We had a shot to get to the Elite Eight again, but Tampa is playing very good volleyball right now. Barry had big leads in games two and three in the regional championship, but could not fight off the hard-charging Spartans. The injuries that plagued the Bucs much of the year were exposed at regionals. Cindy Yuan had sat out the five previous matches prior to the regional and two-year starter Jasna Kovacevic was lost for the season three weeks ago to a broken foot. Nichols doesn't dwell on that though.
Injuries are part of athletics.
You've have to train your to step in and pick it up. We tried a lot of different combinations to try to slow down Tampa. Because of the injuries, Nichols inserted her into the starting lineup at regionals because of her blocking ability. They finished second with a 12-2 SSC mark. The Tampa match marked the end of the career of Cindy Yuan.