Post-Match Quotes - Hawai‘i
NCAA Des Moines Regional Final Post-Match Quotes
Wells Fargo Arena - Des Moines, Iowa
Hawaii vs Minnesota (Dec. 12, 2015)
Hawaii opening statement
Coach Dave Shoji: We ran into a team that was just a little more physical than us. We just had no answer to stop their offense. They hit 40 % for the game. They were just attacking us from all angles and we couldn’t slow them down enough. I am very proud of my team for hanging in there and making it to game three and having a chance to go to game five. Game four could’ve gone our way but we just didn’t make the plays down the stretch. We had a chance to go to the final four but it didn’t happen. We are disappointed but we have accomplished a lot this year.
Was there anything you said to the team or any changes you made that helped come out to the third?
Coach Shoji: We made one tactical change; we flopped the lineup just to get a different matchup. I’m not sure that won game three for us. We just tried to appeal to our team to compete. We’ve had a good season. We were just watching them play so we just appealed to the team to and they responded. They didn’t want to go out that way. We play like we could for almost two games. It wasn’t a tactical change, just our players competing a little harder.
What were your thoughts comes out after game two?
Nikki Taylor: We knew that we had the capability to play better than the first and the second. We as a team knew we needed to cut back our errors, start converting plays, and getting our drive. We needed to start playing together. The first and second we were playing a little separate. More as individual parts instead of six people cohesively working on the court.
Tayler Higgins: our team just had to get their minds right. We were just watching them play. In the third game we were playing like ourselves. It was awesome to see. McKenna came in and did a great job as a freshman. You don’t see many freshmen coming in to game like this and play as well as she did. I’m proud of her and the way we fought back.
Impressions of Minnesota?
Coach Shoji: They have great athletes, they are well coached, they run a varied attack, they block well. They have a lot of weapons and I wish them well.
You switch McKenna in for Greely. Was Greeley’s ankle bothering her?
Coach Shoji: She had rolled her ankle in practice on Wednesday and she’s going to have surgery on her shoulder when we get back. She was just playing on adrenaline on Friday night. I think it caught up to her tonight. I almost didn’t play her last night but she had a great match. Tonight was a different story. And it’s really unfortunate for her because she’s had a great season. McKenna came in and did a really nice job for us.
