Hawai'i post-match press conference quotes:
Head coach Robyn Ah Mow opening statement: “Oh, I don’t know, I mean obviously we’re excited we won. Girls played well and the floor is open to you guys.”
On what was said between set 2 and 3: “I didn’t tell them anything, we have been in situations like this, they kinda start a little slow, that’s my team, I went back and said ‘hey do whatever you have to do.’ I didn’t yell at them, I know I have to stay calm, they are going to come out wherever they are going to come out and they obviously did.”
On service pressure: “We picked it up later. We were serving little bloopers in the beginning, and our passing was a little shaky and I just told them that we have to win the serve-pass game. We gotta get our middles involved a little more, we didn’t set them that much in the first or second set. So, they went back and started popping balls.”
On if Jolie Rasmussen gave the team a lift: “Jolie (Rasmussen) has been out since the second week before we went out I said ‘our team is whole again.’ We weren’t whole. She was out, there was one drop here, one drop there. We are starting a second season. We are whole and starting new. It is obviously awesome to have her back and the girls are overjoyed to have her back.”
On takeaways from tonight moving to tomorrow: “The energy they had at the end of the game. We have to serve tough, which we did at the end of the game. Passing has to get a little better.”
On matchup with San Diego Saturday night: “Everything, you all were here and saw how they played, they are good. We have played them and it’s not much different. We will go watch film, but as long as we go out and do our jobs what more can we do.”
Outside hitter Jolie Rasmussen on playing again: “Very exciting, super happy to be back. This team has supported me my whole journey of recovery and I’m ready. I just want to win.”
On controlling emotions: “No, I just walked on the court and my team looked and me and said: ‘hey don’t worry we got, don’t worry, we’re here.’ I knew that even though I haven’t played in a while, that no matter what I had the five girls on the court behind me and the other eleven on the bench, and it wasn’t just the being on the court, it was that they were there for me. So, I don’t think I was there for them I think they were more for me. I appreciated them just saying we got you, so thanks, guys.”
Setter Norene Iosia on rust versus rest: “It was more for us to have a few good weeks of practice, having our starters being their first time. There were a lot of emotions and I think it affected us and made us play differently from how we normally play. We were a little too eager. I wouldn’t say the rust was there, it was more about controlling emotions. After the second set though we found our groove as you guys saw.”
On blocking tonight: “Good, a little stressful especially when its not going my way. Just focusing on getting touches and not blocks but if it happens.”
Middle blocker Skyler Williams on hitting performance: “No offense to Joe, but she was getting holes because I was up.”
On emotional return of Jolie Rasmussen: “Yes for sure, I missed her on the court. It's awesome having someone come off the bench who hasn’t played in a while and put up the numbers she did.”
On emotional match and lost voice: “It's awesome to see all the hard work, from the last time we were in the locker room in Oregon we started working hard from then. The emotions are very high.”
Northern Colorado post-match press conference:
Head coach Lyndsey Oates opening statement: “I thought we played really hard tonight. We maybe didn’t play well in the third and fourth set, but we played really, really hard all the way to the final point where our senior libero is making some unbelievable saves. So, we certainly can’t fault our effort. We didn’t play better longer. We were able to find a good level in the first two sets and just couldn’t sustain it. We got caught in the same rotation, our rotation six in the third and fourth set with a big run and just couldn’t get out of it.”
On Rasmussen playing: “No, I didn’t, honestly. I mean she’s obviously a good player but their other opposite was leading them in kills at that point so I don’t think that was a matchup that was crucial for us and I don’t think in the third or fourth sets that was a factor.
On what swung the match to Hawaii: “It really was just our rotation six that that was the run in both of those sets that got out of hand. So, we just didn’t have enough offense in that rotation with only two hitters to get out of those rotations.
On Taylor Muff’s performance: A little bit of reckless abandon and that’s what we needed from her all season. So, she was just swinging for high hands, chopping at the block, I thought Daisy set her a good tempo ball and once we found that in the middle of the second set she was able to see the block well and attack the block.
On blocking disparity: “They’re a good blocking team, but quite honestly, those are pretty normal blocking stats for us. We were last in the conference in blocks in the Big Sky so that three isn’t uncommon for us. We need to be a dig and transition team and we take big swings. So, those type of stats didn’t bother me because we are pretty used to that. We can sideout. Our sideout numbers were more of a concern than the blocking gap.
On significance of making the NCAA Tournament: This was big. It’s been since 2014 since we’ve been in the NCAA Tournament, so it was a little bit of a rebuild in the last five years to get here. We finished sixth in the conference last year with the same group primarily. So, this was a good turnaround season for us to dominate the Big Sky and have a four-game gap to win the regular season. Really proud of this group and with a lot returning should continue for us.
On if Hawaii did anything to surprise them: I don’t think there were any surprises but there were definitely some things we saw in scout that were going to be unique. We haven’t seen a jump spin in our conference, we haven’t seen that since preseason. They’re a little more balanced than what we’ve seen in our conference where we have one or two hitters on the other side of the net that can bring a big swing, they’re going to have six hitters bringing it. So, we weren’t able to commit block and we are typically a commit-blocking team. So, there were some things we had to prepare for that we are not used to but once we started the match there weren’t any surprises.”
Taylor Muff on what she was seeing to be productive: “Honestly, when Daisy (Schultz) went down in the first set with a rolled ankle it put me in a position to take the balls with reckless abandon like (head coach) Lyndsey (NAME) said, which was good for me to have, and just to play for Dais.
On what this year means: “Just getting from the underdog position to getting on top. Our coaches spoke it into existence that this was a championship team and they had been with a championship team before and we had exactly what they had and even more, so that really put us through the season in the best way possible.”
Daisy Schultz on battling back to make a comeback: “I think just knowing it could be our last game and putting it all out on the floor especially for our senior libero and for the rest of our teammates just because we have worked so hard all season to get here. I think that was the key.”
On what this year means: “I think just the amount of time we’ve been rebuilding and tried and tried and tried. At the end of last season, we said this was going to be our year and we have worked for that since the end of last season. So, we just knew coming in we were going to give it our all and we were going to make a difference.”
