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NCAA Second Round: Illinois Post-Match Quotes

Illinois 3, Iowa State 0

Illinois Head Coach Kevin Hambly opening statement:

"Congratulations to Iowa State on a great season. The first set I thought was one of the highest levels of volleyball that we've played, both teams going at it, one of the highest sets we've played. They presented a ton of problems: their tempo was great, they have weapons, and I don't if we ever figured them out. We were just able to put enough pressure on them that we were able to finish the sets. I thought they were a great team and really came after us and attacked us. I thought it was a fun match to be a part of in an incredible environment with the two bands and the crowd. It's what college volleyball is about and it was fun to be a part of."

Head Coach Hambly on Birks' 23-kill night:

"They triple-blocked her, which we haven't seen very much, and I thought Jocelyn handled it well, she hit high and flat and she did what Jocelynn does."

#7 Jocelynn Birks on her performance:

"I wasn't really wasn't paying attention to that during the game, but Lex was giving me the ball a lot and I was just swinging, trying to score."

"The people on the bench do a really good job of talking to me and telling me what was open and where I could swing so that was helpful."

Coach Hambly on reaching the Sweet 16:

"We continue to try to get better throughout this and see how high of a level of volleyball we can play at this moving forward. I know we're not a finished product and it's nice to be able to continue. Most coaches feel that way; that there's more that you can teach and more you can do. And then, when you get into the playoffs, it doesn't change. I'm just looking forward to getting another week to see how far we can push this team and how clean we can play, and what level we can reach."

#14 Liz McMahon on taking control of the second and third sets:

"I think overall we stayed calm and worked within our own arousal level that suited best for us. We've been in that situation a lot of times this year and we won a lot of them, so just trusting that and not trying to do anything spectacular."

Liz McMahon on advancing to the Sweet 16

"We're just going to continue to get better, focus on ourselves, take it one day at a time, and work some things out."

"We're working to play our best volleyball right now and that's the most important thing."

Coach Hambly on adapting to Iowa State's adjustments in each set:

"It's them having great coaches and a good game plan. They had a good game plan; they attacked us really well at the beginning and did some things a little different than we saw on tape. Its limited information and it took us a little while to adjust, but we adjusted, and then they adjusted, and then we adjusted, and then they made some adjustments. It's what you expect when you play against great coaches, you're going to make all kinds of adjustments, and the team that can respond and make those adjustments faster ended up winning those sets. I felt, for a lot of the time, they were ahead of us and we were fortunate we figured some stuff out in order to make some late runs at the end. I thought they were dictating the adjustments and we weren't; that's a weird place to be because you want to be in control of that. They had a great plan against us."

NCAA Second Round: Iowa State Post-Match Quotes

Iowa State Head Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch's Opening Statement:

"First, congrats to Illinois, they're a great team and a physical team. They have a lot of weapons on offense and obviously Birks was phenomenal, I think that was one of the best performances I have seen at NCAA's in my time. She took such a huge load and it didn't seem to matter what we did. She had a huge night offensively and I have to think one of the best performances I've seen so congrats to Illinois. I'm really proud of this Iowa State team. A little over a month ago we were not looking very good and I think there were some major doubts about if we would even be in position to play in this tournament. But this team just kept at it and kept at it and we suddenly turned a corner and had a great last third of the season. As disappointed as we were tonight, I could not be more proud of the perseverance and the fight and battle this team showed. We have got some pretty special players on this team; I thought Hurtt did everything she could have. If you saw her body language and the way she fought until the very end, you'd know she's a pretty special competitor and she has taught our younger players a lot about competitiveness."

Head Coach Johnson-Lynch on the difference in Iowa State's play from last night to tonight:

"Illinois is certainly taller and very physical; they're able to terminate verses a great block. I thought several times we had really nice blocks set up and Birks would just find a way to get the ball through the blocks and off of our hands. And if we're worried about Birks, then they've got someone else they're setting the ball to. They're just very physical, you can do everything right and they're still going to get kills. I thought Birks was really in the zone tonight and that's hard to stop. But again, if it wasn't Birks it was McMahon on the other side or someone else we had trouble defending."

Head Coach Johnson-Lynch on Iowa State's approach to the match:

"We tend to try to start kind of balanced and then see who our hot hitter is and who the other team is trying to slow down and adjust as we go. I thought Illinois served us very tough so some of that was just dependent on the pass. There are some times we have a play in mind or a person we want to set, but it's going to be dependent on the pass. I think Illinois served very tough tonight and I think we also served very tough tonight. We do always try to keep our middle and right sides involved and that was the plan tonight. Bigbee had a really nice night and she's had a really nice few weeks here as she's turned it up at the end of the season. Also I thought Nolan was pretty terrific at left-back defensively. She averaged over seven digs per game and in the second round of NCAA's that's a pretty amazing number."

#7 Caitlin Nolan on facing Illinois' Jocelynn Birks:

"She was really hitting it hard tonight. There was a little bit where our block kind of figured it out a bit and was just funneling balls right at me so I think they made it pretty easy to get some of those digs."

#2 Mackenzie Bigbee on making game-time adjustments:

"We talked this morning about which shots would be open and I think right away I found them early. But they adjusted so I just had to make my adjustments too as the game went on."