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April 27, 2007
NCAA Women's Gymnastics National Championships
Super Six Quotes
April 27, 2007
Jon M. Huntsman Center - Salt Lake City, Utah
Georgia Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan
Opening Statement
"Tonight was just all about those motivational things, I guess. Twice-wounded dogs are twice as dangerous. It all worked tonight. We just fought all night. Fought on beam. Rallied behind our fans, we've done that for 25 years. On the beam, everybody was surfing up there but nobody was coming off, we just fought. It was all about focus, we had such tunnel vision tonight. We just stuck with our plan. We had some small mistakes but we just had to rally behind each other. Stay in the moment, that's just what we had to do. They all had their tunnels in their gym bags tonight, all about tunnel vision. After Nikki fell we made our one mistake and just rocked-and-rolled from there on out. Just stick with our plan and they delivered after that. A total team effort, everybody stepped up tonight. I saw a couple of mistakes out there tonight on floor. I think it was anybody's meet halfway through, but we just continued to fight and fought our way out of it. I would like to thank Utah. They did an absolutely great job on floor tonight. For us it was just a total team effort. I am just really proud of everyone involved."
In response to Coach Marsden statement
"I just want to add that I agree with coach and that there were two significant moments for us tonight. For one, I think it was important that we finished first last night. It was a big win for us, very emotional and it definitely inspired our performance tonight. And second I would like to thank Florida. They have an incredibly strong team, one that won the SEC. Their performances throughout the season helped motivate us all season. They are very strong, the future of our sport and we'll have to do our best to stay ahead of them in the future."
Question: "Did you know what was happening out there tonight? Did you know you were tied after two events?"
Answer: "Tonight we just stuck with our plan. Tunnel vision. I did know what was going on out there, though. It's very hard not to with that giant scoreboard overhead. That's great for the fans, but hard for the teams. I knew, but I didn't say anything to our team. After Nikki fell, I knew we weren't tied anymore. Yes, I did know how close it was out there."
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Georgia Student Athlete Katie Heenan
Question: "Katie, describe for us what you talked about during your bye."
Answer: "Tonight our team focus was to stay in the zone. We had no reason to doubt ourselves tonight. You can never count a Bulldog out. We fought for everything tonight. Not many teams can lose two seniors right before nationals, but they were our biggest supporters out there. They were right there to rally with us. We won with team chemistry, and upheld the great Georgia Bulldog tradition."
Question: "Did it feel like a battle out there between teams?"
Answer: "I had no idea out there. Tonight's whole theme was tunnel vision. It was all about us. I think we captured the arena and made it ours. I really didn't notice because the focus was all on us tonight."
Utah Head Coach Greg Marsden
Opening Statement Question: "Is it disappointing to finish second?"
Question: "Did you know that you were tied after two rounds?"
Utah Student-Athlete Ashley Postell
Question: "Is it disappointing to finish second?"
Question: "Did the last two rotations feel like a back-and-forth battle?"
Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn
Opening Statement
Question: "What event(s) did you feel you struggled with tonight?"
Answer: "It's a little disappointing. Kind of a mixed bag though. Two months ago we were unsure if we'd be here and to come so far in the last six weeks is unbelievable. In Athens two months ago, it seemed like the wheels were coming off and for us to battle back at the end of the season to reach this point is very satisfying. But we'd rather be first, of course."
Answer: "Yes, I knew cause of the scoreboard overhead. After the third event, we dug ourselves a little hole. At the end of the meet I didn't know where we stood."
Answer: "It's disappointing not to win tonight, but it has been a roller coaster season and no one thought that we'd be here. We're happy to get second. Our team came together really well at the end of the season."
Answer: "We didn't even know where we stood. Our focus was on our team and watching what we could do to help the team out."
"I don't know what to say. It was an incredible competition. I would like to congratulate the University of Georgia on an outstanding performance. They were on fire tonight and deserve to be National Champs. My hat's off to Utah as well for a job well done. It was a little disappointing -- we were hoping to win the National Championship. I told the team afterward that to win it all you have to be perfect. We also want to focus on winning the SEC this year and fight and come back next year."
Answer: "We struggled with mistakes on floor and bars tonight, which is not typical for us. But we responded well. The mistakes in the middle (of the event rotation) caused us to lose momentum. That hurt the most, because ideally we would like to get the mistakes out of the way at the beginning. In almost all of our events, we had mistakes in the middle."
