By: Sean Cartell
SEC Digital Network
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The 2011 Southeastern Conference Champion Tennessee volleyball team was rewarded for its outstanding season with an opportunity to play at home for the NCAA First and Second Rounds. The Lady Vols (27-3) will play host to Duke at 7 p.m. ET Friday and have a possible second-round matchup against either Ohio State (19-14) or Middle Tennessee State (21-11).
Tennessee is making its 13th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and holds a 12-12 (.500) all-time record in postseason play. The Lady Vols are one of only three SEC teams to ever qualify for the NCAA Final Four, making a national semifinal appearance in 2005.
Following the NCAA announcement on Sunday evening, Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick sat down with the SEC Digital Network to discuss his thoughts on the 2011 NCAA Tournament bracket.
SEC Digital Network: What are your thoughts on your NCAA Tournament draw and your team’s opening-round match with Duke?
Rob Patrick: “I’m excited that we got a national seed, which allows us to play at home. I’m really excited about that and our team is also. So far, we are undefeated at home and playing there has given us a lot of confidence and we were very comfortable there. We have been having record-breaking crowds at home, so it was a situation that was very, very important to us. I don’t know a lot about Duke, but I do know that they’ve also had a very successful season. They’re a team that really likes to run a their middles a lot and run a lot of slides and double slides. I believe that they are going to have way more experience than we will on the court, but that is something that’s normal for us. We’ve been playing that way the whole year. They’re going to be very well coached, very disciplined and it’s a program that has had a lot of continuity with their coaching staff. It’s going to be a very, very tough match.”
SEC Digital Network: You’ve played a difficult schedule this season against a number of teams who are in this year’s NCAA Tournament field. How much do you think that experience will help your team as you try to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament?
Rob Patrick: “One thing we try to do every year is to put together a schedule that prepares us first for the SEC schedule and also for the NCAA Tournament. I thought we did a great job of that with playing Dayton and Illinois and teams like that. In our conference schedule, we played Kentucky twice and played Florida twice. I thought that a lot of what we did with our scheduling was exactly what we wanted to do. We got to see a lot of different styles of volleyball and types of play.”
SEC Digital Network: What are your thoughts about the SEC only getting three teams in the NCAA Tournament?
Rob Patrick: “This year was really, in a way, an aberration. There were so many upsets this year. As an example, USC got beat 3-0 by Central Florida and there were those types of matches all over the country all season long. I think that made it very tough for the NCAA committee to really get a feel of who should be seeded and where considering what has been going on this year. The perennial top teams are as good as they always are, but this year there are also other teams who are as good as those top teams. It had to be a very tough to be able to put the bracket together.”
SEC Digital Network: How special has it been for your team to win the SEC and earn the right to host the NCAA First and Second Rounds with all the adversity you have faced during the year?
Rob Patrick: “If you would have told me before the season after Kayla [Jeter] got injured and Kylann Scheidt wasn’t going to be able to start the season after a minor surgery, I wouldn’t have believed that we would have gone 19-1 in the conference. For this team to be able to overcome some of those adversities and just plug away and not get sidelined by that, it is really a testament to our fortitude and our single-mindedness. We’ve really been able to keep on task one point at a time. When you’re playing with a lot of freshmen, there’s not a lot of baggage in terms of thinking about having lost to teams in the past, they haven’t lost to anybody yet. What happened was, we were able to win some close matches, got some confidence, started out the SEC season by winning some matches in a row and then we were able to go down to Florida and beat them on their home court. That really solidified the type of confidence that carried us through the season. We’re playing at an incredibly high level on the offensive side of the ball and our defense has continued to get better.”