Box Score NCAA Round 1 Postgame Quotes
Iowa State vs. Miami (Fla.)
December 3, 2015
UW Field House – Madison, Wis

Iowa State Head Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch
Opening statement:
"First, congrats to Miami. I think they had a great season. That's a very, very good and athletic team. We knew they would be very tough and they were. I know that feeling of going home tonight.

"It was a great match. It was a steady performance from our team. We didn't get too high or too low, which was something we talked about in the locker room and have done for a long time. We played a high level of ball. Even when we got down in the second set, we just stayed steady and didn't panic and slowly made our way back in. I thought we stood tough.

"We missed a lot, 10 serves, but we served tough and I think we can miss some serves if we're serving that tough. I thought we played pretty relentless defense, and that's kind of what we're about this season. Serving tough and playing defense and I thought we did a great job of that."

On what she told the team beforehand in the locker room:
"Nothing special. The game plan. I do think we like this gym. It's a place that's pretty comfortable for us. There's no secret or special message. I'm not a big 'rah rah' person. Let's get the information and let's execute and be us. I think sometimes we get so caught up in the opponent. We just need to play our brand of ball. Some things might not be perfect, but that's okay. Our brand is to serve tough and play great defense and fast transitions, and that's what we did tonight."

On if the sweep of Miami makes a statement due to the evenly matched teams:
"I think this is a great way for us to come out and open up the tournament. We didn't really know what to expect with Miami because we've never played them and they're a great team, but I think we just took care of our side of the court and that was something that I think really helped us out tonight."

On if the game was the Miami hitters vs. the Iowa State defense:
"I think what concerned me was that when we scouted them, they take really aggressive swings no matter what. You saw that a couple times tonight. My concern was that they just keep coming and they're very, very impressive offensively, so I didn't know how we would hold up to that time and time again, but I thought we did a really good job getting touches and having our defense step up and do whatever they can to keep the ball alive. We love it when we know where the ball is going and set up a decent block, and then play great defense to keep the ball alive until we get the swing we want to get, which I think is what we ended up with tonight."

On if she's started thinking about tomorrow's game yet:
"I've been thinking about that all week. My experience that I've learned from doing it the right way and the wrong way is to do your homework as much as you can before you even get here. We've spent time on both teams. I'll be very interested in the match tonight. I think we're just excited. We get another opportunity. Wisconsin is obviously a great team and they're playing at home, so we understand the path ahead of us, but we're playing hard. When you play as hard as we do at times, then you've got a chance. I love the way we're playing right now."


Miami (Fla.) Head Coach Jose "Keno" Gandara
Opening Statement:
"First off I want to give Iowa State a lot of credit. They did a nice job preparing for the match and they did a good job executing their game. They're good at certain things and they were good tonight, and I give them a lot of credit for that. It's tough to do in this environment. I am awfully proud of this group. It's great to see a team grow the way this team grew throughout the year and, even today, I thought our preparation for tonight's match was the best we've had since I've been at Miami, three years. It's a credit to them, believing in what we are doing and how they're going about it every day and how important it is to them. Of course, it's painful to lose your last match. Maybe we didn't play our best but we met some standards that we've been fighting to meet, and tonight they were just not enough. Maybe in some areas we weren't as good but the difference was very close. The scores of the match maybe doesn't show that, but we know based on the numbers that we were close to some of the things we have been working on. They did a nice job of exposing some of our weaknesses that we were aware of and we just weren't good enough tonight, but a lot of credit to them and I'm proud of this group."
 
On his mindset going into the match:
"I was ready for a battle. I was ready for a similar match to what we had tonight. If you looked at the stats for the season, they were very comparable. Not only their stats, but what their opponents were doing against them. We have limited information when we play, when we come to this point. We have a lot of video available to our staff before every match and then we come to the NCAA tournament and we have one match, maybe a few more than that. So we have limited information, but I expected a close match and in many ways that's exactly what I got."
 
On the pressure put on by Iowa State's servers:
"Absolutely, that was a big part of the match. They won that battle, and that's one of the battles that we always look at. We missed 9 percent and they missed 13 percent of their serves, that's reasonable. But they got a bigger return on it so they did a nice job."