Dec. 11, 2009

Recap |  Box Score

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -

The ninth-seeded California volleyball team (21-10) defeated Baylor (24-10) in the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship Gainesville Regional semifinal to advance to the NCAA regional championship match for the third consecutive year. The Golden Bears defeated the Baylor Bears in three sets (26-24, 25-20, 25-17) at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on the campus of the University of Florida on Friday, Dec. 11. Post-match quotes from players and the head coaches from each team follow.

Cal Head Coach Rich Feller

Opening Statement:
"That is probably the toughest match to play, making it to this part of regionals and playing an unknown team. They earned their way here. I said the other day, `Our team has a lot more weapons than people may suspect. Our blocking and defense will keep us in a lot of matches.' I think that is something that occurs as a match goes on. We get better and better as we learn from the opponent a little better. If we are capable we make adjustments and do some really good things. You can see by the way the stats went, the way our blocking, defense and hitting improved that as the match went on this team learned and got better and better. Mindi [Wiley] and Hana [Cutura], here in their senior year, are now two of the three seniors who have gone to four straight regional tournaments and three straight regional finals. I couldn't say more about these guys. They have been pushing themselves and their teammates. They are two of my best captains. I couldn't be happier for them. They had great matches tonight."

"I'm a perfectionist, Matt's (McShane) as a perfectionist, Chris Bigelow is a perfection, so there is a lot of us in the locker room. So before the coaches went in we talked exactly about that. Everyone is so anxious to be perfect that we were stabbing our arms at the ball and making a bad play. Then hitting some balls a little wide. We had to tell them that we had to get outside of ourselves and tell them that `every play is not critical.' If ten plays in a row are good and then one is not so good, they have to let it go. They did a good job afterwards. They actually went into the locker room and laughed a bit. We were up 2-0 and we were still feeling a bit of pressure."

Senior middle hitter Mindi Wiley

On the match:
"We made a lot of changes which I thought were more apparent than we wanted to be. We were a little frazzled and uptight in the first set, but we got the win. When we got to halftime, we were all able to take a breath and get comfortable. Luckily we were up 2-0 and were able to step back and start playing our game. It definitely showed in the third set, hitting .571, registering a lot of great blocks, great digs and just all around great volleyball. I think that goes to show what we are capable of and we want to play that way tomorrow. It was good. I like to win."

On nerves:
"One issue we have had this year is settling down and playing our game. We need to settle down and let our skill take over as opposed to playing hard and intense. When we do that, we play a lot better. I think we had a case of that this afternoon, but we got over it. We brought it down a couple notches a bit."

Senior outside hitter Hana Cutura

On the match:
"I think we did our job. We took care of our players, starting with the passing game. Our passing was wonderful tonight and let us run a fast offense. We were good on offense and defense tonight."

On her performance:
"They put two blockers on me at the beginning of the match. I got used to it and decided not be afraid of the blockers. I just went all out from that point on."

Cal Post-Match Notes
• Cal has now advanced to an NCAA Regional Final for the third year in a row. They fell to Penn State in the 2008 University Park Regional Final.
• Senior Hana Cutura led Cal with 18 kills. She now has 1,988 career kills.
• Junior Carli Lloyd had 38 assists in the match. She has had 30 or more kills in 29 of 31 matches this season.

Baylor head coach Jim Barnes

Opening Statement:
"Give it to Cal. They came out and played. They deserved this victory after coming out and playing very, very well. We didn't have all of our cylinders firing, so we never really quite got into the match. Game one was our chance. We really played tough and came back and we had our chances at the end of that game. I think that if we'd won the first game, we could have continued to get our game going. Cal did a great job of finishing out game one and we played catch up from that point on."

On the team's accomplishments this season:
"I couldn't be more proud of this team and everything they've accomplished this season. They've represented Baylor in the greatest fashion. It's certainly been a privilege for me to coach them."

Freshman opposite hitter Torri Campbell

On the match versus Cal:
"I feel that during the match, we really couldn't get into our rhythm. Cal did a really good job serving us tough and they got us off of our offense. We came out swinging, though. They were really aggressive in the first game and our passing was not where we wanted it to be. We picked it up in the second and third games, and you can see that. They just came out serving us very aggressively. We did an amazing job this season and I'm really proud to be on this team."

Senior setter Taylor Barnes:

On the match and being part of a senior class that has put Baylor Volleyball on the map:
"I don't think we ever really fully got into our rhythm in the match. Cal came out really aggressive in the first game. We couldn't get it together at the end. Overall, this season has been awesome, though. We didn't come out tonight, but this whole season has been so great and it's going to be remembered forever at Baylor. We came into the Baylor program as freshmen, knowing that we were going to be the group that would help rebuild Baylor Volleyball. Each year we did better and better in the Big 12 and then we finally made it to the NCAA tournament. We surprised so many teams by making it to the Sweet 16 and coming this far. We wear Baylor on our shirts with so much pride and we're proud to be here and to have this opportunity to compete. Tonight we didn't come out, but overall, this has been the best four years of my life."

Baylor Post-Match Notes
• In just its third NCAA Tournament appearance, Baylor played in its first-ever Regional Semifinal. With the first two regional wins and a the loss versus Cal in the semifinal, Baylor now holds a 3-3 all-time record in NCAA Tournament play
• Senior Anna Breyfogle racked up her 620th career block against Cal, her 92nd consecutive match with at least one block
• Senior Taylor Barnes, who broke an eight-year-old BU assists record in 2009, racked up 34 assists in the match against Cal to lead Baylor