It's been a historic season for the Butler volleyball team, winning the region championship for the first time ever, finishing with a 35-2 record, and punching their ticket to the national tournament for the first time ever. The Grizzlies held a press conference on campus in the Hall of Fame Room on Wednesday to send off the team to Hutchinson for Nationals.
Watch entire Press Conference- HERE
Answering questions were head coach Lisa Lechtenberg, as well as players Kayli Duncan, Carly Clennan, Jaryn Benning, and Caitlyn Rexroat.
"We approach every match the same, no matter what the match is, and these young ladies really took the scouting report to heart, and it gave them the 3-0 victory." Lechtenberg said of the 3-0 region final win against Seward. "They were very confident, which I felt they've been, all season long."
The bracket for the national tournament was announced just hours before the team met with the press. Butler, the 2 seed, will meet Wallace State on Thursday at 11:00am at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS.
"We really haven't talked much about the tournament yet, the bracket came out at noon today, we had practice at 12:30, so there's a lot more we have to dig into." Lechtenberg said.
"My biggest concern, if you can call it that, with the layoff would be conditioning. They've taken care of a lot of people in three set matches, so we've got back in the weight room, but I think they'll take care of business."
The Grizzlies will go into the tournament as arguably one of the hottest teams in the country, as a team that has not lost a match since the end of August. The team will carry that confidence into Hutchinson, a venue and court they are extremely familiar with.
"We have a lot of fun out there," sophomore Kayli Duncan said. "I think your confidence level is just a lot higher than it is when you're not having fun. We're all just best friends and we just go out and dominate the court."
The Grizzlies faced five of the 16 teams that they could potentially see in the tournament this season, including top seeded Blinn, and the team said that the tough regular season prepared them for the type of volleyball they will play in Hutch.
"A lot of things just fell into place this year, we got the schedule that we needed." Said Lecthenberg. "And I don't think that they would've had it any other way, I don't think a lesser schedule would've benefitted these young ladies at all."
"The strength of schedule has definitely pushed us." Jaryn Benning said. "That's a big advantage."
"I think those losses fueled our fire a little more." Carly Clennan said, of the two losses Butler had this season, the first against Utah State and the second against Blinn. "We don't really talk about our wins, you just kind of focus on the next game, so I think that's another good thing about this team. We just take it one thing at a time."
This Butler team is loaded with Kansas talent, and that has been a thing that has resonated with the school and the town from the beginning of the season, as the fans packed the Power Plant to see the Grizzlies, and the team went undefeated at home for the first time. The players credited the fans and said they understood the effect the home support had.
"It's the best feeling in the world. You have the support of your coaches, and the support of your teammates, but having a community behind you, like they genuinely want to be there, and you can feel that and that plays a lot into how we play." Clennan said.
"Our crowd is very engaged, they don't just sit and watch, they get up and cheer, it's just been a huge help to have that support."
It's been a historic year for the Grizzlies, they've already broken plenty of records, but they, like most championship caliber teams, say they aren't satisfied.
"They've made history this year, in many ways, and it's super exciting, but they're not done." Lecthenberg said. "They won that first round at the region tournament and it was like, when's our next match? They're all business."
