Head Coach Gary Gait Media Day Transcript
Women’s Lacrosse Media Day
Head Coach Gary Gait Quotes
February 3, 2011
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, the first thing we have consciously done is try to strengthen our schedule again this year. With this program, it is my philosophy that we need to play the best in order to become the best. So, we’ve added an ACC school. The ACC typically is the strongest conference in the country. We have the University of Virginia on there every year. Now we’ve been able to add No. 1 Maryland this season. It’s another step in the right direction in strengthening the schedule and providing our team with an opportunity to play against the best. We’re excited about that. This year’s schedule is loaded with away games. We’ll be tested early on the road, starting off with Stanford, and then going on a big road swing down to No. 1 Maryland, and then heading to Towson, and down to Florida. We come back home for a day or so before heading out to Northwestern and then come home to finish it off with Rutgers. That’s basically one continuous road trip. By the end of that we’ll have a real idea what the 2011 team is all about.
“This team is very young, loaded with freshman and sophomores, to go along with our senior leadership. Liz Hogan, returning Goalkeeper of the Year, will be the initial quarterback of our defense, followed by Lindsay Rogers, a redshirt senior in her fifth year here. They are doing a great job with leadership. Catherine Rodriguez is a senior on defense. We’re really looking for great leadership out of them and to step up the defense. The midfield is probably where we are the youngest. We are looking at, potentially a junior and two freshmen starting in the midfield. It should be very interesting. We’re looking at a real mix. I think we’re a little more athletic than we’ve ever been at that position with players that can play both defense and offense. We’ll try to utilize that in our systems this year, getting up and down and keeping players on the field a little bit more than we have in the past. On the attack side of the field we have a great mix. We have Tee Ladouceur , the senior leading the way, then we have super sophomore Michelle Tumolo coming back, and then another senior, Lindsay Connell, who is a steady player that will do a great job. And then we’re looking at another freshman, Alyssa Murray, one of our top freshman recruits, who’s going to step up and be a huge impact player for the attack.
“We’re definitely young. We will determine the direction and the model of this team as the season progresses. It’s going to depend on how they come together as a group and they react to pressure. In the end, hopefully, we’ll all move in the direction we were hoping and we’ll be looking at the end of the season fighting for a championship.”
On sophomore Michelle Tumolo’s selection to the U.S. National team team:
“She tried out after her freshman year for the U.S National team. I had the opportunity to watch her play for the U.S. team over the weekend. She's a great feeder. She's doing what she does for us for them. Playing with those elite players has really helped her build her confidence and taking that with what she did last year, setting the points record here at Syracuse as a freshman, she's coming into this season ready to take it to the next level. She is full of confidence and energy and has improved her leadership skills. We’re going to be looking to her to make a huge impact this year.”
On replacing Christina Dove:
“That’s why you get on the road and recruit. You go out and find players that have potential and talent. The way it’s working this year those young players are going to get a chance early to step in and try to replace those goals. One young player, Katie Webster, a local CBA player, is our most athletic midfielder and is going make a huge impact starting for us in the midfield. She's an explosive dodger, continues to work on her shooting, can play great defense, and is very aggressive on the defensive end. We’ll take someone like that to replace players from the midfield. Another young player, Amy Cross, out of Philadelphia, just doesn’t make mistakes. She’s not quite as explosive as Katie, but is very solid, doesn’t make mistakes, handles pressure well. She's always been a lead player in the Philly area and she's going to come in and start and, again, show us our youth is our future.”
On what he looks to see from Michelle Tumolo:
“I think you’re going to see things that you haven’t seen a lot of women’s lacrosse players doing in the past. Her stick work is at an incredible level, way beyond anyone I’ve seen in the game today. You’re going to see your no-look passes, your behind-the-backs, you’re going to see your fakes, you’re going to see your surprise shots. You’re going to see it come from her because she has the confidence, but more than anything, she has that next level stick work and the ability to do some very special things. I’m just hoping she has the confidence and we can get her in there with the right mix of people to allow the fans of Syracuse women’s lacrosse to really come out and enjoy something special.”
On what a tough schedule will do for the team:
“We have to continue to take our program to the next level. We’ve been lucky. We’ve been fortunate to make it to two Final Fours in the last three years, but have yet to win a game in the Final Four. I think that comes from doing it during the regular season. We haven’t had that success in the regular season, yet. We’ve been close – one-goal losses last year to Virginia, and then to Northwestern, the number one team in the country. It means we’re getting close. But now we’ve added a couple more teams, and it gives us more chances to get over that hump and really go to the next level. I’m excited about it and I think it’s going to develop confidence much like it did last year going into the playoffs, no matter where we are seeded. Those one-goal losses – you win those and we would have jumped up in the seeding dramatically. This year were hoping to take advantage of those games.
“It was what we built our schedule for. It’s why we play a tough schedule, nonconference. It prepares us for those opportunities. We’ve had the experience of playing close games during the year. It certainly helped us against Notre Dame, in that semifinal in the BIG EAST (Tournament). And then coming back losing to Georgetown (in the finals), you have to learn how to make adjustments because you play tough teams. Things went our way (in the first round of the NCAA Tournament). It comes from confidence built throughout the year.”
On the team’s talent:
“I think the talent is extraordinary. From our seniors all the way down to our freshman. There is talent in every class. The recruiting strategy here at Syracuse is to go after the best and we’ve been fortunate to get some of the best every year. Top 10 recruits and that’s what it takes, you have to do that every single year. And we’ve been fortunate to do that. So there is talent coming up. So when you lose someone like Christina Dove and Halley Quillinan, you can turn around and reload with some young players that just want the opportunity and have the skill and ability. I think how they come together as a team is going to determine how successful those players are.”
On replacing star players:
“I don’t necessarily ever look at it as how do I replace people, I always look at it as what do I have and how do we operate this team. This team is definitely going to play a different style than the past couple years. We’re a little more balanced; we’ll have more players contributing. We won’t focus on one or two players. We’ll have everyone scoring goals, everyone playing defense. It’s just a more balanced team. There are players that have the talent or ability. I think overall we’ve raised our level of talent from top to bottom.”
On making a schedule like this season’s schedule:
“I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to add another ACC team. I keep asking every year, and I’ve been turned down several times. Cathy (Reese) at Maryland reached out and finally came and said ‘ok we’d love to play you. We can come up to Syracuse and play you, and that would be great.’ Unfortunately the (Carrier) Dome wasn’t available on the date, the only date that worked for us. So we’re going to go down there and play them, and continue our long road trip. It should help with our chemistry and defining this team and our identity. The road trip won’t be a bad thing.”
On Monika Klus:
“Monika came in last year as a manager and got to see it from the sidelines. And now she has an opportunity to play. She has an international flavor. It’s always nice to have a mixture, or a little diversity, bringing in an Australian player. She’s very skilled and is a great finisher. She’ll be playing attack for us this year and will get her opportunities to step up and make a difference. And I look for foreign players to come in, super confident, and when they get the chance, to make the most of it. I think we saw the same with Tegan Brown last year and hopefully we’ll see the same out of Monika this year.”
On what needs to be done to for the team to take the next step:
“The next step is going into these games against top 10 teams like Virginia, Maryland, and then Northwestern, and winning these games. I think that’s what gets us to the next level. Like I said, last year we were close, a lot of one-goal losses. This year we need to turn it around to the other side, and I think that allows us to go into a Final Four with confidence we can beat anybody. That’s what we’ll be looking to do to step up this year and get some W’s.”
