Michigan State vs. Missouri State Postgame Quotes

2017 NCAA Volleyball Championship - First Round

Postgame Quotes - Missouri State vs. Michigan State

Dec. 1, 2017 - Omaha, Neb.

Missouri State

Head Coach Melissa Stokes Opening Statement:

"I think these are always the hardest interviews to give. When you lose your last match and your season is over. Obviously I don't think I'm prepared for this. We were on a 21-match win streak and playing some pretty good volleyball. I knew when we drew Michigan State even though I didn't tell our players, Michigan State was a team that I had earmarked in my mind being on the regional committee as being a potential Final Four team. And watching them all year long, I knew that they were a very very tough serving team, I think they are very physical and I think tonight they showed that. So I want to give them a lot of credit to causing a lot of trouble that we had on serve receive which got us out of system and held some of our best attackers to the lowest attack percentages of the season. So I don't want to take away from Michigan State. I'm very proud of the season we had and I just hope that this match doesn't take away from the overall season that we had."

Alec McChesney- Kansas City Star

Coach, early on in that first set sitting at 9-9, 10-9, Michigan State went on a little run, what do you think changed their going forward in that set?

Head Coach Melissa Stokes

I think Garvelink was a big difference maker. We had a hard time stopping her. I knew that she was very physical but I don't think we did a very good job on her. I think she opened some things up because we were trying to put time and attention to her. Which I thought it opened up their outside hitters. But really we just struggled from the serve receive line. And it's tough, we overloaded our passers all week long. I thought we passed the ball really well today and from our guys from very tough jump servers. We have Lily Johnson that likes to jump and serve and they have three of them that do that. So I thought our passing really broke down and we can't be a one man show. We just can't. We're not good enough to do that. Aubrey Cheffey found a way to score. I thought she did a heck of job on the right side. But we needed all pistons firing against Michigan State and I thought that was the difference.

Alec McChesney- Kansas City Star

You talked about the service line obviously broke down and Kranda ended up with six service aces. What was that? I know you just talked about that a little bit. As that kind of happens, was there any game plan switch after set two or did you guys just stick with what you guys had coming into it?

Head Coach Melissa Stokes

I got on our libero pretty tough to make some shakes to push people out of serve receive. I thought she was serving a lot of balls to our zone five six. You know Emily Butters was a lot of times passing in zone one. We were trying to get her to move to the middle of the court just to see if we could get that kid to serve somewhere different, maybe make an error. it's a tough ball sometimes it top spins, sometime it doesn't. When it top spins I think it's easier ball to pass. Sometimes it's a hybrid serve with somewhat of a top spin and a float. And I just think it causes some trouble.

Alec McChesney- Kansas City Star

Lily obviously not the way you wanted to go out but what can you talk about this team and having this opportunity once again this year?

#17 Lily Johnson

"When I was a sophomore, junior in highschool I was being recruited. And my club coach at the time because of NCAA regulations and rules was talking to me about a couple of coaches who were asking about me. And he told and it was funny at the time and funny now and the coach from Wichita State asked him if he felt his player, i.e. me was good enough of a player to play for Top 25 caliber team. So to look back now and to know that Lyns and I and the seniors and this awesome group were able to create an environment where being ranked in the top-25 for three or four straight weeks is not something that is odd or uncommon. And to be able to prove that to my high school self is something really special. So I think it takes more than just the four seniors to set that kind of precedence and to achieve what we all did this season and I can't say enough good things about the underclassmen below us. I think they will go on to achieve great things and I'm really proud of the way they were able to buy into what us seniors wanted to achieve. Definitely not the way we wanted to go out but can't say enough about all we achieved this season. We did some things we set goals for and this is the last stepping stone but we just fell short. But still very proud and trying to keep that in mind as you look at the big picture."

Alec McChesney- Kansas City Star

Obviously Lynsey she talked about the four seniors and the path that you guys have created here. But she kind of talked about the underclassmen. What do you see from them that maybe this can continue going forward with the top twenty five and NCAA tournament run.

#5 Lynsey Wright

"I think that one thing sets our team apart is the fact that we are so close. And that we are each other's best friends and we can rely on each other a lot. And so I think to continue to build that bond between them as people come in, that's what makes our team so strong and to be able to do the things that we do. So I think continuing that tradition as a team is very important to the success of the team in the years to come. "

Alec McChesney- Kansas City Star

"And speaking today specifically even after set one and two you still had quality morale. Is that what you are speaking to about team bond?"

#5 Lynsey Wright

"Yes, no matter what is going on the court we always find a way to be positive about it but support each other and uplift each other. If someone's not getting it done then we are going to rely on someone who is getting it done and really lift them up to keep it going."

Matt DeMarinis, White & Blue Review

"For the coach, what type of message do you deliver in the locker room after something like this? When you come in riding a high and you haven't lost in a few months and then 90 minutes later you have to alter your emotions and have your season over?"

Head Coach Melissa Stokes

"It's hard because I told them I wasn't prepared for that and I don't think they were either. You don't come into a match like tonight regardless of who you are playing and plan to lose and give the end of the season speech. I think the biggest thing that I wanted to get across was that this match doesn't take away from our whole season. It's really hard to not let it because we have a bad taste in our mouth and it was the fashion we got beat. We look at some of the scores and we didn't get swept by any team this season. We didn't get beat 3-0 by any team this season. So it's really hard to look at like that. The other thing is I told our underclassmen that this is the last time this group will ever be in the locker room together period. When the four seniors go it's easy for underclassmen to think we've got three more years or two more years and no one season ever repeats itself. So I wanted to make sure that they resonated on this season and appreciated what these four seniors and brought. And to look back and spend as much time in the locker room as they could before we left this place because it would be the last time they would ever be able to do that."

Michigan State

Head Coach Cathy George Opening Statement:

"First of all, thanks for having us here. Creighton has done a wonderful job in hosting this tournament and has really done an outstanding job of meeting every need we have had as a team visiting here. We started off, I thought we came in with an attack mentality and I thought the team did a very nice job of following a game plan, really sticking to it, and playing with maturity and poise. Missouri State is an outstanding team (silences phone)... they are an outstanding team who plays great defense. So we are looking their digging numbers throughout this season and they have been outstanding. So we knew we had our work cut out for us. Lily Johnson is an outstanding player and you know she has four great years there and we knew that they were going to come on and they were going to get after us. We knew our opponent that was tough and these guys knew it too, they were on alert, they knew and did a really great job of executing the game plan."

Matt DeMarinis, White & Blue Review

"I guess, what changed halfway through the first set when it was back and forth for a little bit but it seems like you guys picked up a little bit of the momentum and never really let up."

#12 Rachel Minarick

"I think we all talked about everybody has a little bit of first round jitters. And not to say that Missouri State's a really good team so I think it was just getting acclimated to the court and finding our rhythm a little bit. But I thought we had really good first contact and we just started getting into the rhythm of things towards the end of the first set."

Coach Cathy George
"And all and all, I think serving had something to do with that too so we really started laying it on the serve and Kranda went off a little bit there so it's just started causing some havoc but eventually started setting up our blocking and things fell in place from there."

Matt DeMarinis, White & Blue Review

"Was that part of the game plan to maybe a way to neutralize Johnson or maybe make her attacks more easier to set up and block, with the serve?"

Coach Cathy George

"You always need to serve tough. I mean, it's very important that if you can do that, you know it kind of starts to neutralize everybody because you can take a couple people off your blocking start working. So we knew, and really in just everything we had to do it aggressively and that we had to play clean and you know just get after it. Because they make you scramble. You know, Missouri State makes you scramble. They make you crazy. And so we wanted to make sure that we would be aggressive in every skill that we played. I mean, I look at some of their dig totals on the year and 130 digs in a match, I mean that's crazy. We knew they were going to rally, they cover balls, they get after it, and we have a lot of respect for the program."

Alec McChesney, Kansas City Star

"Brooke or Alyssa, speaking of Lily specifically going into this match, is that someone you guys have known for the last four years of volleyball with her playing in USA or how have you guys learned about Lily?"

#17 Alyssa Garvelink

"Honestly, not really. I think the coaches do a great job with scouting. I mean, we didn't really know a lot about the team so they helped us get familiar with them and really wanted to key in on her so we did."

#13 Brooke Kranda

"I know Abby (Chronowkski) said before the game when they were warm up she said I remember playing against this girl one time but I think that's just something that I never really saw or never played against her."

Coach Cathy George

"They were aware of her, you know her accolades and what she's had but didn't know her, anything other than that."

Matt DeMarinis, White & Blue Review

"Brooke, what was your approach from the service line tonight? It looks like you had a really good groove in the second set".

#13 Brooke Kranda

"Yeah, I been struggling with my serve a little bit lately so tonight was just kind of let it go and go after it."

Matt DeMarinis, White & Blue Review
"For her teammates, did you feel like that maybe took the wind out of their sails when you saw her go on big service runs over and over again and how much trouble they were having just getting balls even to the 10 foot line?"

#12 Rachel Minarick

"For sure, when you have a tough server on the backline, that's a lot of confidence your team has cause we can get our block going cause they are consistently out of system and I think that kind of kills moral on the other side when they can't really get a ball up to their setter so did a really good job."

Coach Cathy George

"Again, thank you much, we will see you guys tomorrow."

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