Oct. 17, 2003

Head coach Sasho Cirovski
On the game:
"I expected a very competitive game, despite of what their record is. I thought they were going to come in a little desperate and very competitive-they have a lot of pride. They battled well. I thought the first half was fairly even, but I thought in the second half we picked it up and really dictated the flow of the game. We got rewarded for some of our chances and I thought we deserved the very close victory."

On holding off Penn State in the elements: "They came at us on desperate balls. There were a lot of flicks and through balls and I think the conditions played a factor in the terms of a helter-skelter finish. You have to give Penn State credit-they are a good team. They are much better than their record. They came out here and competed well. This was a game that you had to bring your lunch pail to and grind it out and find a way to win."

On the conditions being similar to the NCAA Tournament:
"This is exactly what games will be like in the NCAA Playoffs: cold, dreary and you have to find ways to win. I don't care how we do it, but we need to find a way to win."

On corner kicks:
"Seth took a corner kick because with A.J. Herrera not in the game, he took some corners. We were struggling with corners from that side. Sumed just scored a big-time goal just like has in the past four or five games."

Senior defender Seth Stammler
On taking the corner:
"Throughout the game we weren't sure who we wanted to take the corners from that side, so after a couple Sash yelled at me to start taking some of them. The first one I hit too low and the second one I finally got it right and Sumed was on the other end to put it away."

On the field conditions: I think it took a little getting used to. We were out here earlier today to try and get used to it, but unfortunately it was dry then. We had to get adjusted to it again today when we got here to realize how fast it really was. It wasn't really working to play direct so we had to play more feet and just try to work it up as a team and then finally we got one to put away."

On the Penn State counter-attack:
"Throughout the game the had a few counter-attack chances, which we kind of knew coming in because they have two fast forwards up top who try to flick it to each other, so we knew that coming in and we had our eyes open. In the second part of the second half, once we got the goal, they threw a lot of men forward on any free kick or any corner kicks or throw-ins. So we just had to just bring everyone back with them and try to man-mark everybody or keep our zones on corner kicks, and it paid off."

Senior midfielder Sumed Ibrahim
On getting hotter as the season goes on:
"I knew this was a big game for us to come here and try to get a victory for the team. Our offense wasn't connected in the first half-not putting pressure on their guys. In the second half we started passing the ball. For the goal, Seth just hit a good ball and I put it a way."

On the slick conditions:
"It was really tough. I know in the first half every time I got the ball I would lose it because the field was too fast. I knew we had to do a better job of controlling the ball to get the offense going In the second half my touch was better was able to hold onto the ball."