University of Connecticut Athletics
Post Game Quotes
11/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
NCAA Field Hockey Semifinals
North Carolina vs. UConn
Nov. 17, 2017
UConn Postgame quotes
(Opening Statement)
Nancy Stevens: "It's a whirlwind, isn't it? The past two times we've played North Carolina in the Final Four, 2013 went to a shootout and then we went on to win the National Championship, and then last year it was overtime. So, we figured it was going to be close, and it was. I think the statistics are a bit lopsided or skewed. In the second half, they had 14 shots and 10 corners. When they were chasing the game, they had us under a lot of pressure, and they pulled their goalkeeper. Having that extra attacker really allowed them to put a great deal of pressure on us. I think those are where most of the statistics came from. I loved the first half. There was one penalty corner for North Carolina, three shots to one. Karen and I played together on the national team, we've been colleagues for a very long time. We were talking during the game briefly and talking about just how much we love the game. The first half ââ'¬" I'm sure people watching it thought it was a little boring ââ'¬" but we thought it was like a chess match. It was just so fun to be a part of. Carolina, so much credit goes to them for coming back, pulling the goalie, putting all that pressure on us, and coming up with the goal that put it into overtime. So, Karen has to be very proud of her team and the effort they put out today. Then we turn to the Huskies. Nina Klein with 13 saves was absolutely terrific. I think one of her key saves ââ'¬" probably her most important save for us today ââ'¬" was on the penalty stroke, and that was brilliant, and then there was the other 12 that we would take too. Then we go into the shootout and she's flawless in the shootout. We give a lot of credit also to our players who converted their goals in the shootout. The pressure is on the player with the ball, and for our players to step up and put those shots in in the shootout, they get a lot of credit. So, we're excited to be playing for another National Championship, our third in five years, and we can't wait."
(Charlotte, take us through the penalty stroke at the end. You were the first one to go, do you feel like you added pressure on that? What were you thinking as you set the tone of being up 1-0?)
Charlotte Veitner: "I think being the first one is actually kind of nice because you don't really have any pressure, because if you miss it the other girls are going to put it in. I think we just trust each other a lot, and I know that when I'm standing there on the line I have 24 people behind me that would help me out. Obviously, there's a lit bit of pressure, but that's what makes it fun."
(Nina, talk about how on earth you saved all those shots.)
Nina Klein: "I think for goalkeepers, you get into a groove and it just continues to pile up, save after save. I'd say adrenaline definitely helped, having my teammates in front of me. Our defense today was, from my point of view phenomenal - even though we let up more shots than usual. I think there was a mean tackle, everyone's fighting as hard as possible."
(What about the stroke?)
Nina Klein: "Unless you have scouting footage of it, it's kind of hard to figure out where they're going to place it. Her drag flick kept going off to the right side that we'd scouted, so I just went with it.
(On not allowing any goals in the shootout)
Nina Klein: "Going into that, I was just very pumped up. I had my team behind me, and I'm just speechless to be honest. Like Nancy said, my freshman year I was redshirting, and I was behind Sarah Mansfield and got to watch her be brilliant in a shootout against UNC. The coaching staff ââ'¬" Nancy, Paul, Cheri ââ'¬" we do this once, twice, three times a week practicing, so that definitely paid off. Then I have the amazing attackers that I play against every day. For them to go 3-for-3, scoring every one, that's phenomenal."
(On making the save on North Carolina's first attempt in the shootout)
Nina Klein: "I think you just have to stay focused. Coming off the third one, I knew if I made the stop, the game was over. So, I just stayed focused because even though I made the first two saves, I was like 'I can't let them back in.' I just need to stay focused and do what my job is."
(What's the first thing you head somebody say to you when the game ended?)
Nina Klein: "I heard a Nina chant. Other than that, my team was surrounding me, I literally couldn't breathe. It was body to body. It was really exciting."
(Nancy talked about the history with Sarah Mansfield, and you've got a litany of great goalies at Connecticut. What was it like for you to train under Sarah? A First Team All-American, and now you're really following in her footsteps bringing Connecticut to another National Championship.)
Nina Klein: "A lot of it is just being a sponge. She was a phenomenal player, phenomenal student. So, it's just emulating what you see in someone else, and I really respect her. I'm glad I was able to follow in her footsteps and take us to a shootout win. It's exciting, but I'm really happy that I had one year to learn under her. She was brilliant."
Charlotte Veitner and Nina Klein
(Coaches don't like shootouts, how do you feel about them?)
Nina Klein: "I, personally, was very excited going into it. Like I said, I was kind of on a roll, and their keeper, I believe, had two saves going into it. I kind of felt warm, ready to go, and I knew we just had to possess the last five minutes of overtime. I was very excited and prepared and focused."
Charlotte Veitner: "I mean you kind of want to win the game in regulation, if possible. But having seen Nina and all the saves that she made in the game, I couldn't be any more confident going into it. Unfortunately we practice them a lot, I don't really like to practice. We were prepared. We knew what was coming. I think having confidence in our back is helping us tremendously."
(Do you practice shootouts for every practice?)
Coach: "For our shootouts, we usually do it once or twice a week. An interesting thing we did this year is that when we were ahead by a large margin in two of our regular season games we pulled the goalkeeper. We've never done that before, but we're like we need to practice in case we need it. Now of course today Carolina pulled their goalkeeper, but that was something we did, which I thought was unique. We're so fortunate that in the shootout Nina played as well as she did and then our attackers did so well. Also I really need to give a lot of credit to Cheri [Schulz]. So Cheri was an All-American goalkeeper at Syracuse. She's the goalkeeping coach, and she has her posse of four goalkeepers that she's training every day. Nina is like the mother hen because we have two sophomores and a freshman behind her. We have that legacy of great goaltending. Really it started in 1981 when the University of Connecticut won the first NCAA Field Hockey Championship. It was on our campus. I was not the coach. Diane Wright, my predecessor, was the coach, but they had Laura Eby in net. They had Lynn Kotler. I think in '81 it was Lynn Kotler, and when they won again in '85 it was Laura Eby. You need those brilliant goalkeepers to win championships, and we have ours. We get to have ours on Sunday too. A lot of credit for this one goes to Paul Caddy, Associate Head Coach Paul Caddy. He does the tactics. Last year and this year, he has started calling the attack corners. Now I tell him we won two National Championships with me running the attack corner unit so now he has a chance to try and catch up. He made some great attack corner calls. Against Penn State and today he knew that that particular one would be open, well we were hoping it would be. He's made the right calls. The Big East Championship the same thing. As Nina says she's on a roll, Paul's on a roll right now too. No pressure for Sunday, but I think he's going to put us in a good position. He's absolutely terrific."
(Do you have legs left for Sunday?)
Charlotte Veitner: "Yeah. We're going to do everything we can to recover as quickly as possible. We have massages lined up. I think we're ready."
Coach Stevens: "Yeah we bring in a team of masseuses for the kids who played. I think as we all know, once adrenaline kicks in on Sunday and you're playing for the National Championship, if you have to crawl across the finish line, you'll crawl across the finish line. We will find a way."
(Did you see them change things on their corners?)
Coach Stevens: "You know what's great is Karen does have a very young team and obviously uber-talented, but we felt that their corner options were manageable. We really felt that we knew what the options were, and we really felt that if it was a from the first castle or the stopper we had those options scoped out the second castle. We really felt good about our corner defense, and we were able to anticipate some of the attack corners they were choosing to do from hours of film study from our coaching staff and our defensive corner unit. It's a lot of work that they put in. I think that that helped us, would you not agree?"
Klein: "Yeah I would have to agree the film sessions really helped. We sit down at least two or three times a week to watch all the Carolina corners to try and get a visualization and get better ready to read what they are going to do."
Coach Stevens: "They had a brilliant defensive save right near the end of the game. Svea [Boker] put it up into the net and the defender came out and saved it. They did that as well. Karen and I always say we love playing this game. She doesn't want to lose. I don't want to lose. What's more important is the quality of play and just how exciting it is for our sport. I think it's a great game for field hockey. I don't think fans could ask for anything more."
(On the conditioning)
Coach Stevens: "They have a lot of depth, and we don't have quite as much depth. We won back-to-back national championships with maybe two or three reserves. There's a balance. If you're running a lot of people in how's the connectivity? You might get them more tired, but this unit has played together so long and they play so well together. If you're running a lot of kids in you may be able to run the other team off the ball a little bit, but is the connectivity there? For us it works. For other teams I think running a lot of players in works. That's how it's worked for us."
