Michigan State University Athletics
Kentucky 3, Michigan State 0
12/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Dec. 4, 2009
Michigan State Volleyball Post-Match Quotes
MSU vs. Kentucky Saturday, Dec. 4, 2009
Michigan State Head Coach Cathy George
Opening statement...
Thank you all for being here. We came up a little short today. I thought Kentucky did a really nice job. They played very hard, executed well, and they were tenacious in their defense, and we think they're a very solid team. We saw them two years ago, and at the time they were all freshmen and sophomores. We recognized a lot of the Kentucky players across the net; the difference is there are only a few players here that recognize them. We graduated quite a bit. It's almost like at that time we had four seniors, and a lot of Kentucky's team was all sophomores and freshmen, but now it is flipped. We have five upper classmen, and ten underclassmen, so it is almost the exact opposite. I felt Kentucky played with that composure, and I thought their ball control really helped them in the end. They were able to run their offense very well. We didn't handle some of the smaller moments; we didn't execute our ball control at key times to execute our offense. I feel that we have a lot of talent on our team, but the execution fell a little short, and I thought Kentucky handled those moments a little better.
On what you think Kentucky did to take control...
First of all, they passed really well. I think we served a little tentative, I think we took a little off the ball, and they were able to run their offense. They spread our blockers, and had a lot of one on one opportunities, where I felt we are a little bit bare; they were swinging hard, they were using their middle attack quite well in game one, and turned it around to their right side attackers. Even though in game two we had five blocks, I felt we were starting to close in on their offense a little bit. I thought they executed well as far as ball control.
On maybe catching Kentucky on a down slide after losing their two previous games...
I watched those two matches, and I think the pressure was on Kentucky for us to come in here after the first round two years ago, that has to be hard. I know they are looking for that second round opportunity, so I thought that if we could come in and impose our will on them and use our physicality because I know we are pretty tough, and so I knew we had to come in hard. Kentucky played really well, and they passed the ball. I think whenever you are passing and can start getting into a rhythm, and we allowed them to do that, I think part of it is because of little less than aggressive serving.
Senior middle block Vanessa King
On tonight's game...
I think this last game was a summary of our season with its ups and downs. We would get ahead, let them come back, get up again but then let them finish with the win. We didn't finish it off like we needed to tonight. This was the last game of my career but I will be around to help the younger players on our team.
Junior libero Allyson Karaba
On tonight's game...
I agree with Coach George that there were moments in the game where our ball control is what hurt us. We were unable to run our physical offense which is what we have. That hurt our game. When we can get a one-on-one hit we are unstoppable, but we couldn't do that tonight. That was unfortunate at the end of our game. Making it to the NCAA Tournament is a success for us because we didn't think we would be here. It's disappointing that we didn't make it farther, but we will be hungry for more next year.
