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April 26, 2007

2007 EIVA Championship Semifinal Quotes; Penn State def. Princeton, 3-0

2007 EIVA Championship Semifinal Quotes

Penn State 3, Princeton 0

Penn State Quotes
Opening Statement: Head Coach Mark Pavlik: "We played the way we practiced this week, real sharp, mostly in game one and the first half of game two. We were pretty physical in transition and I thought our middles did a great job in transition and hitting the gaps. The challenge to the middles was to ‘out-athlete' those two [Mike Vincent and Evan Pasion]. Vincent's a pretty athletic guy and I thought we did a pretty good job against him. We were firing on all cylinders. At the end, the writing was on the wall and we fell into a lull where we thought we didn't have to play as hard. We're going to have to change that on Saturday."

How did that run in game one help the team? Pavlik: "I thought Princeton was playing some good defense, there was a rally where they dug Max Holt twice and got a block. I didn't think Princeton could maintain that level for the whole game. At about 10, we got that spurt and I thought that was the breaking point in the match. Princeton played tough, but they can't dig that many balls and we stayed physical."

Could you have run the middle any better? Pavlik: "If we were hitting 1.000. They [Max Holt and Max Lipsitz] did exactly what we asked them to do. Mike Vincent is a very good middle blocker. The challenge was to out-athlete him, make him move. We did a good job of not just letting him settle in. The middles were pretty good today."

How comfortable were you feeling with everything today? Sophomore opposite Matt Anderson: "At the start of the game, it felt great. Luke [Murray] and I were connecting perfectly. Towards the end of the match, it dwindled out. During practice all week we were on, and it will come back on Saturday."

Your teammates have been saying that the past week and a half has been the best week of practice all season. How did that benefit you?
Junior setter Luke Murray: "I think we have to give our second team in practice a lot of credit. They stepped it up in practice to push us and that's a really big part of what we need to do in practice." Pavlik: "Given our schedule from the end of February to the first week of April, we never really had a good block of time to just settle in and train. We just had a 19-day stretch where we only played two matches and the guys were able to come in and train, and I think it paid off immensely."

Looking ahead to Saint Francis, what are some of the things you need to concentrate on for Saturday? Murray: "Part of our game plan is to minimize the impact that Marc Honore can have. We're going to try to serve really tough so they can't set him that much. Obviously he's their go-to guy, but as long as we do that and as long as we do everything we did tonight on our side of the net, things will fall into place."

What do you need to do to lessen the impact of Marc Honore and Jordan Varee on Saturday? Pavlik: "We need to minimize Honore's impact. I don't mean that in terms of kills, but in terms of the opportunities he has to put the ball away and have the team rally around him. If we can limit him to maybe six or seven swings a game, we're going to be ok. That's tough to do. Their libero, Travis Fox, can pass the ball pretty well. Jordan Varee has played really well against too. He has been more responsible for keeping them in the matches with us this year because he's on the court in all six rotations. When Honore's in there, we're going to serve tough, we're going to come in there with our guns blazing. When Honore's off the court, we need to score points and make sure we limit the effectiveness of Varee."

Does the service game have to be better on Saturday? Pavlik: "If they pass like they want to and get the ball to Honore like he wants, we have no one who can challenge him in that air space. We have to serve well. We have to get them to side out on our terms, not theirs."

Is there more pressure on the service game on Saturday? Anderson: "Last time we played them, I got the go-ahead to put more pace on the ball. I had five errors, but I also had six aces. It is more pressure, but it's nothing more than we go through in practice every day."

Princeton Quotes
Opening Statement: Head Coach Glenn Nelson: "I came into this match expecting what happened. Some of the younger players might not have, but I did. The first couple times we played Penn State, Luke [Murray] wasn't on, but tonight he was on. Their offense was a lot quicker than it was the first couple times we played and we couldn't hang with them. If you have people who jump higher and hit harder, most of the time you're going to win. Credit to them, they're playing better. You don't go from not being in this conference championship to coming in and knocking off somebody like Penn State. We're taking little baby steps. We weren't here the last three years. We're just getting a little bit better."

Was Penn State overwhelming? Sophomore setter Brandon Denham: "They were definitely overwhelming. Sometimes I didn't know who to set because they were there all the time. They're great players, they're huge. There's nothing we could do about it. They're very frustrating to play against."

What were you trying to do with your offense to offset what Penn State was doing? Junior outside hitter Peter Eichler: "We have to start with our passing and we didn't pass well tonight, and we knew that was something we were going to have to do. Offense doesn't really exist without the passing and the rest of the hitting percentages struggle when we don't pass well."

Did Penn State's aggressive serving cause some of the problems? Nelson: "They served really well. It was also us not doing what we should. We're good passers and we passed well all season. Coming here and having a sub-par day is a bad combination."

How did Penn State's first game run affect you? Eichler: "Along with our passing, we knew we had to prevent big runs from Penn State. It takes a lot of wind out of your sails to suffer big stretches like that." Nelson: "I don't think we played anybody all year that had six jump servers like that."



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Conference News 2005-06 \| 2006-07 \| 2007-08 \| 2008-09 \| 2009-10 \| 2010-11 \| 2011-12 April 26, 2007 2007 EIVA Championship Semifinal Quotes; Penn State def. Princeton, 3-0 2007 EIVA Championship Semifinal Quotes Penn State 3, Princeton 0 Penn State Quotes Opening Statement: Head Coach Mark Pavlik: "We played the way we practiced this week, real sharp, mostly in game one and the first half of game two. We were pretty physical in transition and I thought our middles did a great job in transition and hitting the gaps. The challenge to the middles was to ‘out-athlete' those two [Mike Vincent and Evan Pasion]. Vincent's a pretty athletic guy and I thought we did a pretty good job against him. We were firing on all cylinders. At the end, the writing was on the wall and we fell into a lull where we thought we didn't have to play as hard. We're going to have to change that on Saturday." How did that run in game one help the team? Pavlik: "I thought Princeton was playing some good defense, there was a rally where they dug Max Holt twice and got a block. I didn't think Princeton could maintain that level for the whole game. At about 10, we got that spurt and I thought that was the breaking point in the match. Princeton played tough, but they can't dig that many balls and we stayed physical." Could you have run the middle any better? Pavlik: "If we were hitting 1.000. They [Max Holt and Max Lipsitz] did exactly what we asked them to do. Mike Vincent is a very good middle blocker. The challenge was to out-athlete him, make him move. We did a good job of not just letting him settle in. The middles were pretty good today." How comfortable were you feeling with everything today? Sophomore opposite Matt Anderson: "At the start of the game, it felt great. Luke [Murray] and I were connecting perfectly. Towards the end of the match, it dwindled out. During practice all week we were on, and it will come back on Saturday." Your teammates have been saying that the past week and a half has been the best week of practice all season. How did that benefit you? Junior setter Luke Murray: "I think we have to give our second team in practice a lot of credit. They stepped it up in practice to push us and that's a really big part of what we need to do in practice." Pavlik: "Given our schedule from the end of February to the first week of April, we never really had a good block of time to just settle in and train. We just had a 19-day stretch where we only played two matches and the guys were able to come in and train, and I think it paid off immensely." Looking ahead to Saint Francis, what are some of the things you need to concentrate on for Saturday? Murray: "Part of our game plan is to minimize the impact that Marc Honore can have. We're going to try to serve really tough so they can't set him that much. Obviously he's their go-to guy, but as long as we do that and as long as we do everything we did tonight on our side of the net, things will fall into place." What do you need to do to lessen the impact of Marc Honore and Jordan Varee on Saturday? Pavlik: "We need to minimize Honore's impact. I don't mean that in terms of kills, but in terms of the opportunities he has to put the ball away and have the team rally around him. If we can limit him to maybe six or seven swings a game, we're going to be ok. That's tough to do. Their libero, Travis Fox, can pass the ball pretty well. Jordan Varee has played really well against too. He has been more responsible for keeping them in the matches with us this year because he's on the court in all six rotations. When Honore's in there, we're going to serve tough, we're going to come in there with our guns blazing. When Honore's off the court, we need to score points and make sure we limit the effectiveness of Varee." Does the service game have to be better on Saturday? Pavlik: "If they pass like they want to and get the ball to Honore like he wants, we have no one who can challenge him in that air space. We have to serve well. We have to get them to side out on our terms, not theirs." Is there more pressure on the service game on Saturday? Anderson: "Last time we played them, I got the go-ahead to put more pace on the ball. I had five errors, but I also had six aces. It is more pressure, but it's nothing more than we go through in practice every day." Princeton Quotes Opening Statement: Head Coach Glenn Nelson: "I came into this match expecting what happened. Some of the younger players might not have, but I did. The first couple times we played Penn State, Luke [Murray] wasn't on, but tonight he was on. Their offense was a lot quicker than it was the first couple times we played and we couldn't hang with them. If you have people who jump higher and hit harder, most of the time you're going to win. Credit to them, they're playing better. You don't go from not being in this conference championship to coming in and knocking off somebody like Penn State. We're taking little baby steps. We weren't here the last three years. We're just getting a little bit better." Was Penn State overwhelming? Sophomore setter Brandon Denham: "They were definitely overwhelming. Sometimes I didn't know who to set because they were there all the time. They're great players, they're huge. There's nothing we could do about it. They're very frustrating to play against." What were you trying to do with your offense to offset what Penn State was doing? Junior outside hitter Peter Eichler: "We have to start with our passing and we didn't pass well tonight, and we knew that was something we were going to have to do. Offense doesn't really exist without the passing and the rest of the hitting percentages struggle when we don't pass well." Did Penn State's aggressive serving cause some of the problems? Nelson: "They served really well. It was also us not doing what we should. We're good passers and we passed well all season. Coming here and having a sub-par day is a bad combination." How did Penn State's first game run affect you? Eichler: "Along with our passing, we knew we had to prevent big runs from Penn State. It takes a lot of wind out of your sails to suffer big stretches like that." Nelson: "I don't think we played anybody all year that had six jump servers like that."