University of Washington - Home

Nov. 20, 2004

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

WASHINGTON HEAD COACH Lesle Gallimore
General Comments: "It was a tough game from beginning to end. I couldn't be more proud of our group of players. When I say that I mean every single player on our team, the ones who played, the ones on the bench, the ones who have played all season, but in the last couple of weeks have either been injured or ill. There has been a little bit of adversity thrown the Huskies way and I'm proud of the way they responded to it. Maryland is a talented team, I've known Shannon (Higgins-Cirovski) forever and we knew coming in that they were going to be a difficult team to score on. Clearly we had a lot of chances and it would have been nice to get a little breathing room. With that said, what a testament to our team that we defended so well and didn't really give up any shots. Most of the opportunities that they had weren't as scary as they could have been. I couldn't be more proud of the game our team played defensively to hang onto that game."

On opportunities: "Their keeper made some good saves. One of Maryland's strengths is that they get good numbers behind the ball. Tina (Frimpong) was in there a couple of times and their keeper made some good saves. Finishing is the most difficult thing in soccer. I think we have so many good finishers on our team and Tina was playing without her partner tonight, Kim Taylor, and really had the weight of the world on her shoulders and played unbelievably for us for 90 minutes. I think that shows great leadership and courage for our team to move ahead without some of our typical starters. 1-0 is a more exciting score than I would have liked, but we'll take it, it's a W."

On reaching final eight: "It's a great accomplishment for our team. Clearly, we've been challenged in the regular season we had with all the away games and close games and the lull we had at the end of the Pac-10 season. I think everything that has happened to us this year has built so much character and more desire as a team. I don't look at it as a number; I feel the same way today as last weekend when we beat Auburn. One team took one game and in 90 minutes accomplished what we want and now we take a little breather and get after the next one. Our team is so disciplined and done everything we ask of them and it's been really fun to coach them and watch them get rewarded for it."

With top three seeds out of tourney, is it up for grabs? Absolutely, I think for people like Amy (Griffin) and I who have been around for 110 years, who played in the first tournament and played in the Final Four with Carolina, I think it's going to so much fun for people to see something different. It has been the same old same old and it's bad for the sport. There is a lot of parody across the board and there are a lot of teams that could win it. We are certainly not counting ourselves out, but we'll think about that for about half a day and then we'll worry about Princeton."

On defense's revival: "The Cal and Stanford games were crucial for our confidence. We went 9-1 in non-conference games and probably had a higher RPI in non-conference games than anyone else in D-I, so there was a lot of expectations on us going into conference play. When you start letting in goals and that's a confidence thing. It's a mental issue and you want to talk about it, but you don't want to talk about it because the more you talk about it, the more the, `Here we go again' syndrome starts to fall into place. After we played Washington State and gave up three goals in five minutes, it was almost laughable. We got to the point where that five-hour long drive home from Pullman felt like Donald Trump's boardroom. We had a big bus meeting on the way home and it was like, `When we all get off of this bus, no more will we defend like we have been the last seven games. We're going to go back to the way that the Huskies defend and give our keeper a chance to make a save'. You can lose to a good team on any given day, but make then work for it. We were handing them out like Christmas gifts for awhile. These guys too it to heart and as a coach, you couldn't be more pleased."

FORWARD Tina Frimpong
On goal: "I think I went inline and Colby (Branham) had a good shot on goal and in the scouting report, it said that (Maryland's goalie) can make the first save, but it gets bobbled, so make sure you keep running after it. She kind of bobbled it and I got in there and kicked it in."

On lack of success on good chances: "I was getting frustrated, but you have to keep getting after it. Being a senior, you have to keep your head up and keep asking them for those same types of balls and hopefully one of them will go in."

On advancing: "We're excited. We just want to take it one game at a time and go at it with everything we've got. This is my last time."

DEFENDER Dana Stirn
On defense's play: "I don't think there were any good shots at goal. We've really been working the last four games of working together as a unit and supporting each other more and keeping our lines. We have been a lot more effective with more communication. Then today, we were being really careful about one-on-ones because they have really good forwards."

On playing with upperclassmen on defense: "I'm excited to play with three people who have been here this long and they won't be here next year."

On what sparked defensive turnaround: "Lesle (Gallimore) got on us about it. She figured out ways to make our defense more effective by dropping more and we were all on the same page after that and it all came together."

MARYLAND HEAD COACH SHANNON HIGGINS-CIROVSKI
General Comments: "You have to play for 90 minutes if you want to win games. You have to play 90 minutes when you play a good team like Washington. This team didn't come with the emotion or the focus it needed to in order to play over 90 minutes. If we had played in the first half like we did in the final 20 this could have been a better game. But Washington deserved it, they've got a good team and they played for 90 minutes."

On Washington's defense: "We're not used to playing against teams that have their back four dropped so deep. Typically, a more compact game is what we have seen. They have five players in the back and they don't come out, and that made it difficult for us as far as finding holes to get through."

On Goalkeeper Nikki Resnick: "Nikki's done that for us all year. That's the thing we expect her to do in this kind of a game. She's held us in a lot of games. That's Nikki, she does what she does well. One vs. ones are her thing and she's good at getting her body in the way."

On emotions after the game: "My heart went out to our seniors. I wished that we could have played for 90 for them. I wish we could have played a bit better for them. It just comes down to that."

On Washington's goal: "It was shot through a crowd and we had a player break in front of her. Nikki's reactions are unbelievable, and for her not to be able to hold onto it, I believe that someone was straight in front of her."

DEFENDER JENNIFER LOVECCHIO
On Tina Frimpong: "We knew coming into this game that she was going to be a huge threat to our defense, but especially in the second half we figured her out and tried to find her path and get in her way, and for the most part it worked. Every opportunity they had, No. 10 was involved with, so we knew what we were in for coming into this game with her. She's an awesome player so we knew what to expect."

MIDFIELDER NATALY ARIAS
On Maryland's offense: "We were trying to possess the ball, that's what we're good at. We were just trying to settle the game down and play simple. They tended to drop very quickly so it was key for us to keep possession and find the holes when we could. But we just kind of made some poor decisions."