May 13, 2001
UCLA QUOTES - FIRST PLACE
UCLA HEAD COACH ADAM KRIKORIAN
Q: Discuss what you expected Stanford to do on the last play after the timeout?A: I told the team in a huddle to just remember back to the first time we played them up here. It was a similar situation and the score was tied with :25 seconds left and it was pretty much the same thing. They got us into an isolation where it was basically Brenda and Ellen. I was telling the team to be ready for that. Once the pass came over to Brenda, we wanted to try and foul. And I wanted to make sure that Robin (Beauregard) kept Ellen outside the post.
Q: How big were the 6-on-5 situations?A: Both teams were 3-for-6. I've been telling my team this pretty much all year. No one gave us a shot - media, fans - not many people gave us a shot. But we knew that if you really sat down and looked at the statistics of every time we played them, the reason they beat us was the 6-on-5s. We were anemic on 6-on5 - we were 20 percent and they were upward of 60 percent. So we knew if we could do well in that area, like we did, we knew that we had a great shot.
Q: What was the key to the game today?A: I think it was two things. It was our 6-on-5, the power play and 5-on-6. And then the other thing was getting off to a good start. Obviously going into a championship game and you're playing at home in front of your home crowd and your band is there, I don't think they've been down all year. We knew if we could get on them early, they might be going through something they hadn't gone through all year. Obviously with all those extra things - being at home and being undefeated - it could put a little pressure on them.
UCLA PLAYER CORALIE SIMMONS
Q: Talk about your last goal, a breakaway, you've done that 100 times before.A: Honestly, I surprised myself. I think my defender dropped off of me unexpectedly. Maybe she thought someone was coming up the middle. But a great pass from Jaime Hipp and it's an easy fake until the goalie went down. Jackie (Frank) put up a good fight obviously. It took a couple fakes, or three or five or six, whatever it takes to score. It was definitely a well-fought game.
Q: We saw you pump your fists to the UCLA cheering section after your goal, who was up there?A: Well it's Mother's Day. I have at least eight of my family members here. All of my former teammates came up - you probably saw them in the blue wigs. They got everyone rallied from the beginning and kind of came out like we were at home and it was great for us. They came out before the game started and before Stanford even opened their eyes. So it really got us amped and charged to get into the first and second quarter.
Q: Describe the UCLA-Stanford rivalry.A: It's new to me because in the previous years that I've played, we always had San Diego State in the semis and Cal and Stanford in the semis. So we never really met up with Stanford because previously Cal would beat them and then we'd play Cal in the finals like every tournament. We never really played against Stanford unless we had a conference game. We came in this year, and it was definitely an emotional game every time we played them. It's a newfound rivalry, I guess you could see, because we play tight, but I guess USC probably be our top rival.
STANFORD QUOTES - SECOND PLACE
STANFORD HEAD COACH JOHN TANNER
Q: What was the setup for that last play?A: We just wanted to see if we could get Ellen and Brenda isolated on the left side of the pool and see how they would respond to it, then see if we might be able to get some one to come off of the right side, and if we were able to get a foul we might be able to spring somebody free on the left side. Ellen and Brenda are both wonderful offensive players, who responded extremely well throughout the season, through difficult situations and we pulled off more or less what we wanted to. Brenda made a wonderful spin move, got inside water, but when you get to the end of the game you know the officials aren't necessarily going to call everything you think so you have to do your best to score the shot when you have the opportunity and we gave it our best shot.
Q: Did they do anything defensively that you didn't expect?A: No, they were quicker to the ball than they have been in the past and very physical on the perimeter and I think they had created a lot of momentum out of their aggressive front court defense in the first half, but I think it took its toll on them more than it did us. I thought the whole second half we had control of the game and were really dictating the flow and well, it would have been nice to play another seven minutes.
STANFORD PLAYER HILARY GALLOGLY
Q: For the seniors, how was it being the first NCAA Championship and your last year?A: Having this be the first NCAA year concurrently with our senior year made it a really special year for us. Especially having Ellen and Brenda back we felt like it was a really strong season, and the strength of the schedule, all culminating in this weekend. It didn't turn out the way we wanted it to turn out and I think I can say for everyone that we're absolutely %100 heartbroken, but we have an amazing team and I wouldn't trade a win today for any one of my experiences with my team. Its been an incredible four years I'm only sorry that it had to end this way.
STANFORD PLAYER KRIS KOBLIK
A: We never could have expected to do this well in the season overall. Playing undefeated and I thought we had a strong game and had some things not go our way in key moments. I thought we put together a really good game. It was just still fun to have the strengths of the team that we've built and the relationships that I've had.
STANFORD PLAYER HILARY GALLOGLY
Q: Comment on the whole NCAA Championship experience and what this did for the sport?A: I had an amazing time this weekend. I know our entire team absolutely loved coming into the stadium both yesterday and today and seeing it filled with people. It doesn't matter if they're wearing red or blue or white or green. I think this is the perfect place to have it for the first year - with the new facility. As far as I can tell, it was packed and it sounded packed. In terms of for the sport, we've had probably 10 or 12 little girls come up to us in the past two days with posters and water polo balls to sign. And for a sport that barely got off the ground a couple years ago, that's phenomenal. We were all sitting there signing autographs, and wondering 'what are we doing signing autographs???' The fact that girls are playing younger and they can come to events like today and this weekend and really see what's ahead of them in this sport - that we've had some contribution to that is really something that makes us proud. I hope it gets bigger and bigger.
STANFORD HEAD COACH JOHN TANNER
A: It makes all of us proud to be affiliated with Stanford - that we have the staff and the facilities to host an event like this. To take it from the level of two teams competing that have gone at it all year and to create this kind of atmosphere to where it was something far more special than just a game. That hour was exhilarating. The ups and downs and the crowd and the momentum of just the whole thing. That's something that was created when the new facility and the growth of the sport, it was just a logical conclusion to a five, six, 20 year process. It's neat to see the growth being so explosive.
Q: Talk about the play of goalkeeper Jackie Frank.A: Jackie has been terrific all season and we've relied on her to not only block shots but also as a great passer.
STANFORD PLAYER ELLEN ESTES
A: She's awesome. Just in general for our team, she's really a team leader. She's just a force in the goal. When you look back and look at her making all these amazing saves, it energizes the team. To have her in the cage and have her on our backs is definitely a very strong positive for our team.
STANFORD PLAYER BRENDA VILLA
Q: Describe the last play?A: I was hoping to get a better handle on the ball. But I guess I should have just shot the ball and not relied on anything else.
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT QUOTES - THIRD PLACE
LMU HEAD COACH JOHN LOUGHRAN
Q: Initial thoughts on the game?A: I thought we stuck to the game plan - we did a nice job, some great shooting by Lucy (Windes) scored four goals, our goalie played really well. They're a team that is known to come back in the second half and I thought that we played really good defense in the second half.
Q: Was the game pretty much what you expected?A. It was what we expected, we wanted to take advantage of our size and speed and I think our offense flowed a lot better than it did last night.
Q: Thoughts on the season?A: This has been the best season we've ever had, it's been a great team to work with. We finished 23-7 and we beat some teams with higher rankings and I think we've established ourselves as one of the best teams in the country.
LMU PLAYER DEVON COURTNEY
Q: How was it, playing in the first ever national championship?A: There are no words, I can't even express how grateful I am to have had this opportunity. And we've talked about how our team is so lucky to be so young after four years of being a varsity team. There's teams out there that have a lot more years behind them and we are so young compared to them, Especially for the girls that are going to be returning next year, to have this to go for all over again.
LMU PLAYER LUCY WINDES
Q: Did you expect to come out and do so well?A: Yes, I think we played so well, we really came together and after four years with this same group of girls and this game was "The Game," the top of the pyramid and we all came together and put our hearts into it.
BROWN QUOTES - FOURTH PLACE
BROWN HEAD COACH TED CLAPPER
Q: Impressions of the game?A: I thought that LMU came to play and I'm not sure if our whole team did. I thought we matched up really well, but my hats are off to them, they outworked us the whole game. They beat us to every loose ball, they were constantly swimming through. Our game plan was to swim through and I think we did it a few times. We just got out-worked and that's tough, you want a team to beat you at your best, not playing below your level of competition.
Q: Keys for next year, since you're such a young team this year?A: I think one of the things with a young team its offense is a little hesitant, things like that, but we've got some great leaders on the team and we've got some other people coming in next year and we just have to do what we did this year, start from this point and just move forward. We've come a long way thus year from the beginning to the end, especially from last season, so now its just going from this point and continuing to improve, and having the attitude that we need to get better and win a game.
BROWN PLAYER NOEL PACARRO
Q: Your impressions of the game?A. It was obvious that a lot of our team really wanted to win, but we just didn't show the heart that we usually do. We got here on heart, which is what separates us from a lot of other East Coast teams. I don't think we played the way we usually do, I'm just hopeful for next year that we can come back and play the way we know how, we're a young team and everyone will be one year more mature and be ready to stick with it and not get scared and bring it when they need to.PAGE 4 OF 4