Aug. 23, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State women's soccer head coach Erica Walsh and junior midfielder Maddy Evans (Glenside, Pa.) took questions from the media on Tuesday at Fall Sports Media Day.
Head Coach Erica Walsh
Question on Facebook from Brian Heuber
Q: How do you feel about not being ranked in the top 25, but being picked to win the Big Ten for the 14th straight time?
A: That's the first I've heard of it. I don't really follow rankings too closely. I know that the Big Ten is going to be extremely challenging this year and there are a lot of good teams in the country. Obviously, right now, it's about figuring where we stand and this weekend gave us a pretty good idea of what we need to work on. As far as the rest of it's concerned, I think we will earn it in due time.
Question on Twitter from @Rob_Gsinger25
Q: What is the biggest thing you will bring back to Penn State from your World Cup experience?
A: Probably passion for the game. I definitely came back with a ton of energy and excitement for women's soccer and soccer in general. I just feel really energized this season. I've got a lot of great experiences from working with Pia (Sundhage) and working with the national team players. I certainly feel, as I said, very energized going into this season.
Q: What did you think of your weekend and how the team played overall?
A: I thought it was a bit mixed on Friday night against Stanford. I thought our first 40 minutes were very sharp. I thought we played well and battled with good intensity. Our minds were in the right place. That goal right before halftime was tough and then right after halftime, I think, was extremely challenging. To the players' credit, they continued to fight and battle and eventually Stanford wore us down. In those circumstances, being on the road, losing our first match, it could kind of go either way. On Sunday they came back with good energy and excited for the match and I thought put their stamp on it early and certainly showed that they've got the ability to compete and deal with some of the adversity this season.
Q: You have WVU this weekend, a pretty experienced team. What do you guys do about trying to bring them down?
A: Obviously, that's a side that were familiar with and we had a chance to compete against them twice last year and pretty much every year at least two times between the fall and the spring. I think the familiarity could be a positive and a negative but right now all our focus is on Penn State and as Maddy said we got a better idea of what were looking to focus on. Namely our team attack and really starting to focus on the attacking half of the field and starting to get our flanks more involved and obviously you always want to find Christine as much as you can but we got some very good pieces going forward. Now we got to combine and find those pieces moving forward.
Q: You guys go on the road for a few weeks after that. How much emphasis does this put on you this weekend to pick up 2 more wins and have a good showing in front of your home fans?
A: Were excited about Park Avenue Army, the new students support group and I know our assistant Tim Wassell did a lot of work to try and get that group going. And their support is massive. In terms of this weekend Friday night is all of our focus right now and this is a team that were familiar with and were excited to matchup against. It's always a good matchup. WVU always brings great intensity and its our goal to match it but to surpass it and as Maddy said a Penn State style of play.
Q: What's different about the playing surface at Jeffrey this year?
A: Aesthetically, obviously it's a lot nicer but the rye allows the game to be played at a quicker pace, its ironic you look in the media guide for WVU the last few years and ask the players what their favorite field to play on and they said Jeffrey Field so I think we need to use that to our advantage that they like coming into our house and not allowing them to become comfortable in that environment
Q: What was your reaction when they said they were going to rip up the turf and put something new?
A: I've got 100 percent trust in the grounds crew and Herb Combs always done right by us and you look at our game film on our practice field and its better than any place in the country and that's our goal and right now we feel that Penn State is the best place to play and Jeffrey Field is a huge part of it.
Q: What are your overall thoughts of the new Big Ten Conference?
A: With Nebraska joining the conference, we'll continue to have some of the similar opponents that we'd have but this will be a new face and we'll go down and have a good showing in Carolina this past weekend. But we'll see the usual suspects. Ohio State returns a strong squad. Many of their starters from their final4 team last year and were always challenged by Wisconsin and Purdue. There's not an easy game in the conference and last year it showed late in the season one of the teams at the bottom of the conference knocked off Ohio State and allowed us to have a share of that title so you got to play every match like it's the defining match of that season.
Maddy Evans, Junior Midfielder
Q: What do you think of your wing play so far?
A: I think so far so good. We definitely found each other on Sunday a lot more and we were playing against a 4-4-2 as well so its great that we have a bunch of people that can play that position. I think everyone stepped up a bit and that shows our strength as a team.
Q: What do you think that will do for the team having a bigger cheering section for you in the stands?
A: I think it's going to be huge. We already just by ourselves get super excited for the game and having that extra piece that 12th player is incredible. It's going to definitely help us.
Q: What did you learn from your past few games and your expectations for the season?
A: I think as a team we take one game at a time and learn a lot from this past weekend and what were capable of. We played two great teams and want to bring out the best in ourselves and putting up a good fight no matter who we play.
Q: What are your feelings about playing at Jeffrey Field?
A: Can't beat Jeffrey. We love playing on it. Just the environment itself and then the surface is always the best of the best and just saving the opportunity to play on the field like that is exciting in itself and it makes you step up that much more and how lucky we are to play on that field.
Q: What's different about the surface this year?
A: It's not as thick, I guess. Everything moves really quickly. Jeffrey has always been amazing but now it's that much better.
Q: How much do u think rest will play this season and getting chances to get time off and minutes here and there since you guys are playing 20 games in a short amount of time. Will it have an impact on the season?
A: Yes of course. I think a little bit. Also playing into that is our depth just a combination of resting our bodies and each player taking care of themselves and doing everything you possibly can to be as healthy as possible as far as every little thing we can do. It's going to play a huge role and we're going to keep focused on that.
Q: Are you guys looking forward to your trip down to UVa?
A: Absolutely. I can't wait.
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