2009 America East Women’s Basketball Championship Post Game Quotes
Semifinal #2: #3 Vermont 66, #4 Hartford 56
March 14, 2009
Vermont head coach
Sharon Dawley
Opening Remarks:
“Our ladies did a great job, especially on the defensive
end, and executed really, really well. When it came down to it, they said we’re
going to take this game over and we’re going to make sure we secure victory.”
Vermont junior guard Courtnay
Pilypaitis
On how experience
helped the team advance to the finals:
“Last year we were in this kind of tight game in the semifinals,
and we lost. I think we’ve just gone through so much and we’ve learned
everytime. We just really knew how to handle it now. We had that composure by
every single person on the floor and our bench was phenomenal.”
“I think we really learned and proved we’ve grown up.”
Vermont junior guard May
Kotsopoulos
On the big shot
Hartford hit to end the first half and the momentum swing:
“We thought coming into the second half, we needed to come
out hard and win the first four minutes. We had to come out with that extra
intensity because they hit that shot.”
“It’s that hump we’ve been trying to get over and we’ve
always thought that we were a good team. We’ve always struggled with those
games so I think we’re just really happy to be in the finals and know that we
have one game. Then we can go to the NCAA Tournament, but we have a really
tough team that hasn’t really lost in a while.”
Hartford head coach
Jennifer Rizzotti
Opening Remarks:
“Obviously, we’re disappointed. I feel like the team we had
this year is as good as any championship team we put on the floor.”
“We ran into a Vermont team that played really well. I have
to give them a lot of credit.”
On postseason
chances:
“I would hope that the WNIT would be a shoe-in. I don’t
think that our NCAA resume is good enough to get into the NCAA tournament.
On whether she’s
happy with a WNIT bid:
“Anytime we get to keep playing, it’s a great thing. It’s
tough because we’ve built the expectation so high here that it’s NCAA or bust. It’s
a good thing but it makes it devastating to the players.”