Steven McRoberts Weekly Press Conference

Aug. 29, 2016

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Ole Miss Volleyball head coach Steven McRoberts met with members of the media on Monday as part of his weekly press conference. Coach McRoberts discussed the Rebels' 3-0 start thus far, and also previewed the weekend home tournament.

Opening statementâ€¦
"A year ago today, Coach (Matt) Mott and I stood here deciding who would go first, and I got to go first. Here I am again getting to go first and that's a good thing, because they've had a good run so far. We had a great weekend better than I expected, especially with a lot of unknowns. Going into North Dakota with a couple of freshmen in the mix and playing in a tough environment. North Dakota had over 2,000 for their first match in the tournament Friday night that we scouted and a really good crowd against us."

On the North Dakota match and quick turnaround for Omahaâ€¦
"It was one of those matches that went back and forth, and if you add up all five sets, we won by one point. We then had about an hour break before warming up to go again, and it was tough. We are very proud of the character our team showed. A lot of credit goes to our athletic trainer, Heather (Shirley) and our strength coach (Chas Ossenheimer) for having the team ready to go. Every coach I talked to this weekend talked about a player being out, players being beaten up. We started the preseason with 15 players. We had one player, Alexis Lee, start the season with a surgery for a lingering knee problem. Of the 15 available at the start, we had one player miss a practice because of an allergic reaction to an anti-inflammatory drug. That's it."

On the preseason scheduleâ€¦
"It was a total team effort this past weekend. We had three players named to the all-tournament team, but another three or four that could have been. It's going to have to be a team effort this year for us to win. Our schedule in the preseason is much tougher than it's been in the past. That continues this weekend with our tournament featuring UT-Arlington, McNeese State and NC State and then even next Tuesday with Arkansas State, who was a top-20 RPI team last year and returns everybody. Four good matches for us, so hopefully we can start off our home schedule with some wins."

On playing in The Pavilion at Ole Missâ€¦
"We are going to be in The Pavilion this year as they continue the multi-million-dollar renovation to the Gillom Center, which is coming along nicely. We are excited to get back to Gillom next year, but hopefully we can get a good crowd to The Pavilion this week and keep this win streak going."

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Players Mentioned

Alexis Lee

The University of Mississippi Athletics