Oct. 16, 2011
Recap | Box Score
Wisconsin vs. Iowa
Oct. 16, 2011
Coach Pete Waite
On what he liked about the toughness the team showed, faced with adversity in the 2nd and 3rd sets:
“I liked the fact that they came back from behind. I didn’t like the fact that they let some runs go. There were times where we had a big surge and we would allow a big surge on their side. That’s what we have to do to improve as a team is to not allow the opponent to have runs like that.
I think there were times that we didn’t start playing hard until we were challenged and had to come from behind. That gives me a heart attack every time I’m watching that and most of the fans. And I know they don’t try to do it, but they have to work hard to stay up on top and be forcing the pace and the tempo on the opponent.”
On how important bouncing back from Friday night’s loss is:
“Well, it’s big. You want to bounce back and forget about what just happened, but learn from a loss because obviously they were doing something better than we were and they put us in some stressful situations we’ve got to be stronger at. Winning in three is nice. Again, the surges on our side have to be more positive, and I think we let them off the hook a couple times in the third (set). We’d have a run, and then we’d serve it in the net or serve it out. We gave them a ball rather than making them earn the ball.”
On how important it is to bring energy to all their matches
Junior Alexis Mitchell
“It’s really important, especially when you know that you’re playing against a team that can come out of nowhere and surprise you. But every match you go into, you need to play with energy because every team in our conference can stomp on you if you’re not upbeat and when you play with energy, it kind of brings your game out and it really brings your teammates up. Everyone starts to have a good time, you get the crowd involved and it really puts a damper on the other side of the net.”
Freshman Courtney Thomas
“Our team is very quiet, we have a lot of quiet people on our team, so, obviously, when the energy is brought, especially when we lose maybe three or four points at a time, when Alexis brings that energy it completely changes our game around. We could go from being down 5-0 to all of the sudden, now we’re tied - just because of her. She’s a big factor in that energy.”
On how the team has improved its mental toughness during the Big Ten season
Junior Alexis Mitchell
“Yeah, I think that it really is all mental for everyone on the court and each individual has to be mentally tough for us to work together, and for us to be down maybe six or seven points and come back to win a set and it really just takes talking to your teammates, telling yourself ‘we can win this game, we have to take it one step at a time’, but it’s just knowing that you can win and believing in yourself and believing in your teammates, trusting them to do their jobs as you will do yours.”
On what weaknesses the team was able to capitalize on over Iowa
Junior Alexis Mitchell
“I think that we just served them really tough, so they were out of system a lot. And we just really, their block was split up a lot of the time so we just had an easy time hitting the ball, hitting deep shots over top of their smaller blocker—they have a small setter. We definitely ran a faster pace than they were used to, I think, and that helped us out a lot.”
