Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
5/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
May 29, 2011
Recap |
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 
NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship Final
No. 2 Northwestern 8, No. 1 Maryland 7
Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium -- Stony Brook, N.Y.
Postgame Northwestern Quotes
Head Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller
Opening Statement...
"Obviously I'm just so happy right now, so proud of my team. I think this was a culmination of a lot of hard work, a lot of evaluating of ourselves, from our lowest moment, to our loss to Johns Hopkins and at Florida midseason to just gutting it out and winning games from small amounts all season. It prepared us for this moment and our girls could not have played more focused or more poised. I'm really proud of them and excited to bring the national championship back to Northwestern."
On different starting lineup...
"We felt like we wanted to take Maryland out of their offense. I think that [Sarah] Mollison is so key to their attack. She really runs the offense and she's their field general and we wanted to try to take them out of that so we could focus in on their other major players. Beth Giaros hurt us pretty bad in the first half, but I think we were able to contain their three big guns, which we felt was our key to our defensive success and part of that success was Kerri Harrington."
On recruiting in Long Island...
"Well, my husband is from Long Island, so I did a good job recruiting there. I've had a camp on Long Island for a very long period of time and Shannon was a camper, I don't know, maybe when she was 8 or 9 years old and I just think that sometimes when you build relationships with the kids when they're that young, they look up to you and your players, it makes a big difference. But Long Island is obviously a mecca for lacrosse and I just think that the type of kid that comes out of here tends to like what we have to offer here at Northwestern University, so that's why we've been able to attract a lot of top athletes from the area. We obviously hope to continue to do that, as well as continue to attract kids from other areas."
Shannon Smith, Jr., A
On playing near her hometown on Long Island...
"I think it just makes it all that much more special for us. Especially playing in front of your friends and family where they don't normally get to see you, but I think overall this is a very special moment for us on this team, the 29 of us worked extremely hard. This is a brand new team from last year. We had some ups and downs and turns in our season, but I think we faced the adversity and overcame everything that was thrown at us."
On her run to the championship...
Ever since last season, I've told myself that I never want to see the hurt in my teammate's eyes again, so I was going to do everything it took to win this national
championship."
Kerri Harrington, Fr., M/D
On what she did to get ready and thoughts on her matchup with Sarah Mollison...
Well the preparation definitely started before Saturday. It's not easy going up against Shannon Smith everyday in practice, so if I thought if I can handle Shannon, I can really handle anyone. She [Mollison] was fast, but I was fast too.
Brianne LoManto, Jr., GK
On breakaway save in the second half on Katie Schwarzmann...
"Freaking out isn't really an option when you're playing goalie when you have two seconds and the ball is there. You either get it or you don't. I knew it was going to be a free play and she just came down and I've been watching a decent amount of film so I knew she liked to go high a lot. Because she had a full head of steam when she came down I figured she was going to shoot high there and I made the save and our defense came up with it."
Kara Mupo, Fr., A
On the future of the team...
I think the future is what we make of it. This year, we came into the season with a goal for ourselves, and I think if we set goals for ourselves like we did this season the future looks bright and there's opportunities ahead. I think for now we really have to enjoy this and come back next season and play together, stay as a team, and work towards the same goal we had this year.
