Steven McRoberts Weekly Press Conference

Sept. 18, 2017

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 matches against Northern Colorado and South Alabama and previewed the upcoming weekend of conference play.

On the victory over Northern Coloradoâ€¦

"We went to Northern Colorado and played a mid-week last week to get senior Kate Gibson close to home. We are really pleased to have gotten the sweep there. We were down in the second set late, but came back and I felt like it totally changed the momentum for us to get the sweep. It is always nice to win in three, especially on the road. Northern Colorado was picked second in their league and are going to win a lot of matches in their league this year."

On the split with South Alabamaâ€¦

"We were suppose to travel to Orlando, but because of the hurricane down there and some information I had received earlier in the week, I just didn't feel at peace about sending our student-athletes there. With us being gone a couple days in Colorado I felt like we needed to act quickly and not try to make a decision when we got back and potentially lose a weekend. South Alabama was suppose to go play at Miami, but ended up coming here. We lost a close one Friday night having two match points in the fifth set and fought off a match point and lost a disappointing 18-16 in the fifth set. We had a good bounce back on Saturday to win in four. Emily Stroup had a really good week; she continues to play really well for us. Nayo Warnell had to sit out Tuesday night with an injury and then she came back and played really nice over the weekend, hitting over .500. Both of our setters did a really nice job, Jordan Fate and Laruen Bars. Sometimes it is tough from a stat standpoint to get them in the conversation because we run a two-setter system. Typically, they don't have these huge numbers that get thrown out there after a game, but they both made great decision, both are very competitive players and helped us off to a great start at 9-4."

On the upcoming weekendâ€¦

"We are going into the first week of SEC play and will face a very good Auburn team on Friday. They have played a really tough schedule and done well in that. It is a tough matchup for us and we will turn around and play Alabama Sunday, who I believe is 10-2 at this point. We feel confident with our team that if we can steady out and play consistent that we can be competitive and beat anyone in the league, but we have yet to shown that we can even stay consistent within the same match. We have a great group of young ladies that are working really hard. They have a great attitude and want to get better. The culture in my opinion has changed immensely from the first three years to this year and we are feeling really good as we go into SEC play."

For more information on Ole Miss Volleyball, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissVB, on Facebook at OleMissVolleyball and on Instagram at OleMissVB. Also follow Coach McRoberts on Twitter, @CoachMcRoberts.

RebelsCalendar

Players Mentioned

Jordan Fate

Kate Gibson

Emily Stroup

Nayo Warnell

The University of Mississippi Athletics