September 2, 2025 • 11 mins
UND Volleyball Head Coach Jesse Tupac reflects on the loss to Saint Mary's and Temple. They look ahead to the matchup against West Virginia.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, final segment of our program tonight with you
and d volleyball coach Jesse Tupac joining us. They are
out early tomorrow morning. To my knowledge, they've got the
early flight out to Morgantown, West Virginia for a weekend set.
So appreciate him dropping in talking a little bit about
(00:23):
what his team learned a little bit over the weekend,
a five setter against Saint Mary's Temple had the better
of it on Sunday morning and certainly probably had some
takeaways from that. It was interesting to me, you know,
kind of just trying to glance at the box score
on the Friday tilt with Saint Mary's because you had
to have some moxie in that match a little bit
(00:44):
and that showed through. But it just when it got
into that fifth set, they just had the run in them,
and that oftentimes is the difference maker in a short
set like that. But that Friday night tilt must have
shown a little bit of character and ability to fight
in a in a match and get it, get it
into a five set situation and really dig it. And
I how was that Friday match with Saint Mary's.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, really awesome to see our team have that resilience
in that grit. You know, we leading up to that match,
we actually had multiple people go down with some minor
injuries during the course of the week, and so we
actually did not know our lineup. Not a great timing
Friday afternoon, just because we weren't sure who was and
was not available to play. And so their response in
that moment and their ability to come out in battle
(01:28):
regardless of the situation was really really impressive. And obviously
we had Page Barber led both matches and kills, but
we had Sadie White come out, and Sadie White did
something that hasn't happened since twenty eighteen. She had thirty
four assists in an opening match as a true freshman,
which is really really impressive sin Sadie, And so it
was really nice to see different people step up in
those moments on Friday against a really, really good Saint
(01:49):
Mary's team. And then you know, we lost a bill
to Steve on Sunday, and it was disappointing to have
the result that we did, especially considering that the things
that we were so great on on Friday were the
things that we struggled with on Sunday. Oh okay, But
ultimately we've got a pretty young team and so we
know that there's going to be some inconsistency early on,
and you know, now it's about us showing up every
single day and being good over a long period of
time and building that consistency and that trust with the
(02:12):
lineup that we have.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And and you know, one of the people that asked
me basically said, are we are we still good at
the net? Do we have the ability to to block well?
And and how was our blocking this weekend because they
didn't have a chance to see And I'm like, I'm
I'm not entirely sure. I didn't see every match either,
So I did watch a little bit of a Friday's
match when I was when I got into Manhattan a
(02:33):
little bit. But I was just gonna say, like, you know,
that's that's one thing that you know, typically North Dakota
team has, you know, we go back in the eras
and stuff like that. The net play, being solid with
the block has been good. How did we feel that
that that area was this weekend? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Pretty good. We We absolutely won the blocking battle and
both of the matches that we played and out blocked
opponents on the weekend. I think a big part of
that is our serving pass game, okay, and our ability
to really control that phase of the game. And one
of the things that we've been talking about is can
we be the thermostat and not the thermometer. Are we
going to be controlled by the environment. Are we going
to dictate what the environment does? And so our ability
to come out as the thermostat and to really control
(03:10):
that phase of the game with our serving or pass
is something that's going to be really helpful as we
get deeper in the season. Now we can score as
well more, but absolutely did all right from the serving
pass in the blocking cases.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, Well, you know what, I think that's the first
time ever that we've ever mentioned then the word thermostat
in our program, So you know, we're bringing new words
into it. I'm impressed. I like using words, So that's awesome.
So we want to be the thermistat and set it ourselves,
not the thermometer reacting constantly to all the swings and
everything else. When you talk a little bit about the details,
(03:43):
when you have a frustrating where it just isn't clicking
on Sunday's match the way you thought, and maybe things
weren't going as well in certain areas that you felt
would carry over. How much is that at this juncture
of the season is that the coaching staff do you
lean on the veterans to be like, hey, we need
to sharpen up here and let their voices be kind
(04:03):
of the messaging system. I know there are certain times
a year where you know the veterans will have to
be the voices. Is it still coaches right now and
throw out the coaching stuff saying you know, coming in
and kind of being those voices or is it a
little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I think it's definitely a little bit of both. You know,
for sure, we want to make sure that we give
them the space to explore that and to be really great,
but we can also give them guidance. And there's a
coach that used to work with that used to say,
we've got to learn to let them lose so that
they can learn how to win, right, which I've always
loved and I thought it was a really great way
to kind of frame that. And you know, ultimately, like
we know what we want them to do and how
(04:39):
we want them to go about that, and sometimes that's
going to be coming into the locker or into the
huddle during and time out and just like, hey, we're
going to use the next thirty seconds to just breathe.
And other times it's going up to one of our
seniors and be like, hey, I think that you could
really impact the team by saying this or by doing
this and right giving them the opportunities to have that
role themselves and to kind of fill that space. And
it doesn't just have to be our c years. It
(05:00):
can be any of our athletes and even some of
our younger players and our freshmen because they're going to
be in those leadership positions. But we'd rather learn those
lessons now in week one through week four rather than
when we're in the sum of league tournament later in
the year.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I was gonna say that one of the things you
mentioned was injuries that had affected maybe kind of how
you initially thought you'd see some rotations going into the
into the weekend. Is this a long term thing that
you're concerned with with a lot of them. Are you
more feeling like we could see some of those rotations
come online if if the injuries go you know, these
(05:32):
are short term things. We see them this this weekend,
even or what is kind of the injury situation with
this lineup a.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Little bit of both, right. I mean, yeah, we saw
we already have some people that were hurt that have
come back. Lauren Peragini did not play in the match
on Friday, but then she came back against Temple and
almost had a double double in three sets against Temple,
which is exactly what we know of Lauren. She's going
to come out and be a baller on both sides
of this, both sides of the game. And so we've
got some people that are already back and some people
that might take a little bit longer. But altly, we
(06:00):
know that we have eighteen people on this team that
are all really good, and they're all gonna be able
to contribute at any given moment.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
It's just really hard for me to get my head
around that this is how fast this goes in this world,
that Lauren's already like a junior, you know, does it
seem like a blink of an eye?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Really, it really does. I mean, is he joined me
for our press conference yesterday? Yeah, one of the questions
that she answered, She's I'm just really old.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, so she did say that, Yeah, great.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I still remember your freshman year and you had showed
up bright eyed and bushy tailed. And it's really cool
to see the evolution of those players over time and
just the consistent consistency with which they're able to perform.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
You know, when there you got the home Test and
you went five cents, you had to kind of a
match that you just couldn't quite get a foothold on.
On Sunday, it gets a resharpen or refocus, and now
you're going to go into a venue in West Virginia
was a team that you were able to find some
success against, but it also has comp and state. It
also has liberty when you're out at this one. So
(06:57):
what type of I style piles of volleyball are you
going to see? Anything similar to what you saw over
the weekend? Is this entirely different styles of volleyball here
that we're going to run into. What are we looking
at here as you hit the weekend?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah? I mean, first and Foremost is all really good teams.
I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, But I think
the collective record between those three teams on the first
weekend was seven and two.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, and I knew it was good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
They did really well and so West Virginia is gonna
be really physical, and anybody that came to our match
against them last year will remember they're outside hitter who
could just absolutely bang the ball, and so it's gonna
be really fun challenge trying to slow her down. But
Coff and State and Liberty are a little more similar
to us in terms of physicality, but they have completely
different systems and so very similar last week, where Saint
Mary's and Temple were very different from each other. This
(07:43):
is another chance for us to go play against different
systems and see how we respond, and hopefully they do
us a favor and exploit some Marys that we're not
great at yet so they wouldn't go get better at them.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I was gonna say that. That's the thing, is
that all everything's going into the notebook basically to try
to harden yourselves and ready yourself for when some league
play arrives, which isn't all that far away, I mean
the end of the month when it's South Dakota. But
when you look at you, you mentioned having Izzy say
what she said in jest. Obviously you know she's still
(08:14):
such a young person, but you know, when you got
Izzy and Paige and you talk about leadership, you know,
where do you think those skills come from? And you
know how they're able to impart those skills Basically with
some of these younger or players that aren't familiar with
the U indie culture and things of that nature. Where
(08:36):
is it just from the time that they've spent and
what they've picked up from other leaders and stuff like that,
and and uh, and I guess a little bit of
individual stuff comes out in that too.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
No, it's we are actively working on that every day.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
One of the things that maybe might be a little
unique about our program compared to others is that we
don't actually have captains on our team, okay, because we
think that leadership isn't as a skill that we can
all grow and get better at. And so for Izzy
and Page, they've had four years of having to practice
leadership on the daily and they've done really freaking good
at it because they've been doing that all the time.
You know, I think if you wait to your senior
(09:09):
year to try to turn the light switch on, then
it's gonna be really hardy to do that. But we
work with them all the time and all of our
athletes on Hey, how do we want to show up
as professionals. How do we want to show up great
four and with each other and will help them develop
those skills so that by the time they're seniors, they're
really really great at it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Well, Coach Tupac, we appreciate you swinging by. I know,
like I say, you're you're learning what these ladies are
capable of on a day to day basis in the
practice gym and seeing kind of what they can bring
on the floor on match night and five setter against
Saint Mary's a sad good Temple Dolls team, Good luck
and safe travels this week out to West Virginia. Thanks
(09:44):
ball all right, Jesse Tupac, You and D volleyball as
we turn the corner into a weekend of you and
D sports. Of course, the Potato Bowl is going this
week and there's all sorts of activities including the French
Frive feed on Thursday University Park. As we all know,
hopefully the weather will cooperate with us a little bit.
(10:05):
The parade is downtown Grand Fork Saturday morning, and of
course your friends here at Hugo's in the five oh
six Pub, they're gonna be ready for you if you
come down for that. They're going to be open at
nine am coming up on Saturday morning, and of course
for those that are going to be looking for maybe
a little pick me up, of course they'll have Bloody
Mary's and Caesars at happy hour prices when they open
(10:26):
up at nine am on Saturday morning. For the Potato
Bowl parade, of course, we'll be on the air for
U and D football, Jack Michaels taking the lead, Mike Berg,
I'll be roaming the sidelines in our entire Fighting Hawks
Radio Network crew will be on hand Saturday night for
U and D football taking on Portland State as part
of the Potato Bowl. We'll be on the air with
the Bud Light U and D football tailgate Show beginning
(10:46):
underway at five o'clock with the kick at six, and
we'll have it all for you all across the Fighting
Hawks Radio Network. For our entire team. For Jennifer back
at the Flagship Studios and Tracy, our executive producer. I'm
Paul Rolston, and for the entire team here at the
five oh six pub. Thanks for coming out and making
a great night everybody. Let's have a great week of
U and D sports and we'll talk to you next
(11:08):
Tuesday night, right back here downtown Grand Forks for another
edition of Hawk Talk. Good night, everybody,
All right, final segment of our program tonight with you
and d volleyball coach Jesse Tupac joining us. They are
out early tomorrow morning. To my knowledge, they've got the
early flight out to Morgantown, West Virginia for a weekend set.
So appreciate him dropping in talking a little bit about
(00:23):
what his team learned a little bit over the weekend,
a five setter against Saint Mary's Temple had the better
of it on Sunday morning and certainly probably had some
takeaways from that. It was interesting to me, you know,
kind of just trying to glance at the box score
on the Friday tilt with Saint Mary's because you had
to have some moxie in that match a little bit
(00:44):
and that showed through. But it just when it got
into that fifth set, they just had the run in them,
and that oftentimes is the difference maker in a short
set like that. But that Friday night tilt must have
shown a little bit of character and ability to fight
in a in a match and get it, get it
into a five set situation and really dig it. And
I how was that Friday match with Saint Mary's.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, really awesome to see our team have that resilience
in that grit. You know, we leading up to that match,
we actually had multiple people go down with some minor
injuries during the course of the week, and so we
actually did not know our lineup. Not a great timing
Friday afternoon, just because we weren't sure who was and
was not available to play. And so their response in
that moment and their ability to come out in battle
(01:28):
regardless of the situation was really really impressive. And obviously
we had Page Barber led both matches and kills, but
we had Sadie White come out, and Sadie White did
something that hasn't happened since twenty eighteen. She had thirty
four assists in an opening match as a true freshman,
which is really really impressive sin Sadie, And so it
was really nice to see different people step up in
those moments on Friday against a really, really good Saint
(01:49):
Mary's team. And then you know, we lost a bill
to Steve on Sunday, and it was disappointing to have
the result that we did, especially considering that the things
that we were so great on on Friday were the
things that we struggled with on Sunday. Oh okay, But
ultimately we've got a pretty young team and so we
know that there's going to be some inconsistency early on,
and you know, now it's about us showing up every
single day and being good over a long period of
time and building that consistency and that trust with the
(02:12):
lineup that we have.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And and you know, one of the people that asked
me basically said, are we are we still good at
the net? Do we have the ability to to block well?
And and how was our blocking this weekend because they
didn't have a chance to see And I'm like, I'm
I'm not entirely sure. I didn't see every match either,
So I did watch a little bit of a Friday's
match when I was when I got into Manhattan a
(02:33):
little bit. But I was just gonna say, like, you know,
that's that's one thing that you know, typically North Dakota
team has, you know, we go back in the eras
and stuff like that. The net play, being solid with
the block has been good. How did we feel that
that that area was this weekend? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Pretty good. We We absolutely won the blocking battle and
both of the matches that we played and out blocked
opponents on the weekend. I think a big part of
that is our serving pass game, okay, and our ability
to really control that phase of the game. And one
of the things that we've been talking about is can
we be the thermostat and not the thermometer. Are we
going to be controlled by the environment. Are we going
to dictate what the environment does? And so our ability
to come out as the thermostat and to really control
(03:10):
that phase of the game with our serving or pass
is something that's going to be really helpful as we
get deeper in the season. Now we can score as
well more, but absolutely did all right from the serving
pass in the blocking cases.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, Well, you know what, I think that's the first
time ever that we've ever mentioned then the word thermostat
in our program, So you know, we're bringing new words
into it. I'm impressed. I like using words, So that's awesome.
So we want to be the thermistat and set it ourselves,
not the thermometer reacting constantly to all the swings and
everything else. When you talk a little bit about the details,
(03:43):
when you have a frustrating where it just isn't clicking
on Sunday's match the way you thought, and maybe things
weren't going as well in certain areas that you felt
would carry over. How much is that at this juncture
of the season is that the coaching staff do you
lean on the veterans to be like, hey, we need
to sharpen up here and let their voices be kind
(04:03):
of the messaging system. I know there are certain times
a year where you know the veterans will have to
be the voices. Is it still coaches right now and
throw out the coaching stuff saying you know, coming in
and kind of being those voices or is it a
little bit of both.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I think it's definitely a little bit of both. You know,
for sure, we want to make sure that we give
them the space to explore that and to be really great,
but we can also give them guidance. And there's a
coach that used to work with that used to say,
we've got to learn to let them lose so that
they can learn how to win, right, which I've always
loved and I thought it was a really great way
to kind of frame that. And you know, ultimately, like
we know what we want them to do and how
(04:39):
we want them to go about that, and sometimes that's
going to be coming into the locker or into the
huddle during and time out and just like, hey, we're
going to use the next thirty seconds to just breathe.
And other times it's going up to one of our
seniors and be like, hey, I think that you could
really impact the team by saying this or by doing
this and right giving them the opportunities to have that
role themselves and to kind of fill that space. And
it doesn't just have to be our c years. It
(05:00):
can be any of our athletes and even some of
our younger players and our freshmen because they're going to
be in those leadership positions. But we'd rather learn those
lessons now in week one through week four rather than
when we're in the sum of league tournament later in
the year.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I was gonna say that one of the things you
mentioned was injuries that had affected maybe kind of how
you initially thought you'd see some rotations going into the
into the weekend. Is this a long term thing that
you're concerned with with a lot of them. Are you
more feeling like we could see some of those rotations
come online if if the injuries go you know, these
(05:32):
are short term things. We see them this this weekend,
even or what is kind of the injury situation with
this lineup a.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Little bit of both, right. I mean, yeah, we saw
we already have some people that were hurt that have
come back. Lauren Peragini did not play in the match
on Friday, but then she came back against Temple and
almost had a double double in three sets against Temple,
which is exactly what we know of Lauren. She's going
to come out and be a baller on both sides
of this, both sides of the game. And so we've
got some people that are already back and some people
that might take a little bit longer. But altly, we
(06:00):
know that we have eighteen people on this team that
are all really good, and they're all gonna be able
to contribute at any given moment.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
It's just really hard for me to get my head
around that this is how fast this goes in this world,
that Lauren's already like a junior, you know, does it
seem like a blink of an eye?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Really, it really does. I mean, is he joined me
for our press conference yesterday? Yeah, one of the questions
that she answered, She's I'm just really old.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, so she did say that, Yeah, great.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I still remember your freshman year and you had showed
up bright eyed and bushy tailed. And it's really cool
to see the evolution of those players over time and
just the consistent consistency with which they're able to perform.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
You know, when there you got the home Test and
you went five cents, you had to kind of a
match that you just couldn't quite get a foothold on.
On Sunday, it gets a resharpen or refocus, and now
you're going to go into a venue in West Virginia
was a team that you were able to find some
success against, but it also has comp and state. It
also has liberty when you're out at this one. So
(06:57):
what type of I style piles of volleyball are you
going to see? Anything similar to what you saw over
the weekend? Is this entirely different styles of volleyball here
that we're going to run into. What are we looking
at here as you hit the weekend?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah? I mean, first and Foremost is all really good teams.
I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, But I think
the collective record between those three teams on the first
weekend was seven and two.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, and I knew it was good.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
They did really well and so West Virginia is gonna
be really physical, and anybody that came to our match
against them last year will remember they're outside hitter who
could just absolutely bang the ball, and so it's gonna
be really fun challenge trying to slow her down. But
Coff and State and Liberty are a little more similar
to us in terms of physicality, but they have completely
different systems and so very similar last week, where Saint
Mary's and Temple were very different from each other. This
(07:43):
is another chance for us to go play against different
systems and see how we respond, and hopefully they do
us a favor and exploit some Marys that we're not
great at yet so they wouldn't go get better at them.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I was gonna say that. That's the thing, is
that all everything's going into the notebook basically to try
to harden yourselves and ready yourself for when some league
play arrives, which isn't all that far away, I mean
the end of the month when it's South Dakota. But
when you look at you, you mentioned having Izzy say
what she said in jest. Obviously you know she's still
(08:14):
such a young person, but you know, when you got
Izzy and Paige and you talk about leadership, you know,
where do you think those skills come from? And you
know how they're able to impart those skills Basically with
some of these younger or players that aren't familiar with
the U indie culture and things of that nature. Where
(08:36):
is it just from the time that they've spent and
what they've picked up from other leaders and stuff like that,
and and uh, and I guess a little bit of
individual stuff comes out in that too.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
No, it's we are actively working on that every day.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
One of the things that maybe might be a little
unique about our program compared to others is that we
don't actually have captains on our team, okay, because we
think that leadership isn't as a skill that we can
all grow and get better at. And so for Izzy
and Page, they've had four years of having to practice
leadership on the daily and they've done really freaking good
at it because they've been doing that all the time.
You know, I think if you wait to your senior
(09:09):
year to try to turn the light switch on, then
it's gonna be really hardy to do that. But we
work with them all the time and all of our
athletes on Hey, how do we want to show up
as professionals. How do we want to show up great
four and with each other and will help them develop
those skills so that by the time they're seniors, they're
really really great at it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Well, Coach Tupac, we appreciate you swinging by. I know,
like I say, you're you're learning what these ladies are
capable of on a day to day basis in the
practice gym and seeing kind of what they can bring
on the floor on match night and five setter against
Saint Mary's a sad good Temple Dolls team, Good luck
and safe travels this week out to West Virginia. Thanks
(09:44):
ball all right, Jesse Tupac, You and D volleyball as
we turn the corner into a weekend of you and
D sports. Of course, the Potato Bowl is going this
week and there's all sorts of activities including the French
Frive feed on Thursday University Park. As we all know,
hopefully the weather will cooperate with us a little bit.
(10:05):
The parade is downtown Grand Fork Saturday morning, and of
course your friends here at Hugo's in the five oh
six Pub, they're gonna be ready for you if you
come down for that. They're going to be open at
nine am coming up on Saturday morning, and of course
for those that are going to be looking for maybe
a little pick me up, of course they'll have Bloody
Mary's and Caesars at happy hour prices when they open
(10:26):
up at nine am on Saturday morning. For the Potato
Bowl parade, of course, we'll be on the air for
U and D football, Jack Michaels taking the lead, Mike Berg,
I'll be roaming the sidelines in our entire Fighting Hawks
Radio Network crew will be on hand Saturday night for
U and D football taking on Portland State as part
of the Potato Bowl. We'll be on the air with
the Bud Light U and D football tailgate Show beginning
(10:46):
underway at five o'clock with the kick at six, and
we'll have it all for you all across the Fighting
Hawks Radio Network. For our entire team. For Jennifer back
at the Flagship Studios and Tracy, our executive producer. I'm
Paul Rolston, and for the entire team here at the
five oh six pub. Thanks for coming out and making
a great night everybody. Let's have a great week of
U and D sports and we'll talk to you next
(11:08):
Tuesday night, right back here downtown Grand Forks for another
edition of Hawk Talk. Good night, everybody,
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