John Cook,
Nebraska Head Coach
On Santa Clara …
“Santa Clara, to me, is like the Gonzaga
of men’s basketball. They’re from the same conference and they were an unseeded
team. I think they should have been a seeded team, but they lost a couple of
matches in November that probably knocked them out. They are very good
defensively and have won three huge matches to get here. They’ll have a lot of
confidence. John Wallace, who I’ve known for a long time, is an excellent coach.
He’s done a great job of building at a smaller school and making them a great
volleyball program.”
On the importance of new teams at the Final Four
…
“It
doesn’t really happen a whole lot. It happens here or there, but this year
certainly there’s been the most dramatic impact of non-traditional teams in the
sport of volleyball. From that aspect, it’s been good. What’s probably most
important is that this continues, and, for example, Tennessee and Santa Clara
build on this back at their universities with their fan base and build interest
in their communities and parts of their states to help build the sport.
Otherwise, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
On his team’s adjustment to the 6-2 offense this
year
…
“At the beginning of the year when we made the decision,
I’m sure people thought I was out of my mind. But every good coach evaluates his
or her talent, what they have and how to best maximize it to give them the best
opportunities to be successful. So we created this system – a unique system – that allows us to take advantage of our
great athletes on our team. It allows us to essentially get eight or nine of
them out there playing and take advantage of their strengths. It was a big risk,
and we started off with a Final Four-type tournament with only two weeks of
preparation. I was scared to death, to be honest with you, that the whole thing
would backfire. I asked the team what they thought and they believed it in and
felt it was the best system for us.”
Melissa Elmer, Senior Middle
Blocker
On the
presence of pressure at the Final Four
…
“There is still that little bit of
pressure being the number one seed. There are four great teams here and we all
had to play four good matches to get here. This is a fun time and it’s exciting,
but each team – especially us – has to worry about what we’re doing on
our side of the court and we’ll be successful.”
On her blocking success …
“Nebraska’s led the nation in
blocking I don’t know how many of the last few years – five years or something – so it’s something we really take a lot
of pride in. For me, I’m a middle blocker. That’s what I do and that’s my job.
I’ve worked really hard at it and I’ve learned to pay attention to a lot of the
little things. I’m really focused on that in practice and throughout the
season.”
Christina Houghtelling, Junior Outside
Hitter
On the change to the 6-2 system
this season
…
“We’ve adjusted really well, just having so many weapons
out there. Every rotation we have three or four hitters. I think we all believed
that each one of us could do it. As a team, we take so many big swings and have
so much power. I think we utilize it well.”
On the mentality of getting to the Final
Four
…
“We feel as
if it’s just another match. We have two more matches this year and we want to
come out and play well. We’re looking at this as just another road
trip.”
Sarah Pavan, Sophomore Right Side
Hitter
On the
6-2 offense
…
“It’s been an adjustment from last year. We don’t have
hitters playing out of the back row so often and it’s been different not having
a setter in the front row. But I think with all our strengths we have, it takes
advantage of our outside hitters. It makes other teams work that much harder to
figure out who’s going to get the ball because everybody can do so much. Yeah,
it was an adjustment at the beginning, but the team really embraced it and
trusted the coaches who said we could do
it.”