Illinois Volleyball Team Media Day Quotes
Illini share optimism for 2010
Illinois volleyball team wrapped up its first week of practice by taking official team photos and meeting the media during its annual Media Day. On Thursday, Illinois was picked second in the conference the Big Ten coaches. Officials national rankings will be released next Tuesday. Below is a sampling of comments from head coach Kevin Hambly and selected players from Media Day.
Illinois Head Coach Kevin Hambly
On the hype surrounding his team this preseason…
“We are going to do what we can to live up to all the hype. Certainly we have the talent, but there is a lot that goes into being successful. A lot of it is going to be how we come together as team and how the new players acclimate to being part of the system. The pieces are there for sure. It will be fun as a staff to try to put those pieces together.”
On the make-up of the team…
“It’s a good mix of veterans and some young talent. It’s been a long process to get the recruiting to where we have this amount of talent and classes piling on top of each other. We feel the benefit at practice because it’s very competitive. It’s just a lot of fun to be in the gym right now. The thing that I like most is that we have players who have been to the Sweet 16 two times in a row and we added another player that has been there in Colleen Ward. Hopefully we can take advantage of that come NCAA time.”
On the schedule…
“We knew we had a good team coming into this year and we wanted to find out where we are early and figure out what we need to work on. We’ll find out who we are certainly. The goal is to get ready for the Big Ten and try to make a run at it.”
On the potential of this group…
“It is fun, but it’s a challenge as well. Every year has its challenges. It was kind of nice when we were picked eighth and we ended up finishing third. It’s a lot easier to get a team motivated for that. We’ll see how this team is going to respond to the expectations. Being seeded fifth (overall in the NCAA Tournament) last year and having most of the team returning and bringing in this nice class, we were talking about these expectations. The key, though, is how we respond to it.”
On preparing for this year…
“It’s started after we lost in the Sweet 16. We were disappointed because we wanted to extend our season. We like playing together. They were determined from January on to put themselves in position to go as far as they can. I’m excited that in the spring they worked really hard when they were with the staff, but also when they were on their own, they worked just as hard during the summer. That shows to me just how dedicated they are and how much they want to make this happen.”
On the integration of the newcomers…
“Jennifer Bonilla is going to start for us at libero and the way it looks one of the newcomers, either Colleen Ward or Jazmine Orozco, will start for us on the outside and take over where Kylie left off. Anna Dorn is getting better all the time. She is definitely our best athlete. Michelle Bartsch touches 10-3, which is really high. Anna touches 10-7. Her block is so much higher above the net than anything we’ve had. As a staff we are going to use more people. If someone is struggling, we’ll pull her out sooner. We haven’t felt like we had the opportunity to have all those moves before and maybe have a shorter leash. What I like is that this group is committed to that.”
Senior middle blocker Johannah Bangert
On opening the season with the State Farm Illini Classic...
“The Illini Classic along with Stuff Huff is just a great way to start the season. We get all of our fans back to Huff and the students on campus, so we are looking forward to that weekend to start the year.”
On dealing with the recent hype around the season...
“It’s really exciting. We hear some of the hype, but we try to just keep it in the back of our minds. We are not really focused on what the preseason rankings are, but are just going to focus on what we can do as a team. We are really excited to get into the season and know that we can do some really awesome things.”
Junior outside hitter Michelle Bartsch
On the team’s outlook for the season...
“It’s really going to be a fun year for us. We have so many attackers this season, so when you watch practice, it’s crazy how fast the ball goes down. We used to be a really good rally team, but this year we have gotten better at putting away the ball on the first swing.”
On the first week of practice...
“We have just started right where we left off from the end of last year. We are all really excited to be here and just have a great group of girls. It has been fun to get back into it.”
Freshman libero Jennifer Bonilla
On what she can add to the team this year...
“The whole summer I have been preparing to come here and talking a lot to Kevin, so I am ready to take on the role of libero. I am going to have to be on my game when it comes to my passing and defense. I am learning and it’s a lot of work, but hopefully I can do my best to help the team.”
On getting onto campus and starting practice...
“I have been waiting since sophomore year, so I am really excited to be here. I am really happy that we have finally gotten into the gym and can’t wait for the season to start. The girls have done a great job helping the freshmen get situated and comfortable. It is made it a lot easier, especially for those of us far from home.”
Senior outside hitter Laura DeBruler
On the potential for the upcoming season...
“It just feels like our time. We’ve had some different components that we have been adding throughout the year and have a really good freshman class, so hopefully this year is the year to do something special.”
On the matchup with Penn State...
“They are always a good team, and we face them the very first weekend of Big Ten play, so it should be a really good match.”
On dealing with the recent hype around the season...
“A lot of people are really excited about the upcoming season, but the biggest thing for us is to try to focus on what we can do and not worry about the hype and expectations.”
Senior setter Hillary Haen
On the upcoming season...
“We just want to take it one game at a time. We haven’t set our goals yet for the season, but when we do, we will probably set them in blocks rather than the end of the year. We want to focus on something that is realistic at the time and the keep evaluating how we our doing so we don’t look too far ahead.”
On finishing her senior year as one of the top teams in the nation...
“It would mean everything to me. We came here to change the program, and we really feel that we have and hopefully it shows. Everything doesn’t depend on if we win or lose because we have accomplished so much, but it would the icing on the cake for us.”
On the difficulty of the schedule...
“It’s insane. It’s definitely the best non-conference schedule we have ever had. It’s exciting because it makes this preseason time even more important. We need to prepare faster and be working every single second so that we are ready to play every team we will face.”
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