The Iowa State volleyball team swept George Mason in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball tournament last night (25-22, 25-13, 25-19).
With the win, the Cyclones move on to round number two where they will take on Wichita State tonight at 6:30 in Hilton Coliseum.
Here are some coach from head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch after the contest. These quotes are courtesy of Cyclones.com.
“I thought George Mason played a really nice match tonight. They dug a lot of balls, put a lot of pressure on us defensively and I thought they blocked pretty well. They certainly made us earn that win. I thought they played really well tonight and put a lot of pressure on us. I thought we played average, I know we can do a lot better. To me, we didn’t seem in rhythm and I think that’s for various reasons, but the stretches that we did get in rhythm our offense looked good and started blocking for points and running some points. Although we struggle at times, and I think George Mason was a big part of that, I feel like we could play a lot better and we’re going to need to play a lot better tomorrow night to have a shot.”
(On play at the net) “It was average. We blocked some balls, I think we had eight blocks on the night which is a decent number, but I thought we had some opportunities to block some balls that we got tooled on, so I felt like we could’ve blocked a few more balls in that match. I thought George Mason blocked us really well, and really put some pressure on our hitters. It seemed like we were always looking at a double block most of the night. When we are in a really good rhythm we are looking at one blocker versus one hitter. I thought they did a really good job moving side-to-side and covering our hitters, and putting two up against us.”
(On changes made in the game) “We decided to get our middles a little bit more involved, and we saw the set distribution change a little bit. After that second game we involved our middles more. Deb (Stadick) had a great night hit- ting .391 and getting a lot of sets there in game three. She along with Jamie Straube got really involved and they scored a lot of points out of the middle.”
(On goals being bigger than first round) “Absolutely, it’s very easy to get upset in the NCAA Tournament. Particularly if you look forward too much to the next match, you could get bit. So I thought although we won in three and took care of business, I know we can play a lot better. I think once you get into the tournament every team is good, and there is no team that you can afford to overlook, but I just think we can do a better job tomorrow night of getting a better rhythm and playing our game.”
(On Wichita State) “They’re good, they blocked a lot of balls tonight. They have a great setter, and outside hitter, so I think they are a really sound team. The are pretty scrappy and a good blocking team. I think they are playing well and I think they are going to give it every- thing they have tomorrow night.”
