Stanford University's Official Athletic Site - Women's Water Polo

May 9, 2008

2008 National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship

First Round Quotes: UCLA 19, Pomona-Pitzer 6

Pomona-Pitzer Head Coach Alex Rodriguez:
On their performance: 'I thought we did a good job. They never gave up, they kept working, and I want them to feel like they were prepared. We knew a lot about them coming into the game obviously, and we tried to make their second or third option happen and stop that counter-attack as much as we could.'

P-P Senior Utility Laura Condon:
On being a D-III team in the D-I Championship: 'We're the Division III conference in Southern California and because we won our conference we got a bid into this tournament. We're still building. We performed better this year than we did last year, which was our first year here. I think we are trying to get beyond our regular play, and coach does a good job scheduling games against D-I teams. We had our eyes set on this as our final competition and where we want to be able to play and perform rather than just within our conference.'

P-P Freshman Driver Tamara Perea:
On her first experience at the NCAA Championships: 'I'm a freshman. I came into this team knowing that I could work hard to get to this championship. This is where I really feel comfortable being. There are a lot of teams in D-I that may be better but don't get to participate. But here we are, little D-III Pomona-Pitzer, and I think it's incredible, and it's everything I hoped it to be, getting to play the No. 1 team in the country, UCLA, it's incredible.'

UCLA Head Coach Adam Krikorian:
On the game: 'First off I would like to congratulate Pomona-Pitzer on getting this far, that's two years in a row. I think they had a great season and a great win in their conference championship over Cal-Lutheran, they proved to be more competitive this year than last year and that was really good to see. You can tell that Alex has done a great job with that team and they fought and they made it difficult for us. I think that's going to help us going into tomorrow's semifinal. '

'We don't talk about it [being undefeated]. It's water polo and we take it one game at a time and what were trying to do every single time we play is just play the best we can every time. If we play really well and someone beats us, then congratulations. We're just going to play the best we can and the rest will take care of itself.'

UCLA Senior Defender Jillian Kraus:
On a rivalry between USC, UCLA, and Stanford: 'There's always a great rivalry and you definitely want to compete hard. It's very competitive; these games won't be decided by a large margin.'

UCLA Freshman Defender Megan Burmeister:
On returning to the Bay Area: 'My very first water polo practice was actually in this pool. Every day in the summer from 6 to 8:30 in the morning since I was in 7th grade, I've put a lot of hours in at this pool. It's really special to come back here for NCAAs as a college water polo player. I couldn't really be happier being able to experience my first NCAAs here.'