Nov. 12, 2006

Recap |  Box Score

Illinois coach Janet Rayfield
Opening statement...
"First, I'd just like to thank Saint Louis - they did a great job of hosting. This was a wonderful college soccer game. Both teams, coming off Friday night and all the weather and everything, it was a challenge to get everybody physically ready and I think you saw a great game today. Both teams kept the ball. SLU had some dangerous chances; Lindsey had two parries over that kept us in the game. Those sorts of things make a difference when you get to this point in the season. We played well, SLU played well and the fans were treated to a great soccer game."

On Illinois' attack...
"One of the things we've talked about all year long is if we can get our shots on frame we're pretty dangerous in terms of goal-scoring. We had 16 shots and eight on frame, and that makes a difference. To get 16 shots and score four goals is pretty good efficiency. We've worked a lot on that all year long."

On scoring early in the match...
"The first one is always critical. You can relax. You get a little bit of confidence. We came out against the wind, so to get a couple in the first half with the wind blowing at you is important. It helps your team relax, and I think you could see us relax and start to knock the ball around. When we possess the ball and knock it around, it makes iit more difficult to defend us. Any time in a soccer game, scoring early can be important. But we also knew SLU could come back - we scored first the last time we were here, so we knew the game wasn't over until the final whistle blew."

On freshman defender Brittany Garrett...
"She's stepped on in the second half of the season and has done a great job. She's obviously confident with the ball at her foot. She's a player who, coming up through the youth ranks, has played a number of different positions, so she's comfortable on the ball. I think it says something about our training environment and the kind of atmosphere we create at practice to have prepared somebody to play at that level stepping on late in the season. If you spend all day every day in practice defending these two, you're probably ready to step on and play against anybody. I think I credit our team for getting Brittany Garrett ready to play and to do what she did this weekend."

On putting Nweke into the game...
"When we made the decision to put Cheech in the game was we were getting a lot of opportunities in and around the box, even with the wind the ball was in the box a lot. Cheech is a natural goal-scorer, so she's one of those people who doesn't even really remember what happened because it just happens and she puts the bal in. we put her in the game because we were getting chances and we had somebody on our bench who's pretty good at finishing in all sorts of different ways. The ball bounced her way in the box and she probably doesn't even realize what happens until after it was over and the ball's in because it's just a natural instinct."

On Nweke scoring a goal and getting an assist very soon after entering the match...
"Made me look like a genius, didn't it? She's gives us such a spark off the bench. When she comes in, the defenses have to shift a little and it frees Ella up, and she came in and got a goal and an assist. We have so many weapons that we can utilize. Today the pieces came together for us and that's what we've been striving for and that's what we'll keep trying to do going forward."

On changing strategy against Saint Louis from the last time the teams met...
"Even the last game we felt like we had gotten some chances. We knew we were going to have to be better defensively. We figured they had watched our tape and figured out what we were trying to do, so we came at them a little bit differently and tried to play someone high on their deep sweeper. And see if that could give us some space to play and some problems to cause. More so because we figured they would've adjusted to us so we figured we should do something different and force them to adjust some more. I think that paid off early. As they were trying to deal with our high person, we were able to find different things and get opportunities in the box and I think that helped us."

Illinois forward Chichi Nweke
On scoring Illinois' first goal...
"It felt awesome. The ball just kind of bounced my way, so it felt good. I think I've learned a lot from our upperclassmen - Ella, Eva, Jess Bayne - so it's been good. The ball just kind of came in and took a funny bounce, and I just hit it."

Illinois forward Ella Masar
On how she felt after the game...
"Very rewarding. We've worked extremely hard for this - in the postseason to come out and play hard."

On Illinois' game plan today...
"We focused on everybody staying high. We just kind of followed the game plan. Every game it's going to be different, and I think that's a strength of our team. We focus on what we're supposed to do, we do it and usually it works our way."

Illinois goalkeeper Lindsey Carstens
On her goal kicks into the wind...
:They're just more difficult to hit into the wind, but I feel very comfortable with it. It gives us a good advantage to get the ball to our frontrunners."

On her two punch-saves...
"I'm just doing my job, I guess. Our team did well to put them under pressure in order to have them shoot from that far out, so it makes my job easier."

On Illinois' defense...
"We have a great defense and we've been very successful this season. it started out a little rocky, but toward the end of the Big Ten season we were getting a lot of shutouts. It's a team effort. Everybody on our team is great defensively - I think that's a big strength of ours."