Post-meet Quotes: Big Five Meet
3/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
March 14, 2015
Michigan Head Coach Bev Plocki
On if this was a good experience to have before Big Tens next Saturday ... "I think it's great. We've learned something from every meet we've been at so far. What we learned tonight is that we have to go into every meet and be 100 percent aggressive from the first routine to the last."
On the first half of the meet ... "As good as we've done and as confident as we've been, I think we came into this meet and saw a little more nerves. That was surprising to see. I guess it's kind of good that it came out, because we were able to address it during the bye. That went away during the last two events, to a large degree. We gave up several tenths in handstands that were a little short or on dismounts. Normally, we stick bars dismounts pretty regularly. I don't know if we stuck a single one tonight. They weren't bad routines, but we have to nail those landings. The tenths add up. We did solid beam routines, but the same thing happened. We had a few sticks, but we need to be better. You can't compete with nerves like that. We have to go out and be aggressive."
On vault ... "Every meet has its own dynamics. The way the judging panel was on vault tonight, it was going to be a little more lenient. We knew that if we did good vaults that we'd be rewarded. That was nice to see going into the end. Floor was a little tighter. We knew we were going to have a spectacular over there in order to get a spectacular score. Penn State started on vault, so they went a leg up on us to begin with because the scoring was high and it stayed there. They ended on floor and it was a little tighter there. The pendulum swung back a little bit."
On the focus this week in practice ... "I would absolutely expect them to not be nervous. This is Crisler. It's our home. Our meet. We should have so much confidence going into this. It's going to be landings, landings and more landings this week."
U-M Senior Brooke Parker
On the meet ... "It feels really great, of course. We didn't have the best start, but we ended up coming after the bye with as much energy as we've ever had before. Coming out of this meet, I'm very proud of how we did overall."
On the lack of dismount sticks ... "I think it was a little out of character for us to miss all those dismount sticks on bars and beam. We're going to work really hard on that this week in practice. I can tell you that. I think it was good for us to not have the perfect meet because it'll light a fire under us. We can fix those errors this week and be stronger for Big Tens next week."
On being pushed in a tight competition in the week before Big Tens ... "I think that was good for us to have. It made us feel tight in the situation. Despite that, I thought we were still aggressive. We came out after that bye and know we had to be aggressive, especially on vault when the meet was getting close."
U-M Senior Sachi Sugiyama
On if the meet was a good warm-up for Big Tens ... "I think so. We had some nerves in the beginning. Our goal is to get rid of those and settle in for the postseason. We've been looking forward to this and have been working so hard. We just let the nerves get to us just a little on the first two events, but we brought it around for the end. I think we'll be even more solid for next week."
On the nerves and if last season's result played a factor ... "I don't think that was the problem. I had that in my head a little bit. As we get to the postseason, the stakes start to pile up and become bigger. We have a few young kids. I think we were just a little nervous. We have to get used to it. This was a good warmup for that."
Players Mentioned
