The University of Mississippi Athletics
Steven McRoberts Weekly Press Conference
11/16/2015 | Volleyball
Ole Miss head coach Steven McRoberts met with members of the media Monday to discuss the team's final four regular season matches.
Opening Statement
"I want to congratulate Coach (Matt) Mott and the soccer team. Playing in the postseason is always an exciting time. It was a great college volleyball match last Friday night. For the second year in a row, we had Texas A&M against the ropes at home. We just couldn't finish. They are leading the league right now. Texas A&M is one match up with four matches to go. They only have two losses in the league. We were up 12-11 in the fifth set, we were also up 17-11 in the first set, and let them slip away. One thing I said in the locker room when we were done is that I was very proud of the effort and with the way that they played. I am just hoping in the near future with our program, that I am in the locker room talking a whole lot more about real victories than moral victories. That is where we are trying to get our program to. I am very proud of the way our team played. We came out and started the match against LSU very well. We came out and killed them in the first set. The wheels started getting wobbly in the second set. We won the second set. We lost the third set after being tied at 17. Then the fourth set was back and forth and we just kind of escaped with a win. I am thankful every time we can get a win."
On Final Stretch
"We have a tough stretch coming up. We go to Auburn on Friday. They are playing very well right now. They beat Florida last week. The play much better at home than they do on the road, so that is going to be a tough one for us. Then we come back and play Missouri at home for senior day. Missouri will be playing and fighting for a conference championship. It is really a four horse race coming down the stretch and Missouri is right there, just one match out. That is going to be another tough one. We end at Alabama next Wednesday and at Mississippi State next Friday. We all know about that rivalry and being in Starkville before the Egg Bowl is going to be a tough place to play. We will be celebrating our two seniors this Sunday, Nakeyta Clair and Ty Laporte. They are having a great senior year. We want to end with them getting a victory at home. A victory would go a long way for us. We are going to have to win all four of our remaining games to make the NCAA Tournament. This is another one of those moral victory speeches that I don't really like, but where we are as a program and this is the second year we are talking about the tournament at least. We are not just saying lets finish out on a strong note. If we can win all four, we have a legitimate shot of getting to the tournament. We are definitely continuing to take steps in the right way for our program. Again, we want to ask our fans to come out Sunday and send these seniors out in style. We have had some great crowds these last few weeks and we just want to end it the right way for them."
On Chance to Win Last Four Matches
"If we play like we did on Friday night, I think it is very doable. One of the things we talked about was we were up in the fifth set. We had opportunities to get more points, we just didn't finish like we should. If we play like that we can beat anybody in the league. It is not going to be easy. I was looking at our schedule, we are not getting on a run in a good way, and we are not getting on a run in a bad way. Hopefully beating LSU yesterday can give us some momentum. The Texas A&M match would have bumped us up 12 or 15 points in the RPI, and that is what really hurts. It is doable, but we haven't shown at this point that we will do it. I know our young ladies are going to put their heart and soul into the last two weeks."
