Dec. 5, 2008

Recap |  Box Score

Saint Louis Head Coach Anne Kordes

Opening statement …
"I would like to start off with congratulating Michigan on a trip to the Sweet 16. I thought it was one of the best volleyball matches I have ever been a part of as a player or a coach. It was hard fought, so congratulations to both teams."

On Michigan’s depth …
"We were hoping to slow some of their players. We knew they would be strong. Two of their players just caught fire and we needed to contain Michigan as much as possible. I think it was hard for us to compete with Michigan's hitting percentage tonight."

On Bridget Fonke's play …
"I think Bridget had one of the most amazing matches I have seen in a long time or ever from an outside hitter's position. Some of the stuff she did was extremely high level. That is just a credit to how hard she has been working. It was amazing"

On Kentucky as a tournament host …
"I consider (the state of) Kentucky my home away from home. The University of Kentucky has done an amazing job hosting this tournament. I have been to the NCAA tournament as player, assistant coach and a head coach but I have never seen it as professionally run as it was here. We have been treated like queens the entire time we have been here and I want to thank UK for treating us so well."

On the tournament …
"We were able to go through a challenging Atlantic-10 season undefeated. We didn't drop a set for a long time and that experience may have hurt us a little. It helps to go to five sets matches sometimes. We were very dominant in our conference and that may have hurt us. We have to turn around and get some mid-week non-conference matches. We have a strong region and we will be looking to put ourselves in a better position to play stronger teams towards the end of the season."

Saint Louis Players

#4 Bridget Fonke

#10 Sammi McCloud

On the fifth set …
"They got a couple of great serves. They put together a great offense and we tried to hang with it. Michigan had a great game plan played a terrific match."

Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen

Opening statement …
“I’m extremely proud of our team, the way they played and fought. One of the players said in the locker room that it wasn’t pretty but it was a great, competitive match and that’s true. You have to be able to win points at the right time. Saint Louis is a very competitive team and they’re also very skilled. They run some things that are very hard. Every time we faltered, they were opportunistic and jumped all over it. I was really proud of our players being able to fight through that. Also, I’m incredibly proud of our seniors this weekend. We’ve said all season that you’ll go as far as your seniors will take you so we road their backs this weekend. Kerry Nance had two really good nights. She was the top digger in the gym last and she was the top on our team tonight. Beth (Karpiak) got the kills tonight and that’s just outrageous. I’m just very proud of how our seniors played. I thought our team played a very balanced game. We could utilize a lot of people when we controled the ball well enough. They gave you some things to use on the right side of the court. Both (Megan) Bower and Beth did a really job behind the setter. We’re excited about going to the next level and we’re excited about getting the chance to compete in the next round.”

On coming behind to win …
“It’s a little bit of skill and a lot of luck. Our kids didn’t give up or frustrated in that situation. We played a lot of 15-point games this week in practice because we figured that at this point in the year if you’re going to advance, you’re going to do it in long battles. We hadn’t played a lot of fifth gamers this year and haven’t been successful in our most recent ones. So we figured we would play a lot and we didn’t win a lot of them in practice but I thought it helped the get ready to compete for it.”

Michigan Players

#2, Beth Karpiak

On their depth advantage …
“I think we’re a really balanced team and we have a lot of weapons in the front row. Like coach said earlier, if we gave them anything, they attacked really hard. I think that’s why they were able to stay in so hard but when they decided to take away one of our options, we had another one to hit them with. That’s why we pulled ahead.”