Head Coach Gary Gait Quotes
Syracuse vs. Georgetown
April 5, 2008
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
On whether or not he expected a win like this:
"I don’t think you ever see anything coming. You prepare your team, you get them ready to play. We really focused on challenging the defense, stepping up and changing our style on defense, taking more chances and playing better team defense, getting more slides and more backup. It definitely paid off today, we were on every shot. We were tipping sticks, we were getting turnovers when they set it in the middle, and that’s what we were focusing on in the defensive end. On the offensive side, we wanted to control possession more, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunities that were there, but then we wanted to maintain possession to rest our players so that we would be fresh for 60 minutes."
On Katie Rowan’s record-breaking performance:
"She needed to step it up against a top-notch opponent, and today she did that. I think that’s what she needs to do when we play the next team that’s at this level. That’s what great players do; they step up and they play their best games against the best opponents. We definitely talked about that a little bit, that now is the time for you to step up, it’s not against Canisius or teams like that. It’s against Georgetown. She rose to the challenge today and did an incredible job of finding the open players. I thought that was great. She kept her head up, dodged hard, and avoided doubles."
On Liz Hogan’s performance in goal:
"I think the defense helped her, which was great. They weren’t one-on-one simple shots. A lot of them were under pressure or someone was trying to check the player, so it changes your shooting motion. I think that, and Liz making some adjustments, getting out a little bit further, forces people to hit pipes and miss. They’re not seeing as much net, and you’re limiting what they have options for. That’s a team effort, when a goalie gets easier shots to see. I think she stepped up and did her part.
"They had it for the first four minutes of the game, and she made a couple saves, and the shots weren’t the best shots, and it’s everything we worked on, so I was extremely happy after that first four."
On whether the team’s performance was the relaxed effort he’s been looking for:
"It kind of goes back to a Dartmouth-type game. They were comfortable, they didn’t tense up, they focused on the game plan and what they had to do, but they got that back. Against Dartmouth, we were at full strength, and this is the first game where the defense has really stepped up and the team stepped up without Bridget Looney. So I think that’s what we’ve been trying to adjust to for eight, 10 games now, is how do we get our defense to the level it was with Bridget in there. I was very happy with that effort."
On learning from the Virginia and Northwestern losses:
"I think we definitely learned something about the pace of the game and possession and I think that we look at our two losses against Virginia and Northwestern and we were with them for just over 30 minutes of the game and then we ran out of steam in both of those. There’s been a conscious effort to rest players. We’re a little banged up, so I was trying to sub more, trying to maintain possession more so that we wouldn’t just go full-out for 40 minutes and be exhausted for the last 20. So we’ll continue to work on keeping our players fresh throughout the rest of the way."
On what he said to Katie Rowan today:
"I congratulated her after the game and I told her that it was a wonderful job. That’s a career day and that’s the way you step up and take control."
On Syracuse’s draw controls:
“Draw control stats, I might question those. At the half, we were down 9-3, and I’m pretty sure ended up with the ball more. The difference may be that the ball may have been in their stick for two or three seconds and they gave them a draw control. But we were on it, making the checks and coming up with the ball. I think that’s the difference. We stayed on it; we talked about it all week: how everybody has to stay on it and run through the ball, not just the people around it. And that’s what happened, people were running through it to make the check and make the double."
On gaining momentum early:
"I don’t know if it was the first one, I think it was the second one when they realized that, ‘Hey, when these guys get the ball, they’re going to score.’ I think the first one you give up, you can think ‘we’ll get the next one,’ but when you go back and do it again right away, I think that really made the statement, and then we did it again. I think the difference was that we were on them as well, making it very difficult for them to clear and do the things they wanted to do. You get momentum, you go with it, and as a coach you consciously say, ‘All right, we go to the net, we’re going to score. But we need possession, that’s more important than scoring right now.’"
On coaching the team today:
"It was a fun day of coaching, when everything you put in place and all of the things you talk about are executed on the field, you have to be happy. The kids had a career day on the field, and that’s what you felt as a coach, when they execute everything you’re talking about."
On what this game means for the future:
"I think it’s going to depend on where Georgetown goes from here. They have some tough games. They’re going to make the statement of what this game meant. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be us. We did our part, now they go out and play, I think, three ranked opponents. They come up strong and play well and win those games, that makes this a huge win. So we’ll wait and see, but it’s definitely a great win for us, and sets us up for the BIG EAST Tournament pretty well. We just have to get through Rutgers and Loyola. We’ll prepare for them and focus for them, then we’re in great shape going into the BIG EAST Tournament. Notre Dome is playing well, and hopefully we’ll let Georgetown and Notre Dame beat up on each other in the semis."
