Steven McRoberts Weekly Press Conference

Sept. 21, 2015

Ole Miss head coach Steven McRoberts met with members of the media Monday to discuss the team's non-conference finish (14-1) and preview the start of SEC Play this weekend with matches at No. 5 Florida and home against Mississippi State on Sunday.

On Conclusion of Non-Conference Playâ€¦
"I'm proud of the fact that we've gone 14-1 with a lot of the injuries and things that have happened within our team. We've had to play a lot of different lineups. The nonconference portion has set us up to learn a lot about ourselves. We'll see this week. It's nice to have a full week of preparation. It seemed like in our nonconference we'd have a day or two, and then we'd be playing again. All of a sudden, you get to a weekend and there are three matches or four matches. You start getting thin with your depth, and your team starts getting really tired. I'm excited about starting SEC play this week. I'm ready to get that going to see where we fit in to hopefully make a run for the NCAA Tournament this year."

On Starting SEC Playâ€¦
"What I told the team after the weekend is it gets real this week really fast. We go to Florida on Friday. I watched their match on the SEC Network last night against Florida State. A stat came up that Florida has won 21 of the last 24 SEC titles since Mary Wise has been there. This will be the only time we play them which I don't like that it is the first SEC match. It is what it is. You have to play the schedule the way that it comes out. It's going to be a really tough match, and then we turnaround on Sunday and host Mississippi State here. Dave McFatrich and I worked together at Central Arkansas. He's now the head coach (at Mississippi State) and has done a great job with that program with a quick turnaround kind of like we did last year. They're 10-3. Last year, State only won seven matches. They've already won three more, and SEC play hasn't even started yet. That's going to be a tough match for us. It's going to be an SEC Network match."

On the Play of Senior Middle Blockers Ty Laporte and Nakeyta Clairâ€¦
"I'm really proud of our middles, both Ty (Laporte) and Nakeyta (Clair). They're on a great run right now. Nakeyta is carrying on where she was last year. Ty has, over the year and a half I've been here, been a rollercoaster. I challenged her at last home tournament about a week and a half ago. To her credit, she took it to heart. She's been on a five match streak where she has played better than Nakeyta has. If we can keep those two going, we have a chance every time we go out. We've needed them."

RebelsCalendar

Players Mentioned

Nakeyta Clair

Ty Laporte

The University of Mississippi Athletics