University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Duke Quotes
May 23, 2015 | Women's Lacrosse
North Carolina Head Coach Jenny Levy
(Opening remarks)
“Obviously, we are happy with the win today, I thought it was a total team effort. Congratulations to Duke on their tremendous season while my great friend Kerstin Kimel has been courageously battling breast cancer. I just want to congratulate them because I think on and off the field they've done a lot of great things, and I know it can't be easy for her.”
“We were anchored by an unbelievable defense that held a really good Duke team to just seven goals tonight. I thought both of our goalies played great, and all of our defenders and middies who play defense made plays. On the offensive end, a unit showed a complete team game and showed how much fun it can be.”
(About her team's perseverance after injuries to key players)
“We've had to persevere. When you lose an emotional leader and a warrior like Coppa is, the team kinda takes a hit. We lost Hendrick and Coppa in a week, we lost Hendrick at Louisville and then we lost Coppa during warm-ups at the Syracuse game. I think it has toughened our team, and they had to buy into—even further—that everybody has to work to be the best that you can be because you never know when you're going to be asked to do something that maybe you weren't expecting to do. Whether it has unified our team or just made us be a little more focused and appreciate the time that they are out there, we have turned it into a positive because that's the only option we have.”
Brittney Coppa (Sr., M, Hampstead, Md.)
“It's been a total team effort getting this far and it is awesome to be this far. 2013 was great, but we are focused on 2015 right now.”
(on her goal late in the first half)
“It was awesome, definitely something that I will remember for the rest of my life. It has not exactly been the ending that I imagined, but I think that my team has done awesome job. Today it wasn't about me or anyone in particular. At that moment I had the ball and there was only about 10 seconds left and I knew it was time to go and make a play. Definitely something that was great to celebrate together on the field and in the locker room at halftime, but it's been a long process.”
(coming back from two ACL)
“It has been a long journey for me, the past two years, but I think doing it once made me more prepared for the second time it happened. I know that I'm hurt, but I don't look at it as though I'm hurt. I just look at it as I have a new barrier to overcome. I've accepted my injury and I know I tore my ACL, but it's not something I think about. It's just me getting back on the field and helping my team as much as possible whether it's on the sidelines or on the field.”
Aly Messinger (Jr., A, Mendham, N.J.)
“It is really exciting to be back, this is our goal every year so I'm really happy for our team that we've been able to accomplish this goal.”
“Brittney is one of the toughest kids on our team, and one of our goals in this game was to play for her and we were able to accomplish that goal. It really pumped us up as a team and got us fired up for the second half.”
“Our defense is the anchor of our team. Without their hard work and stops, we can't get the ball as an offense. They did a great job, and we thank them for that.”
Maggie Bill (So., M, Huntington, N.Y.)
“I think the defense really stepped it up today, just played well as a unit. Duke was heavy on dodging, and we worked a lot on that in practice this week.”
Duke Head Coach Kerstin Kimel
(Opening remarks)
“First, I'd like to congratulate North Carolina. I thought they played a great game tonight. They've had a great season. I'm proud of our team and proud of our seniors especially. I just told them that in the locker room. They've had an unbelievable four years and we've had a great year. I'm proud of them – love them – and I'm proud to be their coach tonight even thought the outcome wasn't what we wanted it to be.
Senior attack Kerrin Maurer
(On first-half stretch when team had trouble scoring)
“They're obviously a very athletic team, a very fast team and it's something we worked on all week… They're able to frazzle teams in their own offensive 30 and within the midfield, and I think at times, we weren't able to handle that pressure as well as we would've like to execute. So I think that caused that lapse in goals and led to kind of a drought.”
Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea
(On different looks North Carolina's offense was throwing at Duke)
“They're a really good dodging team and also a really good feeding team so that was kind of difficult for us because if we shut down a dodge, they were looking to feed on the inside. So I think we saw a little bit of everything. Really, they just took advantage of us when we were unorganized. They're obviously really good and really athletic. I think they got the best of us today.”
Coach Kimel
I actually thought, relative to our first game (with North Carolina), that our defense played really well. I thought the trouble was that we didn't have the ball enough. They did a very good job on the draw and I thought Kelsey and our defense… especially in the first half, we did a really good job of shutting down their looks and taking away things and then scrapping and coming up with the ball. The problem became then that we didn't necessarily take care of it in our clear or on the offensive side. And then in the second half, looking at where we were in the game, we had to change our defense. We had to do something differently to try to disrupt them and I think again, you're playing a team that has a lot of threats and moves the ball well. And it's a risk, but it's a risk you have to take if you want to get back in the game. I think they paid off in getting some turnovers for them or getting some shots that Kelsey could save. But the reality was that you can only play so much defense where's going to be some cracks and against a really good team at this level in the semifinal game.
Senior midfielder Taylor Trimble
(On taking draws against Sammy Jo Tracy)
“Sammy Jo's definitely able to control the ball with her stick and Kerrin (Maurer) and I were both just trying to out-muscle her at times. She's really good at controlling the ball and putting it where she wants it. I think with that said, we had a lot of opportunities where we just didn't finish. The ball was on our sticks and we just bobbled it. I don't think we necessarily got outdrawn by North Carolina. We had our opportunities and we just didn't finish the play. And that's just unlucky and it's on us to finish those draws.”
Kerrin Maurer
(On how proud you are about the season that you had)
“I just think it's been an honor these past four years to play for Duke, to play for any amazing coaching staff and an even better group of girls. And obviously this isn't what we wanted but we have learned so much throughout this year. As a senior leaving you could leave with a national championship, but I will leave with 35 best friends for the rest of my life and that's something that you can't really take away from.”
Coach Kimel
(Comparing North Carolina's team over the past two years)
“I can't give you a really good answer on that. I think where they've done an awesome job is those kids – they lost two of their top players midway through the season – and I actually think it helped them. I'm not saying that losing those individuals helped them, but it forced them to rally and I think they were different after having lost those kids. Whether they were sharing the ball more or it unified them to really to play to their potential. I'm not sure looking at all of the kids that they had up to that point, but they were maybe scoring as much or jelling as well, but I think that for whatever reason, when those kids got injured, they flipped a switch to their credit. I can't give you the technical reasons but there was a difference in that team. And being the first team that maybe played them after they lost Molly Hendrick they were a different team.”
(On whether she saw North Carolina made any adjustments before they went on a 6-0 run)
“I think that they just started tempo controlling. They were winning the ball and taking their time as any good and well-coached team would. And we couldn't just sit back and do what we were doing in terms of sitting in our man-to-man defense We felt like we needed to come out and put some pressure on them. I think it worked at times – we either got a save or a turnover or got the ball back. It just didn't necessarily result in a goal on our end.
