May 20, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Georgetown
NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Quarterfinal
Notre Dame Quotes
Notre Dame Head Coach Tracy Coyne
On the pressure of the game and the excitement of winning…
“I don’t think it has sunk in yet. We were very calm all week in practice. I told the team I felt confident. I had confidence in their ability after the way they handled the Cornell game. We just took it as a really important Georgetown game.
On the impact Crysti Foote had in the game…
“She is the best eight-meter shooter I have ever seen. She scored in the World Cup last year on an eight meter last year against Australia. I told her, ‘If we’re losing this game, we’re going down with you scoring.'”
On why this season’s team has reached the Final Four…
“This team is different that other teams I have coached because they take things one game at a time. I know everyone says that, but they have a certain calmness about them that I attribute to Crysti (Foote) and Carol (Dixon). I think that calmness give us a lot of confidence. I said after I won my 200th game, talk to me after 203, because that will be the National Championship.”
Senior Midfield/Attack Crysti Foote
On accomplishing goals this season…
“We had two goals coming into this season. We had a goal to win the BIG EAST, and they took that from us, and a goal to win the NCAA championship. When they took the BIG EAST championship from us, it sunk in. We came back today and wanted to win badly. Everyone stepped up, from the goalie, to the midfield, to the defense, to the attack. We just did an all around amazing job.”
On the turn-around from last year’s 3-12 season…
“Everyday in practice I look at everyone, and if one person is working hard, the person next to them is working even harder. It’s just the mentality this year. We’re working hard and we’re not ready to give up at any point. It’s just been an overall effort this year”
On her impact, especially late in the game…
“I made some bad decisions today. Once I realized this could be my last game, I looked at the scoreboard, I looked at my teammates, and said, ‘We are not losing this game.'”
Sophomore Midfield/Attack Caitlin McKinney
On the work that went in to reaching the Final Four…
“We definitely deserved it. We worked so hard this year. All the running, all the practicing, all the listening, and watching film, everything came together today. I think it gives us the edge over teams.”
On the leadership of the senior class impacting the turn-around from last season…
“I think we have great leadership from the seniors. They have really pulled it together. Also, last year we lost a lot of close games, but now we have the experience to pull a lot of those games out.”
Freshman Midfield/Attack Jill Byers
On the magnitude of the game…
“I don’t even know what to say. I’ve never played in a game like this, of this caliber. This is everyone’s dream and I can’t even believe it’s reality.”
On reaching the Final Four as a freshman…
“You come here as a freshman, and see last year’s 3-12 season, and wonder if we can have this good of a turn-around. We’ve got people like (Crysti Foote) leading the team and people stepping up on days like today. Not every shot is perfect, not every pass is perfect, but everyone stepped up, from our goalie to the lowest attacker
Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried
Overall thoughts on the game…
“We want to give Notre Dame a lot of credit for how they were prepared to play today, Their big three players stepped up big, Crysti (Foote), Jill (Byers), and Caitlin (McKinney) did an excellent job. I think Carol Dixon did a nice job in the goal as well. To our credit we didn’t stop fighting; we kept playing the whole game and we just didn’t quite have enough at the end. I’m very proud of our seniors especially. While this is not a great way for them to end their careers obviously, but when they look back on it they will be very satisfied with what they accomplished.”
Junior Goal Keeper Maggie Koch
On Notre Dame’s attack…
“Caitlin (McKinney) and Jill (Byers) are incredibly fast and great on their cuts, I feel like they can find each other without even looking and always know where each other are.”
Junior Attack Coco Stanwick
On adjustments made throughout the game…
“Notre Dame is a great team, they came out and took a great lead, we just decided we had to take a step back and start playing our game. And we were able to climb back, but unfortunately Notre Dame came out.”
Junior Attack Coco Stanwick
On Notre Dame’s draw play…
“They are a great team and they did a really great job off circle and we weren’t denying the center and we went into ourselves really so it just kind of odd ball play and its 50/50 balls and Chloe came in to get the ball at the circle and again it was just 50/50 balls.”
Senior Defense Stephanie Zodtner
On whether or not Notre Dame’s offense surprised them or not…
“No nothing special. What was said at halftime was the goals they had we gave them. They do have a lot of talent down there, they’re a great team credit to them and good luck to them the rest of the tournament”
Junior Attack Coco Stanwick
On the ability to be successful scoring goals when shots were taken…
“I would say it was just unforced errors and turnovers on our part. I don’t know what our percentage was but we did a pretty good job shooting-wise today. We just didn’t get enough opportunities and time ran out.”