UCF Volleyball Coach Matt Botsford Breaks Down Knights' Win Over NC State
UCF volleyball coach Matt Botsford speaks with the media following the Knights' win over NC State, 3-0.
Video Transcript
The opening statement and open up for questions.
Most importantly, I'm really excited for our players.
Um, that was a tremendous environment in the venue, great energy from the fans, so very thankful for the people that showed out, but giving, uh, our team a view of, of what they're capable of, that execution level was extremely high, especially on the side out phase, in the inside out phase, which is something that we preach a lot.
I thought defensively we were outstanding.
That is something over the last 3 days and even into this morning, we were working on a lot about being disciplined with positioning.
That paid off, um, and the blocking continues to, to lead the way and open things up for us, but there were so many outstanding performances.
What Kiki Horn did tonight was, um, A reflection of what she's done in almost every practice throughout this preseason, and she didn't have a chance to showcase it the last two matches, but on a big stage, she showed out.
That was, it was remarkable what she was doing out there.
But there were plenty of individual performances that I'm happy about, but most importantly, happy that the team got to experience a win in that kind of environment against a good opponent.
Coach, obviously Ave Armor and Abby Sholmers are going to be synonymous with UCF volleyball in their respective careers, both reaching milestones.
Uh, with Abby going the fifth night to be a 3000 assists in a career and, and then of course Ava 1000 career kills, 15th night all time.
Just speak of those two and what they've meant to the program and they're certainly leading that win.
It's It's quite a legacy that they both are leaving behind when their careers wrap up here.
Uh, I am privileged to have the opportunity to coach them and be a very small part of what they've accomplished, and that is a testament to what they put into not just the sport, but what they have put into this place and this program and all the change that they've gone through over the last few years.
It, it says a lot about the kind of people that they are, so I'm always happy to see that kind of success.
It makes it extra special when you know the people behind it and those two, deserve every bit of it.
So I'm just proud.
And I know they are proud and the whole program is proud of what they've done.
Came down to the wire at the end there with challenges going back and forth between the two of you.
Just what were you discussing with your team during those periods?
Yeah, those are tough.
Uh, you never know how those are going to play out, so you have to prepare that it might not go your way and quickly reset mentally.
And so we're trying to give them valuable, hopefully valuable tactical information of what we're trying to do in the next rotation, what our priority is from a blocking standpoint.
And I thought that really stood out to me tonight.
I think in each of those sets, there was a point midway that we were down 34 points, and we just kept chugging along and I never felt like.
They were uncomfortable in those spots, and that to me is a really positive sign.
You have to be comfortable knowing you're not always going to have a lead.
You have to be comfortable knowing you're going to be able to generate points when you need to, and it's not the end of the world when that gap starts to widen out a bit, uh, and the way they clawed back, it was.
It was really nice to see.
I think we took a big step forward with that experience.
Kiki and Natasha were both from a test like 17 kills combined in just in 30 attacks.
Just those two and, and how you're kind of mixing them up in, in your offense.
Well.
Kiki, um, again, she has a lot of, she's got a lot of experience.
I thought her decision making was solid tonight, but what really stood out is she was maximizing her physical ability, and she is a really explosive player.
And when she finds the rhythm in attack and in block, you can see what she can do.
She has a really live arm just like Natasha does and.
And so I think um that ball was getting on them quick and that changed the complexity, I think of I'm assuming of what NC State was preparing for because they hadn't seen that out of Kiki the previous two evenings and all of a sudden it shifts into her scoring at that rate.
And then Natasha, there's sometimes it's just great to be a freshman, get up there and swing away with no fear, and I, I, I love that she's doing that right now.
So we're careful with the amount of direction we're giving her because she's talented as is and.
Um, just get out there and find a way to score a point.
So we like that kind of mentality.
What really clicked for your team in that second part of the second set, 14 to 4 run to close, to close it out and take that win, um.
Trusting that you can generate points through blocking through defense, sighting out at the rate that we did tonight, I think that gave them confidence, um, throughout.
I think there were some really important, uh, substitutions.
Makayla coming in and starting a run for herself and for the team.
I think that changed things and it had an impact as well as we got into that third set.
So I think people embracing their role at that moment and trying to find a way to contribute to winning and that is, uh, that is the most important thing in these kinds of environments.
Can I do something that will contribute to the success of my team and uh everyone who's doing that tonight.
What would you say you've learned about your team over the course of this weekend?
Um, I, I think tonight that's where I learned the most because we knew that this was going to be a highly competitive matchup.
We knew that.
They had a lot of physical attackers like us.
We're gonna be able to control the net and have an impact there.
Uh, some really talented, uh, attackers on the left side and then the middles were a huge factor for them today.
So, so we just knew what we were getting into and so what.
What's The lesson I learned is that we're prepared.
We're prepared for that caliber of play, and we're going to see it, um, the rest of the way.
So the more opportunity we get to be in the fire in close sets and having to come back from a few points down at the end and trusting, we're going to be heading in the right direction.
So all credit to the players.
That was great.
I should also credit to my assistant coaches.
There were a couple of great times, uh, a couple of times today, Kate made a great call with the timing of Makayla's first substitution in set 2.
That was significant because we were trying to hold on to substitutions.
There were just a lot of examples of that from the bench with my assistant crew, and I thought they were outstanding.
Time for one or two more.
Um, after opening the season at home, what do you think will be your biggest challenge as you go ?
Yeah, we've got 7 new players and that includes a lot of freshmen and so the logistics behind traveling, the effect that has, um, getting them comfortable with our routine and then having to play, it'll be the first time aside from the exhibition match that they've been.
Inside somebody else's walls with another crowd, but to me that's the most exciting thing about this.
So I love to travel.
I love to play on the road.
I think our players are of the same mindset, so it, it'll be exciting, but there's a level of maturity required to get comfortable pretty quickly with that, and we will, uh, make sure we do everything we can to make it easier on them.
Considering that you've learned the most today , how can you take what you saw today and have it apply consistently through the rest of the season?
How do you keep that going?
That is the challenge, um.
I think we have to continue to reinforce the things that were done well tonight and done well doesn't always mean we won the point.
There was a lot of great things happening from a defensive organization and block organization or serving location that didn't work out in terms of point, but it was the execution we were looking for.
So we want to reinforce that.
It is very easy in, in sport environment for the athletes to only hear.
The negative side, we did not do this.
We, we did this incorrectly.
We need to be better at this.
So there is a real opportunity here tonight for them to see when it's done correctly or when they're playing at that level, um, we're exactly where we want to be in those moments.
So I, I'm happy that we'll be tagging the video and sending them great messages about all the things they did right because there's gonna be opportunities for us to, to go the other direction about things we have to fix, but we're gonna celebrate tonight, celebrate the execution level and what they did out there.
Thanks guys.
Thank you all for being here.
