Wisconsin Quotes
COACH SHEFFIELD: Couldn't be more proud of our team, and the fight that they showed. It's hard to lose a match like that. It's hard to be this close to a dream and fall short. We were on the other side of it 24 hours ago, and we're on this side of it tonight. I thought it was two teams really fighting hard. Congratulates to Stanford and the adjustments that were made as the match was going on, and we had obviously a real hard time with Inky. And she does what elite players do. And our middle was matching her pretty much there. I thought Haleigh had an outstanding match. Their libero was fantastic as well. I thought she did a great job defensively. But there wasn't a whole lot that separated the two teams. I thought both teams were playing, laying it all out there on the court and battling and fighting and we came up on the short end. But I'm proud of the journey this team took. I'm proud of how far we've come, proud of the fight, and proud of the class that they've shown throughout as well.

Q. Lauren, has it sunk in or how is it sitting with you right now?
LAUREN CARLINI: I'm trying to accept the fact that we've played our last match in a Wisconsin jersey and as a part of this Wisconsin program. So I don't think it's really sunk in yet. I can't believe it's over. But I am so proud of what this team has done over the years and as Coach said, the journey that we've been on and I'm glad to have been part of this senior class.

Q. Haleigh, that had to have been a difficult rendition of varsity knowing the finality of it all, and what's going through your mind at that moment?HALEIGH NELSON: Well, you know, I'm just so grateful to have been a part of such an amazing program and playing in such an amazing venue like the Field House, varsity for the last time was after obviously a terrible loss, it hurts really bad. I really tried to enjoy it because it was my last time on the court with these people that I love so much. So while maybe it seems like it was hard, it wasn't, because it's just so special to me to get to play here and to get to do the things like that that makes the Field House so special.

Q. For anyone, what was that moment like when the crowd was acknowledging you at the end?
LAUREN CARLINI: I couldn't be more grateful for all the support that our fans have given us, and they've become more and more loyal each and every year, and just the turnout and the energy and the amount of support that they give us as a program is huge. And I just hope that we can grow it each and every year and ^ get more fans in here and grow that support because this group deserves it, this program deserves it.

Q. From a volleyball standpoint, you win a tough second set to pull up 2-0, and then they were pretty much in control the last three. Was there something that turned it around that they did, any adjustments that they made, something that didn't work? We knew they had the blocks and that started to add up. What happened?
LAUREN CARLINI: We had a few miscommunication errors starting in the third. And I mean Stanford is just a great team, and they pushed us, and we tried to string some points together and make a comeback, and it just didn't happen, wasn't in the cards. I'm a player, so I don't know maybe as much strategy as like a coach would watching the match. But I don't know if there were really exact adjustments that they made that turned the tables on us, but they're a great team and they pushed us and they came out on top.

COACH SHEFFIELD: I surely didn't look as it as something we weren't doing. They turned up the heat on their defense, you know. That was one thing, you know, defensively they got a little bit better. I thought they were making some great -- both teams were making some great pursuits. The block got going a little bit. But there was some different matchups. Both teams were changing the matchups. I thought maybe what they probably did better than anything there coming out of the locker room was they started serving a lot tougher, put a little bit more pressure on us. It was a little bit more difficult for us to stay in our offense. But I'm not sure it was something that we weren't doing. I know that can be an easy thing to think that, you know, if one team loses, they must have done something wrong and if another team wins they must have done something right. I thought it was just two teams for two-and-a-half hours that were just laying it all out there. And sometimes it was easy for both teams to score in a very high clip and then there was other times that it was really, really tough to score because both teams were just putting so much effort out there. But I'm not sure if it was a, you know, necessarily what we were doing. They made a couple of nice adjustments and I thought their serving really picked up at the break.

Q. Tori, is there any way to prepare yourself for the emotions like this? Have you ever been through something like this?
TORI BLAKE: Oh, gosh, no. I think I'm still in denial here. At the end of the day only one team gets to win their last game. That's just kind of how it is in the tournament. And it wasn't us. It sucks, and that's the only way I can explain it. But I mean we have an amazing group of girls, and I mean they're coming for it next year. They're going to come in real hot. You'll see it.

Q. Yesterday was obviously a pretty emotional day than today it seemed toward the end. Did you guys feel emotionally stressed out or did you kind of feel like you ran out of gas? How did yesterday affect today in terms of having to dig so deep yesterday and then find yourself in a similar position today?
LAUREN CARLINI: I don't think yesterday's match had any effect on how we came into the match today, how we felt at the end. This is what we train for. It's two five-setters back to back, and that's why we put in all the time that we do in the spring and in the summer. We train so hard the way we do for those moments. And I don't think we ran out of gas. I don't think we were emotionally drained. We were still connecting at a high level and we were going for it, and it just didn't fall in our favor.

Q. The last volleyball game, we talked about this last time. How does that feel not just not wearing the jersey, but the sport that you love so much in general?
HALEIGH NELSON: It doesn't feel good. But I just loved being a part of this program so much that all I can be is thankful that I've gotten to play with such amazing people and for such amazing people. And it's just such an amazing experience that even though it's coming to an end, I've got nothing but good things from it. It's just a lot of love, and there wouldn't be tears if there wasn't so much love. And this team is going to win a National Championship. You can guarantee it. People need to start believing in the Badgers because they're coming. It might not have been this year and it might not have been the past three years, but they will. And it's because they work so hard and they really truly deserve it. While unfortunately it wasn't with us on the team, they're coming.

Q. Coach, what have these four seniors meant to you and meant to this program?
COACH SHEFFIELD: They're why you coach. They're why you coach. To be with selfless people that give everything that they have for each other, for their school, for their sport. They get out of the shallow end and they dive in the deep end. They trust. They give you everything that they have. You watch them grow as people. You know, you have a player like Tori that hadn't been out here a whole lot that's spent four years just really, really battling through health and just does not -- there are so many times she could have given it up and said it's not worth it. It means so much to her, the team does and this program. Romana you couldn't be more proud of what -- kid comes over here and what she did tonight was special after last night. I'm so proud of her. And especially last night after the match not getting great news on her knee. That really bummed her out late at night. And to dig down and dig deep, give the performance she did today, her last match in Badger jersey shows so much about her character as well. And Lauren's the best. She's the best passer we've ever had. I hope I'm not offending anybody by that, but people see the intensity. But what they don't know is that she's ten times the better person than she is as a volleyball player. And you see the player like Haleigh Nelson and the journey she's come and how far she has come. And I don't know if I've ever been around a player that's improved more in four years. It's more than just on the court. It's being around them every day and the people they are. It's why you coach.

Stanford Quotes
COACH DUNNING: First I'd like to say how happy I am for Inky. She's been through a lot in the last year and a half, and you were amazing tonight.

INKY AJANAKU: Thank you.

COACH DUNNING: I'm very happy for both the two athletes up here with me. They played great tonight. Wisconsin is really, really a great team, so for us to be sitting here is an honor. I thought our team played really hard tonight and played with courage when they had to. We hadn't been down two sets and come back and won a match this year. And I think we knew that coming out for the third game -- or the third set that maybe we'd learned enough and that we were ready for the fight that was ahead of us, and we were. I'm very proud of them.

Q. Inky, what changed after the first two? The second set was a heart breaker to lose. Then how you responded to that. What was the intermission like? What happened after that?
INKY AJANAKU: At the end of the second set, the look in our eyes we were all a little flabbergasted. We didn't quite know how to get ourselves ready for that set. After the second set, we went back into the third and I looked in everybody's eyes, and I saw like they were ready; they were ready to be there all night and they were ready to fight. And that's just having confidence in yourselves, and I think our freshmen are finally getting that and they are recognizing how good we all know that they are. And being able to play to your potential, just pushing out all the doubt, that's what changed. And it's something that takes a lot of maturity, and we were having to do it really early, and I'm really proud of them for doing that.

Q. Backing up just a little bit, in the first set Wisconsin jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead. How much did the crowd have to do with that, the intensity of the room? How much did that kind of maybe get to you guys at the beginning?
INKY AJANAKU: Well, Wisconsin is a really great team. They played really great volleyball, and they had some really great plays that we were just like, okay, that's fine, that was a great play. You're not going to get all of those. The crowd did get to us a little bit. We had a couple of plays where we lost focus a little bit and we relaxed and didn't respond well to the situation. But we're learning. Every single time we're learning and we're getting better, and if we can keep doing that, I think we'll be in a good position next week.

Q. Inky, you missed all last year. Then you're back and now you're going to the Final Four. What's the emotional temperature for you?
INKY AJANAKU: I mean this season has been a roller coaster. We've had to go through a lot, and I've had to go through a lot, and I think that's kind of what bonded our team is that we were learning to trust ourselves at the same time I was ready to trust myself again. And we were kind of on that same path together, the freshmen. I had to learn to trust in their inabilities and I had to learn to trust in my body and maybe take a couple more risks than I was used to. This is the reason I came back to Stanford because everyone supported me every step of the way and helped me get to this point where I was able to trust myself to play more comfortably on the court. I knew that Stanford is the place that will embrace me and help me get to that level. It's emotional every year. Every year we're in it to win the National Championship, and to be able to go to the Final Four is a great honor, and I'm so happy.

Q. Merete, Inky said there was a change in your guys' eyes during the break. What was said amongst you guys that made such a difference?
MERETE LUTZ: I'm actually glad you asked that, because I think Inky is being modest about her leadership skills. She went on this amazing speech about working hard for each other. That's Inky's whole schtick in volleyball is doing everything for each other, coming together, leaning on each other. So I think she really riled us up, she riled me up big time, just that we would take this point by point and we would do it with each other and communicate and do our jobs and work together as a more cohesive unit. And I think that just brought everyone together and gave everyone a lot of confidence all of because of Inky's amazing leadership. She's too modest.

Q. What was the turning element for you after the first two? What was different in those last three sets?
COACH DUNNING: Well, you know, there's two ways to look at it. As you would guess, it's easy in that setting with a good team and a great crowd and everything and all the pressure to fold and to just lose in three. But I think our team has believed all year that we're not going to be as good as we can be really honestly until the last time we step on the court. They didn't think our best game was 24-26 in set two. And so when they went back out on the court, they thought we would be better. They didn't panic. And you heard them talk about Inky has been a great leader. You can see her in our huddles talking to especially the younger players. And so I just think we're getting better, and I think at that point -- you know, Wisconsin could have tipped it over on us and played amazing at the start of the third set and buried us. Didn't happen that way and it gave us a chance to kind of go, okay, we are getting better, now let's see. And we've talked all year about the fact that our serving and blocking eventually will get to people. And tonight we just had to play long enough for that to happen. But it eventually got to them. We blocked a lot of balls in the last three sets.

Q. You've coached in a lot of venues. What was this place like tonight? Can you give us some perspective about the crowd and the atmosphere?
JOHN DUNNING: Yeah. It's amazing. They've built up the support here, in Wisconsin. I mean back to the days of Steve Lowe, he was my first assistant as a college coach, and he came here and I think really helped the program begin to get going even better than it had been. Since that day they've grown, and it's been amazing for a long time. There are a few cities around the country that have amazing support, and this is one of them. One of the good things for us, though, is the louder it gets honestly in most venues, the more exciting it gets because it's just loud noise in everybody's ears, and if you can get yourself to believe that, then, hey, there were 6,000-plus people dressed in red that were yelling, and that's our school colors, too.

Q. Going to Columbus, what are you seeing that you like in terms of matchups? What are you afraid of or nervous about that you're going to have to work on?
JOHN DUNNING: Well, who do we play next? Minnesota or whoever.

Q. UCLA.
JOHN DUNNING: We've played both of those teams, and so we know a lot about them. But it's a while back. And so we have to go back. We were not in any way, shape or form looking past any round and our team did a great job of scouting. But we know a lot about them. We played UCLA twice this year, lost to them, two great matches. Then we played Minnesota early in the season at our place and beat them. So we know what they're like, and they're very different, and once we find out the result, we'll get it going. For our especially young team, I'm really happy. Our leaders, seniors have done a really good job of getting our team to believe in scouting and strategy, and we'll know our opponent well, so I think we'll be ready for them, whoever it is.