Post Game Quotes vs North Carolina
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March 8, 2014
Head coach Julie Myers
“A lot of credit goes to Carolina. They are a great team and are really deep. They ran us hard. They just played a really fast game and were able to execute better than we did.”
On Carolina’s second-half run
“In the second half, North Carolina got a lot of momentum and discovered some holes in our defense and finally got their shots to go in,” Myers said. “Our defense and our goalkeeper, Liz, in particular, did a great job really holding them back for much of the game, but they had a short span where they actually found the back of the net. Our energy kind of deflated a little bit when they did that. It was nice to see that we sort of dug in deep after their run and we were able to score the last three of the game, so ending on a high note is a small consolation.”
On Virginia’s defensive effort
“We played a different defense today. We didn’t have as much pressure on the ball. What we had was a lot of support for one another. When they took their one-on-ones, we were able to slide some doubles. I thought our defense played pretty tough and pretty tight. We clearly needed to come up with a few more possessions where we were able to get the ball in the ground. Cleaner transitions I think would have made a big difference. Of course, executing on our shots, eight-meters in particular. We were creating opportunities, but we were not finishing on those. That’s the thing we need to work on so the next time out we are more successful.”
On the play of goalkeeper Liz Colgan
“Liz did a great job and was able to do a great job because she knew where the shots were coming from. I thought the defenders did a nice job of crashing the shooters and giving Liz a chance to find some of those. Certainly she did and saw the ball well today and had a career day.”
On takeaways from the game
“I think we are a team that creates lots and lots of opportunities. We need to now secure those opportunities. We work really hard to get the ball and then we will throw it away. It’s all over the field. It’s not just our attack or our defense or our middies, it’s a collective effort. We make it just a little bit too hard to win a game against top, top opponents. Mistakes kind of haunt you. And I think they did today. Honestly, to score 10 against Carolina is pretty good.”
Senior Attacker Liza Blue
On the positives from today’s game
“The positives are we never gave up. I think we have a lot of energy and heart. We just have to capitalize more on our opportunities and our shooting, definitely.”
On what the team needs to get better at
“From an attack perspective, shooting definitely. And taking more shots. We took about half as many as they did. In transition, attackers need to get the ball quickly and capitalize a lot faster.”
Senior Goalkeeper Liz Colgan
On what was working for the defense
“I think our strength was that we practiced certain tendencies for each individual this week. We made them score in different ways that they weren’t used to. I think we gave them a good challenge.”