Dec. 5, 2008
Santa Clara Head Coach Jon Wallace
On the match:
"We started off with great energy today and as a group, came together and created all of our luck and all of our opportunities. I could not be more proud of this group and what they accomplished today. To play so hard and to win this match for a coach is just awesome to see. We're proud of that they played really hard. It's always really good to win."
On Lindsy Davigeadono's performance in the second set:
"She is our tallest player so she should get kills. She's good at the net, she's aggressive and she's going to score. Unfortunately, most of those kills were off of poor passes that she was just aggressive on. But she got the kills for us."
On the Broncos being the "underdog:"
"This year we struggled. It was not the best year we've had. But, ask me year in and year out and I'd take our team each and every time, and in my eyes, it's not an upset in my opinion.
On Santa Clara's Final Four run:
"You talk about taking big swings tonight and these two here (Anna Cmaylo and Brittany Lowe) have taken the biggest swings in program history and have done a great job. On the big points, I told Lindsy that she needed to set Brittany because she's going to make that play for us and she has done that ever since she was a freshman. We did beat Stanford and Arizona to get to the Final Four, and these athletes have been there; they have been in the fire and they know how to play hard.
Senior Outside Hitter Brittany Lowe
On the fifth set:
"Lindsy never lost confidence in me. Coach Wallace kept telling me to change things up because what I was doing wasn't working. So, I was just trying to figure out how to beat them and it finally clicked in that last set. She knew that I would figure it out and come through especially on those big points."
On playing to five sets:
"It's hard. You lose momentum. Yet, when you get to game five it's like an even playing field. You're both 2-2. You either fight hard, hustle for plays and win or you roll over. You have to make the decision and we chose to play hard and it paid off.
Redshirt senior Anna Cmaylo
On Kansas State's high sets:
"They contact the ball pretty high above the net and that's something that the coaches were stressing with us. I'm really proud of how our defense really stepped it up. When we didn't get the blocks our defense took care of it for us.
On possibly playing Washington in the Second Round:
"The last time we saw them play was the day they won the National Championship in 2005. It's an entirely different team from then but they are well coached, they play hard and they are top-10 in the nation. That says a lot. We're just excited for the chance to play and to possibly play against them."
On the team being the "underdog?"
"I think we consider ourselves the underdog often no matter what the rankings say. We go out there to win and we try not to pay attention to what people are saying about the opponent and how good they are or how not so good we are or vice versa. It's not like we get more excited for games where we can upset teams. We go out there looking for a win no matter who we are playing against."
