University of North Carolina Athletics
NCAA Semifinal Game Post-Match Quotes
December 5, 2008 | Women's Soccer
Dec. 5, 2008
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UNC Head Coach Anson Dorrance
Post-game Quotes
"Well obviously I'm thrilled to be here with an opportunity to play for the national championship, I'm very proud of my team and certainly these three for their performances. I want to congratulate UCLA, I thought we played a good first half, but I thought they played a great second half so we feel very fortunate to be sitting here as a 1-0 victor, but I'm thrilled.
"People keep asking does it get old, and no it doesn't, the players are different, the competition is different and the level of the game continues to improve. So we're as excited as we can be to be playing for a championship this Sunday."
On penalty kick:
"Yael has been very good about nagging me to practice those things. I hate penalty kicks, and I wish games wouldn't be resolved that way, but I think it is wonderfully appropriate that this girl that's kept on me all year about making sure that we were practicing our penalties stepped up in this game and finished her's. Obviously we're prepared 12 deep, this is how thoroughly Yael wanted me to prepare the team. 12 of these girls are prepared to take a penalty kick in the event that a game goes to a tie."
On shutting down UCLA:
"I don't think we shut them down, the interesting thing about soccer is when someone sees a score line 1-0 the presumption is we shut them out, we didn't really, just on the score board. They created several great chances, they could have easily finished one of those. I don't think I was feeling as secure in our position as you're making it seem. We are excited we shut out a very good UCLA team but I don't think we shut down their opportunities to score."
On playing in Cary:
"It's a huge advantage, we don't pretend its not. As the season goes on you get worn down with travel and at this juncture you don't want to travel. So just jumping in our vans and driving over here 25-30 minutes to Cary is wonderful for us, we consider it a great advantage, certainly it is a disadvantage for UCLA that they had to travel and we didn't."
On Notre Dame:
"The reputation of their school is going to put them in a extraordinary recruiting position. I think what Randy has done recently is he is stringing together a series of great recruiting classes every year."
"They knocked us out last year and had a great run in the NCAA Tournament. They beat us again this year, and his kids are though and combative but they can also break defenses down, they have a lot of talent up top. I just have a lot of respect for their kids and Randy and what he's done."
UNC Players
Post-Game Quotes
Yael Averbuch
On penalty kick:
"We've practiced them a lot, so I was pretty confident and knew what I wanted to do beforehand. I knew if I kept it low and hit it side panel like Anson always tells us, that no matter where the keeper went, it would have a good chance of going in."
Ashlyn Harris
On the shot she faced early in the second half:
"A lot of people say Carolina goalkeepers don't get much action but the couple times we do we have to come up with big saves, and that's what I had to do and I think I took care of business."
Whitney Engen
On penalty kick:
"I knew she was going to bury it. Yael has demanded that we work on penalty kicks in practice for like the past four weeks now and I am so confident in her as a player. She has really stepped up these past few games, and she's proven it today. That ball is going in the back of the net no matter what. The keeper made a great effort to get there, and Yael hit a perfect shot."
On the front line applying pressure:
"Moving from the front line to the back line I've come to appreciate how much they help us. When they pressure, they make our jobs easy. Any time we get a shut out or play well defensively a lot can be contributed to how they play."
Jillian Ellis, UCLA Head Coach
Opening Statement:
"I thought it was an outstanding game. I thought it was a game with two halves. I congratulate North Carolina, I wish them well. I'm just exceptionally proud of my team, I felt if we would have put two halves together as we played in the second half I think we would have had maybe a different result. I'm incredibly proud of the players, I thought it was an entertaining match, and hopefully people were pleased with their value."
On the tale of two halves and their first half struggle:
"I think partly you have to understand that these are young ladies and it's probably a little bit nervous in there. We talked at halftime how we came out against teams this year fearless and I think we came in here and we just didn't string passes together and we played kind of to the center of the field where their strength was. We made the adjustments at halftime, obviously we should have made those earlier but I think once we started finding the width we started to exploit it a little bit better."
On North Carolina's tough defense to stop UCLA:
"I think the space in the midfield is so tight, so whenever a forward is receiving the ball they have midfielders in front of them, they had forwards that were backsides so it's just limited space. I think once we found the width in the second half it was much, much better."
On the absense of McCall Zerboni due to an ankle injury:
"McCall has been an emotional leader for us and for her to go down that quickly, she's such a very good technical player. So clearly trying against this team to keep the ball and keep possession was a big loss for us."
Erin Hardy, D
On the penalty situation that led to the only score:
"I didn't see a replay, they didn't replay it on the big screen. I didn't think it was a [penalty kick] but I think it's a hard [penalty kick] to call in the Final Four. I didn't think I got contact with her feet."
On the confidence after the penalty kick goal:
"I think we were composed. We believe in each other and we just picked each other up and we were ready to get a goal back and unfortunately we didn't get that."
Ashley Thompson, GK
On the penalty kick and the Final Four mindset:
"I wasn't nervous. I just stayed calm. She showed me which way she was going and I was just unfortunate to not get there far enough to the left."
On the confidence after the penalty kick goal:
"We were confident, things didn't go our way but we still had the remainder of the half and a whole other half. We got this, we're fine."
Christine DiMartino, MF
On her career at UCLA (along with the other two):
"I think we are just proud we got here all four years. It's a journey and a hard, long road. I'm just proud of these girls that we got here all four years. It's very special and I wouldn't trade it."
