Tufts Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Cheryl Milligan on the victory: ”It was awesome. Izzie [Santone] pitched great, and we played great defense. We had some phenomenal catches in the outfield and some great infield play. I thought Casey [Sullivan] made a great play in the last inning – a major league play for her or for anybody. We played great defense and we got great pitching. We could have used a few more hits, but we’re going to hit because that’s what we do. We may not get 5-7 runs out of them, but we’ll get on base. I thought we had a few opportunities that we missed to advance some runners, but overall that’s the kind of game you expect in the National Championship. You can’t expect a lot of free bases. There was a big [Cortland] error in the first inning that gave us a little momentum at the start of the game. We have a ton of confidence in Izzie [Santone], so once we got that run on the board we felt a lot better.”
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Izzie Santone on the team’s attitude entering the game: “I was a little nervous – I won’t lie. We just played in the championship game of the Beverly, MA Regional, and for some reason I was absolutely confident during that game. In this game, we were playing a team that we hadn’t seen before, so there was definitely some excitement.”
Senior outfielder Laura Chapman on the team’s preparation during the practice day: “We seemed a little bit tense at practice yesterday because everyone was excited to be here and wanted to go play. We played a fun slow-pitch game at the end of practice, and Coach Milligan struck out. I think it loosened us up and got us all laughing and reminded us that this is supposed to be fun. That’s why we’ve been playing this game our entire lives – because it’s fun.”
Milligan on facing a Cortland team that she had little time to prepare for: ”When you come into a tournament like this, there are a lot of teams that you know nothing about. You end up wondering, ‘Are they as good as we are, or did they win their region the same way we won our region?’ You can’t look at a piece of paper and see what a team is going to be able to do.”
Senior outfielder and Montclair native Roni Herbst on playing for a National Championship in her hometown: “It’s nice. I got to talk to my old coaches. I played here once before in a huge game when I was in high school – a night game. Now I get to play in a huge night game tomorrow night.”
Senior catcher Cara Hovhanessian on whether there is extra pressure to perform well due to past struggles by New England teams at the National Championship: “I think even though we are 43-1, we still feel like we’re underdogs because we’re from New England. I don’t think our region gets that much respect as having a ton of powerhouse teams like maybe the Midwest does. I think people probably look at our record and say, ‘Who did they play?’ It’s great to come here and play someone who is ranked high and continue to do the things that we’ve been doing all season. By no means are we coming in here and saying we are the team to beat, but I think we know that we have just as much chance as anyone else and we have the tools to be a National Championship team.”
Cortland Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Julie Lenhart on the game: “Well, obviously it’s a tough loss. We didn’t come here to lose and I just felt like Tufts came in and they got on a roll right away in the first inning and we were a little shaky at the start. You can’t start a game that way and expect to win it. We competed. Things just weren’t going our way today. I was telling the team at the end that good teams find a way to win and good teams make their own luck and I don’t think that we really did either of those today. But, we’re not finished, we’re not going to quit. We’re going to come back and take care of business.”
Lenhart on using last weekend’s experience of coming back from a loss to win the First Round: “We were just talking about the fact that we lost our very first game in Florida 3-1, played Emory, and that was the start of our season. This is the start of our postseason, same score, and we won the rest of our games in Florida and were 9-1. It’s the next game. You take one game at a time and we know that we can win. We know that we deserve to be here and we just have to play our game. We don’t think about the past, we just think about the present.”
Junior catcher Emily Ringen, from nearby Pompton Plains, NJ, on playing in the National Championship Series so close to home: “It definitely changes my crowd size (being close to home). It does not change the game at all. If anything, I like how a lot of my friends and family can see what a great program we have, and the leadership on the field that a lot of us upperclassmen like to take on. I told my family that I’m coming here for softball and not for hanging out, so it’s nice to know the area but it will be nice when we take care of business on the field.”
Lenhart on this year, versus last year winning the first game at the National Championship before losing the next two games to get eliminated: “You always play to win, it just so happens that now we’re in a little bit of a hole because if we don’t win we’re done. But, you always play to win, and obviously you like to be on the other side and start out with a win. I would really like to get here and just play our game, and today was not our best game. I would like to get here and really just show that we can compete here and this is where we need to be. We just didn’t do it today.”
Ringen on this year’s experience at the National Championship versus last year: “The little things – different stadium, different crowds, different teams. It was a great experience to be there last year, but we just have to forget it. A lot of us who were there last year have said that it was just great to be there. I’m not saying that we didn’t care about winning or losing, it was just great as an experience. Now we’re here to win.” |
