Bucknell University Athletics
2009 Patriot League Men's Lax Championship Post-game Quotes
4/26/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 26, 2009
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2009 PATRIOT LEAGUE MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP
Final: No. 3 Navy 9, No. 1 Bucknell 8
Records: Navy (11-4), Bucknell (9-7)
Quotes
April 26, 2009
Navy Head Coach Richie Meade
“We only won 8 of 21 face offs; there were a lot of restarts or jumps. If you look at that stat and realize that we got 36 ground balls and they got 25, that's really a telling stat. That means that we had a lot of possessions. We cleared the ball 20 out of 24 times. That's a lot more possessions that they don't have the ball. Clearing the ball against Bucknell is something that you have to do to be able to beat them. And then if you get more ground balls, then you're going to have more possessions and their guys don't have the ball. I felt we did that in the second half. In the first half I thought we played too much defense.”
(On Tim Paul coming back from an ankle injury)
“He's getting better. We tried to play him Friday night and he's just not quite there yet. The injury was about a three-week window, I was told, and we're right at three weeks right now. He tried to push it. He didn't hurt himself anymore, but I think in a week or two, he's going to be in a lot better shape. We had originally thought that he might respond a little bit differently. His ankle's not ready yet. It's still sore.”
(On transition goals)
“We've been trying to run on everybody. I think we've been running on everybody. What we did today early in the game was really execute well. There were a few times early that we didn't catch a pass or make a shot.”
“I think our transition, although we scored a couple times, we extended their middies and made them run all the way down the field. We didn't see their second midfield a whole lot in the second half.”
(On Robby Battle getting 8 of 9 face offs late in the game)
“I would say that Battle turned it around.”
“One of the things that is very encouraging, the other night we had Tommy Mansfield in the game, and he had some difficulty. Thomas Zimmerman played very, very well. Battle played very, very well. The same thing today.”
(On winning the title)
“We won five Patriot League Championships. All of them are very, very special. This one is very, very meaningful because we lost last year and these teams in the Patriot League are very good. Colgate is very good, and Bucknell is a very good team and they're going to be good for the next several years.”
Navy senior defenseman Andy Tormey
(On turning it around after earlier loss to Colgate and getting to this point)
“It's a great feeling. We were kind of down a little bit after that Colgate game. That's human nature. But I think, senior-wise, we came together.”
“We came together a lot more as a team, I think. We could have gone in a bad direction, and I think we turned it up in a better direction. Looking back on it, it's tough to beat a team twice in the same year, especially in your own league, in any sport. We knew that going into this tournament. We just turned it around, everyone stayed positive. It's a great feeling to be here right now. All the credit goes to the seniors on the team, picking it up after that loss, and everybody kind of followed suit.”
(On getting the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament)
“It's unbelievable. On Selection Sunday, there's nothing better than sitting there with your team and knowing that your name is going to be called and having that comfort level. It's great. It allows us to get a lot of work done this week in preparation for that, too.”
(On Tim Paul coming back from an ankle injury)
“The kid's a competitor. He's in the training room everyday, getting better, icing it, taking ice baths, running in the water pool. If there's anybody who's going to be back, it's him. This extra week of preparation is going to help out a lot for him. There's no doubt in my mind, he'll be back, ready to go at 100 percent because he's going to work that hard to get there.”
Navy senior goalkeeper Tommy Phelan
(On the Navy defense)
“I think the defense did a phenomenal job.”
“When we got back to our Navy defense, that really set us on the right page. That also makes my life a little easier.”
Bucknell Head Coach Frank Fedorjaka
(Opening comments)
“You try to defend the knows. We know that Navy wants to get out after a save and get going. We didn't do a good job of getting back on the whole in the first. The story of the first half for us was that they scored three goals while we were on offense. And I thought the story of the second half, unfortunately, was ball control in the third period. We didn't have it much and when we did, we didn't have it for very long and we didn't take good shots. Navy beat us to a lot of ground balls today. It was pretty hot out there, but our guys gave it everything they had. It was a great game.”
(On Navy's winning goal)
“I don't even look at it that way. Those things are bound to happen. It's just unfortunate to happen in the championship game, late in the game, in the fourth quarter. The way I look at it, we lost that game in the third quarter. We came out with the lead and we played like we were down five goals.”
(On Nick Sciubba's play)
“He came up with some really big saves. There were maybe a handful of times where our defense broke down and Navy got it where they wanted it. They got the shot they wanted and Sciubba should have made the save.”
(On Bucknell's long play with 10 seconds remaining in the game)
“I told the officials before the play that we were shooting it, and that we were going to try to back it up. If it got deflected, we were going to try to scoop it up and throw it in or call a timeout.”
(On the future of the program)
“First of all, we're graduating the winningest class at Bucknell. These 10 seniors have won more games in their career than any other class, by one. Last year's class was number one, so they beat them on Friday.”
“The future looks bright. We have some very good offensive players returning. We lose (Joe) Mele and (Perry) Menzies, but I think we have just about all of our scorers back. We lose a lot on defense. It's not as big a deal for Bucknell to graduate defensive players because of our team defensive system. We're going to slide 100 percent of the time. There's no secret there. It hurts in that we won't be as dynamic.”
“We're excited about the future, but it's hard to talk about today.”
