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Quotes from Pre National Championship Game Press Conference
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May 30, 1999
VIRGINIA
Dom Starsia
On preparing any differently for this national championship game vs. the one in 1996: “My job is to try to improve my methods every time. This team has responded to working a little bit harder, asking a little bit more physically. They expect me to ask more of them physically. … We put more into our preparation with his group. We depend a little less on our talent than we have in some other years. I’m no genius, I’m just trying to do what’s best. And that’s what these guys have responded to all year. They have done a better job with attention to detail than any group I’ve had. So, we try to give them some details to think about.”
On their defense: “They don’t get enough credit for being a good, sound defensive lacrosse team. They’re doing some different things defensively. People don’t usually give Syracuse credit for those kind of adjustments. They’ve made them, they’re willing to make them, they can change the tempo of the game by some of the things they’ve done defensively. Those are the kinds of things that you see. I actually see two fairly similar teams here – scoring-driven at the attack end, both teams playing a lot of middies, both teams solid at the defensive end of the field.”
Henry Oakey
A senior from Charlottesville, Va., on what it would mean to win a national championship: “We’ve talked about it a lot. It’s something that hasn’t been done at Virginia in a long time. It would be special, I think, for all of us to bring that back. I grew up watching (previous teams). It’s just always sort of been a dream-come-true for me to come back and play for (Virginia). I’ve sort of held onto college as long as I could and I love to win a championship in my last game.
SYRACUSE
John Desko
On preventing a scoring splurge by Virginia: “They’re very dangerous. They’re a very good unsettled team; they’re a good settled team. Their dodgers are terrific from the attack to the midfield, so we’re going to have to help each other out. I just think we’re going to have to stop the unsettled situations first and control the ball a little bit on offense, recognize where they’re sliding from. I think as dangerous as their offense has been, they’ve done a terrific job (with) team defense and protecting their goalie.”
On Virginia’s face-offs: “I think what makes them extra dangerous there, they’re good athletes, they can stay on the field. If they lose the face-off, they don’t give up anything. (Jason) Hard and (David) Jenkins are good defensive players and very capable offensive players too. So, as we saw (Saturday), they can lead the break. If they have their choice, they like to put the ball out in front of them, pick it up and go down and look for a 4-on-3 situation. And it makes them very dangerous, where with our (face-off) guys, we tend to use them for the possessions and get them off (the field) if we can. So, they’re very dangerous in that aspect of the game. Probably our first responsibility there will be to take away any fastbreak or unsettled situation off the face-off.”
Chris Cordisco
On his senior class wanting to leave Syracuse with a national championship: “We’ve talked about it a little bit. Every season we start off with having a common goal for the team. This year, obviously again, it was to win the national title. It doesn’t change any year. We have the same goal each year. We kind of got together before the season and we talked about it a little bit that we may be the only senior class since I think, maybe (1988) or maybe before that, that hasn’t gone out with a championship ring and how nice it would be this year. But it didn’t put any added pressure on us. We still had the same goal that we did the previous three years that we’ve been here. So, it wasn’t anything different for us.”