Post-Match Quotes - Hawai‘i
NCAA Volleyball Tournament - Des Moines Regional
No. 7 Hawai‘i vs. No. 8 Penn State
Wells Fargo Arena
December 11, 2015
Hawaii Quotes: Dave Shoji, Nikki Taylor, Tai Manu-Olevao
Opening statement
Dave Shoji- “I don’t know if Minnesota actually started scouting us until halfway through the second game, it’s an honor to be here in the first place it is an honor to play penn state, they have an unbelievable program and Russ is an unbelievable coach , we feel honored to be in the game , more than honored to win the match, quite an effort by our young women about midway through the first game, I thought that while we were playing them, I hope our kids believe that we can win this match and we did, they played their hearts out and I’m so proud of them.
How does it feel to get your first career win against Russ Rose?
Coach Shoji- “Well, it’s a win against Penn State not Russ Rose, they have had our number lately , I wish we could have played them earlier in his career because maybe we would have turned the table earlier, when you beat penn state you have to feel good about that and we do. Russ is a great coach and he is continue to have great teams and we feel honored to be able to beat them.”
What do you tell your players in set 2 during the timeout, haven’t dropped a set all season.
Coach Shoji- “Nikki reminded the team that we haven’t dropped set 2 all year and I think that we got a little inspiration from that, we had several plays that we couldn’t convert. We made the plays when we had to and managed to steal set two.”
Nikki what was going through your mind at that point during set 2?
Nikki- “I think at the timeout I was kind of in the back of my head we are in a little bit of a disadvantage coming into the timeout, but I still had faith in my team, I knew that we had the ability to convert, through the whole first set and all through the second we were siding out at a very high rate. I was letting the team know that we hadn’t the entire season that we hadn’t dropped a second set and that was something that we needed to hold proud to ourselves and muster through and build up enough energy to be able to finish quickly after the time out.”
Tai do you have any comments on this big win?
Tai- “Just feeling humble, enjoying the experience.”
How much does it mean to you to have your fans travel so far to support you?
Nikki- “It means a lot for our fans to be that 7th player, our fans are so loyal and so dedicated, and the thing that is so special about Hawaii fans is that know so much about volleyball, its always great having them come. It was really great having everyone be here, they brought the entire crowd up and showed the Hawaii spirit.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow night with Minnesota how do you think your team matches up against
Coach Shoji- “I’m gonna have to look at film again, during warmups I was very impressed with their vertical, my goodness how anybody has ever stopped them. They are awfully talented and hit you from all parts of the court, we are just going to have to find some way to slow them down, we are going to have to serve tough, I was really impressed with their passing because they got every player involved, it’ll be a tough task but our kids have been very resilient as far as trying to take away the strengths of the other team, so that is what we are going to have to try to do. Break them down, tonight we touched a lot of balls on the block and we ran our transition and we will have to do that tomorrow night.”
Coach Rose said 2 things, 1 that he admires the defense your team has.
Coach Shoji- “Well one of the things we did was have our middle backs stay deep because they hit the ball high over our block, and maybe we slow it down, we couldn’t get sucked up into the middle of the court, keeping everything in front of them. If they were to bounce one down in front of us we were just chalk it up and go on to the next play. Our game plan was to stay deep, touch some balls and run transitions.”
Coach Rose had said that whoever won the other coach would and say wish you well and mean it, did he keep to his word?
Coach Shoji- “You know he was a true guy, I know that he was disappointed but I think he was happy for our program and wishes us well.”
