With an Ivy League regular season record of 137–31, Erin Appleman has successfully led the Bulldogs to seven conference championships and six NCAA Tournament appearances. Appleman joined the volleyball team in 2003 after holding the position of assistant coach at powerhouse Penn State and has since produced three Ivy League Players of the Year and five Ivy League Rookies of the Year. Before the team left for the University of Arizona for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Appleman spoke to the News about the history of the team and what it hopes to accomplish.

Q

How has your coaching philosophy changed over the past 12 years?

A

I don’t know if it necessarily has really changed over the last 12 years. I’m very performance-driven, not results-driven. Obviously the first couple of years were a little harder trying to set some traditions and set some standards, but now a lot of the things run themselves because the upperclassmen let the underclassmen know what’s expected.

Q

Is there anything about your job, the team or Yale that surprised you when you started?

A

Coming from Penn State, where we were a top-five team in the country for the previous nine years, I had a lot of success there as an assistant. I was a little curious about the athletes and the work ethic. One of the things I’ve learned is that no one really works harder than some of the athletes in the Ivy League. They expect everyone to be working hard, and you don’t take any time for granted. The athletes here work extremely hard, and the rules are a little different in the Ivy League in that the athletes here are given more downtime, obviously for studying. The off-season is the biggest difference in training time. Not only do I think it’s great for the athletes and the players, but it’s a good life choice for me as well.

Q

What is the most difficult part about your job?

A

Recruiting is a little bit more difficult as the standards are extremely high academically, so in some ways that’s a plus because you’re kind of limited in who you can recruit. I always joke that when I was at Penn State, I would walk into a recruiting tournament and say, “Who are the best five kids?” Now I walk in and say, “Who are the five smartest kids?” There’s a lot of scholarship money in Division I volleyball and the Ivy League does not offer scholarships, so there are a couple hurdles to recruiting in the Ivy League.

Q

As you head into your fourth consecutive NCAA tournament, what are your main focuses, goals and strategies?

A

I think our goal is always the same: It’s about performance and controlling what you can control. This is the fourth year in a row we’ve gone to the NCAA, so there’s a lot of people who’ve been here before. It’s still extremely exciting. We’re at the airport right now … there’s a buzz in the air [and] you can feel it in the players … Part of that is probably the lack of sleep [due to] trying to get their homework done. But it’s also exciting thinking about performance and thinking about what we can do. The last time we were flown somewhere, we played a No. 1 seed in USC and this time we’re playing an 11th seed. The NCAA selection committee realized how strong we are and put us with someone a little more equal.

Q

What is Arizona like as a team?

A

The thing with [the Wildcats] is they play in a really tough conference. They have had more teams play in the NCAA than any other conference. They have a huge group of seniors that play for them so they’ll be extremely confident and able to rely on each other. Madi Kingdon is a fabulous player, and she’s surrounded by other great players. They are a lot more physical than we are. They have a kid on their team that’s 6’8”. There’s definitely challenges playing in their home crowd and stuff like that. I feel like we just have to concentrate on our own performance and play our own game and not get too caught up on what Arizona wants to do.