Nov. 14, 2008
Paul Stumpf
Head Women's Soccer Coach
UC Santa Barbara
On UC Santa Barbara returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991
I'm exceptionally proud of my team the way they played their hearts out all night long - they have to get some credit for that. If I think of our team specifically - and I've been telling them this for a week now - that I can't thank them enough for their efforts at fulfilling a dream of ours of getting back to this Tournament. I've been at Santa Barbara now for 10 years, and four years we were been close, and finally we got over the hump - whatever it took. I think this is a pretty special group of kids - you saw them tonight just lay their hearts on the line. They played 90 minutes against an exceptional soccer team. I'm disappointed like crazy, but I feel so fortunate to have such a quality group of kids in my life.
On Stanford
We have not come up against a team as athletic and as technical as Stanford, without a doubt. Because of their ability to maintain possession, we end up chasing and by the end of the night, we're just totally stretched out. Your backs and your forwards are stretched out because you can't work up and back anymore.
It's (Stanford) just one of the best darn soccer teams I've ever seen. One of the interesting scouting reports we received is that Stanford is a really fun team to watch, unless you're coaching against them. I'd love to drive back up and watch them play on Sunday (against Kansas) since they are such a fun team to watch.
On freshman goalkeeper Ali Cutler (11 saves)
She played a great game, especially considering she's a freshman.
On the youth of the UC Santa Barbara team
Our whole team is young - we basically played two seniors and two juniors. Seven of our players are freshmen and sophomores.
One of the things for us, that we think is really important, is that as much as we wanted to win tonight, we look at the future of our program that's now gone through a conference title run, a conference tournament championship (Big West) and, now, an NCAA playoff game. The experiences that our young team has got now this season has been invaluable, and we are very excited about the future.