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NCAA College Cup Press Conference Quotes
12/5/2015 3:24:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Duke Head Coach Robbie Church
“It is an honor and privilege to be laying this game. Every team starts off in August with dreams of playing in the National Championship game. As a coach you want all of your players to experience something like this. This has been a phenomenal weekend from the NCAA, to WakeMed and the host cities. Everything has been first class here and we appreciate all that hospitality. You really want your players to work hard and get the experience of playing in the national Championship. We feel very fortunate. We know we are facing an outstanding Penn State team. We've played Penn State a number of times in the past two or three years. We played them in 2012 in the Elite Eight at Penn State. Penn State came to our Duke Nike Classic Tournament last year and then of course we played them in the second weekend up at their place. We have a little bit of a history with Penn State lately, though on our side it hasn't been a great history. I have a lot of respect for Erica [Walsh] and her program and the players she has on her team. Ever since that weekend, I kept my eye on them the whole time. Parts of that game especially for being so early in the season you could see was a really high level game. I think we played really well for the first 25 minutes of that second half and we said this could be something that we could really build on. We said if we could take this 20/25 minutes and build on it throughout the season we could have something really special here. Everyone of games have been very entertaining games, both teams have attacked and defended well. Both teams have good goal keepers and we expect a very tight game with a very close outcome. We are going to come out and do what we do. We are going to work hard on both sides of the ball and I think for us the most important thing is to not go backward but go forward. All of our thought process and energy has to be focused on getting ready for Penn State and how quickly can we transition from the great win Friday night to the game on Sunday against Penn State in such a short turnaround time.”
Can you address what you've seen from Toni [Payne] this season?
“Toni has actually had a really good season, probably her best with us. You look at the stats in the regular season, there weren't a lot of goals or assists, but everybody at this table and back at our hotel knows exactly what Toni Payne means to our team. She has sacrificed a lot of her offensive game for the team and she knew that over her first two years we were giving up too many goals to be able to advance to an environment like this and it is not only Toni but all of our attacking players have. The bigger the game the better Toni plays. At this point when we got to the tournament there was no doubt in my mind that she was going to be one of our top attacking players because she thrives in that type of environment.”
Junior Defender Christina Gibbons
How different were the defensive challenges going through Stanford and Florida State?
“I think with Florida we saw an attack that was really based around one forward in Savannah Georgia who is a really talented player. They obviously had a lot of good players around her but she was someone who we scouted and knew her tendencies and had to keep our eye on. In contrast, Stanford was more of a team that had threats across the line. They did not necessarily have one player who had a bunch of goals that season but were able to find goals through a lot of different players. That was definitely an attack that took more of a team defensive situation. Last night against Florida State you have Cheyna Williams up top. I think they are also an attack that when you look across the board they have talented players in every aspect, from their midfield, out on the wings and I think the same thing comes with Penn State. There is not one player necessarily who sticks out like a Savannah Jordan, but you know that every single person on their front line is a quality player. Especially in their midfield as well. I think we need to take the approach that one-on=one is going to be a battle. Every single matchup that we have is going to be a battle that we need to win and nothing really changes aside from the fact that it is a different team but we go into it knowing that we what to have a two-on-one defensive situation. We always want to have each other's back and cover for each other. I think that is what we see in Penn State.”
You are from the area. Did the crowd last night affect you as a competitor and how do you think that will affect you on Sunday?
“For me it feels pretty special. Being so close to here and training here my whole life growing up and playing at these fields it is kind of surreal playing here and at a stage like this when I have never been on a stadium field except for just last night just all the fields around it. You sort of block it out at the time but it is special to run over to the stands after the game and celebrate with your loved ones.”
Junior Forward/Midfielder Toni Payne
What was your reaction when Coach Robbie told the players that this season we are going to take a more defensive approach?
“I think initially in my mind I thought that is how it was going to be. I think that as the season went on and the rest of the forwards realized as well that when the other team has the ball our first priority is to defend because we are the first line of defense. Taking that and committing ourselves to that has helped us in the long run. Maybe we are not doing well offensively at the moment but one thing that we can do is work as hard as we can defensively and things will play out in the attack.”
Did you worry that the goals would come at all on the attack?
“I think every forward or midfielder attacking will go through that during the season. When they go through a rough patch where goals are not coming or they miss chances, but I think as a team and defensive line we have faith that it would happen. Every single practice we would focus just a little bit more and that when we had those opportunities we were going to finish them.”
Junior Defender Lizzy Raben
How did the team feel when you were 0-2-2 in the ACC during the regular season?
“I think we all kind of knew that our record did not necessarily reflect how we were playing at the time. Everyone really bought in to what the coaches were telling us and that when the goals weren't falling in or we weren't getting the results we that we deserved that we were going to keep trusting what they were asking us to do and that eventually everything was going to pay off. I think our confidence and belief in what we were doing despite our record at the time never really waiver and I think that speaks to the character of this team.”
This is a big soccer weekend at your house as your brother is playing in the quarterfinals tonight. Have you had a chance to compare notes?
“We are very close and have been following each other all season. We have made it out to a few of the others games. We both had high expectations for our teams going into the tournament and wishing each other good luck. I know he watched our game last night but wasn't able to make due to his big game today and that's the same reason why I can't be at his game physically, but I'll be watch and we always exchange good luck and congratulations texts after games and our family has done a phenomenal job supporting us both.”
Sophomore Goalkeeper EJ Proctor
You are from the area. Did the crowd last night affect you as a competitor and how do you think that will affect you on Sunday?
“I think that it kind of hit home after the Stanford game when we got good luck texts from friends back home. Before they were just saying congratulations or good luck before a game but after the Stanford game they were telling us that they would actually be at our next game. That was something that not everyone gets to hear in a tournament. Once we settled down after about the first ten minutes of the game the crowd didn't really affect us but it took us a few minutes to get there.”
Penn State
Head Coach Erica Walsh
Obviously, we're thrilled to be here, preparing for the national championship game tomorrow. I had a chance to watch Duke and Florida State last night and I want to congratulate the Duke Blue Devils on their victory. I thought they looked outstanding and their tactics were genius last night. It took a very good Duke team to beat the Florida State team, the defending national champions; a job well done by Robbie Church and his staff. Looking back on our match last night, it was a very organized team that we had to really work and breakdown. We didn't break them down as often as we had hoped, but I really feel like we can take a look at what we did last night and build on it. I believe we can take last night's game, develop it, and grow for tomorrow's match. I am really honored and proud of the team for a shutout last night against a good Rutgers team.
Walking into that stadium last night rivaled any atmosphere that I've been in during my career. As a head coach, it was the best atmosphere and environment I've been a part of. I want to thank the community and town of Cary, all the club teams that came to support the teams last night. I want to thank the Park Avenue Army and all of our Penn State cheering section last night for their support as well.
It's interesting to watch these two teams now. In many ways, I think they are a mirror image of one another in terms of the growth we've both experienced. Duke is also a young team with a lot of dynamic pieces. But watching their growth and style of play over the course of the season, they've had some pieces to move around due to injury. I think we will be facing a team with a little bit different tactics that we experienced in University Park. I feel we are a different team from that time, with the principles and pillars we've been working on all season long, with a different level of confidence, team defining and attention to detail on set pieces that have really helped us to be successful in this run.
From what we've seen so far, they are one of the finest counter-attacking teams that I've witnessed in quite a long time. The team really believes in their tactics and what they are trying to do. It has evolved over the course of the season and that necessarily is not the style we saw when we played them at home. They seem that it is something they've really grown into, knocking off the SEC and Pac-12 champion, obviously they had to come up with something to suit their player personnel and they seem to have found that right formula.
Scheduling plays in our favor, we play an ACC team that typically plays Thursday and Sunday, so that they may not have the same experience playing week-after-week of Friday and Sunday matches. We have honed our rotation, in terms of substitution patterns over time, throughout the course of the season. We have a really good sense of which players will need more of a breather after a lot of minutes on Friday. Certainly, it will play a role, but the strength of this team all season long has been the depth and we are really proud of the players coming off the bench and strength of this 26-man roster. I feel much more comfortable than 2012 going into that national championship game with the players we have coming off the bench.
Senior forward/midfielder Raquel Rodriquez
The crowd is what makes the environment in the end. It doesn't matter if it's for Duke or Penn State. This is like a party for soccer and as a soccer player playing with everyone watching, it's the best feeling in the world. I think wanting to be here is being a part of that environment.
It's definitely been an amazing year for me personally. Right now, all of my focus and attention is on tomorrow's game. I always say it's a dream come true for me. Tomorrow definitely as well, we have the opportunity to make that dream come true again for the team. I couldn't be more grateful with the opportunities that God has provided for me. Secondly, the support from the Penn State family and helping me in every journey. Whether with my national team or with Penn State, it's been amazing. Words cannot express how grateful I am with my family here [at Penn State].
Senior forward Mallory Weber
Coming back with more experience and not being satisfied with just being here, we deserve this and we worked for this. Playing as a senior you're more aware and have a lot more confidence going into the weekend.
Regardless of who the fans are cheering for, the atmosphere it creates is great. You don't really notice as a player, who has more fans. It really creates a great atmosphere.
Players Mentioned
M/D
/ Women's Soccer
M/F
/ Women's Soccer
GK
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