EYEBRONCO: Volleyball Prepares for 2014 NCAA Tournament
On the eve of the first round of the 2014 NCAA tournament, Bronco head coach Jon Wallace sat down with SantaClaraBroncos.com to talk about the team, their opponent, No. 13 Oregon, and what former Broncos have taught this team this year.
SCU: You have had a chance to watch film on Oregon. What is your initial reaction to the Ducks?
JW: Oregon is a very good team. They finished third in the Pac 12 Conference. They got 10 teams in the tournament and had two undefeated teams in Washington and Stanford until the final weeks.
Oregon is a great offensive team. They play really fast and have a lot of different plays in each of their rotations. It's a similar style to what we've seen, in terms of LMU and maybe Saint Mary's. We hope our girls will adapt well and have a good understanding of what they're trying to do. I think our conference has set us up well for this matchup.
SCU: What have you done to get ready for the NCAA tournament this week?
JW: We are trying to keep it as normal as we can, as well as enjoying the moment a little bit. I know we've been to 12 NCAA tournaments and they're special and they shouldn't be taken for granted. We worked to keep our practices and routines as normal as possible. We are taking a step back to enjoy the trip, enjoy what we're doing and just have a great experience with it.
SCU: If someone is watching your team for the first time in the NCAA tournament, what will they see?
JW: First you're going to see a young team, and during announcements you're going to realize we start three freshmen, two sophomores, a junior and one senior. That may raise a lot of eyebrows just in terms of youth, and then you're going to be pleasantly surprised in terms of their maturity as players and their athleticism.
We have a very athletic setter, Kirsten Mead, who does a great job. We have athletic middles in both Kaity Edwards and Natasha Calkins as freshmen. Our outside hitters, sophomores Nikki Hess and Sabrina Clayton, do a great job of kind of controlling the game.
Senior leader Taylor Milton is playing the best volleyball she's played in her four years here. She's in a great spot, doing great things. Danielle Rottman led our league in digs and is one of the top players defensively. Summing it up, we are very athletic, young and play fast. We play the game with a lot of enjoyment and passion.
SCU: Kirsten Mead was named the WCC Freshman of the Year on Tuesday. Can you talk about what she has brought to your team?
JW: Our big turn around as a program is because of her stability at the position. She allows our dynamic and athletic hitters to put up the ball and she's been good all year long. She's a steady player, very consistent, which is what you want out of your setter. Emotionally she's not up, she's not down, she's always in the same spot.
Our offensive is just really consistent because of her approach to it. But what also sets her up is the play of our three passers. Those girls have done a great job of keeping us in system.
Our service aces to our reception errors is astonishing. We have 203 aces and only 91 reception errors. We're doing good things from the service-receive, which allows Kirsten to be really consistent and good.
SCU: The Broncos were picked ninth in the WCC this year. You finished tied for third and had 11 women honored on and off the court. The seven players honored on the court was a program high for the Broncos this year. What has the journey been like this season?
JW: This journey has given these young girls such a great experience to not only believe that they can do it, but know they know how to do it. They know how to win and they know how to deal with the pressure of making the tournament. Getting to the tournament and playing under brighter lights is going to give them even more experiences. The future for our program is strong. We have three great kids coming in. They're going to add immediately to our culture and our play. We return all starters except for one and we will definitely miss Taylor in that line up. She has been so steady for us the last four years.
SCU: Making your 12th tournament in 16 years as the head coach at Santa Clara is terrific. Have you heard from a lot of your former players since you heard the news on Sunday night?
JW: We have gotten some great texts and emails from our alums that follow us, and they're very proud of this team. They want us back at this level and they want us to continue this on.
We want them to be apart of this and that's why we brought them back.
In the preseason, we had a lot of alumni come back and speak to our girls. Each one of the alums spoke on what it takes to win. They talked about bonding with your teammates, trusting and working hard. We also had them talk and speak about their tournament experiences and what it takes to win in the tournament, including Anna Cmaylo.
Crystal Matich talked about going to the Final Four in 2005. It gave our team a lot of confidence. Any given night you can beat anybody and our team firmly believes that. We believe that when we play Bronco volleyball, playing with confidence and trust, we can beat our next opponent. They have the confidence from the 12 years of NCAA tournament history that this program has been through and the entire support of our alumni who have done it before them. I feel really good with this group. We are going to go out and support them and we are going to play great Bronco volleyball on Thursday and we'll see what happens.
SCU: Anything else you would like to add?
JW: I feel very blessed to be at Santa Clara University. We have a great administration from our President to our Athletic Director. They support us, and support these girls and because of that, we are able to compete at a high level and have the success that we have. Each of my staff members and I are very proud of where we're at, and want to continue on this legacy. We want to continue to win for our university and the players that play for us.
