Prechampship Quotes: Penn State
11/15/2007 7:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Nov. 15, 2007
Penn State head coach Charlene Morett and players addressed the media about their NCAA semifinal matchup against No. 3 Wake Forest at the pre-championship press conference on Thursday.
Head Coach Charlene Morett
Opening Statement:
"We are just so excited to be here this weekend because it is such a challenging route to get here, especially to play such a strong Maryland team and playing Virginia, two very strong ACC teams. I am so proud of how our team has played, their perseverance, determination and heart that they had through the first two rounds and just their belief that they could win both those games."
On being the underdogs in the semifinals:
"We feel that we belong here. If you look at the tournament this year, any of those 16 teams could be here. I think our team just showed a lot of determination and belief, and we feel like we have earned the right to be here."
On overcoming the experience Wake Forest has playing in the semifinals seven years in a row:
"We have played here at Maryland a lot in the past few years, so we feel that we have the experience from being close to home and playing here a lot. Wake is a very talented team and we are proud to be representing the Big Ten."
Senior forward Shaun Banta
On reaching the national semifinals:
"We really believed that we could do it and we've worked hard for this game. All of our hard work all season finally showed in that game against Maryland in the second round, so it was really exciting."
Senior midfielder Kiersten Wood:
On the experience Wake Forest has in the semifinals:
"We just need to keep worrying about our game and nothing else. We respect every team in the tournament, but we need to just go with our game plan in order to win this game."
On the emotion of reaching the national semifinals:
"After the game last weekend [in the second round], we wanted to get all the players to remember this feeling. I feel that with our emotions high, we just need to come out as strong as we did last time and just put everything on the line like we did last weekend. We have nothing to lose so we won't hold back."
