Quotes: North Carolina 16, Duke 7

2015 NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championship Semifinal
No. 3 Duke vs. No. 2 North Carolina
May 22, 2015 ─ PPL Park

Duke Post Game Quotes

Duke Head Coach Kerstin Kimel

(Opening remarks)

“First, I'd like to congratulate North Carolina. I thought they played a great game tonight. They've had a great season. I'm proud of our team and proud of our seniors especially. I just told them that in the locker room. They've had an unbelievable four years and we've had a great year. I'm proud of them – love them – and I'm proud to be their coach tonight even thought the outcome wasn't what we wanted it to be.

Senior attack Kerrin Maurer

(On first-half stretch when team had trouble scoring)

“They're obviously a very athletic team, a very fast team and it's something we worked on all week… They're able to frazzle teams in their own offensive 30 and within the midfield, and I think at times, we weren't able to handle that pressure as well as we would've like to execute. So I think that caused that lapse in goals and led to kind of a drought.”

Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea

(On different looks North Carolina's offense was throwing at Duke)

“They're a really good dodging team and also a really good feeding team so that was kind of difficult for us because if we shut down a dodge, they were looking to feed on the inside. So I think we saw a little bit of everything. Really, they just took advantage of us when we were unorganized. They're obviously really good and really athletic. I think they got the best of us today.”

Coach Kimel

I actually thought, relative to our first game (with North Carolina), that our defense played really well. I thought the trouble was that we didn't have the ball enough. They did a very good job on the draw and I thought Kelsey and our defense… especially in the first half, we did a really good job of shutting down their looks and taking away things and then scrapping and coming up with the ball. The problem became then that we didn't necessarily take care of it in our clear or on the offensive side. And then in the second half, looking at where we were in the game, we had to change our defense. We had to do something differently to try to disrupt them and I think again, you're playing a team that has a lot of threats and moves the ball well. And it's a risk, but it's a risk you have to take if you want to get back in the game. I think they paid off in getting some turnovers for them or getting some shots that Kelsey could save. But the reality was that you can only play so much defense where's going to be some cracks and against a really good team at this level in the semifinal game.

Senior midfielder Taylor Trimble

(On taking draws against Sammy Jo Tracy)

“Sammy Jo's definitely able to control the ball with her stick and Kerrin (Maurer) and I were both just trying to out muscle her at times. She's really good at controlling the ball and putting it where she wants it. I think with that said, we had a lot of opportunities where we just didn't finish. The ball was on our sticks and we just bobbled it. I don't think we necessarily got outdrawn by North Carolina. We had our opportunities and we just didn't finish the play. And that's just unlucky and it's on us to finish those draws.”

Kerrin Maurer

(On how proud you are about the season that you had)

“I just think it's been an honor these past four years to play for Duke, to play for any amazing coaching staff and an even better group of girls. And obviously this isn't what we wanted but we have learned so much throughout this year. As a senior leaving you could leave with a national championship, but I will leave with 35 best friends for the rest of my life and that's something that you can't really take away from.”

Coach Kimel

(Comparing North Carolina's team over the past two years)

“I can't give you a really good answer on that. I think where they've done an awesome job is those kids – they lost two of their top players midway through the season – and I actually think it helped them. I'm not saying that losing those individuals helped them, but it forced them to rally and I think they were different after having lost those kids. Whether they were sharing the ball more or it unified them to really to play to their potential. I'm not sure looking at all of the kids that they had up to that point, but they were maybe scoring as much or jelling as well, but I think that for whatever reason, when those kids got injured, they flipped a switch to their credit. I can't give you the technical reasons but there was a difference in that team. And being the first team that maybe played them after they lost Molly Hendrick they were a different team.”

(On whether she saw North Carolina made any adjustments before they went on a 6-0 run)

“I think that they just started tempo controlling. They were winning the ball and taking their time as any good and well-coached team would. And we couldn't just sit back and do what we were doing in terms of sitting in our man-to-man defense We felt like we needed to come out and put some pressure on them. I think it worked at times – we either got a save or a turnover or got the ball back. It just didn't necessarily result in a goal on our end.