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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 1, 2014Kelly SheffieldKELLY SHEFFIELD: First of all, happy holiday, everyone. Good weekend. A good win against a really good Louisville team. I would guess sometime later on today they'll probably squeak into the top 25. They had a great win against a top 15 team, Minnesota. We came out‑‑ like I told our team afterwards, I thought there was no question we were excited about playing. But I'm not sure we were dialed in on and locked in on competing. Sometimes those first matches, maybe that's on us. But I thought we were‑‑ I thought defensively we were probably a little bit weaker than what we were hoping to be. And we talked about that going into Match No. 2 against Notre Dame. And I thought we were a lot better that match. Defensively, I thought we had the right mindset. We were able to get all of our healthy kids into the match. Individually, I thought Courtney Thomas, I thought we went back and watched the film. We had her hitting over .400 and passing over 2.5 and those were some great great numbers. I thought she had a great match or a great weekend. Haleigh Nelson, we thought we were getting a player that was really coming into her own in practice, but you watch her against other opponents and I thought she was really good and consistent all weekend long. Kelli Bates, freshman, got in there and had some really good moments as well. So good weekend. We're happy with the wins against some quality competition, and after watching the film, we're excited about getting back into the practice gym. Q. How much steeper was the grading curve for your kids in your mind this year first week than say last year? And coming off what you did, were your expectations as to how they would perform, how much higher were they? KELLY SHEFFIELD: Well, probably quite a bit‑‑ this time when you go into your first match at a new program, you're not really sure what you've got as players in your team. So you're kind of‑‑ there's a little bit more of a feeling out process. Right now we've got so many people coming back, we know what to expect. We know each other. We know how we should be communicating, and so the expectations are a lot higher. Last year, I'm not sure I'm jumping on my team after the first match. Especially when you sweep a really good opponent. But we got on them a little bit afterwards. And yeah, it feels quite a bit different. Q. You mentioned Kelli Bates. What's your take on her progression? You've mentioned before that she had a big step to take as the only freshman you have, only true freshman? KELLY SHEFFIELD: Yeah, I mean, it was a good weekend for her. We tried to ease her into it. She shared time as defensive specialist and as outside hitter. She played one game as an outside in the first match and two games as an outside in the second match. And we're trying to speed up that process of being a freshman. And it's her first match and first weekend. But I thought she handled it well. Biggest crowd she's ever played in front of. But kid walked out of there hitting over.300, and that's pretty good. She's going to be really, really good for us. But I'm not just trying to throw her into the deep end and say sink or swim right now. With some of the experience we've got in the other players we don't need to do that to her. When she's ready, she'll take off. Q. So what's the progression here from week one to week two and I'm sure there were some question marks coming into the first competitive weekend, were those mostly answered and how do you look at the tournament this weekend? KELLY SHEFFIELD: Well, offensively I thought we were pretty good for a good portion of it. Serving‑wise, I thought we served really well. Our ball control was pretty good. I thought we were really poor defensively for what our standards are. I thought blocking, we had a lot of blocking errors we've got to get fixed. And our reads in the back court I thought could have been better. And I thought we were pretty poor at covering our hitters. We'll get back and watch film with these guys and that's what this week will be about. You go to Colorado, and you go up there, I think Colorado State, you know, that will be a, I think they call it's a whiteout match for them, so that place will be sold out. And it's a great environment. So we've got some tough teams in front of us this weekend. But when you're saying what do I want to see better, I want to see the work we're going to put in this week defensively, I'd like to see that improve once we get to the weekend. Q. Last year your depth kind of vanished quickly early in the season. You got 14 people in at least that second match. What's the competition like for playing time between your first eight or so and then the others behind them? KELLY SHEFFIELD: I think the gym's really good. But the key is that after those first couple of weekends when you start having your starters or the people in the rotation and the people that aren't in the rotation or the people outside the rotation, do they just give up and say, hey, this is written in stone. And I think with sports across the board, if you get those people that are not only being supportive, but they're continuing to push. And those are the teams that really start improving. And so we've had great competition in the preseason. But we had some players that left this weekend maybe not playing as much as what they were hoping. So what are we going to see in the gym these next few weeks I think will tell us a whole lot. But right now our depth is great and hopefully that continues to be a strength of ours. Q. Kind of philosophically, is that something you have to put into players, the competing, or you recruit them and they already are that way? KELLY SHEFFIELD: It's both. You're going to recruit players that embrace competition that are passionate about the game and that want to get better, want to be coachable, want to learn. But, yeah, we talk about training on our edge on a daily basis. Competing. Getting after it. Embracing the moment of competition. And then leaving it out there on the court. And those are things that we talk‑‑ I think you can fine tune it and hone that consistently. And we talk about it as a staff. We want them talking about it. They do a really good job with it. But can we get out there and can we, with the style of our play, are we outcompeting our opponents, are we doing that, winning those moments on a daily basis. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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