UC Irvine MPSF Championship Quotes
4/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
April 25, 2007
HEAD COACH JOHN SPERAW
What do you like best about tomorrow's match-ups and what are your concerns?
It is always fun to play the best teams in America down the stretch. Getting Hawaii when they were hot and getting BYU now in the semis is just another natural progression for playing the best teams. BYU is clearly the most physical team in American and maybe the most physical team that has played this game in a long, long time. Certainly that provides some challenges for us. In order for us to deal with those physical attributes, we are going to have to play great team defense, we are going to have to play solid fundamental volleyball and we are going to have to be great as a team.
Are you treating tomorrow's match as a play-in match for the NCAA Championships?
Yes. We know we have to win to go and that is what our goal is, to get back to the final four. As far as I am concerned, the winner of the match has a leg up in going. I think Santa Barbara has a chance tomorrow. They are playing great as well. If Santa Barbara wins, then obviously we are going to have to beat Santa Barbara to go because Pepperdine will get the at-large bit. They are in the same situation we were in last year.
STUDENT-ATHLETE BRIAN THORNTON
Is your team playing its best volleyball of the season right now?
I feel like we are playing really good volleyball right now. There are some things we can do better for sure, but I don't think we have played all the way to our potential yet.
Talk about your experience in the MPSF semifinals last year and how you think it will help you this time.
I don't think we were really ready. When we came in, we were ranked number one and were pretty much guaranteed to go to the final four. It is not that same feeling this year. I feel like we gained a lot of experience from last year.
