Quotes: Johns Hopkins 9, Duke 8

May 30, 2005

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Duke Head Coach Mike Pressler

Opening Statement
"It's tough to put this in perspective. We were one play away from a national championship. What a year our team had though. We were 5-8 a year ago and picked fourth in the conference in the preseason. To go all the way, 17-3 and one play away from the national championship, what a year for my guys. I'm certainly really proud of them. I was a little disappointed on how we shot the ball. We had our chances. I felt we hit (Jesse) Schwartzman too many times; our shooting let us down a little bit. We won the faceoffs, we cleared the ball, we did everything else we could except put the ball in the goal. I think that was the difference in the second half. Hopkins made the plays there in the end. They're very deserving, there's no disputing, they're the national champions, so my congratulations to them."

Comparing game to Maryland game
"We didn't get as many transition opportunities as we did in the Maryland game. We had some, we just didn't finish them. We had some tremendous breaks, three or four, that just didn't end up tin the goal. We shot it wide, we hit him."

On Johns Hopkins' NCAA experience versus Duke's lack thereof
"We never thought it came into play once. Like I said, we played 20 games, more games than anybody in the field. We're still going to battle hard even though we're not a senior-laden group like Johns Hopkins. I don't think that (experience) was the case at all. In the end, we had opportunities. We've been hanging our hat at 35-plus percent shooting all year and we had our chances to go in. Their goalie was solid, but too many balls hit him. We were one and done. We hit him, the ball went to the ground and they cleared them as opposed to we make a good shot or it goes wide and we get the ball back."

On second half changes
"We changed it up a lot. We do a lot of different things. Sometimes all those cards confuse me. We try a lot of different things, going to a lot of different players, trying a lot of different angles to keep them guessing a little bit. Everything we kind of did created an opportunity. That's the object of the offense to get a quality shot and then it's up to us to put it in the goal. We got our shots but we didn't make that ones we needed."

Is Matt Danowski the best player in the country?
"Absolutely. Remember this, he's just a sophomore. We've got a lot to look forward to."

Duke sophomore attackman Matt Danowski

On last shot with four minutes left
"I got a good shot off, I got my hands free, I just put it in a terrible spot. It was stick side which is an easy save for him because he's a very good goalie. If I had put it off cage, a little towards the pipe maybe it goes in. I expected to get the ball back, but they're a good offense and held onto the ball and did what they needed to do for the win."

On changes Johns Hopkins made on you during second half
"I didn't really see anything different. We got a good amount of shots. We didn't shoot very well in the second half. We played well, but we could have shot better. I don't think they did anything out of the ordinary to take me out of my game at all. It was more myself in the second half."

On breaking the Duke single season points record
"It's never about the points for any individual on this team. We play well as a team. Fortunately we've got three good attack men at the end of most plays. I would have rather gone zero and zero with a national championship than whatever I just did (2 goals & 4 assists) today."

On the season
"It was a good season but not satisfying at all, not in the least bit. It's not satisfying to get to the national championship game and lose. I don't think anybody feels that way, you can ask all the teams that have been there. It was a turnaround that we expected. We expected to be good and expected to get here but we also expected to win, so not at all a satisfying season. We did pretty well, but we're not where we want to be."

Duke junior midfielder Matt Zash

On expectations coming into the season "We knew we had a young group. We thought that during last year our younger guys logged a lot of minutes and that experience was going to pay off this year."

Johns Hopkins Head Coach Dave Pietramala

Opening statement
"I've been waiting a long time to wear a hat like this. All I can say is 'Wow'. I am so proud of these guys right now, of what they've endured and what they've overcome. But more importantly I'm proud of how they've handled all of that. They've handled winning losing with dignity. When we lost a year ago, people told us that we quit. They just kept working. When we got back to campus, we made a commitment that we were just going to take it one day at a time and we were going to play to the best of our ability. We've done that. The senior class, I can't say enough about. They were spectacular. In regards to the game, hat's off to Duke. To come from where they were one year ago with basically the same core team, to turn it around like they did and be one goal away in the national championship game speaks volumes to their players, their coaching staff and their program. It was a great game. Two heavyweights swinging and at one point I looked at my assistants and said that we might have to win this 14-13. That's kinda uncommon for us. Then we finally buckled a little defensively and they went 20-something minutes without a goal. Offensively we stepped up in the later part of the first quarter and the first part of the second quarter and defensively, we really stepped it up and the third quarter. I'm just so proud of these kids, our fans and our administration."

On defense winning the game
"I wasn't sure it was going to be that way, especially early on. This isn't a defensive win or an offensive win, it's a team win. Our attackmen are part of our defense. They ride, they got the ball back for us a few times. Our middies are part of our defense. When we weren't having great success defensively and we were giving up some opportunities, Jesse bailed us out a few times. But then our offense stepped up. When they got a goal, we answered. Kyle getting an unassisted goal. Those were important plays for us, that we answered whenever they got something. In regards to Tom Garvey and Chris Watson, I'm going to miss them. I don't know if Greer had more than one or two shots on the day but I know Chris Watson did a phenomenal job. As Danowski goes, Greer goes. Other than the one goal Danowski got dodging him, Tom did a pretty good job. I think it was a culmination of the group playing. We wound up sliding to Danowski a lot. We wound up with short sticks on him a lot. We had put in a game plan where we were going to do some ball-side adjacent sliding early and they got one or two on us early. We were a little concerned and when we called the time out we decided to switch back to what we do normally. Back to basics. Defensive played great in the second half."

What he told team after Saturday
"I didn't have to tell them anything. Kyle Harrison told them. Greg Raymond told them. Every one of our seniors told them. They didn't need to be told. The feeling that Kyle Harrison had last year after we lost to Syracuse. Paul Rabil had that feeling this year. That's how close they were. Those kids knew that that was behind us and it was time to move forward. They've led us and set the pace and attitude of our team throughout the year and they did it again. In regards to halftime, I yelled a little bit today. I didn't the other day. I was a little upset with our defense and our man-down. I thought we weren't playing to our capabilities and they answered the challenge. We challenged them to stop fouling because we were fouling and Duke got two quick ones at the end of halftime on extra man. They all stepped up. From the attack and the riding game to the middies getting to the hole and I know that we gave them a little transition but thankfully we didn't give them too much. Maybe a turning point in the game was when they had transitions and they had a lay-up and Jesse had a kick save and we were able to go up by a go-ahead goal."

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