Dec. 1, 2007

Recap |  Final Stats

2007 NCAA Women's Volleyball First Round
Penn State vs. Siena
Nov. 30, 2007

Penn State Quotes

Penn State Head Coach: Russ Rose

Opening Statement
"I thought it was certainly a good match for us offensively and I think its always tough for some teams when they play that first match against a team that's much different than what they're accustomed to. Siena had a great season and represented their conference well. We were just a little too much at the net for that match-up."

Was it tough to game plan against a team like Siena?
The film that I had, they played hard and they played well. McCurty is hitting .436 for the year, that certainly is enough to get your attention. Honore was the conference tournament MVP and is a player that represents her country, so she has played against the Cubans and played against other players who are good so that she wouldn't be necessarily in awe. But I thought we were okay. There were 20 balls that we didn't dig, there were 18 errors that we made that were unnecessary, we missed nine serves, had three net violations, and hit six or seven balls out of bounds and into the net. It wasn't a great match, but statistically it was a good match. We overpowered them at the net. Those things can happen and I don't get too high about it. When we're down 2-0 the first game after two of our top players made hitting errors I also wasn't too down at that point in time. I knew we'd have the ability to get ourselves together. It was nice to see the crowd having fun doing the slow wave and the fast wave and things like that. I think its great and we're very appreciative of the athletic department that they support women's volleyball to the extent that we can host first rounds and Regionals and give our fans an opportunity to see good volleyball. Certainly it doesn't guarantee success, but certainly it doesn't put the same stress on the players as they would normally have when they have to travel.

Any thoughts on what you expect out of Albany tomorrow?
Albany plays hard, their hitters were very active, they did a nice job. They'll come out and play hard, they have nothing to lose. I thought they handled Cleveland State pretty well. Cleveland State never really had a chance to get into the flow of the game. I thought they took good swings, the setter's active, she's a good leader. Their team went up 3-0 then. I'm not sure their conference has won a lot of NCAA matches prior to then, so it's always exciting when a conference gets that first win. We'll have to play hard, play smart, play together.

Despite the nine errors, did you see significant improvement from the serving at Michigan?
Well at Michigan we had one ace and sixteen errors, and here we had seven aces and nine errors. It's a different scenario, at Michigan you're playing in a renovated swimming pool and it's a small facility and the crowd is right on top of you. It just kind of steamrolled a little bit and we were making error after error, but we were very strong offensively. We would miss a serve and then come back and be able to get a side out. We're a little more comfortable at home. I just don't like when we make service errors in succession, that's the problem, because it doesn't give your front row people an opportunity to demonstrate that they're good at what they do. If we're going to be a good blocking team we need to make our serves so that the blockers have a chance to block, because our defense isn't our strength.


Player #1: Megan Hodge, So., OH

How important is it to get this one out of the way?
I don't really look at it as getting it out of the way. If we don't win the first match we're not moving onto the second match. We're taking it one match at a time and hopefully we'll just be elevating our level of play.

How were you able to hit so well tonight?
I just think our offense has gotten a little bit faster so their block has to stick to our middles and I think we have too many weapons right now to be double blocking. One on one is easy this way.

Player #2: Alisha Glass, So, S

Alisha, in the second game I saw during the huddle you were busting out some dance moves. Were you guys just a little more relaxed?
I think that we had to bring the energy up after the first game, it was a little dead in there, and watching the first match between Albany and Cleveland State we saw a lot of excitement and I think we just needed to bring that into our play.

Were there times you had trouble staying focused because you were so dominant?
No, because I think it's about being good on our side and whether they're playing up to our level or not we still have to be consistent and lessen our errors and keep focusing on what we need to do.

Did you feel you guys playing your best volleyball, were you a little nervous starting NCAA's? Or does this just kind of seem like almost every other match?
I think we're relaxed considering we're at home. I think its really nice to start your first match of the NCAA Tournament at home and you have the comfortable crowd, and same gym, same everything. You have that little comfort which makes you a little more relaxed.

Could you tell if you had them frustrated with your block tonight?
I think at times they were committing a little bit so you saw sometimes the one blocker cheating in and so on and they got caught getting outside. We've been, as Megan said, speeding up our offense and so they get caught and our hitters go so fast they don't have time to catch up. And you could see that a little bit, they were trying to catch up with us.


Siena Quotes

Siena Head Coach: Garvey Pierre
Opening Statement: Well, that was a good game. And we did our best. This team is very strong, definitely one of the best teams in the nation. We did what we could, and that is it. Our player, some of our players, the freshmen are learning. It was a good experience. Of course we have been here before, three times in a row now. We are really happy about that. Of course we hoped to get a different team, we did not expect to get Penn State. They are a very strong team. We just did what we could.

Q: Do you think that if you would have beaten Albany before, would you have been given a better seed?
I believe so. Probably because we had a chance to do it. We were 29th or 27 again. It would have helped to get a better seed, and get another team.

Q: How do you think your players reacted to the atmosphere at Penn State with the band and the crowd?
They like it, they like it here. It is a good crowed. We are used to it in our conference. It helps Penn State to be home and to play in front of their crowed. I don't think it was something that killed us or anything. We did play our best and tried to be successful.

Q: Was it difficult to make a game plan for Penn State?
It wasn't easy. I watched the tape over and over, at least 10 times. It is really hard to identify what player, and it really isn't easy to set up a game plan when everyone is good. When you try to stop them in the middle, they go outside and kill you there. They are a very solid team.

Q: After watching the tape of Penn State was it different to see them live?
Of course, live is always different. Of course you see the size on the tape and you don't think they are too tall, but when they walk by it is totally different. Live is always different.

Q: Does Albany have a prayer tomorrow?
Albany is a good team, and they will do their best. Everyone who goes here wants to do their best, they want to win. There is no way out here, except if you lose you are out. They probably watched the game, and they know what to expect. But Penn State is very, very strong, it is going to be very, very hard.

Player #1: Nadiege Honore, Sr., OH
Q: With opening in the NCAA with the hitting of Penn State, how did you guys prepare?
Well I think the most we could do was play our game. We knew they were all really tall, really experienced players and we just prepared to do what we have done all season.

Q: How tough was their blocking game for your team?
Definitely hard, they were tall. It was challenging for our hitters. We were able to put some balls down, which worked for us a couple of plays.

Q: Was their height and blocking ability frustrating?
Yeah, I mean we kind of went in there prepared to get blocked at some points. We knew they were going to be big and we went in there preparing to play cover. We tried to get the ball up off the block. It wasn't that frustrating I guess because we expected it. I mean it was challenging, but we worked with it.

Player #2: April London, Jr., S
Q: Did you try to get away from your original offense to get the ball to your players to set up away from the blocks?
Yeah, as a setter it is always my job to get as few blocks as possible to get them away for my hitters. I tried to watch were the block was going. If I could get them with a couple less blocks. With three or two, or possible with one block or no block. They are a really smart team so it is hard to fool them.

Q: Have you seen triple blocks against your team before?
Not really on us, we do it a couple of times on some other teams. But we have not faced anyone that triple blocked on the outside against us.