Sept. 14, 2011

Recap |  Final Stats

Head Coach Rich Feller

On if was good to have some adversity:

"You can always learn more from some kind of defeat. For us - the big question mark - people have asked about our preseason and getting tested. For us, it was merely a matter of getting a solidified line-up and a feel for this team and what they could do. Yes, having a really good team playing against us and pushing against us to the edge was really good for us. I think that will benefit us down the road now that we've had that taste of what it takes to beat a good team like that. I think it did help. I'm kind of glad that whatever streak we had is over because that's not what we're focused on. We're focused on the next match and executing in the current match."

On the Bears responding after dropping set one:

"That was the name of the whole match there was being able to push back when we needed to and have some confidence in us. My pregame talk was about perseverance. The team that works harder a little bit longer is the team that will prevail, and I felt that's what we did tonight."

On avoiding a letdown after such a huge match:

"That's the million-dollar question, really. We've got to know that the target's on our back all year. We've got to know that we don't win anything by just showing up in the Cal jersey. I think this team is mature enough to understand that. Once we get on the court, the competitive juices will start flowing, they won't know who's over there. They'll just know that they have to execute the way they did tonight to beat anybody. Hopefully that's what you'll see."

On Stanford's hitting and Cal's blocking:

"Yes, we got them out of their game. I'm looking at the stats and they actually out blocked us. But I think a lot of [our blocked shots] were kind of silly attacks when we shouldn't have gone for them. For them, we were just able to set our block up the way we wanted to and figured to take away certain things. At the end, when we couldn't take away Rachel Williams on the rip set, we had Robin [Rostratter] in a really good place. She was just there digging that ball up. When you get blocked a few times, it puts in your head a little change in what you have to do and that can create unforced errors."

"Stanford made our life pretty tough at the service line. They were passing very well. They were in system a lot, particularly early on. When they were in system, they were junking some balls around and that was causing us problems in the first set. We had a lot of balls falling as tips. Again, the team persevered and worked hard. Both of our teams were certainly working hard. We continued to go after the ball. We got better on communicating on who was supposed to take what ball and just relying on our teammates."

On what kind of statement the win makes:

"Well, when you start doing degrees of separation and you see who Stanford has beaten and who those teams have beaten before them, it shows that we're right up there. Maybe this is the first time that if coaches want to rank us number one, that we're going to take that and be happy with it. It also allows us to enter the Pac-12 with a good, solid win against one of the best teams and move forward from here."

Junior Middle Hitter Kat Brown

On the journey to get to this point:

"We have been working really, really hard since the end of last season, especially in the spring. We did a ton of strength training with our weights coach Hank, so that's where I think it started. We've been working really hard and had a good work ethic. The thing with being ranked number one is that our team does a really good job of not focusing on the rankings. I think tonight especially, there was a lot of hype about No. 1 and No. 2 playing each other. We didn't think about that too much. I think we've done a really good job on just focusing on trying to play our game and playing Cal volleyball every time. I think if we can continue to do that in the future, we'll be successful."

On what the vibe was like in the huddle after Stanford won the first set:

"We just knew that we didn't play our best that set. Even though we didn't play our best, it was still really close. There were a couple minor adjustments that we needed to make. We talked about what we needed to do and what we wanted to improve in the second set. I think we did a good job of that."

On if they played Cal volleyball tonight:

"Most of the time. I think there were a few times when we didn't, especially in the first set. There were ebbs and flows, but I think we did tonight."

Senior Outside Hitter Tarah Murrey

On what she told the team after the first set:

"Focus on our side. I think that we had to be more aggressive, tactically, with our serving, but still focusing more on our side. I think that we were kind of playing a little individually, in not our usual team way. I think the second set, we came out and had tunnel vision and that it was all us and it showed on the court."

On Elly Barrett's play:

"I think she handled it really well. I always talk to her, especially when I'm in the back row...also especially in the front row. I say, `Elly feed me the ball.' I just want to put confidence in her, and she puts confidence back in me and it's a good balance that we have with each other. I'm really excited to get back into practice and keep working with her on our gos and sets to the outside. I'm really excited. I love working with her."

On if she was pleased with her performance:

"I can be pretty hard on myself. Like I said, I'm excited to get into practice. We had our team meeting after the match, and I went to [assistant coach Sam Crosson] and asked if we could watch some video. Watching yourself play will always make yourself better so you can see the errors you had, and I can easily correct those by swinging higher and being more aggressive and knowing where to take my shots to the setter. I didn't hit exactly the high percentage that I wanted, but I know that I'm going to improve."