Bowling Green State University Athletics
Andy Richards Press Conference Quotes
November 09, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 9, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team has qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in school history, and the Falcons will head to Columbus to face number-six seeded Ohio State University in Friday's (Nov. 12) first round. On Tuesday (Nov. 9), Falcon fifth-year head coach Andy Richards took time out before practice to meet with members of the media...
Q: For us, seeing an eighth-seeded team winning a league tournament comes as quite a surprise. Obviously, your team must have believed that they could do it. Can you talk about fighting that battle?
Andy Richards: Yeah, belief is a tremendous part of the success here. We put ourselves in a very tough position, because we lost so many games early in the season. The last three or four MAC games all were must-win games for us. We talked about developing a tournament-style mentality at that point. 'These are all must-win games; you have to win them just to get into the (MAC) tournament.' And then, when we were in the tournament, same thing. 'You've got to win to move on.' So, I think the team was well-versed in that mentality, and that ability to come out with their backs against the wall and win those games. It started at Buffalo, continued against Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, and then the big 'play-in' game at Toledo. And, of course, the three games in the tournament itself. It was a great rehearsal. We put ourselves in a tough position, but as it happened, it worked out very well for us.
Q: Did you notice that the team played differently when you got into that rehearsal mode?
AR: Yes, they have tremendous determination. They just have this ability to turn it on when it really matters, which can be a frustrating quality, because when we play in games that we don't need to win, per se, then ...
Q: Then it's turned off?
AR: Yes, a little bit. So, it is a bit of a frustrating quality, but it's an exciting one as well. I would always take a team that can turn it on when the pressure is there.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the tournament run, starting with the (final regular-season) game at Toledo?
AR: The Toledo game ... you couldn't write that any better. To play your rival on their own field, we both had to win to get in (to the MAC Tournament), a tie would have sent us both out. So, the pressure was incredible. It was a 0-0 game at halftime, and they had a wonderful chance early in the second half, which they couldn't capitalize on. And then, we scored, and the change in the game was very apparent then. They had to attack more, which opened them up in the back a little bit. We got the second (goal) and the third, and that was it. It looked like a comfortable win, but it really wasn't; it was a very tight game. Toledo-BG games are always very tight, in any sport, and it is no different with us.
That put us in the tournament, and then the quarterfinal game at Kent State was the one that we really felt that, if we could get through that, we had a real chance. And, we did, in overtime, with 68 seconds to go before the penalty-kick shootout was upon us. So, it's just then that you start to feel there's a bit of magic going on, that something special is happening. And, it just went from there. The Western Michigan semifinal was a rematch of last year's final (a 4-1 loss). We felt bad about having lost that game ... it just kind of builds, and you just begin to feel this force behind you. It's an amazing quality, especially when you look back on it, and consider how everything happened. It was almost a destiny for us, but it took a lot of work and a lot of heartache to get there.
