Arnie Ball Quotations

I don't know what to say about this group. We were all over the floor, we were doing everything. It's just a great bunch of kids who have done everything we've asked them to. They are such a strong team, and they played their hearts out.

We have people come who have never seen men's volleyball with the power and the speed of the ball and etc., etc.. Then here comes this little guy out there playing like a chicken with his head cut off diving for balls and flopping all around.

They're a big team. Their setter is about 6-7. They have an opposite 6-6, 6-7. Their two middles are 6-8. They're pretty experienced. Their go-to guy is Matt Proper. He's the real deal, got a real live arm, great serve and if they need someone to get after it, they set to him.

(Penn State is) in the same situation we are; it's been a long season and this is a non-conference game. However, potentially for them and for us, it could be (about) seeding for the NCAA Tournament if we both get to go, and that's pretty significant.

What he's become is a very versatile player for us and would be a really good candidate, as we found out Friday night, coming off the bench and being solid. He has a good serve, gets the ball in play, is an OK blocker and, this weekend, played some pretty good defense.

What makes him such a good blocker is he's so intelligent. He understands the game probably better than anyone on our team. He's able to anticipate what the other team is going to do.

He's very inexperienced. He did have some background playing, but certainly not the level of training we've had.

(It's) not that we didn't think he could do it. He's just never been put in that position for us. And he never had that success before, even when we did have him in that position. It is a nice surprise, and it's a credit to him and his work ethic and his desire to become better.

We've talked about that three thing, but our kids are real confident. It works two ways with the potential final, but at the same time we have a lot of confidence going in.

Lewis is a young team, mostly freshmen. We know they're inexperienced, so we can't look past them. Loyola has five of their seven starters back. They're a good team, no question.