Q&A with Steve Swanson

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The Virginia women’s soccer team received its 15th consecutive and 21st overall bid to the NCAA Tournament and will host first and second round action this weekend at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers, the No. 2 seed in the UCLA region, will meet Army in a first round game Friday at 5 p.m. VirginiaSports.com caught up with head coach Steve Swanson to preview the tournament.

Question: You open the NCAA tournament this weekend at home against Army. How exciting is it to open at home once again?

Swanson: I think in many ways that is what you do have control over in the regular season. The way our tournament is structured, you are not really certain who you are going to play or when you are going to play them. We have found that out over the years. The one thing you have a say in is where you are going to play. We stressed that at the beginning of the year so it was good to see that we were able to get a home-field advantage. Now it is up to us to maintain that advantage, beginning on Friday. We have had a lot of success at Klöckner. I think a lot of that has to do with the comfort and familiarity that our players have with the pitch. They know what kind of surface it is. What is even more beneficial than that is the fan support that we have here and the relationship we have with the community. We hope to see another big crowd at Klöckner on Friday night.

Question: You talk about the success at Klöckner over the years, but in the last three home games the team was 0-2-1. How do you get back on the winning track at home?

Swanson: I am confident in our team. There was a little bit of a stretch that we went through toward the latter stages of the regular season where we faced some very good opponents at home. I actually think that helped make us a little bit better, and it was what we needed as a team in many ways. I do not see that as a negative at all, I see it as a positive. Our team has always responded to adversity and we have done that throughout the season. In those games, although it was disappointing to lose, there were good things that came out of them. Against North Carolina we had some good play, especially in the first half. I thought we did well against Duke. Unfortunately we did not finish as well as we could have, but we generated a lot of chances. Wake was a disappointing loss at home, but again I thought there were some good things that came out of that game. Once we regrouped and got into the ACC Tournament, we had two very good performances. It is a matter of where you are, not what you did before. I feel very good about where we are, and I think the team feels good about themselves, and that is important.

Question: You don’t have a lot of history or experience against Army. What have you learned about what to expect on Friday?

Swanson: With as much experience as I have had in the tournament over the years, I feel like it is really important that you really focus in on the team that you are playing at the time. We do not know much about Army right now, but we will do the research and will do the work to prepare properly, and will be ready for them. However, you have to be careful at this time of year that you do not turn the focus away from what is most important to your team. What does our team needs to do to prepare? So that is our main focus this week: it is really about preparing our team as best we can, and fine-tuning the things I know we can still get better at. In the end, I think that will make the most difference in this game on Friday.

Question: The ACC led all conferences with eight selections, including one No. 1 seed, two No. 2 seeds, and three No. 3 seeds. What does this say about the strength of the league?

Swanson: I think it is a remarkable statement about our conference. It is harder for people on the outside to realize how competitive the ACC is, but as long as I have been here it has always been a very deep conference from top to bottom. Even the teams that did not make the tournament are very strong teams, with strong coaches and talented players. It is just a testament to how well the teams have played both in and out of the conference. We tend to beat each other up during the conference season, but I think that prepares us that much more for the postseason.

Question: What can the fans expect to see this weekend, in terms of the level of style of soccer in the games at Klöckner Stadium?

Swanson: It is an interesting mix of teams, which is usually the case in a NCAA Tournament regional. Obviously West Virginia is very strong, as we saw earlier this season. Princeton is strong and the Ivy League is the kind of conference that I don’t think gets as much respect as it deserves. It has been a very strong and very competitive conference dating back to when I was coaching at Dartmouth. Army won the Patriot League tournament last weekend, so they enter this weekend playing well and have a lot of confidence. Not only will it be an interesting regional but I think it will be an interesting tournament overall. The caliber of teams in this tournament is very high. There is a lot of parity in and amongst the conferences, so it is going to be interesting to see who comes out of the regionals this weekend, especially since conference teams can’t play each other in the first and second rounds this year.

Question: It wasn’t that long ago that you could be fairly certain that the NCAA Champion would come from a small pool of teams. That has been changing recently and last season USC won the NCAA Championship when ranked No. 10 heading into the tournament. Is this season another year where there are 10 teams or even more that could conceivably win the championship?

Swanson: Historically it has been the case that the No. 1 seeds tend to be the ones that advance to the College Cup. That is changing. I think that makes the tournament much more exciting from a fan’s standpoint. You don’t know what is going to happen from game to game. There are still some very strong programs out there, but in our sport, where the better team doesn’t always win, a lot of things can happen. Starting with games this weekend you are going to see that and it is going to make this tournament fun to watch.