Sept. 22, 2002
Santa Clara Head Coach Jerry Smith
I think we played a little better today than we have been playing. We actually played pretty well on Friday against Florida, although I didn't think we did a good job in the box, in terms of converting our chances, or keeping the ball out of our net. Today, not only did we play well, but today we converted our chances and did a better job of keeping it out of the net.We're improving. We're finding things out. Kelly Giddings got her first start today and I thought she played really well in the midfield for us. We've been playing Leslie Osborne mostly in the midfield this season, but we put her in the front today, which is where she played for us all last season, and that seemed to really work well for us. We're about two-to-three weeks behind where we should be at this time of year. Missing players in our spring season and missing and having injured players during our preseason has caused us to be in this situation. Combined with a tough schedule and a little bit bigger target on our back this year, it's caused us to have some mediocre performances, but I think we're figuring things out and are closer to where we need to be for this time of the year. I'm happy with the way our team played today.
On Megan Kakadelas
Megan is really tough to defend, because she's a really good passer and a really good dribbler. When you take away her dribble, she can beat you on a good pass, and she did that on one of her assists today. She has been a really strong asset for our team. In her first match for us against Notre Dame, she went in and scored the first goal, which really opened up the game. She's contributed in every single game she's played, so she's a welcome addition to our team, to say the least.
Santa Clara Sophomore Forward Leslie Osborne
On her first goalDevvyn made a really nice run and I cut behind the defense and she played me with a really good ball. I could feel three defenders on me, so I knew if I shot it, it would be blocked. So I just cut it back and placed it outside on the near post.
On her second goal
Kristi (Candau), Megan (Kakadelas) and I had been combining all half, but couldn't put one away on a cross. Megan played an awesome far-post ball and I saw the keeper going away, so I just headed it to the near post.
We played pretty well on Friday too, even though we didn't come away with the win. We're looking better and we're starting to put it all together. We come out every game and play hard because we know everybody is looking to beat us this year. We need to step it up, and I think we did a really good job of it this weekend.
