NCAA Central Regional Final - USC vs. UCLA
December 13, 2003 | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 13, 2003
UCLA Head Coach Andy Banachowski
Opening Statement
"First of all, I want to thank the people of Nebraska for turning out. We appreciate the support from the fans. I thought that we came out ready to play and play hard. We played hard in the first game and then everything seemed to fall apart in the middle of the second game.
"USC plays so steady and they have the ability to go on these point runs and bury you. They can hurt you."
On the game two injury to Colby Lyman...
"That threw a dent in what we had been doing. Colby was playing well and we hoped for her to play a huge role in what we wanted to do. Just before her injury, I had used her backup in another spot and we were caught with her sub (Becky Green) in another spot. It confused us and we could never get back on track."
On the crowd...
"It was great to see that many fans show up tonight. Coming into the game, we're the underdogs and you'd hope that they would cheer for us. In the first game, we really fed off that and our bench support has been great all season. The crowd got us going early and it helped us to have some Nebraska fans make some noise."
UCLA Junior Brittany Ringel
On game three...
"We were back where we started for game three. In the locker room, we talked about going out and supporting each other. We came back and were ready to go, it just didn't pan out."
UCLA Senior Cira Wright
On the match...
"Before the game, we talked about making history and winning the game. It wasn't as far as Colby going out, but when she did it was emotional."
USC Head Coach Mick Haley
Opening Statement...
"I think the fans go a great match tonight. They really got their money's worth. It offered the fans a little bit of everything. You have to give UCLA credit; they really can into this game really prepared. They really put the heat on us and out digged us for a while but we battled back in the end."
On Returning to the Final Four...
"The hardest part is always getting there, and that was the case tonight. It's obviously great to have another chance of winning a title. Getting there was a team goal all season, and how its going to Dallas and getting ready to play."
Outside Hitter April Ross
On the Match...
"Our mentality throughout the whole match is was to keep fighting and to try to outlast them. We knew that if we kept playing our game then we would eventually win out. In the fourth game we had tons on momentum and just put the match away."
