University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 1, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Dec. 1, 2006
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Head Coach Anson Dorrance
Opening Statement:
I want to begin by congratulating an excellent UCLA team for being a part of what I thought was an excellent example of a women's game at an elite college level. Obviously, we're thrilled to be in a position where we're advancing. I'm certainly proud of our kids. I'm absolutely jacked and certainly proud of these three [Ashlyn Harris, Casey Nogueira and Heather O'Reilly]. What a shot by Casey Nogueira. I thought that was the best game of Casey's freshman year. She came in and not only played superbly the whole time, but, because of some of our injuries, has won a starting position for us. I thought she played out of her mind.
Nogueira on the first goal:
Well I got it on the side, and I saw that Tina Dimartino was coming in really fast, so I just kind of cut it back to catch her off guard. I took a couple of touches and it was still open, and then I just shot it and it went in.
O'Reilly on what getting that first goal meant:
I think, one, it was good for our confidence. Secondly, any time that there's only five or six minutes left on the clock and a team is down, they're going to press forward and the game is going to become stretched. That's what kind of happened I thought, and that's how we got the second goal. They just didn't have the numbers back that they needed. We owe that to Casey, I guess.
O'Reilly on the importance of getting the second goal:
Of course being two-up feels a lot nicer than being one-up, especially against a talented team like UCLA with such strong offensive players. I know Danesha [Adams] and [Lauren] Cheney really well from playing with them with the National program, and I know that being up just 1-0 with a couple of minutes left doesn't mean anything to them. They are good enough players that they can stick one, so it was a relief. I just wanted our team to focus and finish out the game and we did just that.
Ashlyn Harris on the play of the back line:
Obviously, we miss [Jessica Maxwell] a lot. She's a huge impact on the team - big, solid in the back. But the good thing is we do have a four-man rotation in the back, so Robyn [Gayle] came in strong. I think our backs did a great job; they made my life much easier. We're just doing a good job as a unit, and I'm proud of them.
O'Reilly on what being back in the College Cup means:
It was a huge disappointment the last two years. We had such a strong team, and Anson's said it a couple of times now: the saddest thing about the last couple of years is just that nobody got to see how talented we really were. It was disappointing to me to not be able to get Lindsay Tarpley and Lori Chalupny and Kacey White and Kendall Fletcher to the Final Four the last couple of years. To be back here is really a thrill. I think that my freshman year we hadn't lost a game the whole season, and I was like, "All right, I guess this is what North Carolina is all about." I think maybe I took it for granted a little bit because this women's game has just gotten better and better, and the talent across the board is just so much stronger. You can't take anything for granted. To be back here I think it means, to me, a lot more than it did three years ago.
