get to play with Claire anymore. But I'm also sad that we lost. Q. When you beat Louisville, their reaction seemed to be that you were just so athletic, and that seems to be a little of the tone of what you're saying about Texas. Can you give us a sense of how many teams are really at the elite level in women's volleyball right now, how many can really compete nationally? LEXI DANNEMILLER: I think it depends like every team kind of has a different style. And, I mean, there are a lot of elite teams out there, and I think the best advance and I think that we really showed that we could be an elite team. But it's hard to say how many really elite teams are there. I think Louisville was a really elite team. And the same with Stanford and Texas. I think it just depends on the style of play. And I also think it's not always about physical ability. I think it definitely is about mental ability. I mean, we go down 25‑11 in the first game. It's really easy to be like oh, my gosh, they're amazing. Which they are very good. But I definitely think we came out fighting in the second game. So I think just the resiliency of teams at this level is extremely important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. You want to just talk about the adjustments you made in terms of the improved passing and really challenging them at the net in the second and third set that got you guys back into it? COACH ROSEN: Yeah, I thought they came out‑‑ we were really tight in the first game. And it's not really‑‑ not that it surprises us. It's a big stage and a really impressive team on the other side of the court. They got on us pretty early, and I could just see how tight our team was. As the girls said, we did a good job of trying to relax and get into our own rhythm the second set. Passing was a lot of that. They're a pretty good serving team, better than we felt watching videotape. It's hard to pick up some of those things. We got our passers in a little bit of trouble the first set. I thought we shored that up in the first and second set very well. And our team, we're not going to go toe to toe on the outside pin with a team like that and be successful. Their block is just too big and not going to work for us, not how we're built. So when we pass the ball better in the second and third set, got tighter to the net, were able to run the tempo that we want to run, I think we had success and showed that. Thought in the fourth game we got tighter again, but they also jacked up their serving a little bit. I thought they came out served more aggressively, and just kind of their way to get back into the game. And kind of got us on our heels a little bit and thought we lost our rhythm a little bit. I thought the fifth set‑‑ I really liked how we came out and played aggressively in the beginning. That game went‑‑ it was in the balance. Right before the switch, it's close. It was a two‑point game, and then we got back into it a little bit after the switch. They just‑‑ they're a little bit better. They're a little bit more athletic. And you asked the question about how they are athletically. They're the most athletic team we've seen. Doesn't mean they're the best team that's going to win it all. But as far as physical athleticism and size, they're as good as we've seen. Q. You answered it a little bit, but in the fifth set you're tied at 8 and that kind of put that last closing run together. So talk about what specifically they're doing to kind of close it out. COACH ROSEN: You know, again, we had one rally that Lexi had three swings. She took three great swings, but their libero made three great digs. And I bet on Lexi on in that situation every time. We had a seam in the block, their libero stepped into it and did a great job. Sooner or later they‑‑ you don't want to give that team three swings. They'll find a way to get a kill typically. But Lexi is in that situation over and over again, and she'll put that ball away. So those are just things that happen in athletics. They're things that go your way and ball bounces a certain way. And as one of our administrators said, it's a game of inches at times. And that ball is one more inch outside their libero's body and she takes it away from the court, now the game is different. And they just executed a little bit better than we did right there. I'm proud our team played and how hard they played. Q. Just talk about the run as a whole. You guys midway through the season might not have looked like you're going to get to the stage at this point, but the run you've been on and taken off since about midway through the year. COACH ROSEN: The girls alluded to it, but this is a team that really kind of came together as a collective group and decided that they wanted to change the culture and be a better team. I knew that‑‑ I think we all knew cognitively that was our way, our way to‑‑ our path to success, because we weren't going to do it just being more physical than other teams. And there was challenges along the way in that. And every time there was a challenge, what I liked about this team, they looked at it as a learning opportunity. And they were open. And the girls, they're very honest with themselves and with each other. It allowed them to grow and develop as a team. And that's something that I've coached a lot of teams and I've had very few that were‑‑ that allowed themselves to do that as much as this team did. It was a lot of work on a lot of people's part, our staff and some external people in our department that‑‑ it was a lot of resources in Michigan and a lot of people that really want great for all of our programs, but certainly for our program, and we had a lot of people helping. And our players took advantage of all those resources, and I'm just proud of how they came together. Q. With a season like this and the experience and the environment like this, I know you don't like to look forward as much, but just talk about the program now when you head into the next year with the returning squad and this under your belt. COACH ROSEN: A couple of things. First off, before I look forward, looking at this team, there's a couple things I want to highlight. One is Claire McElheny is the only senior, being a lone senior, and a fifth year. Her contemporaries that came in with her graduated last year. She did a great job leading this team. I mentioned to the team: I hope the younger players were watching because now it's their turn to have to be in that position, and I think she's a great example. I thought Lexi Erwin transformed herself this year and really became a player who could take 87 swings and get 26 kills. A huge atmosphere against a really big opponent. She did a great job of that. Lexi Dannemiller is running the offenses as well as anybody's ever done in our program. So those are some highs to it. But going forward, they'll think more about it next year, but the things that come to my mind: Make sure we're really going to work hard to get to the next stage. We can't rest on this season. It will be a new season next year. We'll have new players, different factors, and we've got to make sure that we build a team and a culture just like we did this year and better. And so that's a lot of expectation, but we like expectations. We're okay with that. That's what we're here for is to get better and grow. I'm looking forward to it. But right now it's hard because we want to win now. We wanted to win tonight. Q. Just to comment, what did you think about the atmosphere in Louisville and Louisville as a Final Four host? COACH ROSEN: I'm glad you asked that. Because this has been a great site. We were here for the first and second rounds. Spent a lot of time in Louisville in the last three weeks. And they did an exceptional job. First and second round was really well organized. They do it right here. They just do it at a high level. Very classy, first class. We knew coming back‑‑ when we left‑‑ we were hoping to get back here, and they took it to the next level. And they did a great job with hospitality and with just all the bells and whistles. And it's about the student‑athletes. It's about them getting the opportunity that they‑‑ for a lifetime, because you never know if they're going to have that opportunity again. And I think that they got a great experience because of what the host did, and Louisville did an outstanding job. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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