Dave Shondell VB Press Conference 10/3/2022
I transcribed the main points for those of you who do not wish to watch the video or would like to read a hard copy. Most of the statements are Dave's direct quotes or, if he got wordy, a paraphrase.
Interesting comments on Lourdes Myers, Grace Balensiefer, Eva Hudson (of course) and most of the other players.
Dave’s Statement:
We had a couple of nice wins last week
Q: What did you think of Lourdes Myer’s first start?
Q: Quick turnaround for Iowa. Last time you had starters out - do you think that will have any impact on this week’s game?
Q: Wisconsin has 4 players averaging over a block/set. What does that mean for your hitters?
Q: What did you learn about your team in having to go to 5 against Illinois and being down by 4 pts in the 5th set yet coming back to win?
Q: How instrumental is it now that you seem to have some depth?
Q: What would happen if something happened to one of the back row?
Q: How important is it that Raven has become an important server for you?
Q: Can you speak to the courage and intelligence of Grace Balensiefer to execute the match point play she did on Friday against Illinois?
I transcribed the main points for those of you who do not wish to watch the video or would like to read a hard copy. Most of the statements are Dave's direct quotes or, if he got wordy, a paraphrase.
Interesting comments on Lourdes Myers, Grace Balensiefer, Eva Hudson (of course) and most of the other players.
Dave’s Statement:
We had a couple of nice wins last week
- To go over to Illinois in Huff Hall and come storming back in Set 5 after being down 3-5 (it was actually 3-7) to win the match 16-14 was a real emotional win
- It was nice to have the day off in between before we had to get ready for Rutgers
- Rutgers played really well against us
- They have struggled in some matches but they were really sharp against us and we were a little flat
- Our blocking was suspect at best
- We allowed their pin attackers to have a good game against us which is something we had been doing a good job with defensively
- We look forward to Iowa who played Minnesota (on the Gopher’s home court) really tough
- It was four close sets
- Minnesota won but I thought Iowa played better than against us
- On Saturday we have the defending national champion Wisconsin at Holloway
- We have three home matches in a row and so we need to (take advantage of that)
- A: We are very fortunate to have her on our roster. She brings the best out of others with her fight, competitiveness and no-nonsense approach.
- She is the kind of leader you’d like to have on your team.
- 9 of 10 times she’ll step up when she really, really has to
- I don’t think she has played her best yet
- She has been working on a lot of parts of her game
- Offensively we are trying to expand her game to run a lot of different routes
- Sometimes in matches she looks really good doing those things and sometimes she hasn’t quite got it figured out
- For her to become the player we need her to be we have to stretch her to get as much out of her as possible
- As the season progresses you will see her hitting numbers improve because she works really hard in practice and eventually that will pay off
- She is a little undersized (6’1”) to play as a middle blocker in the Big Ten so she has to be really sharp and ahead of the game and normally she is
Q: What did you think of Lourdes Myer’s first start?
- A: I just wanted to play Lourdes because she has really been impressive to me - not necessarily with her results in practice but her engagement in practice
- Her willingness to listen and learn and open up a little bit more to her teammates
- She was “the mysterious Lourdes Myers” because she is kind of quiet and likes to be on her own. But she is a great VB player
- Now that she is going into her 3rd year - still with freshman eligibility - she is starting to become a lot more engaged and a bigger part of the team.
- I wanted to reward her for that and get her some mins and some points in matches
- There was nothing wrong with Hannah Clayton except she is a great teammate and was more than willing to allow that time for Lourdes
- Lourdes (6’3”) plays bigger than any of our middle blockers except for Lizzie Carr (6’6”) who we plan to redshirt
- We want to get Lourdes those mins so that when we get in a real match where we need her to perform she can step in and feel much more comfortable
- We’ve had 4 injuries to starters already this year so you never know when something might happen
- She stepped up and did a great job and stepped up offensively and blocked more balls than anyone else on the floor. That was a great experience for her
Q: Quick turnaround for Iowa. Last time you had starters out - do you think that will have any impact on this week’s game?
- A: I hope that this time we will be close to a full deck on Wednesday- that remains to be seen
- I think we are getting close with Maddie Schermerhorn. I can’t tell you how valuable a great libero is despite the fact that Ali Hornung played like a great libero but now to have two would be really, really nice.
- Schermerhorn brings a presence to the floor that is somewhat irreplaceable because she is a veteran, a great teammate, enthusiastic and understands the game. So we will be better when we get her back.
- That puts Ali Hornung back into the middle back position where she covers a lot of ground and then one of our other DS’s in the right back position.
- We look forward to that happening and I would like to see it happen on Wednesday but she has not yet been cleared by our medial team.
- We had a hard time with Iowa up there and the middles were the biggest reason. I’ve watched them play since then and they are getting more and more help from their pin attackers
- They (the pins) were really good yesterday afternoon in Minnesota, which is a difficult place to play
- They won the 3rd set and were up, I think, 23-22 in the 2nd set but let it get away from them
Q: Wisconsin has 4 players averaging over a block/set. What does that mean for your hitters?
- A: Well hopefully our hitters won’t think that much about it other than to understand there will be a big block (to overcome.)
- Wisconsin has the tallest team in the Big Ten and maybe the biggest team in the country
- Their biggest player Anna Smrek (6’9”) has not played the last two matches so I don’t know what her situation is.
- She certainly is an imposing figure. She started for them as a freshman last year and might have been chosen the player of the Final Four - she was that good.
- Blocking is one of their strengths right now. They are physical and have a lot of experience back from last year
- They did lose some players that were key figures in their national championship run. Like a lot of other Big Ten teams, they had quite a number of super seniors
- They are still trying to figure some things out but they have great talent
- They are not short on size, length or athleticism
Q: What did you learn about your team in having to go to 5 against Illinois and being down by 4 pts in the 5th set yet coming back to win?
- A: First that they understand the game-plan, and this has been consistent.
- We had 4 days to get ready against a totally different team than what we had been playing. They were much different that Minny or Iowa.
- We had to focus on the high set and get our tempo down regarding the location.
- Raina Terry is one of the 6 or 7 best players in this league so we spent a lot of time focusing on her
- My point is the first two sets we were nearly flawless defensively. The had a really difficult time getting the ball across the net because our block was that good.
- Which is why I was so disappointed Sunday that our blocks were that bad
- To your question, we have shown several times that we can come back and win
- Most every close set we get in we are finding a way to win
- Again I think that has to do with he mentality of our players. We were helped dramatically with the infusion of Clayton, Balensiefer and Hudson all of whom without exception compete
- They’ve helped the group we already had who I like to think are super-tough customers
- They like those situations, they thrive on those situations.
- I would just as soon blow people out if we can, but that won’t often happen in this league. You’re going to be in a lot of close matches
Q: How instrumental is it now that you seem to have some depth?
- A: In our league it will be very important. Just the improvement of Ava Torrance and Emily Brown
- We were kind of trading them off back and forth in the right back spot but now they both have faced good competition.
- There is no where else to go - there is no one else on the bench.
- So now they have this added pressure on top of just the regular pressure of competing to play in the Big Ten.
- They haven’t been flawless. But I’ve been really happy with their development.
- And Ali Hornung, it is amazing how she took over the libero job. She actually has gotten better when she took over all 6 rotations.
- Our front line has some serious depth now and we’re not even talking about Rastovsky here.
- She is a really good player - low in errors and just needs more court time like Lourdes Myers
- Obviously with two setters we have great depth there. We got a third (Yim) who got in for a little Sunday. So our depth is working out pretty well for us
Q: What would happen if something happened to one of the back row?
- A: Well, we’d have to play a left-sided hitter all the way around. We’d try to hide them which we have done before. Chinn is a pretty good passer as is Koch.
- You’d just have to figure out how you are going to split up the court. You are always going to have Eva Hudson and your libero in the game. There are some options if we had to do it.
Q: How important is it that Raven has become an important server for you?
- A: She’s our best server… well she’s our most dangerous server.
- The reason is because of who she is. She spends extra time every week coming into the gym and working on her serving.
- There are not a lot of middle blockers in America who will come in 2 or 3 days a week spending a half an hour working on their serving because they have a blocking/hitter mentality for those players
- She’s such a great teammate. She recognizes how valuable she is to this team as a server
- She’s made some errors but not very many lately
- When you serve the ball as tough as she is, you are going to make errors
- Our ace/error ratio is pretty good - way above the curve for a division one team
- A: Eva still has a lot to learn about this game at this level. She is a terrific athlete and an offensive machine
- She has been pretty good blocking but we had some problems in the Rutgers game. Rutgers scored a lot just because she did not make a minor adjustment she needed to make.
- Some of those things just need to start becoming natural for her. She needs to expand her range and get more defensive plays in the back court
- Offensively, I’ve got nothing that I can help her with right now. She’s playing at such a high level I don’t even want to talk to her about it. She’s got that figured out
- But blocking, serving, defense - she’s only played 14 matches and has plenty of things to continue to improve on
Q: Can you speak to the courage and intelligence of Grace Balensiefer to execute the match point play she did on Friday against Illinois?
- A: I was happy she had it - I know that (smiles). But that’s just the kind of player she is
- It goes with being a 5th year player who has been in that situation a lot - not in the Big Ten but that’s all relative.
- If the situation is there and you have enough confidence in who you are then you’re going to make that play.
- It was wide open. Some setters will make that play and it’s not open because the left back player is there sitting on it - the blocker is up on you
- But Grace has played enough volleyball and has that vision and understanding to know that it was open
- Maybe it was when she was on the bench and Meg Renner was in there and she’s saw that the libero wasn’t doing a good job of covering that
- Or maybe it was during the play. Great setters and great volleyball players have incredible vision
- My brother Steve calls it a “peek-a-boo” shot. She dumped it over her right shoulder and they weren’t even close to making the play
- So the match was over.
- I’d say it’s courage but also the knowledge of knowing what you are doing
- A: NO. I’ve never felt any pressure like that. I fell a lot of pressure from myself. But I’ve never felt any pressure from Morgan Burke or Mike Bobinski
- As a matter of fact Mike just said to me yesterday when i saw him in the hallway that I had done something smart. And by the way, that is a big compliment from Mike Bobinski
- I don’t think we’ve had an administration here that coaches would feel that way.
- We’ve had moderate to good success here in collegiate volleyball. We’ve not put ourselves in a position to feel that way
- If you’re not winning and not winning for a long time, you’re probably going to feel that way
- I could not believe that Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst but I don’t have all the information - a guy who has been that successful, that loyal, that loved by his team and coaches and all the things he has done for that school - I could not believe it. It’s just ridiculous but I do not have all the information
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