MPSF Tournament Finals Quotes
POST-MATCH QUOTES
MPSF Tournament Finals - Hawai‘i vs. Long Beach State
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Walter Pyramid; Long Beach, Calif.
HAWAI’I HEAD COACH CHARLIE WADE – OVERALL STATEMENT
“Obviously we liked the way it started. Neither team was crisped offensively from the start. This time of year when teams know each so well, defense is usually more prepared and it certainly was. We came out with great emotion where we played well enough to win the first set and won it pretty handedly. In that second set, Hendrick (Mol) went down and we just got off rhythm. It’s a pretty fragile thing there when you get at the highest level when you get off rhythm and we got off rhythm and didn’t get it back in. I started moving pieces around, trying to get us back on track. And by the end of the match, we were back playing pretty good, certainly with a different lineup. Got back in it with a sideout rhythm and we’re scoring points. I thought we pressed a little more than needed from the service line down the stretch. That’s something that we’ve been good at. I think some of the guys went back and tried to get two points on a serve and that speaks on how bad they wanted to win and how much fight they have in it to compete. So, proud of our guys, it’s been a good year for us. We’ve only lost to two teams the whole year and that’s two of the best teams in the country. Let’s hope that this team gets an opportunity to compete for the national championship.”
ON THE PLAY WITH HENDRIK GETTING INJURED
“I never saw it. He went down and rolled the ankle. That stuff happens. The shoe wasn’t off yet. Our trainer is really good. Is he back next week? I hope so.”
ON THE CHANCES OF GETTING AN AT-LARGE TO THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
“I think they’re good. We’ve only lost to two teams and we make to the final of our conference championship match, the toughest league in the country. And the teams we lost to, there’s no bad losses. BYU is No. 1 in the RPI and we have a win against them and Long Beach is pretty good too! Three of our five losses to them, on the road, all of our losses are the on road. I think we have a compelling argument to get into the field.”
SENIOR SETTER JENNINGS FRANCISKOVIC
ON THE MINDSET AFTER SET THREE AND FIGHTING BACK IN SET FOUR
“It was just resetting. We’re confident in our team. We have a lot of great players and we talked about it after the match even though we lost. A lot of guys had to come in and step up. I think going forward, if we do get a chance to play more, that’s even more motivation for us knowing that when one guys goes down, one guy is hungry to come in and contribute. Like Charlie (Wade) said, it took us a little bit to adjust after Hendrik went down with the ankle injury. Step forward is intense and playing the No. 1 team in the country at home for them and going to four with that banged up lineup, I’m excited and confident in our guys and it might be a different outcome next time.”
ON THE DIFFERENT MINDSET WHEN SOLBRIG CAME INTO THE MATCH
“Obviously with the different guys and it’s going to be a different set. But, nothing is really going to change; we know what we’re going to do. We see it all the time. We just need to control on our side of the net and play our game. Since we do have a lot of guys that are good, that’s not going to change much between positions. Honestly, it was just refreshing. That was the biggest thing after the third set.”
