Nov. 15, 2002
Santa Clara Head Coach Jerry Smith
Opening Statement:
"It was a match where we were clearly better than our opponent but I give Creighton a lot of credit. They fought to the end and I think that they were working as hard in the 90th minute as they were in the first minute. They made it a little tough on us, scoring on us in the second half which is something that not many teams have done this year. I am proud of our team. We got a win and we advanced which is what we needed to do."
On entering the tournament as the defending National Champion:
"I think that we are in a similar position. It is a little different in that we won the championship last year but at the same time I don't think that anyone who plays North Carolina will think any less of them. Stanford is the No. 1 seed in the tournament so they have a big target on their back as well. I thought that as one of the top seed in each of the last few tournaments that we have had a target on our back then to, so this isn't any different. We took a couple of hits during the regular season and were seeded only sixth in the tournament, so that if anything made the target a little smaller."
Forward Leslie Osborne
On the advantage of scoring early in the game:
"It is important for us because once we start putting goals away, we tend to start putting more away, so the earlier we can start the scoring it tends to get things rolling for us which helps."
Midfielder Tracy Hess
On coming off the bench and scoring twice:
"I didn't think that I was the one that was the sparkplug for our team, I think it was everybody else who was out there helping me, telling me where to go and what to look for. I was give a lot of really good balls to play off of and they made me work hard for the looks. I just did what I could with them."
