May 16, 1999

1999 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships
Second Round, May 16
Courtney Tennis Center
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Ind.

Iowa Head Coach Paul Wardlaw
On the match: “Unbelievable! The kids played with a lot of heart and worked hard.”

On the crowd noise: “The crowd was starting to bother us, but we needed to focus on playing. They got distracted and started to feel sorry for themselves. I told them to focus on the match.”

What he said between singles and doubles to his team: “We are used to playing doubles because we play the men’s format and Notre Dame is used to doubles at the end and maybe they are not used to the pressure. We are. I just told them to play the ball.”

Iowa player Toni Neykova
On falling behind: “We did not play bad, we just were not concentrating. I just tried to think positive and play the ball in the court. I wanted to play my best tennis. I was excited, not nervous.”

Iowa player Shera Wiegler
On the second straight come back victory: “We left our hearts on the court. All year we wanted to be in the top sixteen (in the country). We just gave all that we had. Notre Dame was fresh because of their match yesterday [a 9-0 victory over Illinois-Chicago]. I guess it was just meant to be.”

Notre Dame head coach Jay Louderback
On the match: “They played better under pressure than we did today. We got ahead and then made errors. They played really well on the pressure points.”

On the season: “It was a great season. I told the girls that one match does not make a season.”

On the decisive doubles match: “One doubles usually gets a big lead then steamrolls their way to victory. They didn’t play well today and made some errors. Iowa really fought hard.”