Postmatch Quotes
Virginia Tech 3, Chattanooga 0
Thompson-Boling Arena
Knoxville, Tenn.

Head Coach Lisa Rhodes
On the impressive start to the match:
“I am excited after being so competitive in those first two sets.  Coming into this tournament, I wanted be competitive. We have an opportunity to see where we are and what things we need to work on. When we got really far down in the third set, we decided to mix it up even though we were completely out of sync. There are kids that worked hard in the preseason and it is great to give them a chance in that situation and see what they could do in a match situation.”

On who was impressive:
“Courtney was very consistent. She has to learn to be even stronger and swing a little bit harder. I think as the match progressed she tried to place the ball instead of going up for a kill. Jess Scott was very impressive and I was happy with her play. Overall, Paula thought she had a pretty good match.”

Senior Middle Blocker Courtney Barnes
On the match:
“We came out and were not going to be intimidated. We knew these were some big teams, but we wanted to play our game and come out swinging. We had some great on-court performances. Jen [Kuroski] did an amazing job in her first game. Our passing was on point and Paula [Passmore] was back there talking to everybody. Then slowly, they [Virginia Tech] started picking it up and making adjustments just like good teams should. We had some problems and were unable to pass like we were. We came out playing hard and put up a good fight, but it just did not fall in our favor.”

On the first set for three seniors:
“It is great to play with them and see them have a good start. We keep talking about just wanting to have fun. We want to take every match and learn from it, whether it is a win or a loss. These are big teams, so we just want to learn from it, so when we get to conference play, we will be that much better.”

On playing No. 19 Tennessee and Xavier Saturday:
“We are going to use it as a learning experience. My sophomore season we played them up at Marquette and their coach told J.O. that our defense is so frustrating and we hope to do that again. It is a big team. This is a time for us to learn and compete against adversity and learning when we get down a couple points that we can come back. If we can get kills against these girls, then we can definitely get kills when we need them in conference play.”

Freshman Outside Hitter Jennifer Kuroski
On starting your first collegiate game:
“Scoring those first few points was a great feeling and helped me to relax and gain confidence, then I was able to play my game. The level of play is so much faster and it is going to take a couple of matches to get used to.”