Nebraska Soccer - NCAA First Round Quotes

November 15, 2013
NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships
First Round
FINAL: Nebraska 4, Southeastern Louisiana 0

Senior Goalkeeper Emma Stevens 

On quick possession changes

"It makes my job easier. It makes the defense's job easier. It's just so nice to know that when our team is taking care of business that we're gonna be successful and it's going to be a fun game to play. You always want to win by a good goal margin. Four is great. It's even better when you get the shutout."

On challenges

"They had the one shot to my right. At halftime, we just came in and said to keep doing what we're doing and execute what we do. There's always going to be games like that, but when it does come to me, I have to do my job."

On the Huskers' holding a majority of possession time

"When you have teams that are successful and make it into the tournament and are a top seed like we are, you don't really know what to expect. We came out not really worrying about our opponent, just worrying about what we have to do as a team. We executed it."

On Jaycie Johnson

"It was awesome. After the fourth goal, I was joking around with Maritza [Hayes], saying she was selfish. But when you're that good, you can be selfish. When she can score four goals in a game, we're going to be a very successful team. It's obviously not just Jaycie. We have a great attacking core that's going to get her the ball. Just knowing that she's going to finish it is awesome."

Freshman Forward Jaycie Johnson

On matching the NCAA record for most goals scored in a NCAA tournament game

"I didn't actually know that until you said that. I just have to give a lot of props to my teammates. They make it so easy for me. They play me easy balls. Jordan [Jackson] had three good crosses to me. They make my job easier to score and to get into the position of scoring. I'm just so happy to have my teammates behind my back. They trust me enough to play me those balls and do the job and get them in the back of the net."

On the early goal

"The early goal was very good for us just to know that we are in the lead. We can handle the momentum and control the game. That helps us to relax a lot more and just not panic. The early goal and first four minutes was really good for us. That was a positive for us. We just kept building from that. We just kept playing our game well and connecting our movement. It was great on and off the ball. Our defense did a phenomenal job in the back. It just helped us a lot."

On the trickiest goal

"I think the trickiest for me was my second goal. I was just trying to find the space and cut in and out of the players. That was a little bit harder just to stay on my feet and not get the ball kicked out of the way. That was probably the trickiest."

Head Coach John Walker

On attacking:

I thought we attacked pretty well.  The first half maybe settled for shooting from distance too much, instead of getting balls wide and crossing more and trying to penetrate closer to their back line.  We did address that a little bit, but overall I thought attacking play was good today.

On Jaycie Johnson’s freshman season:

I thought she was a player that was somewhat college ready.  She comes from a really good club program and I’ve known her for quite a while. She’s come to our camps for quite some time. I did feel there was that potential and of course with the other attacking players, Mayme, Jordan, Katie, etc. there was good balance there as well. I felt that she could have this type of year.

On Jaycie Johnson making history:

She’s a goal scorer that’s inclusive and what I mean by that is she understands that if people set her up for goals, and she lets them know.  She celebrates the goals with a lot of passion. Like I said she’s an inclusive goal sorcerer and always has a smile on her face so I’m very happy for her.

On holding onto possession:

It’s nice. We’ve gone through a stretch of games, obviously in the conference, where there’s so many tight games that are down to the wire.  Today’s game was a little different.  I thought Southeast Louisiana did very well, a very well organized team, played very hard, but it was certainly nice to have the ball for long periods and not have to worry about defending quite as much. It was an enjoyable game for sure.

On what this win means:

For me personally, it’s good, but I’m more excited for the players-the ones that have been in the program for a few years.  We were very close in a couple games the last couple of years and sometimes the games have gone the wrong way, so it’s nice to see them on the other end of it now where they have success and they’ve stuck with it and supported each other and they’ve put a lot into their own development.  I’m very very happy for those players especially the older ones. 

On playing at home in the next rounds:

I’m not sure, we’ll just wait and see. I’m optimistic because we’re the highest seat in our pod, but I don’t know all of the parameters that they’ll look at.