Q&A With Nicole Lantagne Welch
Dec. 15, 2005
What expectations were met and who do you feel played well this season?<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Overall we had hoped to do better this year, but we were young, but I think we gained on-court experience throughout the year tremendously and we had some great things happen.
Francheska Savage had an incredible breakout year which we all knew was coming, from her performance in the spring. Karla Johnson continued to get better in her fourth year. She improved tremendously from a year ago. We asked her to do a great deal, and she delivered just that. I think Jill Robinson’s setting continued to improve. She has a better grasp of running our offense and making us better. Ann Gallo continued to improve as well. I know that she gained confidence the more that she was out there. The same can be said for Michelle Bruin. Her passing steadied out, we believed in her and she believed in herself, and she got better as the season went along.
We had a lot of freshman that saw time at different times. Angelica Ellis really stood out at the end of conference play. It was exciting to see her work so hard. The neat thing about it was to see it bring out Ciara Michel as well. Ciara had a great final match. I’m really excited to see them push each other in the future.
Because you were a young team, were you able to rotate a lot of players in and out of the lineup?
This season we played a lot of players and I think that will help us in the future. We only lose two seniors and we have a lot of players back. A lot of players got time on the right and the left. Between Ashley Woods, Sara Duncan and Lauren Rinderknecht, they were able to get out there and get that experience, and they’ll just continue to grow.
You had a lot of close matches. What does that say about the team?
I think one of the characteristics this team had was a great deal of fight. It didn’t matter what match we were in, we were always battling. I think there was maybe one match where I felt that we weren’t in it. The rest of the matches, it didn’t matter if we lost the first game or whatever, we were always in. We would always battle back and you could see that by how tight every match was. We prevailed in some and in some we fell short, but we were able to put through strings of points and be phenomenal.
At times the team seemed inconsistent, was that a product of youth?
Our downfall sometimes was being inconsistent in our levels of play. I do think it was youth. In the first half of the season if something went bad, confidence would drop quickly. I think later in the season the players wouldn’t let certain things bother them as much. I think that was our biggest hurdle. Sometimes, mentally, we would let a couple of points affect us too much instead of just bouncing back. That was our Achilles heel, inconsistency in all areas of the game. But nearing the end of the season, they began to grow from that.
Who was your surprise player?
I think Angelica was that surprise player. Early in the year she was a little over her head which is fine because a freshman you’re just trying to learn everything. We didn’t project to see her out there but she just continued to battle and do work and suddenly she found herself out there on the court just playing with confidence and without fear. I think that was a really exciting welcome to see her come on that quickly
Karla Johnson became <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Miami’s all-time leader in kills. Did you ever expect her to accomplish that feat?
I knew that Karla would be a very good college player in her work ethic and when I recruited her. Did I think she would be an outstanding outside hitter? Absolutely not. I would have never dreamed she would be an outside hitter. She made that change a year ago and to see her come and dominate that position her senior year, has just been awesome. It’s a tribute to the hard work she has put in. To see her become the focal point of our offense was really an enjoyable ride and I’m really proud of that. At first glance I would have never thought she would have been the all-time kills leader because I would have thought she would have stayed in the middle and it’s a lot harder to get that record when you’re in the middle. To be able to surpass Valeria [Tipiana] in just one season beyond her, says a lot about Karla and her all-around game.
Karla led the ACC and was among the leaders in the nation in kills per game. How did that impact the team?
It was definitely a factor that we counted on, knowing that we had that outlet, knowing that we had someone that would show up everyday. We knew that she was going to get her kills and we laughed because our standards for her grew higher everyday. If she was hitting .200 we thought, “Oh she’s not having that great of a match,” but she’d still have 18 kills. We definitely got used to it and counted on it, but it gave everyone a sense of comfort knowing we had a go-to player; a player that we always counted on.
Talk about the emergence of Francheska Savage.
Fannie is just an amazing attacker. She’s very comfortable, confident and loves to be in the middle. We threw her on the outside sometimes because we needed her out there and she could hit clear over blocks. That was a new experience for her. She just went out there without batting an eye and did what she needed to do. We needed her wherever we could get her the ball. She’s really taken her game to a new level. She would just take over like in the match against North Carolina. She’s had some phenomenal matches, some game-changing matches like at FSU where she came up huge for us–especially as an attacker. She is a feared attacker in this conference.
What were some of your biggest matches this season?
Hosting Louisville was a big match, especially since we were right there until the bitter end. The win at FSU was a big win. That’s a tough place to play for any Miami team. It’s such a huge rivalry and we went to their house to get that win.
Winning at Georgia Tech was huge. They have a lot of history in volleyball in the ACC over the last couple of years. It’s a very difficult place to play. They draw one of the best crowds in the conference. That was a fun, high-level volleyball match. That match was great for us. We had been in a lot of matches all season and had lost points that cost us matches. It was a match where we won the big points when we had to. We were very clutch. That was a turning point for us. We made a big step up in our mental and physical game in that match.
Obviously our home match against North Carolina was a big win. To be down 0-2 and come back to win and dominate games four and five against the team that wins the conference, said a lot about where we came late in the season. Also the WakeForest match late in the season. I think that was our very best match of the year. We clicked on all cylinders. We put everything together and that was just a fun match to be a part of. That was the one match that we put it all together very well from start to finish.
What do you think of the continued development of this program?
It’s hard to believe that five years ago was our first season. It’s been really fun to see it grow each step of the way. We had youth and we got older and more mature, and now we have youth again. That’s the natural cycle with volleyball. You’ll have big classes that rotate through and you become young again and then you grow with experience. We were a young team this year, but have a lot to look forward to. We have exciting recruiting classes coming in. We are getting great commitments from incredible players who will make huge strides in our program. We need to build on what we started. I think the move to the ACC was great, the challenges we have every day. Three teams made it to the NCAA Tournament from the ACC this year. I think it’s just going to get better because I know the conference, as a whole, was young this year and I think we’ll be better outside of our conference in the next couple of years. I think the future is really bright and these players have set a high work standard. They want to get better and play at the highest level possible
What do you consider one of the best things about this program?
I think that one of the best things about this program has been the work ethic. Everyone wants to put it all out there. It started with the first couple of classes and it has definitely carried through to the players now who are the focal points of our team
What did you think of the new double-round robin format for conference play?
This was a year in which a conference tournament would have been great for us in particular, because we had some ups and downs, but we were putting together nice strings of matches toward the end. However, I like to look at the big picture and I think we are doing the best thing for our conference. We got three teams into the NCAA Tournament and I think that will increase as we beat more non-conference teams. I think we are doing the right thing and I think there were some great competitive matches down the stretch, even when teams knew they couldn’t win the conference championship. I think for our sport and our conference it’s a very good thing.
Does playing both a home and away match against conference opponents keep the team motivated?
I think it’s great knowing that you’re going to get a second chance. One, you get a chance to sweep a team. Two, if you end up with a loss on the first end, you’re excited and motivated to make changes and look at that match and see how you would do things differently. The players say “Hey! I’m going to get a chance to do that.” I think it’s good, because you get a chance to show your best against a team. I really like the fact that we get a team at their place in their environment and then we get a chance to see them here in ours.
How did the seniors, Karla Johnson and Kaitlin Kozak, contribute to the program?
We only had two seniors this year, but they were great people. They had great work ethic and they were great leaders for our program. It was exciting to see all that Karla accomplished, but I think that Kaitlin accomplished a lot this season and finished strong. We’re sad to say goodbye to them but very proud of what they’ve done for our program.
