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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Steven McRoberts Weekly Press Conference #2
9/2/2019 | Volleyball
Ole Miss Volleyball Head Coachย Steven McRobertsย met with members of the media on Monday as part of his weekly press conference. Coach McRoberts discussed the Rebels upcoming weekend and what's ahead for the Rebels this week...ย
Opening Statementโฆ
"We went 0-3 in the Rebel Invitational, but we saw a lot of good thingsโฆ We brought in three top 40 teams, which I talked about that last Monday how it was going to be a tough opening tournament. A mistake on my part was not scheduling an exhibition match. All three of the other teams came in with that, so lesson learned from a coaching stand point. I thought we made some really good adjustments as a team. Rice came in on Friday night and played really well, the best of any team on the weekend. They left 2-0 but did not play Iowa State. On the second day, Iowa State handled us pretty easy the first two sets. We came back and won the third and were up 18-16 in the fourth with a lot of momentum. Felt like we were going to push it to a fifth set [until] some late set errors really cost us there. We came back Sunday against UCF, who was the 15th seed in the NCAA Tournament last year and returned a core of their team. We won the first two sets, playing our best volleyball of the weekend, and I think it was 20-20 in the third set. Lots of opportunities and kind of the same thing, some late set errors [and again], same thing happened in the fourth. Then with that door wide open UCF played a great fifth set and really just took the match from usโฆ
ย
On standout performances from the weekendโฆย
"Nicole Purcell, our libero, had a great weekend making the All-Tournament Team. I thought our serve-receive was the best I think it's been since I've been here, and to do that against these types of teams we will have a lot of opportunities if we pass that well going forward. Anna Bair, a freshman- and I didn't even know this until I read this in my notes here- but she had the second-most kills of any freshmen in the SEC on the first weekend. Doing that against three Top 40 teams says a lot about her potential and about how excited we are about her in the programโฆ"
ย
Moving Forwardโฆย
"โฆ I saw a lot of progression over the weekend. We're excited about getting another opportunity this weekend going down at Tulane. Tulane played Iowa State in the finals of the NIVC last year. They're coming off 29 wins and are 3-0 this year. The other two teams we play, Missouri State and Houston Baptist, are 2-1. So again, it's going to be a tough weekend. [We're] going to work on some things we need to work on this week and hopefully go into next weekend with a lot more confidence and get some wins so the team starts believing and gets more confidence from that stand point. It's hard to say this because it feels like a broken record when you stand up here and say, 'We're so close', but we're hoping to break through with this group. I know that they've put the work in and they definitely want to represent this university and this athletic program well. Tough weekend to start but looking forward to making progress as the season goes on."
ย
On what the team hopes to learn being on the road for the next eight matchesโฆ
"Well I hope our road record is better than our home record. The preseason was set up to be test us early. I've made some mistakes with scheduling in the past where we've come out 14-0 out of preseason, but then we weren't ready, I think, for SEC play. I wanted to make sure I could see what we needed to work on early, make those adjustments. We started three or four different lineups in different sets working on different things, and I think we found the one we like on Sunday a lot. We still have one player, Izzy Guzik, who's a transfer who had knee surgery a couple weeks ago. She's already been cleared so I think she could also add depth and hopefully eventually help us as well. Again, on the road, this year I think is the first year we have two teams above 200 in the RPI. Of course when you get into the SEC everybody is ranked in the Top 150. Preseason, I saw our schedule was ranked 18th out of I think 335 teams based on last year's results. We knew we were going to be tested, so sometimes being on the road can take off even a little pressure when you're not in front of your home fans a little bit. Players like Emily Stroup, she struggled the first couple of matches and came back strong yesterday. I think she took a little pressure off herself to try to break a kills record again. She sees that she's got some talent around her this year."ย ย ย ย
ย
Opening Statementโฆ
"We went 0-3 in the Rebel Invitational, but we saw a lot of good thingsโฆ We brought in three top 40 teams, which I talked about that last Monday how it was going to be a tough opening tournament. A mistake on my part was not scheduling an exhibition match. All three of the other teams came in with that, so lesson learned from a coaching stand point. I thought we made some really good adjustments as a team. Rice came in on Friday night and played really well, the best of any team on the weekend. They left 2-0 but did not play Iowa State. On the second day, Iowa State handled us pretty easy the first two sets. We came back and won the third and were up 18-16 in the fourth with a lot of momentum. Felt like we were going to push it to a fifth set [until] some late set errors really cost us there. We came back Sunday against UCF, who was the 15th seed in the NCAA Tournament last year and returned a core of their team. We won the first two sets, playing our best volleyball of the weekend, and I think it was 20-20 in the third set. Lots of opportunities and kind of the same thing, some late set errors [and again], same thing happened in the fourth. Then with that door wide open UCF played a great fifth set and really just took the match from usโฆ
ย
On standout performances from the weekendโฆย
"Nicole Purcell, our libero, had a great weekend making the All-Tournament Team. I thought our serve-receive was the best I think it's been since I've been here, and to do that against these types of teams we will have a lot of opportunities if we pass that well going forward. Anna Bair, a freshman- and I didn't even know this until I read this in my notes here- but she had the second-most kills of any freshmen in the SEC on the first weekend. Doing that against three Top 40 teams says a lot about her potential and about how excited we are about her in the programโฆ"
ย
Moving Forwardโฆย
"โฆ I saw a lot of progression over the weekend. We're excited about getting another opportunity this weekend going down at Tulane. Tulane played Iowa State in the finals of the NIVC last year. They're coming off 29 wins and are 3-0 this year. The other two teams we play, Missouri State and Houston Baptist, are 2-1. So again, it's going to be a tough weekend. [We're] going to work on some things we need to work on this week and hopefully go into next weekend with a lot more confidence and get some wins so the team starts believing and gets more confidence from that stand point. It's hard to say this because it feels like a broken record when you stand up here and say, 'We're so close', but we're hoping to break through with this group. I know that they've put the work in and they definitely want to represent this university and this athletic program well. Tough weekend to start but looking forward to making progress as the season goes on."
ย
On what the team hopes to learn being on the road for the next eight matchesโฆ
"Well I hope our road record is better than our home record. The preseason was set up to be test us early. I've made some mistakes with scheduling in the past where we've come out 14-0 out of preseason, but then we weren't ready, I think, for SEC play. I wanted to make sure I could see what we needed to work on early, make those adjustments. We started three or four different lineups in different sets working on different things, and I think we found the one we like on Sunday a lot. We still have one player, Izzy Guzik, who's a transfer who had knee surgery a couple weeks ago. She's already been cleared so I think she could also add depth and hopefully eventually help us as well. Again, on the road, this year I think is the first year we have two teams above 200 in the RPI. Of course when you get into the SEC everybody is ranked in the Top 150. Preseason, I saw our schedule was ranked 18th out of I think 335 teams based on last year's results. We knew we were going to be tested, so sometimes being on the road can take off even a little pressure when you're not in front of your home fans a little bit. Players like Emily Stroup, she struggled the first couple of matches and came back strong yesterday. I think she took a little pressure off herself to try to break a kills record again. She sees that she's got some talent around her this year."ย ย ย ย
ย
Players Mentioned
OH
/ Volleyball
DS
/ Volleyball
OH
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