Head Coach Todd Dagenais
Opening statement…
This team has had to battle adversity all year long and that paid off today. This was the biggest challenge we’ve faced all season. I thought Amber did a great job in her first start as an all-around setter. Although we started off slow, our defense started off fast. The defense allowed our offense to come around and get into rhythm. Once we started getting kills, we knew it would be okay. We did a nice job of holding them down. We made a few too many errors that kept the score closer late in sets. Both of our left sides showed up in a big way for us. We had others that made some big plays for us. Everyone played a part to grit out this road win against a team with a winning record in our conference.
On the play of Amber Olson…
I thought Amber showed a lot of composure and showed she was in charge. She showed a mastery of our offense all afternoon. Jenny Maurer did a great job of helping Amber see things. It was kind of like having a quarterback with the offensive coordinator in the earpiece to help make good decisions. Offensively, we were able to do some things to alleviate the pressure off her.
On the defense…
Jordan was outstanding, yet again. She read the game better than I’ve ever seen her do. Amber was great in the back row and stepped up to the challenge. Everyone played a stable game on defense. While Anne-Marie didn’t have a great offensive day, she finished with two blocks per set
On winning the conference title outright…
A win on the road to clinch the conference title to ourselves is a significant thing. We’re proud to bring the championship home. It’s a proud year for our program, our athletic department and our university. It’s great to be able to say we’re the solo champions of a top-10 league in the country. We’ll be proud to represent UCF and The American in the NCAA Tournament.
On other American Athletic Conference teams in the NCAA Tournament…
Hopefully, Cincinnati deserves to be in the tournament, as does Tulane. The committee needs to take a serious look at Tulane and give them a shot. Cincinnati definitely deserves to be in. They’ve shown it throughout the year, but Tulane should make the field. They have a much more solid team and are way hotter than any other sixth, seventh or eighth place team in another big conference.