Dec. 3, 2010
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Auburn Locker Room
Head Coach Wade Benson
"We are really excited for this team, getting to the NCAA tournament and for Auburn volleyball but also for being able to not be satisfied with that, but to
come through with a big first match. We worked for this all year long, so I felt that we were very prepared to not have so much nerve, so to speak, for our
first time through, and I think the first game's score definitely showed that."
On the team's expectations coming into the tournament:
"We certainly had questions, but at the same time, we have had a lot of pressure matches. We have had six in a row. We lost to Florida in five. We should
have beat them on our home floor. We played Ole Miss and we lost that in five on our home floor. Two gut wrenchers. Then we had to go on the road for
three straight just to get in. We won all three, with two of them going to five sets. I think pretty much the nerves are gone. Now we are just here to play
our brand of volleyball and see what happens. I think we played very solid for the most part. We switched the ball around a little bit, started going to the
middle a bit more. We just had some untimely errors and we are lucky this didn't go longer."
On how the team played tonight:
"I thought we served fairly well tonight. Really, I did. We have had our moments, like every team, where we have had 19 misses. So, to have a six and
seven stat line is pretty exciting. Under these circumstances, but really, I think their passing broke down a little bit and it showed in our transition game and their error game. It is always indicative of what is to come so that was positive."
On senior Sarah Bullock:
"Sarah has a lot of background in this town and area. Her family is from around here and her sister was on the track team (at Nebraska). This ended up
being a blessing in disguise to play at Nebraska where she watched when she was little."
On what it would be like to face Nebraska:
"We have been there. It's not that big of a deal. It is more of an honor in a sense. Florida has good history and the SEC is starting to show, having six
teams in (the NCAA Tournament). We are the second highest conference as far as teams getting in, and I think it is showing. We have seen the size, they
are very similar to Kentucky. It will be interesting. It will be rewarding. It will be about whoever has to adjust less and we have been pretty good so far. We need to not hurt our own side."
Sophomore Sarah Bullock
On the players expectations:
"We weren't satisfied just making the tournament. We want to go as long as we possibly can. Practice has been butt kicking. We came here and we are
ready to go. It is going to be a challenge to beat us."
Senior Morgan Johns
On the players expectations:
"I think we are just really excited to be here. We have worked hard and didn't know if we were going to get in. It was 50/50. We had a lot of fun this last
week at practice. We are here and we get to do what we want to do. There is a lot more worrying about our team and what we need to do. Coming out and
winning in three was a big win for us. It just shows what type of team we are. What we expect later is to just come out and do the same thing tomorrow.
Come out and have fun and keep going."
Missouri State Locker Room
Head Coach Melissa Stokes
"Thanks for the host and congratulations to Auburn on the win. The first set I thought we were trying way too hard. We made a lot of silly errors. I like the way we settled down in the second set. I kept telling our team, if we could be playing just a little bit better, I thought we could win. The fact that we lose by two points at the end of the second and third set, statistically we hit a -.028, and if you look at what we're hitting on the season, we had a few hitters not show up tonight, bottom line and that's what's frustrating. If we could have played just a little bit better we could have made a two-point difference. Disappointing finish."
On the season:
"I don't want to take away from what we did at the beginning of the season. We loaded up our schedule. We had a nice 3-0 win over Texas A&M, we beat
Utah, we beat North Carolina, the second team in the ACC, and beat Saint Louis and we beat the top team in our conference outside Northern Iowa. We had
two key injuries, one right here and one to Kristen McCartney on the outside. The last few weeks we've been battling some injuries. We've had a though go.
We started out in a 6-2 and ended up in a 5-1. We've struggled in making lineup changes over the last couple of weeks. Maybe that's taken a toll on our
team in terms of finding some consistency. Regardless, I wish we could have played better tonight. I think that's what we need to answer. Our goal wasn't
just to get to the NCAA tournament, it was to get deeper and I think we had a great opportunity here tonight. We have some things we need to address and
hopefully we'll have the opportunity to get back here again and have a better showing."
Junior Kelly Michnowicz
On what they did to bounce back
"We knew we needed to calm down. It was nerves, jitters. We were making errors that we don't normally make. Let's calm down. Let's take it one point at a
time. Let's get over the errors we're making and make one point better."
On what they could have done better in the match
"It's always a bummer to lose a game by two points. If that one point, if you just went for that one ball, or if you got that one kill, it would have been a
momentum changer, and that was just how our night kept going. We weren't getting that one point that would have changed the entire match."
Freshman Carly Thomas
On what they did to bounce back in sets two and three
"I think everybody needed to step it up one point better for each of our players, and just go at it on defense and play like you had nothing to lose."
On what they could have done better in the match
"We've made big comebacks in the past and I feel if we would have gotten that one set we would have taken off from there. It was that one point difference."
