Final Four Q&A With Jenny Levy

CHAPEL HILL—University of North Carolina women's lacrosse head coach Jenny Levy took part in an NCAA media question & answer session to preview the NCAA semifinal versus Boston College.

Here is a transcript of the Q&A:

Matt Holmes: All right. Thank you, and welcome back. We're back NCAA Division 1 Women's Across Media Teleconference and now joined by the head coach of North Carolina, Jennie Levy. Coach, congratulations on making it back to championship weekend for Women's Across. Just your thoughts on getting back and getting to play Boston College again at this season here on Friday night.

Jenny Levy: Obviously, we're super excited to be back in championship weekend. It's a tough road. There's a lot of great teams out there and we feel like we've earned it. We played a great regular season schedule and tough ACC opponents all the way through, and no surprise. Then also a tough ACC opponent in Boston College on Friday.

Matt Holmes: Thank coach. Now we will turn over to the media on the call.

Paul: Ladies and gentlemen, to ask your questions. Please go star then one. Please press star and then one at this time. In one moment please. On the line with Dan Shulman from the Boston Globe. Please go ahead.

Dan Shulman: Hi coach, Dan Shulman from Boston Globe. Just how has Taylor Moreno elevated her game since the ACC championship win against BC and how much of a key is she to the rest of the defense playing confident?

Jenny Levy: Well, obviously we have two really good goalies and Taylor Moreno and Elise Hennessey. Elise showed that on our ACC [Tournament] weekend. But sometimes people just need a reset, and against BC in the ACC championship game they got six really quick, easy goals. Sometimes it's not the goalie's fault, but we felt like we needed to make a switch to kind of wake our defense up at that moment. Elise went in and really saw the ball well. So, we are a very unselfish team and really want to put the players on the field that are can give us a lift that day. But Taylor has been great through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. She came back, reworked some things and just got into a rhythm again. We really did make a big deal about it because it wasn't a big deal to us.

Paul: The next question is from Dendar Rubin with BC [inaudible] account please go ahead.

MALE_2: Hi coach, congratulations on your success so far. Getting to this weekend and playing Boston College again having split the series so far on having played them a lot through the years. What have you found has really worked for you against BC and what has BC been able to do really well against you when they've been able to pick up victories?

Jenny Levy: Well, BC is such a great team this year. Their top three players in Apuzzo, Kent and Arsenault are such high level. Obviously, have a chance to work with Apuzzo and Arsenault at the US level. Also, we have a really big appreciation for who they are as players and people. They have a really great, experienced cast around them. With Cara Urbank and Sheila Rietano and Taylor Walker, and then you've got their defense that has been together [for so long]. They have so much experience all the way through their team. They do the little things so well and they're so explosive. They really just attack you for 60 minutes during the game ... It's not super complicated why they've had so much success this year and in the past couple years. It's just a really hard-working team that plays well together, and they're a big opponent for anybody, including ourselves.

MALE_2: As a follow up to that, having worked with them at the at the USA level, how have you witnessed their development firsthand and what have you seen specifically out of them on both sides and competed against them and win them?

Jenny Levy: They're just so instinctual. They play at a really high pace, and they they do the little things really well while it's picking up a ground ball, get someone caught in a double team and getting a takeaway check, really recognizing, scoring opportunities both Dempsey and Apuzzo and even Kenzie Kent. Haven't had Kenzie in yet. But they're just really opportunists and they play the game in front of them, and if there's an opportunity for them to put a lot of scoring pressure on you, they'll do it. So it's just they're pure players. They're not schemed out by any stretch of the imagination. They play well together and really take advantage of the mistakes that you make.

MALE_2: Thank you, coach.

Paul: We have a question from Justin Feil with Lacrosse Magazine.

Justin Feil: Can you just talk a little about, you got a long line of good defenders through the years and stuff. How does Emma fit in? Does she rhyme with any that you've had before and how she'd come along in her second year?

Jenny Levy: Yeah. Emma's been a lockdown defender for us all year. Even though she's a sophomore coming off her freshman year, people are just so impressed with her between the ears. I think at our level the difference between good and great is what you bring mentally to the game every day, both in practice and games. Are you someone that competes fearlessly regardless of what's in front of you, and Emma does that. She doesn't get rattled by a match up. She doesn't overthink things. She plays very instinctively. Defense is a really hard position to play in women's lacrosse, and so you're going to make mistakes and you're going to get scored on. How you respond to that and make the adjustments that you need to make. She's capable of doing all of that. You're right, we've had a lot of really talented defenders come through Carolina and I put Emma up there with the best of them. She's quick, she's physical, she's got great speed, great closing speed, yet she can handle the ball in transition and and be super dangerous in that area of the field test too. So I feel a lot of confidence in her. She's continued to grow as a leader in our defense this year as only a sophomore. She's made a big impact on our program this year.

Justin Feil: How was her impact? Apuzzo got two early and then really shut her down the rest of the day. How did you guys to do that? That hasn't happened a lot this year.

Jenny Levy: She got Emma on a backdoor the first commute of the game. I looked at Emma like I never really talked about this. She's a goner. It's my fault. So her response is like, yeah, I got it. I think Apuzzo's other goal is I believe is off eight-meter. I'm not positive about that, but she might have switched off on her but I don't know. It's a great battle. I really appreciate this, and it seemed two really talented kids go against each other. You're not going to be 100 percent against the other person but that battle is always very intriguing to me as a coach and how people handle it. So I thought Emma would tell you she had a lot of support from the rest of the defense and initiated a great job on her the first time. It doesn't mean it's going to be the same on Friday. She's going to have to find other ways to really challenge them to be your best.

Matt Holmes: Question from Leigh Freistedt with Equity Nine. Please go ahead.

Leigh Friestedt: Hey, Jenny. It's Leigh. Congratulations. Could you just give us a little insight into Gianna Bowe? She just adds such a tremendous dimension to your team on the attack and also on the draw controls. At only five feet it's just like such a great juxtaposition against some of your other taller players like Ferrucci and Hoeg on the attack and just how they're able to be so dynamic feeding the ball into each other.

Jenny Levy: Yeah. Well, Gianna, she was originally trained in our program as a line attacker, and then she's just too valuable in between the lines of picking up loose balls, double teaming, creating turnovers. So start of her junior year we moved to her to a middie and then last year we drew on the draw more of a D-middie just because we had Marie [McCool], Maggie Bill, and Ela [Hazar]. So we didn't really need Gianna's offense as much, and then this year, obviously with graduating those three, she's been like a real pure middie for us. So she's pretty much played everything. She's just an unbelievable spirit. She's worked really hard, she's a team captain for us. Saturday was hot out, 95 degrees and we shifted her out. She's, "Jenny, I'm good. I can keep going". I'm like, "Yeah, but it's a long game, it's 100 degrees out so just you're fine." Just gave me a drink of water and relax for a second and go back in and do your thing. So she brings our team a lot of energy, she's got a never-say-die attitude, and I think she can be underestimated because of her size but her fight, her will is something that's hard to put a price tag on.

Leigh Friestedt: Great. A quick follow up. Obviously, Jamie Ortega's just doing such a tremendous job for you and as a sophomore, she's got a level of leadership on that field you would think she was a senior. Just maybe talk about her evolvement over the last year, even as a freshman she was really making an impact for your team.

Jenny Levy: Yeah. Jamie's had a great year. Freshman year, she just had to play off of what Marie and Maggie Bill created and Ela and Katie Hoeg. There's so much talent offensively for us last year that Jamie really, she's a freshman and was told a freshman gets a honeymoon. You're not going to join the top defenders early on in your freshman year. You might earn it. You might earn a top defender by the end of the year, but if you do, good for you. So she was in that great situation last year as a freshman, and this year as a sophomore with the graduation of three significant attackers on that end of the field for us, she's had to do a lot more. She and Katie really had to carry the offense for a long time this season until our other guys started getting up and going. Yeah, I've been out with an injury, you've got your middie having to step up in different roles. Jamie's really had to, she didn't have the same game experience around her that she had a year ago and she's really had to step up and lead, and do a lot of work for us on the offensive end. She's a great kid, she works hard. She's very humble and very selfless. She may get out of the game and have like seven points and she has no clue. She's like, "Oh, really? Oh, great. Did we win?" I'm like, "Yeah". I don't think she gets a lot of credit and I thought she probably could have gotten a little bit more credit nationally with the Tewaaraton [Award] stuff, but that seems to be the trend with that award. So we'll leave it at that.

Leigh Friestedt: Thanks, Coach. Good luck this weekend.

Jenny Levy: Thank you.

Paul: I have a question from Edward Lee with the Baltimore Sun.

Edward Lee: Jen, I was just wondering if you could just comment on how instrumental Kara Klages has been to your team this year.

Jenny Levy: Kara's had to step up into a bigger role for us [this year]. She obviously has unbelievable speed but our team really started to get better in the middle part of the season, when her play started to go up and she developed more presence for us and more leadership roles for us. So she's someone physically who's very reliable, she's got that God's gift where she can run a million miles and then recover and then do it again the next day and that's been very valuable to us this year. She helps us between the lines, that's the biggest part of her game. Then there's games where she might put in two or three goals which then really really helps out our situation. She really does a great job of running the midfield for us.

Edward Lee: Thank you.

Matt Holmes: All right. That is all the time we have for Coach Levy. Coach, thank you so much for the time this afternoon. Safe travels to Baltimore and we look forward to seeing your team play this weekend.

Jenny Levy: Thank you so much.

Players Mentioned

Maggie Bill

Gianna Bowe

Elise Hennessey

Katie Hoeg

Kara Klages

Taylor Moreno

Jamie Ortega

Related Videos