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Dec. 3, 2010

UCLA Post-match Quotes

Head coach Mike Sealy
General Statement: I'm still double-checking stat sheets to make sure we won. I felt bad for our girls through that match. I felt we had a really good year and did a lot of great things. We kept talking about how all year long we felt we had one pretty poor match and that was up at Washington. And ever since, we've battled well, we've fought, and we did a lot of great things. We were a little out-matched in a lot of the blocking match-ups, based on some personal issues we have, but luckily, we made some adjustments and squeaked one out.

On problems the team had tonight and his injured middle blocker: She's [Katie Camp] definitely the biggest middle we have and the most technically sound blocking, so in a match-up like tonight, it's hard not to think about all the balls that were just going over the top. Rachel Kidder, we didn't publicly announce this, but she's coming off an ankle sprain in practice this week. So, we were basically without our two biggest blockers, one in the middle, one in the outside. So that's one and two, even three, with Rachael not in there, struggling offensively. We've got small end blockers. With Rachel in there, you can kind of send her toward the power hitters and scheme a little bit. Without Rachel in that match, it was a very bad match-up against an American team. They can set the high ball and hit it. We looked at the passing stats and after set two and set three, both teams were passing poorly.

Junior middle blocker Sara Sage
On the defensive effort: We had switch player defense, and I think we really picked up our energy. We were really flat in the beginning, and then, Dicey [McGraw] really got after it and fired us up. I think the energy was a huge shift for us.

On the team's resilience: Like coach said, we're fighters. That's what we go for, and that's what keeps us going through all the time. We fight, we fight, we fight.

On getting the team's energy level up for tomorrow's game: I think it's impossible not to get fired up playing against Texas.

American Post-match Quotes

Head coach Barry Goldberg
General Statement: Well, for us it was a tough battle and certainly a disappointing outcome. We played a great first three games back and forth. All year, if you look at our record, people criticized our record because they said we didn't beat anybody. We did know we had a tough draw coming here. We knew UCLA was good, but we certainly weren't afraid to come in here and compete. We came back and won game one, which proved that our courage was there. We got into game four where we were up and got a little sloppy. Late in game five we were shaky there also. The little things are what cost us, but many of the big things are here. We just got to tighten up some of the little things to get through a match like this. But from where we come from I don't think we should come away from this with anything other than happiness about our competitive level.

On getting your team ready to play a good team like UCLA: Well that's something we're trying to solve, and we were pretty close to solving it in this match. It's a big step. Our practices are pretty competitive, and I think that helped our performance here.

Senior outside hitter Angelina Waterman
On this being her last match: Every senior wants to end their senior year with a bang. Going into this match, I know that every senior on this team viewed this match as a last opportunity for us to make a name for ourself, play our best, and continue playing hard.

On the disappointing loss: It was very disappointing. We lost a couple of points here and there which hurt our momentum. We're just trying to look at the bright side right now and see that even though we didn't graduate with a win in the first round, we had awesome games and everyone on our team contributed.

Senior outside hitter Magdalena Tekiel
On this being her last match: It's been an honor playing on this team. I was very satisfied with this season and really appreciated all of my teammates.

On the disappointing loss: Of course it's painful, especially since we were so close to pulling off the win. But I think we tried our best. We missed out on a couple points, which hurt us.