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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Coach McRoberts Press Conference: 10.13
10/13/2014 | Volleyball
Ole Miss head coach Steven McRoberts met with members of the media Monday to discuss last week's matches against Arkansas and Mississippi State and preview the weekend against Auburn and Alabama. The Rebels will face Auburn Friday at 7 p.m. followed by Alabama Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Both matches will be on SEC Network+.
Opening statement ...
"We went to Arkansas last Wednesday and did not play our best. But, we learned from it and came back on Thursday and put a different lineup together for Mississippi State on Sunday. One thing with our game is with the rally scoring; every possession on offense is so important. All three of our middle hitters are playing really well. We tried to get all three of them involved in the offense and we moved Melanie Crow over to the left side, she has been on the right side. She started off the season well and plateaued a little bit. However, when we put her on the left side she had her best match of the year. Against Mississippi State is a great time to do so. It was great to see all three of our middles get involved, too. We hit over .400 for only the second time all season. Outside of a couple errors late, we would have had a chance to set our all-time hitting mark. To be able to do that in SEC play is nice.
"Hopefully we will be able to carry that momentum into this weekend against Auburn. We play them Friday. They are a team that is a lot like us. They had some good wins out of conference. Auburn took Florida State to five sets. Florida State is a top-10 team and Auburn nearly beat them on their home court. Auburn has gotten into conference play and started off with just one win in their first six matches. Again, there are probably eight or nine of us that on any given night could beat each other. We play Alabama on Sunday. Alabama is third in the league right now and has a great team. It is going to be a challenge. Right now Alabama is about 30th in the RPI. Both teams are ahead of us in the RPI. This gives us a chance to move up and hopefully as the season goes on, make a name for ourselves. As the selections start coming out in about six weeks this will be important."
On feeling effects of the success of the football program in recruiting efforts ...
"The success of our football team has been great. The exposure the success has given to all of our programs has been great. The football team is at the forefront for us. With them being on TV every week and winning the way that they are, it has helped us."
On what the team has learned from out of conference and SEC ...
"I think overall our mentality on the road has not been very good. I will take the responsibility for that. We have got to do something different. We have talked about that. We are going to try a couple of things this week from a practice standpoint. We want to go a little bit harder on the road. I think that is what the team needs. They need more focus. We need to keep our practices more competitive. This being whether we are going for 30 minutes pre-match or 2 hours early in the week. I think that is one thing we have learned a lot about us. We have played on the road three times in conference and lost all three. We feel like we should have beaten South Carolina. All three were also played in front of large, rowdy crowds. I feel like we have not handled that pressure very well."
