"WE'VE COME A LONG WAY SINCE
AUGUST, OBVIOUSLY," CHAPMAN SAID.
"EVERYONE HAS CHANGED THEIR
GAME AND OUR TEAM HAS MOLDED
INTO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TEAM
THAN WE WERE WHEN WE STARTED."
52
//
VARSITY December 12, 2013
gaged them in battle and began to put up a
fight. Chapman agreed.
"We were having fun even when we were
down, which hasn't always been the case in
the past," she said. "We knew we were going to
win the third set. It was just a matter of taking
care of business."
Sheffield's approach for the second weekend of the NCAA tournament is no different
than it was for the first. "We're not reinventing the wheel or anything," he said, knowing
he has a talented team.
So he will remind anybody who asks, "The
opening weekend we were playing a four-team
tournament and that's the way we approached
it and we were fortunate enough to win that.
"That allows us to move on to another fourteam tournament (the NCAA regionals). The
only thing that changes really is that there are
less teams still playing right now."
His team is obviously peaking at the optimum time of the season.
"Postseason matches are what we've been
waiting for this entire year, since August; if not
now, then when?" Chapman posed rhetorically.
"We've come a long way since August, obviously. Everyone has changed their game and
our team has molded into a completely different team than we were when we started."
Chapman closed out Cal in a fitting way ―
with a kill. It's fitting to the way she has been
playing.
"I don't remember the last time I've been
that excited in volleyball," she said of the last
point in the third set. "In that exact moment, I
don't ever remember being that excited."
And it showed.
