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Feb. 6, 2007

Recap | Box Score | PHOTO GALLERY media-icon-photogallery.gif

POSTGAME QUOTES

Debbie Ryan, Virginia head coach
On “games like these”:
“I think that games like this always help, because you get to play a lot of people lots of minutes, and they get to do some things they haven’t done for awhile. I can put players in for extended periods of time and get my starters and players that play a lot off the floor, which helps tremendously because at this time of year you are really running into a wall. This is really our bye week, so we want to get a couple days off during this week, rather than just one because one doesn’t really help them replenish.”

On the shooting numbers of the starting players:
“They were very focused tonight. They were really businesslike coming out of the gate, and I didn’t have to play them much. That was the great thing.”

On the upcoming game against Maryland:
“We’ve already played Maryland once. Having the game tonight helps because you keep your rhythm, you keep your timing, then you give them time off and they get to get away from it for a little bit, and then they come back with a renewed sense of how they are going to prepare. We want them to have their legs and be very, very ready to play, so this really helps us to have some extra time to be able to watch Maryland and know exactly what we need to do in order to win the game.”

On her team’s performance and continued hustle:
“We had some goals. We got some of them, we didn’t get others, but I thought that the first group went in and really held to the goals well and did a very good job. Obviously when you are substituting with six or seven different players, it makes it tougher to reach those goals, but I thought that everyone went in and played hard tonight and gave everything they had, which is what matters.”

On the margin of victory:
“You never like someone to lose like this; that is not something that we strive for, but I think that we just focused on us tonight. They are a new program, a program that is up-and-coming, and I just think that they really enjoyed the challenge.”

On Siedah Williams:
“It was a real good game to get her back on track. She has had a couple double-doubles now, which makes things a lot better.

On her post players:
“I was real proud of Jayna tonight in double figures. Our post players, I thought, played extremely well. I played Abby fewer minutes because her foot has been bothering her and I wanted to give her some rest, and this is a great week to do it. The three post players that did play a lot I thought played really well and really got at the boards hard. I thought everybody got on the boards hard. It was really just a great night on the boards and playing aggressively.”

“We have two weeks left. Its going to be a marathon and a sprint at the same time. We just have to take it game-by-game. The great thing is it is always Sunday-Thursday, so we have good spacing. Although we have three out of five games on the road, we’re still in a pretty good position with the way the games are laid out.”

Siedah Williams
On winning two in a row after a five-game losing streak:
“It definitely feels good. It’s about time. It’s our turn. We’d been on that five-game losing streak, but it’s our turn, and now we’re going to start our winning streak.”

On missing the NCAA three years ago:
“There wasn’t as much pressure on us as for the upperclassmen. We had just come in wondering what was happening. But now, it’s kind of weighing on us a little bit.”

On teammate Jayna Hartig:
“It’s definitely a motivation for her to know that she can score at-will when she wants. It’s definitely going to carry over; she’s going to work hard this summer to put up the points and get the rebounds. It’s going to carry over, because she’s a hard worker.”

On the bench getting playing time:
“They bring extra energy off the bench. When they go in, everyone is standing up and cheering. We run plays to get them shots, and when they fall, they fall; and when they don’t, they don’t. But when they fall, that just fires up everybody. Some of them have their own cheering sections in the stands.”

On nearing a 1,000 career points:
“‘Wow is pretty much all I can say right now. Down the road it’s just going to be an interesting fact to tell people. That ‘Yeah, I did this at UVa; I accomplished this goal, and I’m happy about it’.”

On playing in John Paul Jones Arena:
“I know when I first came in, I thought U-Hall was amazing. And being able to play here my last year, you can’t ask for more than that. It’s a wonderful place-and just being at UVa. I had a great four years here, and I’m going to finish it off strong.”

Brenna McGuire
On being seniors:
“We only have five games left, so it’s bittersweet. We’ll definitely play our hearts out the last five games. It’s kind of exciting in another way that we’re going to move on and do something new and experience other things.”

On being in a shooting zone:
“The ball just came to me, and I found myself open a lot of times. So, it’s going up. It worked out well for me tonight, so I plan to keep going and do that against Maryland.”

On the bench getting playing time:
“It’s really exciting because we see how hard they all work in practice, and everyday they do what we’re doing, maybe even harder. They came out and they got their opportunity to play tonight and they played well. But it is so exciting every time they come in because it’s rewarding them for all the hardship they have to go through.”

On the feeling of the game:
“I think our focus in the last week-and-a-half has been to have fun in practice and in games. It’s just our main goal. I feel like we had lost that a little bit, and you could see it. We wanted to regain it, because that’s why we play basketball.”

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