University of Minnesota Athletics
Oregon vs North Carolina Quotes
12/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
NORTH CAROLINA
Joe Sagula, head coach
Opening Statement…
“It was a heck of a match out there. It was a great battle against an awesome Oregon team, who played so fast and did a lot of great things against us. I want to congratulate them and their coach. They were well prepared for tonight and I thought they did a great job. I think the experience we’ve had in the close sets we’ve had in the past allowed us to be poised throughout the match, especially in the first set. I thought we actually got better as the match went on. We started slowly, but we never panicked and we made a run to come back. Because of that, we’ve put ourselves in a great position for our program to make history. I’m so proud what these players have done and what our leaders have done to put us in the top eight for the first time ever.”
On keeping pace with Oregon’s fast offense…
“Our serve. We tried to serve effectively and tough to potentially mess up their flow. They play so fast, and we kept having this analogy comparing it to their football team. Their volleyball offense is fast and it’s got so many variations. We had to have our players disciplined knowing we were going to have to block one-on-one. We had a lot of finesse touches too, which allowed us to slow things down enough to make a transition play.”
On the importance of the 5-0 run had in the first set…
“Looking back on it now, it was the whole match for us. Being down 14-9 and being able to come back and win that set turned the tide for us. Very often this year when we won the first set, we’ve been pretty successful. Winning that first set allowed us to feel more confident, especially coming from behind, and gave us a little breathing room.”
On their upcoming match against Texas…
“I thought it was a great match for the Tar Heels and congratulations again to Oregon. We’re looking forward to the matchup with a completely different style of team tomorrow, which will be quite a challenge against Texas.”
Paige Neuenfeldt, junior, middle blocker
On shaking off poor third set…
“I think that third set really angered us, we wanted to put it away at the end of the game as we had done so in the first two sets. So I just think that third set really fueled us to come out and play amazing in the fourth set, so we really used that as momentum. I don’t know if you all noticed but we are a very emotional team, we love to celebrate, we love to use each other’s energy to get better and to keep moving. So we do our best with that and as we get these runs it really helps us out emotionally.”
On 5-0 run in the first set…
“I think just being down, we don’t really get down on ourselves in a mental sense, we are always very positive and just like, ‘We gotta fight back’ you’re never going to see our team not try to fight back and so I think for me personally I just had to do everything I could to help my team because I know that, as coach mentioned, people like to rally around my emotion. So I was really just trying to get everyone fired up and to do my best and hit some good shots or just get the team going around a nice block or something. As soon as we get going I know we are going to be fine. So I think I was taking a little personal responsibility in trying to help start that momentum.”
On small runs throughout the game…
“Oregon’s a great team. They run a fast offense, I mean our strength is in our block and they were leaving us one on one which is something we weren’t used to. So it took us a little while to get used to that but I think after we figured it out we started to do a really good job. But no I’m not surprised, we know Oregon is a great team but I knew we had it in us to keep making those pushes. I’m pretty confident in our team I know we can do a really great job in doing the same thing tomorrow.”
OREGON
Jim Moore, head coach
Opening Statement…
“Congratulations to North Carolina, they played great, they were everything we thought they would be. Great team, they deserve to go on, great senior leadership on their team. From our standpoint, a little disappointing, we gave them 24 points in the last two sets and you can’t give a good team like that many errors, even just dumping balls in the net – things we don’t normally do, got caught. There’s no way you can give a team that’s that good that many points. That’s literally a whole set. North Carolina earned the first two, 19 kills in that first set, that’s great, that’s probably the most against us I can ever remember; we’re the ones usually doing that. We fought hard, we passed, we played well in the first three sets… we were outhitting them, statistically, in the first three sets – we kept trying to figure out how we were losing, statistically we were in front after the first three, but it’s not about the stats, it’s about the points. Congratulations to them.”
On his message to the girls in the locker room…
“We can’t let that happen, we’ve gotta learn from this and move on. The other part is that I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to coach Liz Brenner for four years, the seniors that were here… they’re awesome.”
On the North Carolina 5-0 run in the first match…
“I thought it was really big at the time. We were just plotting our way through, exactly what I talked to them about beforehand and we were doing great… and we missed a serve. The missing of the serve is not the issue; it’s letting it affect you. Unfortunately, that’s how it happened – it burst our bubble a little bit. I thought was a huge spot in the match. We did silly things that would cause those runs. We looked immature, and that’s what happens when you let runs go through, you just kind of panic. We seemed to do that a couple times. Runs usually occur because of the other team – they were getting the runs because of us. They served very well, in terms of mixing it up and forcing us to think, which caused some of the panic.”
On picturing if they thought they would be in the Sweet Sixteen back in August…
“Yes. Because of the woman sitting next to me (Liz Brenner).”
Liz Brenner, senior, outside hitter
On Coach Moore’s words about how much he has enjoyed coaching her…
“I loved my career at Oregon. I could not has asked for better coaches, team and staff. Obviously, I am extremely sad and bummed that I am done finally. They are going to do some big things the next few years, and I am really going to enjoy watching them.”
Martenne Bettendorf, junior, outside hitter
On the season overall and her performance this year…
“I think we are going to be equally as good next year. I thought we had a great season. Obviously doing well in the preseason and then doing well in the (conference). I thought that I definitely stepped it up this year, and I just need to get better for next year. It was a good season, just sucks that is it over.”
On what she can improve on next season…
“Everything.”
