Posted: Sep 30, 2001
Sept. 30, 2001
From Stanford head coach Any Nelson
"It was a good game for us in the sense that I felt SMU was just a good opponent for us at this point. They really challenged us physically. They threw a lot of balls in the air to us and we had to deal with those... I thought we did well with that. I thought we did what we wanted to do, as far as how we were trying to play. It was a good performance."
From San Diego State head coach Chuck Clegg
"After the game, I went up to Jerry (Smith) and said to him, 'Jerry, this is almost like soccer camp, I feel like I have to pay you for the lesson that you gave.' His team played brilliant. They gave us a clinic in the first half. They absolutely played as well as they could play. Everything we did wrong was a cause of the way their team played: they pressured us up high, forced us to give up the ball, and they went at us with speed. I think they were a bit unlucky not to score more goals. If it hadn't been for the brilliance of our goalkeeper, the score would have been higher. That was one of the best performances I've seen in the regular season by a college team. Santa Clara was really awesome. If they play like that consistently, they'll go far."
