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    Utah State vs. Auburn Postgame Quotes AU 2, USU 1



    Nov. 12, 2011

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    Auburn Head coach Karen Hoppa

    On what to take away from win ...
    "First, I'll say that Utah State played a great game. They gave themselves a chance to win the game late by scoring a good goal. That is a real quality team that we beat tonight. I thought we scored two world-class goals. The individual efforts by Katie Frierson and Tori Ball were tremendous. That was the difference in the game."

    On preparations for next game ...
    "We have to make a lot of adjustments. We have to get better in our possession and we have to be cleaner in our defense. We have to have a better finishing percentage tonight as well because we had a lot of looks tonight that we didn't finish. You won't get that many looks against Maryland."

    Senior midfielder Katie Frierson

    On overall feeling of win ...
    "It's my last night to play here at Auburn and the crowd came through for us again. They stepped up and were loud and pushed us through the moments that were tough."

    On SEC Tournament and overall morale of team ...
    "The SEC Tournament was emotional. We had a lot of games. We knew coming in that Utah State was a great team and very dangerous. We knew we had to regroup and focus for this game."

    Freshman forward Tori Ball

    On her goal ...
    "It was a free kick that came in and they ended up clearing it, but we got it back in and it was a great ball. I chested it in and we came away with a goal."

    On preparations for next round ...
    "We have to keep getting better. We have to improve on our combinations and keep on improving. The goal is to go from good to great."

    Utah State Head Coach Heather Cairns

    On the program's first NCAA Tournament game...
    "I was really proud of the girls. We said all along that we were going to come here to win it. We weren't going to come in here overwhelmed. We have played plenty of teams this season that have the same kind of caliber as Auburn. I thought we were a little jittery in the first 20 minutes. Unfortunately, we gave up that goal. Katy Frierson made an awesome play. It took us a couple of minutes after that to settle into the game. After that, I thought we settled in very well. We had a great push there at the end and made it 2-1. We just came up short today. I couldn't be prouder of our girls."

    On Kendra Pemberton's goal...
    "Jennifer Flynn made an awesome run on that ball. I thought it might have been going out of bounds, but it didn't. She kept it in and kicked it across. Mari Miyashiro got a couple touches on it and Kendra put it away with some authority."

    On the five departing seniors...
    "That is the hardest thing about ending your season is saying goodbye to five of your seniors and knowing that they're never going to have a chance to do this again. They can be very proud of themselves. They left a fantastic legacy. This is the best season in Utah State history. They meant the world to the program. They helped take it to another level."

    Utah State midfielder Kendra Pemberton

    On scoring in the NCAA Tournament...
    "To be honest, it was awesome. I didn't remember it that much because I was trying to get the second one so bad. It helped us realize we were still in this game. I knew I had to put it away to keep us in the game. It was awesome. I didn't even think about it until now."

    On how this game will motivate the team for next season...
    "We can achieve anything we put our minds to. We wanted to get into the NCAA Tournament. We wanted to prove to everyone that we weren't just at this game, we wanted to go out and win this game and show everyone that we are as good as everyone else. I think we proved that tonight.

     

     

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