Dec. 2, 2005

Recap | Box Score

Long Beach State

Long Beach State head coach Brian Gimmillaro:

(Opening Statement) "I'm happy for San Diego. Their program does a heck of a job. They were certainly better than us tonight."

"We made too many errors to be successful tonight. When you have seven errors among your first nine points of the match like we did, you are struggling to score points and emotionally to stay in the game. We struggled to get back in the game from that point and we never recovered. It was a difficult night for us."

(On San Diego's mistakes in the fourth game) "We had given up so many errors to start the game that they got away with making mistakes. Their mistakes, especially at the end, weren't as costly as they could have been."

(On Long Beach State's short tournament run) "We have great kids in our program. Over the last three years we have had some tremendous kids who haven't been able to play because of injury. Until we can train Long Beach State style training, I don't see the results changing. Our kids have been playing heroic because they have been playing hurt which forces them to play at a lesser level."

(Final though on match) "When you look at the stats they are pretty even, but they out dug us. When this team gets out dug we are in for trouble."

Senior Erika Chidester:

(Thoughts on match) "We made some mistakes and we were behind, but it wasn't the big hitting of San Diego that beat us, it was our own mistakes that beat us. That is how it has been the entire year."

Senior Robin Miramontes:

(On the match) "If we were playing the way we should have been, those mistakes don't happen. That was a prime example of it tonight."

"In game three, we came out fired up, but we weren't executing the way we should have been. It was us making mistakes and we didn't have enough fight to win."

San Diego

San Diego head coach Jennifer Petrie:

(Opening statement) "I think that this was the toughest first round matchup the NCAA put together in this tournament this year. Long Beach State played great, but I am thrilled that our team came out on top. We are looking forward to continuing in this tournament."

(Thoughts on match) "I think it was really important we stayed aggressive. We made some errors but we had 20 more kills than them so that helped. If we do what we do well in a match, we will find a way to score some points."

(On the play of Christie Dawson) "We always go with who is hot, and Christie was hot. We changed our lineup three times, but the lineup we played with in the third game is the lineup we played with in the fourth game, and that turned it around for us."

(On playing Long Beach State earlier in the year) "We had a slight mental advantage in this match because we played Long Beach State earlier in the year and were in the exact same position. We came out more aggressive in the third game and luckily things came out in our favor."

(On the next round) "We are very excited to get the chance to continue playing and play UCLA if they win, because we played them earlier in the year as well. Either way, we are excited to be in the hunt and to continue on."

Junior Christie Dawson:

(On playing Long Beach State) "We knew going into the match that they were a big team. We practiced all week swinging high. We just went into this match and executed and went with how things were going."

Senior Lindsey Sherburne:

(On playing Long Beach State) "It makes a big difference when you play a big team like Long Beach State. We just were able to move the ball around more and get good shots."