Nov. 15, 2007

North Carolina head coach Karen Shelton and players addressed the media about their NCAA semifinal matchup agianst No. 4 Connecticut at the pre-championship press conference on Thursday.

North Carolina Head Coach Karen Shelton
On being the top seed in the tournament:
"I feel like we've earned the top seed. We've played very well all season long. If you don't lose a game, I think it's natural that you would be the top seed. We're prepared to play as well as we possibly can."

On being undefeated coming in to this game:
"I don't think there's any added pressure. I felt the pressure in the quarterfinal game to get to the semifinals. I've always felt throughout my career that if you make it passed the quarterfinals, you have every reason in the world to celebrate your season and that the pressure is off. Once you're at the final site, it's a great celebration of the sport and a reward for a wonderful tournament."

On facing Connecticut in the semifinal:
"We don't know that much about Connecticut. I know that they're a strong team and that they've had great success all year as well. We don't really know what to expect out of them, except that they'll come out and compete hard."

North Carolina senior Rachel Dawson
On trying to win a national championship:
"We're focused just on Friday night right now. We're taking it one game at a time. We won't get to Sunday if we don't win on Friday. We're just really concentrating on the process."

On making it to the semifinals:
"We've had some good seasons, but this was definitely a goal of ours. Before we concluded our careers, we wanted to make it to the semifinals. It's nice to know that we've done that."