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vs #19 North Carolina
Duke vs. Florida State Post Match Quotes
12/5/2015 12:52:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Duke Head Coach Robbie Church
“Wow. We are very very excited to be playing on Sunday. As you start this journey your dreams are that you end on the last day. I really could not be prouder of this team. As you probably know, we've talked about it a lot, this is a team that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. It is a team that as soon as our year was done in 2014 we started to work towards this. We dreamed a lot about it, we worked hard during the off season and during the summer prepping for this and then all year long. When we were 0-2-2 in the ACC and we were thinking, is it going to end up that way again where we don't qualify. You saw the heart of this team out there on the field tonight. We struggled out there a little bit early in the game. Florida State came out and played very well. They put us on our back foot some but as the game went on EJ [Proctor] made a couple great saves for us to keep it at zeros. As the game went on you could see our confidence was starting to build. 15, 20 minutes the clock started ticking and in a game like this the first goal is so big. We had a great little build-up. A great turn in the box and the finish. Kayla [McCoy] has done that all year, given us big goals. I thought the kisd worked extremely hard. As a coaching staff we made a decision in the second half to drop a forward and put in a midfielder and then as the match went on we added another defender, set deeper and dropped a little bit deeper looking for counters. I thought it was really fitting to get the goal at the end and I could just not be prouder of the girls than I am right tonight. We look forward to be playing on Sunday.”
“That is kind of what we talked about going into this match. Those matches, even the match before that against Florida gulf Coast, they prepared us for this match tonight. We had to go out a face teams that were favored over us, faced teams that were top five in the country. So to be able to win on the road that gave us the confidence to play a great team like Florida State tonight. I think where sometime you look at your schedule and you think that schedule prepared us. I think we had an advantage and Florida State because of their great regular season was able to stay home and was able to play some other teams. The speed of play was so quick tonight and both of those games with Florida and Stanford got us playing up to that speed. We haven't been in this environment and you could see that the first 15/20 minutes. Once we settled down and connected passes, once we became confident with the ball then you could see us start to grow and those games that we played really came into play at that point.”
“That is one of the main reasons that we can sit back is our counter attack. We have dynamic attacking players and it is very tough if you sit back and cannot counter. With the pace of our players and the ability to beat players one-on-one it really scares them. Especially with really big teams that open up, there will be seams for ups and space for us to attack at. We have really continued to work hard on that. We atarted our year defensively and our attacking took a little while to catch up with our defense and it is now starting to catch up. Once Toni [Payne] gets the ball and she places up and she's running at you, 'Oh Wow', I don't want to be the defender on the end of that. The thing the same thing with Casey [Martinez] and Imani [Dorsey] and Taylor [Racioppi], we have multiple players who can run it. So we have to be aware of teams that start to hold back and pull players back a little bit and now we have some space in the midfield to play through.”
“Pretty close. We talked about when we make a change. We never talked about it coming out of the second half until about ten minutes into halftime to come out that defensively in the second half. We saw that was a big area where two of our central midfielders there was a lot of space for them in there. They like to play in between the lines and the midfielders and backs, the gap to get balls into that was very dangerous. Once we decided lets plug three midfielders and fall into that. That was as early as we have been all year but I think it did a really nice job when we put the third midfielder in there they had a harder time of finding those players in between the lines. Once we saw that we said let's try and if it doesn't work then we could come out of it and change. We had planned in training this week to go to a four-five-one but not so early and then five in the back. We went over that earlier in the week, so the girls knew exactly once we made the change. We took Morgan [Reid] out, talked about what we were doing, put her back in and they knew at that point that we were going to go five in the back. In this game it is really difficult once you put a lot of players behind the ball and we saw that unless were going to make some mistakes and they almost did a couple times. They had some nice combination plays at the top of the box but we had people diving and blocking shots. I though both of our center backs, Rebecca and Lizzy, did a really big time. A couple of them at the last minute got a toe and poked some balls away. It worked very well.”
“Not very neutral. Hats off to our students, staff, families that came. Not only did they come to support us but they were loud. The atmosphere was exciting. Sometimes in these games when you get the kids that play in the youth tournament they come and the atmosphere was like that. It is nice to have a local team that really adds to the atmosphere. It is a neat environment and the great thing about it is these players will never forget playing in this environment tonight. We appreciate all the support that we got tonight and we need it on Sunday too.”
Sophomore Goalkeeper EJ Proctor
“I think it was off a corner kick or throw in, I don't really remember which, but that was something that we knew Florida State was really dangerous on is set pieces especially the throw which is harder to defend than the corners. I think it was the backs knew they needed to make it as hard as they could. Everyone on the field just had to make it as hard as they could for Florida State to get a good shot and I think that the backs did a good job of keeping them from doing that. It just happened to come off of Cheyna [Williams] thigh which I saw in time. But I think it definitely helped a lot that no one gave them an easy header to flick on or anything like that and I think that is why it was easy to make the save.”
“I think that was a situation that we talked about in practice. If there is any kind of ball that comes off a set piece, especially where I kind of get pulled off my line some and have to step, Ashton [Miller], Christina [Gibbons] and all the defensive mids and backs talked about dropping in behind me. Ashton knew that is what she had to do. She saw me step out and read it really well and was able to get a touch on it for me to grab it.”
Sophomore Midfielder Ashton Miller
“EJ [Proctor} is super aggressive and very effective on corners and throw ins but a lot of time they have some great headers and air ball players and I saw a few girls go up with her and figured I better just tuck in just in case.”
Junior Forward/Midfielder Toni Payne
“I think a lot of how I see my role is to be able to slip balls in behind especially to Kayla [McCoy] or Imani [Dorsey] or whoever I am play it in to. I think when I dribble, sometimes multiple players would come and it opens up a space for other players, like Kayla, so I just slipped it over and she had a good finish.”
“I think I owe all of this to my team. I have some of the most hard working teammates and I think that our coaches game plan for us working hard defensively and knowing we would have our counter attack opportunities. Our team really took advantage of that. I think on the last goal I heard 10 seconds left and decided to go for it.”
Freshman Forward Kayla McCoy
“Toni is extremely good about drawing defenders to her and is unselfish with the ball and playing people through. She has done it previously in the season and I feel we have a bit of a connection where she sees me running and just plays me through. I was very fortunate to have finished it this time.”
Florida State Head Coach Mark Krikorkian
“Certainly we give full credit to Duke, and what a great performance they had tonight. I thought from start to finish their defending was very good. We know they are a very talented group. I said on number of occasions in the last week that any team that goes went down winning in Gainesville, and flew across country winning and able to win in Stanford deserve a great deal of respect; they were able to show it again tonight. We are all sitting here a little disappointed by not being able to put the ball in the back of the net but sometimes that how is it in soccer. With Carson and Cheyna being seniors, they had exceptional careers so I am happy and proud of them. They have the opportunity to go into the next level and play as pros, and they have the opportunity to in their quest be the best soccer players they can. Fortunate for us, Megan is still the young one and probably for all of us it stings a little bit because you come into this with the intent to play on Sunday, but we won't. I thought for much of the game we played well, but it's a team that played better than we did.”
“Certainly at the end of the day it can boil down to it [not being able to get a final touch], but I thought the defending was sophisticated in a lot of numbers and central spaces. I thought if we were a little more patient, and able to use more width it would have made it a little bit easier for us. Certainly, it was not a lack of effort on our part, or not lack of trying to create the chances. I think it was more a matter of their defending being better than our attack.”
“I think they took a low line when in terms of defending, and they got lot of numbers behind the ball quickly. They are very compact particularly centrally. It was very organized, and it a collection of kids that are very discipline, intelligent and very organized. It is a good team, and there is a reason they continued winning, and they will play Sunday; it's because they are good.”
“I think it changes a lot [when Duke scored the first goal], and certainly if we scored the first goal they would step higher and play a little higher. It would bring a lot more to the game with that regard. Even though they scored the first goal reasonably earlier in the game, we had a lot of time for us to come back. It seems the way the game was going, I don't know with another hour whether I don't know if we have would have scored or not. I think it just gives credit to the Duke team.”
Freshman Midfielder Megan Connolly
“Obviously there is great confidence with the history of the school and the success they had. You kind of stay in the present, but every year you take it as it comes. It is tough now, but I will try to use it to spear it on next year. It is tough for the seniors leaving like this, and as freshman we try to get the seniors to leave on a high. Unfortunately it didn't happen, but I guess next year use it as motivation to keep going.”
“It is a different world here [at the tournament site], and they put so much effort into it. They put a lot of emphasis in women's soccer and they put a lot of money into it. It is good to see a full stadium and the support.”
Senior Midfielder/Defender Carson Pickett
“My four years have been nothing short of amazing playing under Mark and the staff we have; along with my teammates it has been awesome each year. Coming in here as a freshman, I was obviously happy to be here and wanting to get to the next level. I hopefully will get to the next level because of Mark and the staff along with this program.”
“In my sophomore year we lost on this exact field, and I remember it like yesterday where we dropped to our knees in the same exact way. I was lucky enough to have two more years here, and it has been nothing short of lucky. This freshman class is amazing and they are going to do great things. It nice to remember the national championship, but you can't look past what happened before. It definitely motivated us.”
Senior Forward Cheyna Williams
“I have been here two years but coming in I have been blessed just to be part of this program how they represented Florida State along with how the coaching staff in how much work they put in getting us as prepared for games getting us to the next level. It is a tough pill to swallow because we wanted to come out here and play in the final game. I have had a great two years, and I have learned more than I have thought I could and more than imaginable. It nice to see these young ones like Megan I told her to remember how it feels because you got three years to make it happen. It has been a great experience, and I feel blessed even though it is a tough pill to swallow right now.”
“Being a forward you want to touch the ball more, and they a center forward they had so many numbers centrally. It was hard to get on top of the ball, once I did once I had numbers around it was difficult. Finding players like Connonly to wake up with and Bella it just makes you think ahead where once you get on your foot quicker. I got a few shots and got a few infront of the goal obviously.”
“When it went over my head, and when she hesitated to come out I thought I hit my head on it ending up doing it in front of the goal but he blew the whistle before I got the shot off.”
“Wow. We are very very excited to be playing on Sunday. As you start this journey your dreams are that you end on the last day. I really could not be prouder of this team. As you probably know, we've talked about it a lot, this is a team that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. It is a team that as soon as our year was done in 2014 we started to work towards this. We dreamed a lot about it, we worked hard during the off season and during the summer prepping for this and then all year long. When we were 0-2-2 in the ACC and we were thinking, is it going to end up that way again where we don't qualify. You saw the heart of this team out there on the field tonight. We struggled out there a little bit early in the game. Florida State came out and played very well. They put us on our back foot some but as the game went on EJ [Proctor] made a couple great saves for us to keep it at zeros. As the game went on you could see our confidence was starting to build. 15, 20 minutes the clock started ticking and in a game like this the first goal is so big. We had a great little build-up. A great turn in the box and the finish. Kayla [McCoy] has done that all year, given us big goals. I thought the kisd worked extremely hard. As a coaching staff we made a decision in the second half to drop a forward and put in a midfielder and then as the match went on we added another defender, set deeper and dropped a little bit deeper looking for counters. I thought it was really fitting to get the goal at the end and I could just not be prouder of the girls than I am right tonight. We look forward to be playing on Sunday.”
“That is kind of what we talked about going into this match. Those matches, even the match before that against Florida gulf Coast, they prepared us for this match tonight. We had to go out a face teams that were favored over us, faced teams that were top five in the country. So to be able to win on the road that gave us the confidence to play a great team like Florida State tonight. I think where sometime you look at your schedule and you think that schedule prepared us. I think we had an advantage and Florida State because of their great regular season was able to stay home and was able to play some other teams. The speed of play was so quick tonight and both of those games with Florida and Stanford got us playing up to that speed. We haven't been in this environment and you could see that the first 15/20 minutes. Once we settled down and connected passes, once we became confident with the ball then you could see us start to grow and those games that we played really came into play at that point.”
“That is one of the main reasons that we can sit back is our counter attack. We have dynamic attacking players and it is very tough if you sit back and cannot counter. With the pace of our players and the ability to beat players one-on-one it really scares them. Especially with really big teams that open up, there will be seams for ups and space for us to attack at. We have really continued to work hard on that. We atarted our year defensively and our attacking took a little while to catch up with our defense and it is now starting to catch up. Once Toni [Payne] gets the ball and she places up and she's running at you, 'Oh Wow', I don't want to be the defender on the end of that. The thing the same thing with Casey [Martinez] and Imani [Dorsey] and Taylor [Racioppi], we have multiple players who can run it. So we have to be aware of teams that start to hold back and pull players back a little bit and now we have some space in the midfield to play through.”
“Pretty close. We talked about when we make a change. We never talked about it coming out of the second half until about ten minutes into halftime to come out that defensively in the second half. We saw that was a big area where two of our central midfielders there was a lot of space for them in there. They like to play in between the lines and the midfielders and backs, the gap to get balls into that was very dangerous. Once we decided lets plug three midfielders and fall into that. That was as early as we have been all year but I think it did a really nice job when we put the third midfielder in there they had a harder time of finding those players in between the lines. Once we saw that we said let's try and if it doesn't work then we could come out of it and change. We had planned in training this week to go to a four-five-one but not so early and then five in the back. We went over that earlier in the week, so the girls knew exactly once we made the change. We took Morgan [Reid] out, talked about what we were doing, put her back in and they knew at that point that we were going to go five in the back. In this game it is really difficult once you put a lot of players behind the ball and we saw that unless were going to make some mistakes and they almost did a couple times. They had some nice combination plays at the top of the box but we had people diving and blocking shots. I though both of our center backs, Rebecca and Lizzy, did a really big time. A couple of them at the last minute got a toe and poked some balls away. It worked very well.”
“Not very neutral. Hats off to our students, staff, families that came. Not only did they come to support us but they were loud. The atmosphere was exciting. Sometimes in these games when you get the kids that play in the youth tournament they come and the atmosphere was like that. It is nice to have a local team that really adds to the atmosphere. It is a neat environment and the great thing about it is these players will never forget playing in this environment tonight. We appreciate all the support that we got tonight and we need it on Sunday too.”
Sophomore Goalkeeper EJ Proctor
“I think it was off a corner kick or throw in, I don't really remember which, but that was something that we knew Florida State was really dangerous on is set pieces especially the throw which is harder to defend than the corners. I think it was the backs knew they needed to make it as hard as they could. Everyone on the field just had to make it as hard as they could for Florida State to get a good shot and I think that the backs did a good job of keeping them from doing that. It just happened to come off of Cheyna [Williams] thigh which I saw in time. But I think it definitely helped a lot that no one gave them an easy header to flick on or anything like that and I think that is why it was easy to make the save.”
“I think that was a situation that we talked about in practice. If there is any kind of ball that comes off a set piece, especially where I kind of get pulled off my line some and have to step, Ashton [Miller], Christina [Gibbons] and all the defensive mids and backs talked about dropping in behind me. Ashton knew that is what she had to do. She saw me step out and read it really well and was able to get a touch on it for me to grab it.”
Sophomore Midfielder Ashton Miller
“EJ [Proctor} is super aggressive and very effective on corners and throw ins but a lot of time they have some great headers and air ball players and I saw a few girls go up with her and figured I better just tuck in just in case.”
Junior Forward/Midfielder Toni Payne
“I think a lot of how I see my role is to be able to slip balls in behind especially to Kayla [McCoy] or Imani [Dorsey] or whoever I am play it in to. I think when I dribble, sometimes multiple players would come and it opens up a space for other players, like Kayla, so I just slipped it over and she had a good finish.”
“I think I owe all of this to my team. I have some of the most hard working teammates and I think that our coaches game plan for us working hard defensively and knowing we would have our counter attack opportunities. Our team really took advantage of that. I think on the last goal I heard 10 seconds left and decided to go for it.”
Freshman Forward Kayla McCoy
“Toni is extremely good about drawing defenders to her and is unselfish with the ball and playing people through. She has done it previously in the season and I feel we have a bit of a connection where she sees me running and just plays me through. I was very fortunate to have finished it this time.”
Florida State Head Coach Mark Krikorkian
“Certainly we give full credit to Duke, and what a great performance they had tonight. I thought from start to finish their defending was very good. We know they are a very talented group. I said on number of occasions in the last week that any team that goes went down winning in Gainesville, and flew across country winning and able to win in Stanford deserve a great deal of respect; they were able to show it again tonight. We are all sitting here a little disappointed by not being able to put the ball in the back of the net but sometimes that how is it in soccer. With Carson and Cheyna being seniors, they had exceptional careers so I am happy and proud of them. They have the opportunity to go into the next level and play as pros, and they have the opportunity to in their quest be the best soccer players they can. Fortunate for us, Megan is still the young one and probably for all of us it stings a little bit because you come into this with the intent to play on Sunday, but we won't. I thought for much of the game we played well, but it's a team that played better than we did.”
“Certainly at the end of the day it can boil down to it [not being able to get a final touch], but I thought the defending was sophisticated in a lot of numbers and central spaces. I thought if we were a little more patient, and able to use more width it would have made it a little bit easier for us. Certainly, it was not a lack of effort on our part, or not lack of trying to create the chances. I think it was more a matter of their defending being better than our attack.”
“I think they took a low line when in terms of defending, and they got lot of numbers behind the ball quickly. They are very compact particularly centrally. It was very organized, and it a collection of kids that are very discipline, intelligent and very organized. It is a good team, and there is a reason they continued winning, and they will play Sunday; it's because they are good.”
“I think it changes a lot [when Duke scored the first goal], and certainly if we scored the first goal they would step higher and play a little higher. It would bring a lot more to the game with that regard. Even though they scored the first goal reasonably earlier in the game, we had a lot of time for us to come back. It seems the way the game was going, I don't know with another hour whether I don't know if we have would have scored or not. I think it just gives credit to the Duke team.”
Freshman Midfielder Megan Connolly
“Obviously there is great confidence with the history of the school and the success they had. You kind of stay in the present, but every year you take it as it comes. It is tough now, but I will try to use it to spear it on next year. It is tough for the seniors leaving like this, and as freshman we try to get the seniors to leave on a high. Unfortunately it didn't happen, but I guess next year use it as motivation to keep going.”
“It is a different world here [at the tournament site], and they put so much effort into it. They put a lot of emphasis in women's soccer and they put a lot of money into it. It is good to see a full stadium and the support.”
Senior Midfielder/Defender Carson Pickett
“My four years have been nothing short of amazing playing under Mark and the staff we have; along with my teammates it has been awesome each year. Coming in here as a freshman, I was obviously happy to be here and wanting to get to the next level. I hopefully will get to the next level because of Mark and the staff along with this program.”
“In my sophomore year we lost on this exact field, and I remember it like yesterday where we dropped to our knees in the same exact way. I was lucky enough to have two more years here, and it has been nothing short of lucky. This freshman class is amazing and they are going to do great things. It nice to remember the national championship, but you can't look past what happened before. It definitely motivated us.”
Senior Forward Cheyna Williams
“I have been here two years but coming in I have been blessed just to be part of this program how they represented Florida State along with how the coaching staff in how much work they put in getting us as prepared for games getting us to the next level. It is a tough pill to swallow because we wanted to come out here and play in the final game. I have had a great two years, and I have learned more than I have thought I could and more than imaginable. It nice to see these young ones like Megan I told her to remember how it feels because you got three years to make it happen. It has been a great experience, and I feel blessed even though it is a tough pill to swallow right now.”
“Being a forward you want to touch the ball more, and they a center forward they had so many numbers centrally. It was hard to get on top of the ball, once I did once I had numbers around it was difficult. Finding players like Connonly to wake up with and Bella it just makes you think ahead where once you get on your foot quicker. I got a few shots and got a few infront of the goal obviously.”
“When it went over my head, and when she hesitated to come out I thought I hit my head on it ending up doing it in front of the goal but he blew the whistle before I got the shot off.”
Players Mentioned
Kieran Hall Postgame vs Pitt
Thursday, October 02
Mia Oliaro Postgame vs Pitt
Thursday, October 02
Kieran Hall Postgame Vs. Wake Forest
Thursday, September 25
Kieran Hall Postgame Vs. Notre Dame
Friday, September 19
