NCAA Championship Match
Quotes - UC Irvine 3, IPFW 1
May 7, 2007
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UC Irvine
John Speraw, UC Irvine head coach
Opening statement
"I do not know how to summarize this in a statement. I am obviously incredibly proud of these four guys sitting next to me here. People have asked me how the five-year plan was done and it was done when we recruited these four men. The efforts of these four men and the men in that gym are why we are here. It has been my great pleasure to work with them."
On the fourth game of the match
"We have been talking so much about handling pressure situations. At the beginning of the year I came up with a list of 10 things we need to do to in pressure situations to win; the most important one is to play one point at a time. We talked a lot about and instilled these 120 points in the fall. When we took a time out late in the fourth match we brought up those points and it all came together."
On Matt Webber
"Matt is an emotional player and it is a strength for him at times but it also causes him to have some emotional dips. We have talked a lot about how to handle those dips this year. We met a lot in my office and talked about behaviors and consequences and it has made a profound difference, especially this week. Matt had a big week and was able to control those emotional dips."
Matt Webber, senior opposite side hitter
On his feelings from last year to this year
"Last year I did not play my best and I blamed myself for a lot of what happened. Now I am here and I know that these three guys and the other 18 in that gym have succeeded. It is a great feeling."
On being named most valuable player
"MVP does not mean that much. We did it as a team. We played as a team the whole way through the tournament. These guys sitting next to me, we are a bunch of nobodies without each other. I would not be MVP if they weren't passing me the balls and blocking balls. MVP is an incredible honor but I share it with all of these guys."
Brian Thornton, senior setter
On his thoughts during the 26-26 tie in the fourth match
"I was just trying hard to think about how we were going to side-out the next play. I just kept concentrating on the next point."
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