UCF Head Coach Todd Dagenais
Opening statement…
I thought we closed out a good weekend. I thought we played really well today. The vast majority of how we played today was the highest we’ve played all season. We just had that one set where things didn’t go so well, but our resiliency that we talk about all the time really showed itself with 20 kills and one error. We picked it right back up. They decided that it was over, and we were going to finish it right there. When you have resiliency like that, you know they’re winning the right way. They’re focused on the right now and not looking down the road. Today is the goal for them. When you get a team like that, they’re pretty dangerous.
On how he handles the team after losing a set…
Jordan said some things. I don’t have to say a lot. They switch right back into it. They have the right frame of mind. I told them that the third game didn’t happen. They just picked up their confidence and went back to supporting each other and doing the things that put us in a position to win. I thought we went out there with an optimistic attitude.
On the performance of McKenna Melville…
She was not supposed to take that many swings. It just happened that way. If she’s not the player of the week, again, then I don’t know who should be. Our plan was to spread it out. We just caught some things on the floor and took advantage of, and it just happened to go through McKenna.
On the performance of the block…
Everything starts with the block. The offense isn’t going to be there every night during the season. The defense has to keep an opponent below their season averages. If you do that, then you have a good chance at winning. You can afford to have a bad night offensively. It’s about lining up right and forcing them to take shots they down want to hit. The back court staying disciplined plays a huge role with that as well. We get a lot of transition swings out of that. I thought our transition offense was amazing today. It all starts with the block. The better the block, the better our defense is, the better swings we get, which leads to more points.