Postgame Quotes Ohio State vs. George Mason May 3, 2016 Pete Hanson, Ohio State head coach Opening Statement Well first of all I want to congratulate George Mason on a very well played match. We knew they were going to be a challenging opponent; they have had a great year and have been streaking at the last half of the season. They did exactly what we thought they were going to do, which was play hard and play every point to the fullest. Finally, we got our rhythm and fell into a nice run there and fell into a pretty good system and were to get things turned our way and just took over a little bit. It was a well-played match by both teams. Q: Offensively and defensively you were able to shut down George Mason, can you just talk a little bit about what you guys were able to do to stop the Patriots offense tonight? A: Well, we served the ball fairly well at times, I think that was a little streaky on our part, but we thought if we could serve in the system then the stats showed that their guy No. 20 Jack Wilson was pretty good early. I think the quantity of swings took its toll on him a little bit and we felt that if we always had two guys up in front of him and challenged him on every ball then maybe overtime we were going to get a few and score some. It was I guess as simple as that if you want to draw it up and go out and execute it but a game plan is always great when it comes together and its not much of a plan when it doesn t. Q: Did you have a sense that George Mason came into this early match playing with a lot of confidence given what they have done the last three or four weeks? A: Oh absolutely, absolutely. Their a good team, they ve gotten a lot better. I think Jay (Hosack) put a lot of guys in a lot of different positions early in the year. I think he was kind of feeling things out to see what his guys could do and then the latter half, like any team, you fall into a pretty good rhythm. You start to get your pieces where you want them and they feel comfortable playing and they have some nice wins coming down the stretch. We knew this was going to be a challenging opponent, a team that is our to make some history and kind of playing with house money so we just talked about being ourselves and doing what we do and hoping we would be good enough and over time it was.
Q: Tonight, 21 service errors, is that a concern for your moving forward or are you okay with that given the amount of aces that you guys had? A: I think the only concern we had was the first game we had a lot of first service errors where we just didn t put a ball in play. We out-killed George Mason 14-7 in the first set and we lose it because we make nine service errors. I thought a lot of those were just, like Christy (Franceschi) said, a lot of nerves. Maybe these guys were watching the 2011 tape and saw that team make nine or 10 service errors in the first set, I don t know. It is something where you kind of just have to keep working through it and find a rhythm and that s been us. We talk about how our service pressure has to dictate to teams what can and cannot happen. We are going to have to serve it like that against UCLA or they will run us out of the gym. We are going to have to stay aggressive and hopefully now that we have gotten this one out of our system and we can move on we will just be a little sharper come Thursday night. Q:When you look at the offense side, a lot of it was going through Nicholas Szerszen and also Miles Johnson, can you just talk a little about both those players and what you were seeing that allowed you to set the ball so often to them tonight? A: Yeah I mean those are definitely are two go to hitters, so their going to get the most balls and I think that frenchy and Nicholas hit balls out of a lot of bad situations so his kind of our garbage guy sometimes, but he does a great job at that. And then Miles, I think he started the night slow but once we got him back into the match he had a lot of open swings which was good because Nic was getting so much attention so I think that really helped him get back into the match. Christy Blough Q: is it challenging at all to keep the offense running balanced and not just solely set to them, how are you able to get the other players involved as well? A: Yeah I mean I think its hard sometimes, but its also when we set them that much the other team is focused on them, so the other players get some more open swings, so I think its easy to find them if it s a good situation. - Christy Blough Q: What was the difference after the first set to turn things around? A: I think we definitely had some jitters in the first set, I mean this is everyone on our teams first NCAA tournament so I think that definitely showed a little bit and I think that we calmed down in our serve and pass game, I think we missed 9 serves in the first set, so once we calmed down and served and passed better then we played better on defense and offense and I think that made the difference. Christy Blough Q: Tonight defensively at least 3 players had 9 digs, what were you guys able to do to be so successful digging George Mason?
A: well I mean our blocks were set up well all night, we kinda knew what we were going to take from the get-go and everyone was just staying patient and kind of just reacting instead of going all over the place and kind of doing too much, everyone was just staying patient and just expecting the ball to come to them and we just followed our game plan and get worked out. Gabriel Domecus Q: Can you just quickly preview the match against UCLA and what you expect from the Bruins on Thursday? A: They re a great serving team just like us so I think there s going to be definitely a lot of pressure coming from them and I just think its going to be an exciting match, we match up with them pretty well last time in January so I ll be an exciting game - Gabriel Domecus Jay Hosack Head Coach George Mason Opening Statement First of all I want to wish Ohio State congratulations that was a heck of a performance by them. They ve had a great year and Coach Pete Hanson and his staff have done an incredible job with putting that team together. It reminds me a lot of the 2011 team, they re not very flashy but they sure are good. Pete Hanson winning the national coach of the year today, one of the best in the game I m very humbled by him and got a chance to work with him for a couple of years I know how well he prepares and how well he treats his guys, so first of all congrats to them. I could be more proud of my boys we never gave up, I think that s one of the things they wanted to send a message to the rest of the country that you re not gonna get easy points with us. I know that there were a couple here and there that looked easy, for the most part they had to earn every point and that s a testament to how hard my boys have worked. I think George Mason did a good job of reinventing who they are and turning the corner with this program. I know that I m the head coach, but I m not the one on the court playing and I m definitely not the one pulling the strings all the time so I want to give credit to my assistant coaches Joe Norton and Sam Ping. They ve done a fabulous job this year working with the boys and keeping me steady giving me information when I needed it and steadying me out when I needed it. I want to give all the credit to my boys and the way that they played. They went out there this year they had a new coach and a new direction they weren t sure what was going to happen. Fortunately, they bought into what I was telling them. They saw the fruits of their labor and they did somethings that have not been done for a long time. I m extremely proud to be running the ship but it s all the other people who are involved with that ship that are very necessary in order to move it forward. I want to think Ron Shayka and Brad Edwards for allowing this team to take a step forward, without their support we would not be able to do the things we did this year. And last but not least, I d like to think my wife for allowing me to be a head coach of a wonderful program and a wonderful place and get a chance to do what I love for a living. Q: Coach, at the beginning of the year you had four goals: Beat Penn State, Win the EIVA, Host the EIVA, Win a national championship. So two out of four in your first year. A: That s setting the bar pretty high. I think those are all pretty lofty goals. Fortunately, we were able to achieve a couple of those. I know it sounds kind of funny, I actually think it was a good thing that we didn t win tonight. I know that may rub people the wrong way. But if you win it all tonight and win it all
the rest of the week and you look at the end of the season and you say hey we won the national championship wat else are you really trying to fight for? I think my boys got a taste of what it means to be a big boy volleyball team. We opened the season at 1-6, going to BYU and playing against some good teams, going to Ohio State and getting beat there. We just kept talking about the process and keep focusing forward. Don t worry about the outcome just worry about the work that we re doing. But now they have a taste of that and I think that will make them hungrier next year. Now, next year we get to hit the ground running already up to speed we don t have to invent the wheel again. We don t have to implement systems and let them have time to soak it in we can actually hit the ground pretty fast. I like that and I think my guys are gonna be hungrier next year than they were this year. I think this year was obviously a learning curve. Q: Quickley looking at Ohio State, Nicolas Szerszen, what was he able to do to be so successful? A: I know he s a player of the year candidate. That s a player of the year does is go out there and execute at a very high level. When you see players like that it s very easy to get caught up in the whole oh that s one of the best players in the country. What you do with him that makes the difference. Tonight we held him to.366 and I know that not a great number, but when he played against us last time he hit.750 or something. We really had two goals tonight. We re going to slow him down, and slow Miles Johnson down, Miles Johnson hit.20 0 so I thought we did a good job with that. Players like Nicolas are special for a reason. It s easy when you fly under the radar and you can get a couple of kills and have a good night. How you do it when other people are keying in on you and that kid has not let up the entire season. One heck of a stud. Hats off to him. Vinnie Lopes: Can you just talk about what Ohio State was able to do defensively that made you guys struggle a little bit on offense tonight? Negron: They did a great job on defense. I think they got a lot of balls up. I think we just kept going. What I kept telling the guys on the court was, Keep swinging. There s nothing we can do if they keep getting balls up. We gotta keep playing. So yeah, they did a great job defensively tonight. I will give them that. Lopes: Jack, How frustrating is that when you guys are putting up big kills and somehow Ohio State just seems to be able to dig up the ball? Wilson: I mean, it s the name of the game. Ohio State is a good team. You do all that you can on your side of the court but they re going to try their hardest too. Prescott: Can you describe the confidence that you guys had coming into this week especially after the first set?
Wilson: I mean, it felt great taking the first set from them. Of course we wanted to get more but I think we all just came in ready to play. To play as hard as we could, not hold anything back, and I think we did that tonight. I think we played well and I m proud of all the guys. Lopes: Can both of you discuss what this experience has been the past three weeks? Wilson: It s felt great. I mean as Diane said, two of our goals this season were to beat Penn State and win the EIVAs and we did those two. We didn t do the other two. Next year, we can start out ahead of where we started this season and start running fast. It felt great. Negron: Our team has been possibly the same since I got here but since the beginning we ve been improving. The first year we got here, we lost in the EIVA finals. This year we won it and I feel like we re taking steps forward. I think we feel more accomplished of what we did this season. We leave happy of this court.