University of Connecticut Athletics
National Championship Quotes
11/19/2017 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
2017 National Championship | Louisville, Ky.
UConn Postgame Quotes
Head coach Nancy Stevens
(Opening statement) "Well, when we started the season, I put a quote on the board, and it was, "you are enough." We really felt that coming into this season that this team had all of the components to win a national championship and we really thought we had a chance to go undefeated with the talent and the leadership that we had. And sometimes the message is that you're not enough, and you need to - we're always pushing them to be better but I think it's important as a leader of women to help them understand that they are enough. So, we ended our season with that message on the board today. I felt that our team had the confidence and calm demeanor to get the job done. Certainly, a huge credit to the University of Maryland. Missy Meharg has seven national championships. She's an icon and legend in our sport and I think she might have done one of her best coaching jobs ever. At one point I believe they were 5-4 or 6-5, and for her to get her team to believe that they could get here, I think she did a remarkable job. Certainly, they were brilliant on Friday in the semifinal. Today's game, very close, very hard fought. Certainly, we were fortunate that we had Char (Charlotte Vietner). She had two brilliant goals. She loves the low - you see, the lower the angle of her shot, the happier she is. So, I knew that when she was about two feet off the end line she was going to shoot the back end and of course it was going to go on. More so than just despite being probable, okay. Two terrific goals. Nina (Klein) had several outstanding saves. We were able to finish and win our third national championship in five years. That puts us in pretty elite company and we're the first UConn field hockey team to go undefeated with a perfect record and that's very hard to do. I think there are six teams throughout NCAA history in field hockey that had perfect seasons. And now we've become number seven. So, as I told the team, you now walk through history together. It's just a great day to be a UConn Husky."
(on the ability to come back after the semifinals game) "I would say a couple of things. There was some concern with the coaching staff that we went to double overtime, which is a half an hour more of field hockey and then a shootout. Not just the physical demands but also the emotional demands. To win that way, you have to convince your team remember that was not the national championship. Against a North Carolina we lost to last year in overtime in the Final Four. So that just can't be thought of as the highlight of your season because you want the highlight to be on Sunday. But this is such a mature group and I don't think that was an issue at all. The physical fatigue did not seem to be such an issue as well. My college coach, that was the Olympic coach, said fatigue is a mental condition and I always believe that and they really rallied. I think what Maryland did well was, Maryland is a high pressure team. They put hard pressure on the ball all the time and we knew they were going to come with it. But we were good enough to work the ball around that. We had a terrific game plan and we actually had some terrific attack corners and we didn't get any. No one got to see those. It is hard to win withough getting attack corners but we were able to do that. I thought Maryland comes with hard pressure, I would say their only goal came off a broken corner, which in our sport is the most difficult one to defend. We felt really good about defending the corners and when the ball went into the right and then went into the left then that is something you haven't practiced at in the instant. I thought they were very opportunistic with that goal. I thought they did really well with that pulled goal keeper to put that pressure on us and again drew a corner. We were in a good place at the end."
(on catching Geno) "If I coach to be 100. My grandmother lived to be 100, so it is possible. You know its funny, Geno and I went to school together at West Chester University and he has 11 national championships and my college roommate Cindy Timchal (former Maryland head coach) in lacrosse has eight and I have three. They call Miami of Ohio the cradle of coaches, I am like wait a second West Chester University in women's athletics that is 22 national championships in women's athletics from a some school in Pennsylvania. We are really proud of what Cindy and Geno have done."
Nina Klein, GK
(on completing the bookend with two national championships) "I would say it's definitely bittersweet. We are obviously elated right now but it was the last day of our career, we left it all out there and luckily it came out in our favor. We are just going to enjoy it while we can and maybe come to some spring practices just to get some more field hockey but we will just enjoy it."
(on how is it different to cap your careers with this) "I mean we did have a drought for national championships for two seasons. That was definitely difficult for us to end the seasons. I can't speak for Char, but as a senior you are doing everything you can to win every game and that showcased throughout our season and I know we didn't have a loss. Just fighting everyday at practice against each other and then fighting in game with each other, it set the tempo for the season and the year."
(on completing the bookend with two national championships) "I still can't quite believe it. I really don't know what happened but I guess we just won a national championship. I guess I will just keep this moment for the rest of my life. Attempting to do something really special and to be able to do it in my freshman year and to do it again in my senior year. What can get better? I don't know."
(on how is it different to cap your careers with this) "I mean as a senior, you have been here for four years. You kind of go through emotions and you know how special it is to be the winner at the end, so to be able to come out on top - I couldn't be more grateful."
(On the second goal) "I just saw the ball laying there and I was like, okay, this is my team to just shoot it. I didn't really see it going in at first, and then I just looked and saw it bounce off and was just unbelievably happy. But, as we learn like in other games, it's about staying calm and composed after that. It's not really like, actually you can get a little celebration, but then its all business again. So, we knew that they were still going to fight back. They pulled their goalie and the game was till on edge, so we just have to stay composed and that's what we did. And we ended up winning."
(On the thought after Maryland tied the game) "I think we just know that we can score no matter what time of the game it is. We just trust both our offense and defense a lot. So, there's no doubt that we are going to score another goal and we got to do it the way that we've been doing it all season. What we've been doing this whole season was, we didn't do anything crazy. We just stick to our game plan and stick to what we are doing and it ended up working out."
