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Notes on Dave Shondell's Press Conference 10/10/2022

DocRon

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Among other things, interesting questions on the Wisconsin loss (he doesn't seem too disappointed), the performance of Koch and sub-par performance of Hudson (not in the game you think) and being with the same coaching staff for 20 years.

Dave Shondell VB Press Conference 10/10/2022

Dave’s Opening Statement:

It was a really productive week despite the loss to Wisconsin
  • We worked hard on identifying some things that we needed to improve on and worked hard on those things
  • I thought we played really well against Wisconsin - especially our D against a team that can be “ominous”
  • They were as good if not better than anyone we played against this season, allowing that the Louisville game was only the 6th day of the season
  • Wisconsin is a handful and I think you will continue to see them get better and look like a FF team
  • We had our opportunities. In the 4th set twice we had set points which would have sent it to a 5th set but we couldn’t get it done.
  • The crowd at the end of the 4th set was electric - “I don’t think I’ve heard it any louder”
  • We are almost 100% healthy - just a couple people who are not all the way there yet
Q: In that game you would have liked to get the middles more involved.
A: 90% that is are we passing the ball to our target area for our setters to get the ball to the middles.
  • Wisconsin was having the same issues. Their middles are pretty dominant players but they did not have great matches against us
  • Their middles didn’t get the ball as much as normal because we did some things to disrupt their game
  • Serve/Receive for every team in the country is a focal point
  • I know we work on it constantly
  • We have two very good middles - more than two but two that play regularly
  • We need to find more ways to get Hannah Clayton the ball - she is working her tail off and making a lot of progress - as well as Raven.
Q: Looking at the outside hitters in that game the errors were up across the board. What do you credit that to?
A: There is no bigger block in America
  • Hudson, Chinn and Ellis were looking at a 6’9” right side player or the best athlete in the gym that night who was 6’3” Robinson
  • There middles, if we’re out of system, were 6’4” and 6’3”. It wasn’t easy money for anyone.
  • But again we had two set points in set 4 to turn it into a 5 set match against a team that I think is really, really good so we did a lot of things well
Q: Looking at IU, they’ve lost 3 in a row (Wisconsin, OSU & Iowa) but some of that could be attributed to injury. Assuming they’re back to full strength when you play them of Friday, do you feel their record reflects how good they are?
A: This is an Indiana team that is plenty good and playing with a lot of purpose
  • There middles, if we’re out of system, were 6’4” and 6’3”. It wasn’t easy oney for anyone.
  • But again we had two set points in set 4 to turn it into a 5 set match against a team that I think is really, really good so we did a lot of things well
  • We’ll assume they will be at full strength on Friday
  • IU is always one of the better serving teams and can make their opponents look normal in receive
Q: Now that you are back to having 4 back row players with Maddie back, how different is that for you?
A: Having Schermerhorn’s personality on the floor, and that experience - that made a big difference.
  • She was considerably better on Saturday than she was on Wednesday and she will be considerably better on this coming Friday that she was last week.
  • We watched a lot of tape this morning on defensive tendencies and she had been out of it for awhile and sometimes it takes awhile to get back into a groove
  • Ali Hornung - she’s been great all year. I thought both our middle backs, Ali and Eva Hudson, were really, really good
  • We’ve been talking to Eva about some things she needs to improve on and she listens. She made some strides during the Wisconsin game I thought.
  • Our right back players are duking it out but both doing well.
  • I thought “Brownie” had a tough match against Wisconsin but we went with her and Ava (Torrance) and give them an opportunity to play. And Ava will be ready to go on Friday also
Q: Do you feel it is important to have a former (high school) outside hitter in the libero position? As far back as I can remember you have had that.
A: I don’t think so - It’s whoever can play that position the best.
  • The advantage of a former outside hitter is that they have more knowledge of what hitters are trying to do
  • I like the length - Schermerhorn is almost 5’10” with long arms and Hornung is 5’9” and both are very athletic
  • You want a libero who can cover ground
  • I’ve said before, Schermerhorn makes more played in front of her than any libero we’ve had at Purdue.
  • She lost some of that with the injury but she gained ground on Saturday and I expect her to be 100% by this weekend.
Q: Statistically you were outplayed last Wednesday by Iowa but you still won the match. What was the difference in a match like that?
A: Well they bet us in every statistical category. Sometimes it’s do they beat you by a lot of points in one set. But that wasn’t the case as the sets were very even.
  • Proabably it was the fact that we were at home and the people playing expected to win.
  • It was a knock-down, drag-out and I think Iowa is probably the surprise team of this league.
  • They’d had the 3rd coaching change in the last couple of years and pulled in some transfers yet put a team together
  • This last weekend is an example of what the rest of the season will be like. It doesn’t matter if you are playing a national champion or someone who wasn’t expected to make the NCAA Tournament - every weekend will be like that.
Q: Maddie Koch had a pretty good week considering what she went up against. You said you needed someone else besides Eva to step up. Could she be that person?
A: Yeah, I thought she had a good week and is starting to feel very comfortable with who she is on the floor and in a role where the expectations are higher.
  • She has a great arm. We have to figure how to get her the ball and let her figure out how she is going to score points.
  • You can have a great arm but you’ve got to figure out where the points can be scored and the time and the situation and she’s making really good progress in that area
  • We don’t beat Iowa without her playing the way she played.
Q: [The recording skipped a minute or two here. I think the question was about Eva having more difficulty in the Wisconsin game because she was the “go-to” player]
A:
… her high school team and club teams set her every ball and so it’s not like she is not used to being the go-to player.
  • But this is the Big Ten and there are nights when you will struggle because other teams will sell-out on you which Wisconsin did
  • They knew what shots she was going to hit and how to black her and how to defend her in the back court
  • I thought she played a great match on Saturday against Wisconsin. She did everything we could ask her to to
  • Her blocks were effective
  • She got caught 1:1 on against both Smrek & Robinson - wonderful athletes - and more than held her own
  • She hit really, really good shots and limited her errors and played really good D
  • Serve/receive held up
  • She came off probably a sub-par match against Iowa and played “maybe as well as she could play” against Wisconsin
Q: There was a celebration last Wednesday for you and your staff serving 20 years together. What makes that happen?
A: (Smiles) We ignore each other faults as well as we can and move forward
  • The love for Purdue. The love for what we are trying to accomplish here with our volleyball program
  • Both John and Kat, especially early on, got bombarded early on to go coach as a head coach
  • Both of them really enjoy what their role is here at Purdue
  • They love our players and it would be really hard for us to walk away from any of them for what they sacrificed to be here
  • John, Kat and I are all really different people and we have our strengths and weaknesses. We try to help each other.
  • At times it’s kind of a seamless operation at times…. and at other times it doesn’t quite seem like that (smiles again)
  • We know what our jobs are and we do them pretty well
  • But we have to do better. We are in a league with the best coaching staffs in the country
 
Among other things, interesting questions on the Wisconsin loss (he doesn't seem too disappointed), the performance of Koch and sub-par performance of Hudson (not in the game you think) and being with the same coaching staff for 20 years.

Dave Shondell VB Press Conference 10/10/2022

Dave’s Opening Statement:

It was a really productive week despite the loss to Wisconsin
  • We worked hard on identifying some things that we needed to improve on and worked hard on those things
  • I thought we played really well against Wisconsin - especially our D against a team that can be “ominous”
  • They were as good if not better than anyone we played against this season, allowing that the Louisville game was only the 6th day of the season
  • Wisconsin is a handful and I think you will continue to see them get better and look like a FF team
  • We had our opportunities. In the 4th set twice we had set points which would have sent it to a 5th set but we couldn’t get it done.
  • The crowd at the end of the 4th set was electric - “I don’t think I’ve heard it any louder”
  • We are almost 100% healthy - just a couple people who are not all the way there yet
Q: In that game you would have liked to get the middles more involved.
A: 90% that is are we passing the ball to our target area for our setters to get the ball to the middles.
  • Wisconsin was having the same issues. Their middles are pretty dominant players but they did not have great matches against us
  • Their middles didn’t get the ball as much as normal because we did some things to disrupt their game
  • Serve/Receive for every team in the country is a focal point
  • I know we work on it constantly
  • We have two very good middles - more than two but two that play regularly
  • We need to find more ways to get Hannah Clayton the ball - she is working her tail off and making a lot of progress - as well as Raven.
Q: Looking at the outside hitters in that game the errors were up across the board. What do you credit that to?
A: There is no bigger block in America
  • Hudson, Chinn and Ellis were looking at a 6’9” right side player or the best athlete in the gym that night who was 6’3” Robinson
  • There middles, if we’re out of system, were 6’4” and 6’3”. It wasn’t easy money for anyone.
  • But again we had two set points in set 4 to turn it into a 5 set match against a team that I think is really, really good so we did a lot of things well
Q: Looking at IU, they’ve lost 3 in a row (Wisconsin, OSU & Iowa) but some of that could be attributed to injury. Assuming they’re back to full strength when you play them of Friday, do you feel their record reflects how good they are?
A: This is an Indiana team that is plenty good and playing with a lot of purpose
  • There middles, if we’re out of system, were 6’4” and 6’3”. It wasn’t easy oney for anyone.
  • But again we had two set points in set 4 to turn it into a 5 set match against a team that I think is really, really good so we did a lot of things well
  • We’ll assume they will be at full strength on Friday
  • IU is always one of the better serving teams and can make their opponents look normal in receive
Q: Now that you are back to having 4 back row players with Maddie back, how different is that for you?
A: Having Schermerhorn’s personality on the floor, and that experience - that made a big difference.
  • She was considerably better on Saturday than she was on Wednesday and she will be considerably better on this coming Friday that she was last week.
  • We watched a lot of tape this morning on defensive tendencies and she had been out of it for awhile and sometimes it takes awhile to get back into a groove
  • Ali Hornung - she’s been great all year. I thought both our middle backs, Ali and Eva Hudson, were really, really good
  • We’ve been talking to Eva about some things she needs to improve on and she listens. She made some strides during the Wisconsin game I thought.
  • Our right back players are duking it out but both doing well.
  • I thought “Brownie” had a tough match against Wisconsin but we went with her and Ava (Torrance) and give them an opportunity to play. And Ava will be ready to go on Friday also
Q: Do you feel it is important to have a former (high school) outside hitter in the libero position? As far back as I can remember you have had that.
A: I don’t think so - It’s whoever can play that position the best.
  • The advantage of a former outside hitter is that they have more knowledge of what hitters are trying to do
  • I like the length - Schermerhorn is almost 5’10” with long arms and Hornung is 5’9” and both are very athletic
  • You want a libero who can cover ground
  • I’ve said before, Schermerhorn makes more played in front of her than any libero we’ve had at Purdue.
  • She lost some of that with the injury but she gained ground on Saturday and I expect her to be 100% by this weekend.
Q: Statistically you were outplayed last Wednesday by Iowa but you still won the match. What was the difference in a match like that?
A: Well they bet us in every statistical category. Sometimes it’s do they beat you by a lot of points in one set. But that wasn’t the case as the sets were very even.
  • Proabably it was the fact that we were at home and the people playing expected to win.
  • It was a knock-down, drag-out and I think Iowa is probably the surprise team of this league.
  • They’d had the 3rd coaching change in the last couple of years and pulled in some transfers yet put a team together
  • This last weekend is an example of what the rest of the season will be like. It doesn’t matter if you are playing a national champion or someone who wasn’t expected to make the NCAA Tournament - every weekend will be like that.
Q: Maddie Koch had a pretty good week considering what she went up against. You said you needed someone else besides Eva to step up. Could she be that person?
A: Yeah, I thought she had a good week and is starting to feel very comfortable with who she is on the floor and in a role where the expectations are higher.
  • She has a great arm. We have to figure how to get her the ball and let her figure out how she is going to score points.
  • You can have a great arm but you’ve got to figure out where the points can be scored and the time and the situation and she’s making really good progress in that area
  • We don’t beat Iowa without her playing the way she played.
Q: [The recording skipped a minute or two here. I think the question was about Eva having more difficulty in the Wisconsin game because she was the “go-to” player]
A:
… her high school team and club teams set her every ball and so it’s not like she is not used to being the go-to player.
  • But this is the Big Ten and there are nights when you will struggle because other teams will sell-out on you which Wisconsin did
  • They knew what shots she was going to hit and how to black her and how to defend her in the back court
  • I thought she played a great match on Saturday against Wisconsin. She did everything we could ask her to to
  • Her blocks were effective
  • She got caught 1:1 on against both Smrek & Robinson - wonderful athletes - and more than held her own
  • She hit really, really good shots and limited her errors and played really good D
  • Serve/receive held up
  • She came off probably a sub-par match against Iowa and played “maybe as well as she could play” against Wisconsin
Q: There was a celebration last Wednesday for you and your staff serving 20 years together. What makes that happen?
A: (Smiles) We ignore each other faults as well as we can and move forward
  • The love for Purdue. The love for what we are trying to accomplish here with our volleyball program
  • Both John and Kat, especially early on, got bombarded early on to go coach as a head coach
  • Both of them really enjoy what their role is here at Purdue
  • They love our players and it would be really hard for us to walk away from any of them for what they sacrificed to be here
  • John, Kat and I are all really different people and we have our strengths and weaknesses. We try to help each other.
  • At times it’s kind of a seamless operation at times…. and at other times it doesn’t quite seem like that (smiles again)
  • We know what our jobs are and we do them pretty well
  • But we have to do better. We are in a league with the best coaching staffs in the country
Thank you Doc! Excellent as usual. Dave Shondell and Matt Painter are always honest interviews! :)
 
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Thank you Doc! Excellent as usual. Dave Shondell and Matt Painter are always honest interviews! :)
Doc: This is a link to an article about a recruit from Peoria, IL. Digging through the internet, she apparently verbally committed to Purdue in July 2021

 
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