Oct. 29, 2008

(San Francisco) - Off the heels of a victory over then-No. 15 Pepperdine and the program's highest ranking, USF Volleyball Head Coach Gilad Doron sat down with USFDons.com to discuss the 2008 campaign so far.

What was your initial reaction this week when you saw that USF was ranked No. 22 in the AVCA Top-25 poll?

"I felt a lot of pride and satisfaction. At the same time, we have to keep working hard to maintain it because everyone knows who you are. I believed from day one that we belonged at the top of our conference. Since the end of last year, when we sat in the Spokane Airport, this years seniors have wanted to do something special for the program and the University. Since then, they have been very committed. All of the seniors - Carly, Darcy, Addie, Alix - have worked hard in practice and everyone else has followed. It's great because the girls begin to understand how it works. They see that commitment and hard work towards what we do can bring national attention."

USF has never won seven conference matches in the first half of the league season, what does it mean to your program to have swept the first half of conference play in one of the nation's strongest leagues?

"It's a great accomplishment. The WCC is in the top-four conferences in the country, four listed in the top-25 and one school receiving votes. If you were to say San Francisco is going to be ahead of San Diego, Santa Clara, Pepperdine and Saint Mary's, a lot of people would say there is no way. We don't look at our record; we just try to look at the next match, the next game, the next point. I think the signature of this team is looking at how we are going to get the next point and come together to create the best plays for that to happen. As a coach, it shows how strong your team is and how dedicated to each other we are. I think the biggest difference than before is that, this team really buys into the fact that at the end of the day, we really need to have two more points than the other team - not how many kills, aces or digs do I have. As a team, as long as we hit, block or dig better, we are going to end up on top. Those are the types of things I try to stress to them."

"We try to do it in two stages. We look at home games as a chance to come and play as hard as we can. The other thing is we have seen a change in our fans. We have had more and more people coming to our home matches this year. We had almost 800 fans last weekend against Pepperdine, the most we've had all year. Also, we try to expose the team to many different things. It's good to know that we can come home and play well. This year, we have put more attention on trying to play better on the road. Last year, we swept our final conference weekend, so in theory we are 9-0 in conference. It was then we started to get things together and started to take one practice at a time, one game at a time and one point at a time. Everything is possible. I think in order to be competitive in this conference you have to hold a home court advantage."

Heading into the WCC season, was there a point that you looked at the team and had the realization that this team really can not only compete for a conference championship, but go undefeated in the first half? Was there a point where they showed you something you weren't expecting?

"No, I told this team in the preseason that if we do the right things, we will have great results. I don't think that at any point in time you think you are going to beat everyone. But we want to be in a position at the end of each game to beat anyone. I think a key point for us was when we were at Fullerton, we were down 24-21 and we relaxed a little and won that match. We were short a few players for that match and I thought, if we could compete against anyone with this, then things could happen. I think the chemistry on our team is really really good. You can look at the beginning three matches of our conference season, we didn't start super strong, so I don't think you can look at those and say there was a signature point. I have a feeling about this team that if they dig deep, trust each other, listen to and trust what we tell them, we can be pretty strong. So far, when we have had to make adjustments, we have, which is a trait I think we were missing last year."

One of the most remarkable characteristics of your team is the amount of resilience they have shown. They have the ability to keep to their composure and not get rattled when there is adversity on the floor. They always seem to respond to challenges. What do you attribute that success and adaptability to?

"A lot of it has to do with the work that they put in during practice and the confidence we have in them. Also the expectations we have in them and the expectations they have for themselves. The key part of it is to understand that as a team, we are always stronger than we are as an individual. If you don't worry about others, then great things can happen.

"I am a very competitive person and growing up in Israel, you can't lose one war because you aren't going to survive. Maybe that's something that's brought something out in them. They take it very seriously. We care for them as individuals both on and off the court. Some of them have had to overcome major changes since they got here and I think they have finally embraced that since they can see the benefit they get from it They deserve it.

"Coming from a professional playing background, I know the hardest thing is to make my players believe that they are as good as they are right now. I think right now we are playing to win, which we haven't done in the past. In the past, it's always been are we good enough to win it, is it worth it to play as hard as we can? I think right now it's worth it. I think they know they can win it. It's a remarkable feeling, as a coach, to be able to change that in a year and a half. I think every team has potential and right now we are playing close to our maximum potential. I don't think we have played our best yet though. Every day we have different players coming up, but that's the beauty of our team. We can rely on different girls to make plays at different times. Every match, someone comes up with a big play. It's a team effort. I have to give this team credit for accepting us and trusting us, even though we may not have been the ones to recruit them to come here."