Dec. 5, 2003

Recap| Box Score

Maryland Head Coach Janice Kruger:
"I'm extremely happy with how the match went tonight. In terms of the overall performance of both teams, it was a tough match. Our team did a nice job and was ready to play. We had been off a week since the ACC Tournament so I was worried about a little rust out there tonight, but they came out and played well."

"We have progressed from the beginning of the season. Beating Georgia Tech was a tremendous win for us because they are a very, very good team. This team has been very good about staying open and learning and setting goals and reaching goals. They're on their mission right now to go one step further and take this program to the furthest point in its history."

"Lauren (Wilson) did a nice job. We found a spot we could pick on and she was serving it down the line. She's just really tough when she gets going. She's mentally a very strong individual and she came through tonight in some pressure situations with the serve. It was a very solid performance."

Maryland junior Aimee Huddleston:
"This has been a great season with a lot of learning experiences. I knew that it was a big role to fill and I worked hard in the off-season and spring. The support from each of my teammates has been great this year. Everyone works hard and works together and I feel like my success wouldn't have come if not for my teammates. I have some great hitters and I can count on any one of them at any time. It's been a great year."

Maryland senior Lynnsy Jones:
"American plays a different defense than most of the teams we've played all year so we worked specifically on it in practice. You want to swing hard every time because it makes you look good, but you can't win with just swinging hard all the time. You have to be able to switch it up and I think a lot of our players did well with that."

"We were all hoping we were going to be able to host. When we all found out it was really exciting. We got a big crowd tonight and hopefully tomorrow night will be even bigger because we feed of big crowds. We have really good fans this year; they've really been coming out."

American Head Coach Barry Goldberg:
"We were certainly competitive. It was an exciting match and certainly fun to be a part of. Overall, we were a little short and we got caught in a couple of rotations that hurt us. We knew they were a decent serving team and they had three players who were jump serving pretty hard. We were trying to fight off some tough serves, and they also hit some great shots down the line a couple of times that handcuffed us."

"I thought our hitting was stellar. We were fantastic at hitting the ball. We were right with them. This is a Top 25 program, and we were just as strong. I'm proud of our team and this was a fun year for us."

"(Aimee Huddleston) did a great job. She dumped some good balls and set good balls to the outside. They run a good offense. They have four hitters that are getting the ball, and five players that are attacking. Huddleston was very good and she made a difference in the match by controlling and keeping composure for the team."

American senior Karla Kucerkova:
"(Lauren Wilson) did a good job pushing the ball to the corner of the court. It's not as hard to pass, but it's the worst angle for setters to take the pass and set the ball. In general, that location made it difficult for us to pass, which gave us less options for attack. She did a good job of targeting the corners."