Post-match Quotes vs. Michigan 
Nov. 18, 2016
UW Field House - Madison, Wis.

Head Coach Kelly Sheffield
Opening statement:
"I thought we got a lot better with understanding where they were attacking. We got our hands in better position and I thought our backcourt defense was phenomenal. Especially as the match was going on. I lost track of how many balls we covered from our attackers hitting and blocking and us just battling and fighting to keep the ball off the floor and getting more swings.
 
"I thought Lauren (Carlini) did a great job with mixing the game plan but also with what she was seeing. It was a great team effort. I thought everybody was playing really well and at a high level. Molly (Haggerty) hitting 22 kills and hitting .432, those are pretty big numbers. They were also putting an awful lot of serves on her and (she was) holding the fort down with that. It's just a really good team effort for us."
 
On what allowed his team to get in a rhythm after the first set:
"I liked the way we were playing even in the first set. It's not one of those things where you win and you feel like you're playing well and you lose and you're not playing well. It's not often you hit .405 and lose. That just rarely happens.
 
"There were a couple funky points that were happening there at the end of that first set, but I thought both teams were playing really well.
 
"I wasn't upset or frustrated with our defensive effort in the first, but we were better defensively the last three sets and I thought we were a lot better serving wise after the first set. I thought we did a better job with driving.
 
"The passers, I thought, early on were kind of putting line balls right on them. We were getting into the seams and serving a little bit deeper and I thought that made it more difficult. Setter was off the net at more and was having to run her slides from off the net. It makes a difference whether you're running your offense from 10 feet off the net than when you are on the net. And our blockers got really good touches. Abby Cole is a pretty lead attacker. For her to hit .258 I thought we were getting our hands on some balls, and she got some kills where she just went over our blockers and there was not much we could do on that, but I'd say the serving and our defense with tenacity was really amped up."
 

Senior Setter Lauren Carlini
On if this is the most effective group of hitters she's worked with:
"Yeah. Kind of what Kelly (Sheffield) was saying in our meeting, we can mix it up a lot. If they're doing something with their blocking scheme and they're taking a player or two out of the system, that's okay because we have other players who can score with one-on-ones pretty easily. The options are pretty much endless and it makes my job way easier and it makes them reconsider what they're doing on the other side of the court as well."
 
On the team's back-row play tonight, especially Amber MacDonald, and how it helped the team save points:
"Those types of plays really get momentum on the court, and it fires other people up too because you see her scrapping and you want to do the same thing and help her out and help the team out overall. So with her just putting in the extra work, you can tell she's in there every day trying to get better, getting better touches, and trying to find ways to get her hands on the ball and she's doing it. She's doing it in matches now and it's translating. It's fun to play with her and you can pretty much depend with the ball, when you turn around, the ball is going to be up."    
 
On if her kill in the fourth set was the hardest she ever hit the ball:
"Probably, I would say so. I just shut my eyes and hit really hard. Setters can hit, too."
 

Freshman Outside Hitter Molly Haggerty
On her shot development throughout the year:
"I think in the beginning of the season I was kind of hitting like I did in club, just trying to hit straight down and just using one arm. I kind of realized that I needed to mix up my shots a lot, whether it's roll shotting or high hands. I've just been trying to work on that a lot in practice and it has been working in matches."
 
On if her kill that hit Abby Cole was the hardest she ever hit somebody:
"I think so, yeah. No, it wasn't on purpose. She went back in though so she's fine."