April 21, 2000

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - 2000 ACC Lacrosse Tournament April 21, 2000 Duke (No. 2 seed) vs. Maryland (No. 3 Seed)

Mike Pressler Duke University

"That was as disappointing a performance on our part as we have had at Duke in a long time. You can not win a game in this league scoring six goals on offense. That's two weeks in a row - seven against Virginia and six against Maryland. I think the field conditions sort of slowed us down a little but it certainly didn't slow Maryland down. I thought we had to get to double digits today and we certainly didn't do it.

"Another strong part of our team this year has been our face-off game. It was non-existent tonight. We have been dominant all year, 65 percent as a team. Maryland tonight came up with something, maybe our guys just thought it was going to be easy. If we don't win face-offs and we don't score goals we aren't going to beat many teams.

"Give Maryland credit. They came up with a plan and their big boys stepped up. I was impressed with Zeller today, McGinnis made the saves he had to and Brian Carroll in the middle was terrific facing-off tonight. They were very opportunistic and we couldn't generate a thing on offense.

"I give Coach Edell credit. They came up with a plan to beat us. Defensively, they were good.

Dick Edell University of Maryland

"We think this game meant more to our post-season aspirations than maybe it did to Duke's. This was huge for us. We still have some work to do.

(On Brian Carroll) "This kid gets hurt last Saturday night and doesn't practice Monday or Tuesday. This is really his first year of being the man on the face-offs and quite frankly, had the game of his life. Not just the face-off technique, but protecting the ball and making the exchange pass. And he was facing ungodly pressure."

(On Brian Zeller) "How bad can it be for this guy in the middle. Two years ago he as one of the best midfielders in America. He scores as big a goal as we have ever had here against Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Tournament. He was shooting five-of-57 going into the game tonight and he's a fifth-year senior. He's in the most important year of his life and there is no quit.

(On Casey Connor) "He was stung last week (against Johns Hopkins). This is a team that prides itself on defense and playing solid quality defense. The number of goals that we gave up last week and to have to live with is tough."

(On Virginia) "They got after us pretty good on the 31st of March. Only Pat McGinnis' performance of a lifetime kept that score looking good. We have some good feelings in terms of our preparation. We are excited to be in this position and we love playing in Byrd Stadium."