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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2015

Kelly Sheffield

Madison, Wisconsin

KELLY SHEFFIELD: First weekend under our belt. We got to learn quite a bit about where we're at and things that we've got to get better at. A lot of new kids got their first taste of Badger volleyball, and I thought we got stronger as the weekend went along, which was something we'd been stressing a lot with our kids.

This coming weekend we've got a heck of a challenge with a North Carolina team, one of the top programs in the country, and then Louisville, who we are expecting to be another elite team, so we're going to watch some film this afternoon and then get back to the practice gym shortly afterwards.

Q. Seeing that Lauren has gone through the two-a-day practices and then three matches in two days, the strength of her ankle and all of that, any sign of anything, proving that she's healthy? What's the status?
KELLY SHEFFIELD: I think she's doing well. It's just health. She's a little tired coming out of the weekend, but so is everybody. But no, the ankle is doing great, leg is doing fine, just trying to build the connections with the new hitters.

Q. Traditionally how strong is the ACC, maybe in comparison to the Big Ten?
KELLY SHEFFIELD: Might be the most improving conference in the country. I mean, they've always had some teams that were pretty good. They've always had two, three teams that were around the top 25. The past couple years they've had two or three teams right around that top 10, top 15, teams that are legitimate Final Four caliber teams, North Carolina being one of them, Florida State another one. Duke has been kind of right up there. It's an improving conference.

Some of the conference landscape has changed a little bit. That's probably made them a little bit stronger, but I think they've also invested a lot more as a league in this sport, and it's really paying dividends.

Q. Nobody likes to lose, obviously, but after the run that you've had the last couple of years, to drop that game to Western Kentucky, was that a wake-up call for this year's squad to kind of remind them that nothing is given?
KELLY SHEFFIELD: Well, I don't think it was necessarily a wake-up call. We're learning how hard you've got to play to be an elite team. You know, like I told them afterwards, it's kind of -- that's what we -- there wasn't a loss that necessarily -- loss happened over the previous two weeks. We're learning how hard you've got to be able to go every single point. We're learning that. We're learning how to communicate at a level that is effective and make your teammates better. We gave up a lot of uncertainty points, where we weren't sure who was going to take what ball, whether it was in the servicing game or attacking or defensively. Either those were balls that just went to the floor or those were balls that were giving free balls to the other team, and they were ramming it right back down our throats. A lot of hesitation points. Those things got a little bit better as the weekend went along.

When you're playing against a team that is as well-coached and has played -- they've got six out of their seven starters returning from a year ago, and so they weren't giving us those free points, and to me looking back and watching the film, that was the difference between the two teams. One was just -- we weren't always in attack mode, and they took advantage of that.

Q. Lauryn Gillis had a heck of a weekend, didn't she?
KELLY SHEFFIELD: She did. You know, she's -- every day she's getting her mojo back a little bit, where we need it, and offensively she was awfully good. You know, passing has gotten stronger as we've gone through the preseason. She was getting more confidence in that, in a match environment as we were going. She's learning a new serve that was really giving people fits. She's going to be huge for us. She's a great kid. She has an awesome work ethic. People love playing with her. You know, I think we're just getting started with Lauryn Gillis here.

Q. Lauren has obviously been the leader talent-wise on the team the last couple years, her freshman and sophomore year, but without people like Ellen and Courtney and Deme, how does her role change this year as she looks around and the people around her aren't what they were the last two years?
KELLY SHEFFIELD: We're trying to encourage her to stop looking around. You know, she's a junior All-American, and she's got a motor that is always running and she's got -- her thoughts are usually the right thoughts, and so we're trying to get her to trust herself. She's about -- she's extremely unselfish. I mean, she's a very competitive kid, but it's very, very important that the team is with her, and she just doesn't like being out in front of everybody, and so it's a little bit out of her nature, but we're trying to encourage her to trust her instincts, to run with it, use her voice even more in the practice gym. She likes to defer a little bit in the practice gym, which is kind of surprising when you kind of see how she carries herself, but she'd rather older kids do that, but there's not a lot of older kids on this team anymore, so we're trying to get her to be confident in being able to communicate.

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