Oregon-CU Quotes
October 31, 2015 | Volleyball
Oregon – Colorado Quotes
Head Coach Liz Kritza
On Oregon's passing
We weren't consistently aggressive enough. I think that we made them look really good. No, we're not going to take anything away from them. They're a good team, but we all know that we can do better—we expect to, and we will. I think it was just a tough match for us. I think that they did a good job of pressing us with their transition offense; they were moving the ball around pretty quickly. For us, we weren't playing at our best for whatever reason. There is a frustration that exists because these players know that they are top level players and that they are a top level team and they can play with and against anybody. I think understanding how to regroup a little bit faster, over a couple runs of points when they go up on the board, it is something that we have to go back and work on. I think tonight we had some opportunities to go ahead, and we sat back and waited a little bit too long for it. You look at the numbers, you look at the scores overall—it's a decent match, not a great match on our part, but a decent match. For us, that's not enough; we're not going to be satisfied with that. We have serious goals for this season, and were going to get back in the gym and work on it. When we go on the road we have some big matches and big teams that we have to take down. We take a lot of pride in knowing that we are a team that has that ability. We have the fire power, we have the leadership, we have the ball control, we have the defense down, we have the blocking—and when it's all there, things turn out a lot different than they did today. We just need to make sure that we are pressing to play at our best level.
On Abu's blocking
She is a physical athlete that is young. For her relative youth, what she's doing, her progress is great. The best thing about it is, she would say, that she has to get better faster. She wants more. As a blocker, right now, as a freshman, it's pretty special. It's been recognized. For her, she's got to make sure that she is continuing to stay in the moment, and make sure she knows every blocking assignment. Once she gets that, it's going to be really scary. On a Tough Game Before Going into Next Weekend's Matches
On a Tough Game Before Going into Next Weekend's Matches
“Every win is a win we need under our belt in this league. That's the beauty of it is that the second half of the Pac-12 season, there are upsets all over the place. Teams are beating each other; that's the beauty of this league. That is why this league is strong. That's why players that play in this league go on and do amazing things, because it is really difficult. In the second half after the turn, anything can happen. That goes for us too. We don't ever look at 'make or break' our season on one match. We're not going to make a bigger deal out of this match than we should. It's a tough loss. Every loss is tough for us, but we make the best use out of every tough loss and every negative that happens within our program. We drop a match, then we make sure that it's something that's going to be helpful for us to get better. It's going to be something that ends up being a learning experience, something that helps us prepare and refocus and get better for the next one. There isn't an easy match, regardless of what the ranking says or whatever number is attached to the teams that we're about to play. Everybody in the Pac-12, at this point in the year, are dealing with the same things. They are pressing to make sure that their tournament résumé looks good; they're pressing to make sure that they're winning at home; and they're keeping track of those last 10 matches of a season as a selection committee does. It's just the condition of being in the top conference in the country. We're ready for it and we know what to do if we take a minor setback. We have to recover from it. We will not falter; we won't fall.”
Colorado Players
ON THE LAST TWO SETS
“There were a couple key points that we didn't win. When you are up or down by a couple points and you don't win those super critical saves or blocking assignments, or the point not going our way, then it's hard to come back. They [Oregon] played great in the fourth and fifth sets and I think we can set up more than that. We are just going to head back into the gym and get ready for next week.”
ON WHAT YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS WEEKEND
“I think one of the most important things would just be playing as a team coming into these next two very important games. We play our best when we play as a team, so that would be the biggest take away I think.”
ON THE LAST TWO SETS
“Just going off of what Nicole said, I just feel like we lost a little focus staying calm. We knew they were a good team and we knew we could beat them in either three or four sets, something better than five. I feel like we were just 'Go, Go, Go, Go, Go', rather than taking a breath and being ahead of the games instead of reacting.”
