The Sunset Apollos gave the Jesuit Crusaders a challenge in the first two sets (25-20, 25-17) before falling 25-8 in the third set. KGW caught up with head coach Lad Salness and middle blocker Genna Florig to get their takes on going up against the powerhouse Jesuit.
1.) What did you think of how you played tonight?
Salness: "Well game one and two you saw the score. 20, 20. They're ranked nationally. I've coached in this league for ten years now, and this is as big as Jesuit's ever been, and as talented as they've ever been. They have four or five D-I kids and they're good, and they're well-coached. But I loved the way our kids played."
Florig: "I thought that we played well, but we didn't give it our 100 percent, and that held us back a little."
2.) You actually led most of the first set. Was there anything you did specifically in that set that you failed to do in the last two?
Salness: "If you know anything about the history, there's way too much green in here, way too many banners. Sometimes kids get nervous. Sometimes they look at the scoreboard and they go 'should we be here or not?' What got us there was being relaxed and playing our game. If we can keep them off the net, we can beat them. If we don't keep them off the net, they're just too dang big. They'll just hit the ball at us all day long. I was proud of our kids. They played well in games one and two."
3.) You mentioned going up against their tall front-line. What are some things you can do to get around or over that?
Salness: "Pure and simple passing. If we pass better and can move our hitters around, then we'd have a good chance. We didn't pass great, so we just had to set it outside. You got six-foot-five and six-two in your face, it's hard. We didn't get to run our middles enough. Genna has been a fabulous addition to us and she didn't get to hit enough volleyballs. She didn't get to do any damage."
4.) From a player's perspective what's it like go up against Jesuit's blockers?
Florig: "It's insane. They're so big and they're so good. We've trained together at the same club for years. We know their habits, but still they're so good."
5.) What's your mental approach going into a match when you know you're going up against a tough front-line?
Florig: "It's definitely a big-time challenge. It's fun. It's really fun to compete with them because we've played so long together."
Salness: "The only time we really need to beat Jesuit is the last time. Maybe we get one more shot at them at state and we'll go from there. We keep getting better. That's the nice part about our program. The kids keep working hard and getting better."
6.) It looked like your blocking was superb in that first set. Did you see that too?
Salness: "If we can hit and pass well enough, we can keep them off the net, and our blockers can do their job. We're built to play this team. They got a few D-I kids over there and they made fewer mistakes. In the process of that, if we do our job, this will be a fun match."
7.) As you look forward to the second half of league play, what do you want to see from your team?
Salness: "Our goal is to go after every single match we can. Just win and just get better every day. We got a tournament this weekend at Westview, and we got Southridge, who is playing tough, and we just need to come out and play every match one at a time."
Florig: "I just want us to grow as a team and get as good as we can. This team has so much potential, and every body just works so hard toward that.
The loss drops the Apollos to 12-4 on the season and 6-2 in league play. Sunset will host Southridge Thursday night. The Apollos swept the Skyhawks earlier this season.
