Quotes From Princeton's 12-11 Win Over Virginia
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May 27, 2000
NCAA SEMIFINAL – Virginia vs. PrincetonMay 27, 2000 – Byrd Stadium (College Park, Md.)
PRINCETONHEAD COACH BILL TIERNEY ON RETURNING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: “Beforethe game I told the team that we have had a lot of great victories inthe last 10 years. But because of this team’s perseverance, because ofthe injury to B.J. Prager, because we were not supposed to be here, andbecause of the attitude these guys have had, this win ranks right upthere with the best.”
SEAN HARTOFILIS ON HIS GOAL THAT STARTED THE PRINCETON RUN: “MattStriebel had just kicked it forward to try to get the ground ball. Thedefenseman tried covering the ball, but I just got ahold of it andpicked it up. I saw (Virginia goalkeeper) Derek Kenney run back in thegoal. He didn’t seem too ready to take a shot. So I decided to shootit and luckily, it went in.”
COACH TIERNEY ON HIS TEAM’S EFFORT: “These guys were out there againstone of the top offenses in the country, if not the best. We justchallenged our guys to stand up individually, which is not our style. Ican’t say enough about these kids. It was a phenomenal effort on theirpart. For a coach, with every move you make, you look good if you winand you look bad if you lose. We tell every kid who comes to Princetonthat there are no superstars. Every day somebody different has a greatgame, and that’s what makes me most proud.”
HARTOFILIS ON GOALKEEPER TREVOR TIERNEY: “Whenever Trevor makes a save,it’s good for us. Trevor played great today. He always does. We’vebecome spoiled. He is definitely underrated. He was third-team IvyLeague, but honestly I don’t think there are two goalies in the countryahead of him. A lot of credit goes to our defense, but he’s in therestopping shots off stickside and he makes them look normal.”
COACH TIERNEY ON COACHING HIS SONS: “Thank God they have their mother’scomposure. When you coach your sons, you try so hard not to be too hardor too soft. It’s hard to put into words just what this means. It isevery coach’s and every dad’s dream.”
VIRGINIA
COACH DOM STARSIA’S OPENING STATEMENT: “It’s very difficult to be hereand have this end like this. We picked an inopportune time to playpoorly. I give Princeton credit. The better team deserved to win .. anddid win today. I hate it to end, certainly. We just never got in theflow of things the entire day. I never felt comfortable. I thought wewere getting good chances offensively early in the game, (but we) didn’tcash in too many of them. I never felt comfortable in the defensive endof the field. We just seemed careless at times and we weren’t doing thethings that we’ve been doing well all season long. I’m at a little bitof a loss to explain it.”
GOALKEEPER DEREK KENNEY: “I thought I did a really lousy job getting theball out of our end. That’s usually one of my strong points, getting itup and out. Today I just played terribly getting it out, and I didn’tmake big saves or clear the ball when I had to.”
ATTACKMAN CONOR GILL: “This is awful. Going into this game, I neverthought we’d lose to Princeton. Its’ not just losing, my time with thisteam is over. You can’t take for granted coming here and playing in thefinal four. I just never thought this would happen.”
COACH DOM STARSIA ON FACE-OFFS: “Certainly I was disappointed that weweren’t able to win the face-offs when the game was being decided in thefourth quarter. But my two most solid, rock-steady human beings on myteam are (face-off specialists) David Jenkins and Jason Hard. So, it wasnot for lack of effort on our part. Give the Princeton kids credit,(but) our kids were battling out there.”