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NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPDecember 12, 2018Chris TamasJordyn PoulterAli BastianelliBlayke HranickaMinneapolis, Minnesota THE MODERATOR: We welcome the Illinois Fighting Illini. We'll start with opening comments from Coach. CHRIS TAMAS: Happy to be here. Been here a couple times before with Nebraska. Familiar with them. Familiar with them as a conference opponent, as well. We like the matchup obviously. We split this year at each other's homes. It should be a good matchup on a neutral floor. As far as thoughts on the season, this is a two-year process for us. I came here February of last year, made the Sweet 16 last year, had a nice run last year. Just continue on from there. With the leadership of three seniors sitting next to me, team is just heading in a great direction right now, as seen by us being here. Just really proud of the work they put in. The challenge every day that I put to them is to come in and give your all. This team did it in spades, will continue to do that. Just really proud of their efforts. The support we received has been phenomenal, not just from our own athletic department, but also from the University of Illinois, the general Champaign-Urbana community. Happy to represent all of us in that effort, proud to be here. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for the student-athletes. Q. Jordyn, Chris mentioned this was a two-year process. Now that you're maybe hitting that final stage, how do you look back at that two years, the path that led you here? What happened? JORDYN POULTER: I think we put in a lot of time to just get better as volleyball players. I think when Chris came in, we had not even enough people in the gym to make up a full six on six. I remember we spent the first week that he was here just learning how to dive on the floor, learning how to move our bodies in a way that would make us better volleyball players. I think we've come into the gym every day, kind of had the expectation that we were there to get better. We've taken it one day at a time for the last two years basically. I think it's led us to a good place. It's put us in this position. Q. Ali, how much does it help you playing a team you already beat before? Do you like playing a Big Ten team again? ALI BASTIANELLI: Always playing a Big Ten team is awesome. It's one of the best conferences in the U.S. We know Nebraska, we've played them twice already. I mean, it will help us, but also it's the semifinals. Every team is going to bring their best game. I think we have to bring our best against Nebraska. I mean, they're a very good team, playing very good volleyball right now. So are we. It should be a battle. Q. Blayke, talk about your career. You've been the ultimate utility player at Illinois. You've done everything asked. Talk about your journey, if you would. BLAYKE HRANICKA: So I came here my sophomore year from NC State. It has been a great challenge because the Big Ten is a huge step above the ACC, so it was a big adjustment. This year Chris had asked that I train all three front row positions. It's been the most fun I think I've ever had playing volleyball. It's new and fresh every day. I just have really loved having that role on the team. Q. Jordyn, you have gotten to play the last four matches at home. Any kind of difference having to reacclimate to playing on the road? JORDYN POULTER: I don't know that it will be a huge adjustment. It has been really nice being able to stay in our routines at home, being able to sleep in our own beds, go to school. I don't think we wish we were at home right now because so many other teams are. We're really happy that we still get to put on the kneepads, lace up our shoes in this last weekend of competition. Q. Ali and Jordyn, you were named All-Americans this morning. What does that honor mean to you? ALI BASTIANELLI: It just goes back to what Chris says. Every time something like this happens, it's a team award, team effort. None of us could get those awards without having the other five people on the court with us. It's a true testament to our team to have three All-Americans. I wish everyone could be an All-American because we truly have a complete team. All of our rotations are so complete. I think we really test a lot of teams. It's great to represent that way. JORDYN POULTER: It's a nice reflection that we're here at the Final Four. Individual awards are always nice, but I think us being here right now makes a bigger statement than any individual award that we garner. Like Ali said, even the girls who don't see the court as much during matches, they come in and bust their butt every day to make us better. If you don't have that competition in the gym every day, it makes it really hard when you go up against a really good opponent. Yeah, it's a nice honor, but I think this speaks volumes way more than the All-American honors. Q. For any of you three. After Saturday's win, you've had the buildup to now. Any difference being here in Minneapolis knowing the national semifinals are tomorrow? ALI BASTIANELLI: I mean, it's exciting. We're definitely taking advantage of soaking in every moment. I mean, this is new for everyone. I think we're really just trying to enjoy every moment we have right now. When it comes to game time tomorrow, I don't think it's going to be any different. We're going to stick in our routine, do what we usually do. Yes, it's going to be a big crowd, a lot of excitement. I think we just need to focus in on each other, the team, stay focused on our goals. THE MODERATOR: We will dismiss the student-athletes and continue with questions for Coach. Q. Coach, you talked about this being a process. Can you take us back to when you first came in there. Obviously it's a group of kids you're having to get used to. There's some disappointments on their part. You're having to win them over a little bit. Talk us through that process. CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, my hiring happened fairly quickly. We had just gotten off a national semifinal, back-to-back championship in 2015, the semifinal with Nebraska, sitting on the couch, got an email at 10:30 at night from Josh saying, Hey, want to bring you out here for an interview. Between that moment and when I got hired was about 48 hours, maybe a little bit more than that. In the process, it was, Here is our vision for the program, here is where we want you to be, here is where we're at right now. I said, I welcome those challenges. The first meeting with them was, like Jordyn said, we didn't have enough players to field a six on six. We were in a big conference room, nine players looking at me like, What to do next? They came off not being in the tournament that year. It was like, We want to win. We want to know what that's like. I said, It's not going to be easy. If we have the correct work ethic, you understand how to work as a team, I can get you guys to a good place. You can never fully say, You're going to be in some location at the end of any timeframe. We just want to take everything one day at a time, do the best that we can in that moment. That mantra has been there since day one. They've really taken it to heart. They really come in every day, and I can honestly say they get it after it every single time we're in the gym, every single time they're in the classroom. Like I said, this group is hungry, and they did it every single day that we were in the gym, every single day that they're attacking life. Really that's part of the two-year process. Then this year we had an amazing season, some tight matches. Glad Blayke got the question earlier, we started the season out with an injury to one of our now starters, Blayke had to go play a role she never played before. She played opposite. We had to flip Megan to the outside. We came away with three crucial victories at our first pre-season tournament. Set us up to have a good RPI to be in a position to be here and host through the regional, now here in the Final Four. Everyone has played a role. Everyone has been great in playing their role. It's just been a really good experience since day one. Q. John Cook was in Minneapolis last weekend. He felt like it was an unjust disparity of Big Ten teams on one side of the bracket. Do you feel like there's that representation in the bracket? CHRIS TAMAS: Well, whenever you have that many teams in the tournament, where are you going to put them all? Are you going to put them all in one bracket? It's going to really depend on how the seeding goes, how the RPI goes. The toughest part about being in the conference is you beat up on each other the whole time. It's very unlikely you're going to get an undefeated champion in the Big Ten rolling through their season. I don't tend to get caught up too much into that. Again, we just kind of say, This is what we're doing, we'll take it one day at a time. Whatever opponent you're going to put in front of us, I tell the team and the media all the time, any time, anyplace with this team, we'll take on a challenger. The other stuff is out of our control really. Can we take care of business in our own environment? Q. Mikaela has consistently played her best on this stage in recent years. What is the best way to limit her impact on the game? CHRIS TAMAS: I already texted her, told her I was going to stop her (laughter). She's a great player. Obviously really great on this stage. Two-time MVP, Final Four, same with Kenzie Maloney. Really good players this time of year. A lot of it comes down to making sure we're mentally prepared for the battle, for the challenge ahead of us. It's not just Kenzie and Mikaela, it's the rest that are on the court at any given time. It's not Jordyn, Ali, Jack, it's how the six of us play at the moment. They're well-coached, I'm familiar with the program. We'll be expecting a battle tomorrow. Q. You mentioned after Saturday that reaching the Final Four in your second season maybe validated your first years as a head coach. What does it mean to you that you got that first head coaching job? CHRIS TAMAS: Again, I think you always have an idea of what you want to do when you're an assistant. You write your notes, read my books, watched a lot of film, been around a lot of good coaching in my coaching career. Once it's on you to execute everything, you hope what you're doing it correct. I think I mentioned to you guys last week, there's always a bit of unknown. How that works... I've always understood how teams work. I've been really fortunate to be in very good environments going back to my high school and club days really where that lesson of being a true team is much more valuable than having one or two really good players. We have those players, as well, but it takes all six, and everyone else who is a part of your team that maybe doesn't see the court all the time to be really good at this sport. Just proud the way that's come together. To be the head of that is a cool experience, as well. But I look at it like I'm doing my part of the job. I have a bunch of people around me who are really good at their jobs, too. I don't need to micromanage everyone. I give them direction, they go. That's not common. I've seen a lot of places where that doesn't happen. Just really happy with how the team's come together. That goes for the whole Illinois athletics department, not just my own volleyball group. We run a team of 35, 40 people that come in and does their job every day. That's important. Q. Your two years at Nebraska working under Coach Cook, what do you remember about those, having won a national championship? How fondly do you hold those memories? How big of a role did Cook play in the coach you are today? CHRIS TAMAS: Obviously two great years we had there. Championship in 2015, then a Final Four in 2016. Just learned a lot from John. I try to learn wherever I go. I've been fortunate enough to be around a lot of good coaches. But John is really good, how he runs the program, how he approaches every day. No stone unturned with John, I do know that. I was fortunate enough to work for him. Even in taking this job, he was very gracious, saying, Hey, we love you here, but it's your time, you're ready, you need to go check this out. Really gracious in all of his time with me, what I've learned underneath him. But, you know, now it's time to beat him. You can tell him that (laughter). Q. This team has fully bought into that "one day at a time" mantra you brought. How did that happen, laser focus? CHRIS TAMAS: I think a part of that, again, that might be my own mantra, part of how I try to live life, too, part of it out of necessity. I have three kids at home under four. I don't have enough time to get in some future what's happening a month from now. You need to have a bigger vision about what's going on. What I've learned over the course of my life, if you're able to tackle that day, be really good that day, you obviously you need to have some vision for what the team or your life can be, but I try to be an example for them just as much as anything. I think that's important in my role, to make sure that I'm showing them how to do it, my staff is showing them how to do it. They're able to see that, able to emulate that as both people and as a team. Same way we harp a ton on communication with them. It's really important to be really good communicating team, not just within rallies, but within how we communicate with each other if we have a conflict with one another. It's going to happen. No good team is void of conflict. Really good teams know how to handle conflict really well. Along those lines, again, the example that we put for them, and this kind of run is proving that it works. This is the culture that we set up to be. They're doing a great job at it. Q. You're playing a team that has been on the stage so many times, had so much experience at the Final Four. It's all new for your players. What can you do to help your players navigate the new experience, neutralize some of the advantage that Nebraska might have from having been here before? CHRIS TAMAS: Yeah, that's always the interesting question because you don't know how your team's going to respond in that moment. We play in big environments in the Big Ten, thousands of fans. But the arena size is different. Some of the variables can be different with timeouts, promotions, whatnot. I just told them to embrace the moment. We didn't make it here because we just happened to catch a good end-of-the-year run. We've been good all year. Just to rely on everything that we've done up until now. I'm not sure how many people believed we would be here, but the belief, like I said, is in the 35, 40 people that have been working for this since day one. Just keep looking at each other and say, I believe, let's get after it. They've done a great job of that through the course of the year. A lot of it's about managing the expectation in the moment. They don't need to play the perfect game to win, they need to keep doing what they're doing, make sure that they're focused on the right things. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Good luck. CHRIS TAMAS: Thank you. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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