UNC-Maryland Quotes
April 23, 2012 | Women's Lacrosse
April 23, 2012
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North Carolina Head Coach Jenny Levy
Opening statement:
"Maryland outplayed us in the first half and then took advantage of ground balls. They shot better than we did, took advantage of their opportunities. Katie Schwarzmann is a remarkable player, and when you couple her with Karri Ellen Johnson and Alex Aust, it was just a little too much offense for us tonight."
On Maryland's defense:
"I'll have to look at it on film. It's hard to tell from our angle. I thought there was quite a bit of congestion in front of the cage and I also thought we had some easy shots that we just didn't finish the shot. Three or four of them in particular that I think would have made a big difference at that point in the game. But they play sag, they're heavy on ball-side, they're heavy around the eight meter and you have to move the ball. They do a good job of when you bang the ball behind getting it to the next girl. You have to think quick and execute quick and they're a good defensive team. Their game plan works for them."
On Maryland's assist total:
"I think that teams that feed the ball well are particularly dangerous and I think that Alex Aust has really improved throughout the season and is playing at a really high level. I watched their game on Saturday against Duke and she picked them apart. So, you go behind the cage with her and take her out of the rhythm and then you've got to deal with Schwarzmann coming down. They just play a really nice team game. They share the ball well, and when you have a kid who has the feeding ability of Alex, it really makes a difference for your program."
On keys to coming back in the second half:
"We had to win the draw and we just really struggled both first and second half with the draw up until that point. With 10 or 12 minutes left in the game, we actually started winning the draw, but the game is possession. If you can't possess the ball through the draw, then you're going to struggle because you don't have the ball. Our offense wasn't very active during the stretch of the second half because we just didn't have the ball."
On Kara Cannizzaro:
"They doubled her early today, and we anticipated that they would do that. We moved the ball the way we normally do and we just didn't get the opportunities that we were looking for. When we moved the ball, I thought she handled it well and we anticipated that that would happen, which it did. That just didn't turn into goals for us on the backside."
On the next two weeks:
"We go into exams this Friday, so we'll practice and try and keep things focused. We obviously want to make some improvements in some areas."
On the NCAA Tournament:
"They'll look at the whole body of work. Right now there are five teams in the country, between us and Maryland, and then we've got Syracuse, Northwestern and Florida. Those five teams are going to land somewhere one through five and some of them still have a lot of lacrosse to play still. We actually just sit and wait so we don't know where we'll end up. We'll hope for a top four, but we could end up in the fifth spot and see Maryland again, which would be great."
North Carolina senior Becky Lynch
On Maryland's first goal:
"When they score in the first minute, it's always kind of tough, but then you have to look at the clock and realize that you still have an entire game. I don't think that the person that scores first ultimately has the advantage because if you don't score first, then you're looking to get back on it and if you do score first, you're looking to keep pushing it. I think that we just saw that and we looked at it as an opportunity to get back to the draw and get to them again."
On trailing by three in the last 5:41:
"Honestly, I don't ever get that feeling until the last whistle blows because I don't think that you really can. At that point it's really the draws that make the difference and I think we lost one of those draws when we went on that run and that gives them the opportunity to get the ball on offense and hold it a little bit because if you're up by three with 5:41 to go you're not going to push it."
On falling to Maryland for the third straight season:
"It's frustrating, but everybody in the ACC is good, so no matter who you're going against you just have to look at it as not really the opponent, but yourself."
On the stick check in the second half:
"I think it's a very smart move and we didn't actually get possession. They didn't give us the ball, but we had a 50-50 opportunity we ended up getting the ball and that was really awesome I think. It was just a smart move that we did."
On the role of the team as a family:
"I think that is absolutely the most important thing to have in a team and even after a loss, you can look at your teammates and try and learn from it. I think that if we didn't have that dynamic, it would be really tough and you wouldn't be able to really try to improve every day and I think that because of the fact that we do have that team dynamic, we will learn a lot from this. I think that it's just awesome. This team is just so good. It's a great family."
Maryland Head Coach Cathy Reese
Opening statement:
"I'd like to start by saying what a great game, and giving Carolina a ton of credit. They're such a great team from top to bottom. We knew coming in to tonight that this was going to be a great game with two teams full of talented players, so I think what we saw is what we thought we were going to see coming in and I'm really proud of our team for the way that we handled the pressure and played it out."
On playing with the lead:
"I think it was one of those things where we needed to give our offense a rest and reset and take it back to the draw."
On adjustments from the first meeting with North Carolina:
"We have a really young defense this year. At any given time out there, we have at least four freshmen out there on defense, sometimes five. And Melissa Diepold, too didn't play for us much last year. So with that being said, there're six new players back there on defense for us. Every game is a learning experience. We've come a long way since the start of this season, and playing against such a balanced offense as Carolina causes problems all over and we were able to come up with some huge stops and turn those opportunities into scoring opportunities."
On leading the entire game:
"Well never thought about never trailing, because even when there's a couple minutes left on the clock and you have the lead, you're never in a comfortable spot knowing how powerful a team like Carolina is and knowing how quickly they can come back. They had four goals in the last ten minutes of the game and we didn't score. And that wasn't for lack of trying. Our girls had the green light and when we had the opening, we were going to take it to goal, which was why we did score at the end of that. Because when the pressure gets tough, you need to find a way not to turn it over. And with them coming off of four goals, we wanted to make sure we didn't get it back into their hands."
On scoring 26 goals and committing five turnovers:
"Well it's rare, and it's rare for us. To be honest with you, it's something we've been focusing on, and our team has grown this season that we're making really smart decisions with the ball. We've seen that in Alex Aust, who's making smart decisions when she's putting the ball in Kari Ellen's stick and then Kari Ellen's scoring, We're making the right choices and that's where we want to be- especially at this point in the season."
On winning the draw:
"Draws are such a battle because they're up in the air and it's such a mess in the center circle. We just want to fight it out and keep fighting until the official blows the whistle or it's in someone's stick. If you get the ball, you get the possession, and if you get possession you get the chance to score. It's that simple, and that's something we really emphasize to our team all the time is that importance of possession. If you have the other ball, the other team doesn't."
On Kara Cannizzaro:
"Well she had five goals on us a couple weeks ago. She's a very talented player, and we know that she's someone who's going to come out and go hard. She's a leader on Carolina's offense. We wanted to step up and play better one-on-one defense with her, and we did that. Katie [Schwarzmann] found herself on her quite often tonight, and I think that she did an excellent job of playing one-on-one defense with her. And the first time we faced her again, Kara had some great opportunities, and she scored. We wanted to make sure those shots were a little harder for her tonight."
Maryland junior Katie Schwarzamann:
On adjustments from the first meeting with North Carolina:
"I think we just learned from the first game, took what we needed to work on, and it showed out there. We worked as a team out there on defense, just talking and communicating, and I think it really made a difference tonight.
