Wake Forest Athletics
Post-Game Quotes - Duke 4, Wake Forest 1
12/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Dec. 3, 2011
Wake Forest head coach Tony da Luz
Opening statement
"I want to congratulate Duke, they played a great game. I wish them luck on Sunday, I hope they represent the ACC well. It's been a great season for us, I'm very very proud of our team. How we've performed all year long, our body of work from start to finish, has been really incredible. Tonight I thought we played a very good first half and created some chances, there were a lot of corners and we were in a pretty good position. But to give up the goal right before halftime, mentally that wasn't positive. Those two goals right before halftime and right after the second half started are not a good way to win a semifinal. Like I said it's been a great season and we have a very young team so hopefully we'll be back here."
On the penalty kick... "It could've gone either way, I thought our kid did a pretty good job getting a piece of the ball. That's just the way it is, sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't."
On why he dropped Marisa Park into the middle in the game...
"We were trying to get the ball to her feet to pull her left back more into the midfield and send it into space and create some chances that way. We created some chances that way and just didn't finish. It was way too open for my liking. Take the set pieces out of there and we have a pretty good performance. I'm not that disappointed in the way we played."
On the amount of chances accumulated in the game...
"It was both a couple of rookie teams in the College Cup. There were a little more nerves, a lot more turnovers than what we usually have in a game. I thought for the first 25 minutes or so we were in pretty good shape. Anytime you play Duke, who is a high-pressure team, it can be wide open if you don't slow the game down. We didn't do a good job of that."
On the amount of physical contact in the game...
"It's a rivalry. It's pretty heated, and it's getting more heated as we go along here. It's always physical. Duke is a tough physical team, they play hard every game, that's how they won the ACC Regular Season Championship. It's a good team, you have to be ready to go."
On the TV break halfway through the first half...
"Those breaks, sometimes they work in your favor and sometimes they work against you. I thought the break worked against us. You have to be ready for those things. This being our first time we may not have been ready for it. Now we will."
On the senior class...
"This senior class has more wins in their four-year career than any senior class to date. They've made great contributions with the team. We're going to miss them and hopefully the next senior class will do as well."
On what he cant take away from this experience...
"I don't know we have to look back and watch the game. Taking a look at our preparation, I thought we prepared pretty well all through the NCAA Tournament for our opponents. It's an experience you have to live to learn from. We're going to learn from it and the kids will be hungry to get back here. The team is very mentally tough and they're going to want to get back to this scenario. I'm really confident we're going to do this again."
Duke head coach Robbie Church
Opening statement... "The goal at the end of the half was absolutely huge. It gave us the confidence to carry on. We talked about this in the press conference the other day. We haven't been a very good first half team. We tried almost everything and it showed. Getting that goal and knowing what a strong second half team we are was really big. I thought the girls played terrifically, both offensively and defensively. Another key was early in the first half, they had so many set plays and we did a great job of defending and didn't give anything up."
On if the wall setup during Wake Forest's free kick...
We didn't have enough players. We should have had another player on the outside of the wall. It's something we will work on tomorrow. Rachel (Nuzzolese) struck it well. She has scored a couple of goals in set plays, we knew she was dangerous. We knew the call that happened in that part of the field would be a very dangerous situation. What a great response. I thought we did a great job responding right back. The PK call was huge. I liked our body language afterwards. I liked how we attacked. We played Mollie (Pathman) with the ball and she scrambled in there and got the PK. I thought it was a really big turning point in the game, once we were able to answer their goal.
On the play of Wake Forest's Katie Stengel...
"Katie is a great player. She deserves the attention that every team gives her. We couldn't give her any room or space. We worked on that in the training room yesterday with the balls coming from the outside to in. I thought she gave us fits early in the game because we picked the wrong side to close her down. Instead of going to the back, she went to one side and was able to roll us and we ended up fouling her a lot. A couple of times we became too tight and they found the wide player and she became dangerous. Take away the first 20 minutes, and I thought we did a fantastic job on her."
