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Nov. 12, 2006

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Tennessee Head Coach Angela Kelly: "I think what you saw today was a great women's soccer game. It was back and forth, and we had our share of opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, as did Duke. I have tremendous respect for Robbie Church and his team. They are very talented. Obviously, the objective is to win and move on, but I would rather play it out instead of going into penalty kicks. We're going to take it. I give a lot of credit to Duke. They were a huge battle for us today, and it really could have gone either way."

On the penalty kicks: "The game has to be decided in some way, but I would prefer to just keep playing. Take a player off the fi eld or something until one team falters and breaks. But it's the traditional way soccer has been decided, even over in the European leagues. Today, I'll take it. If we were on the other end of the stick, it would be a different story. We win and move on. I'm very pleased with that."

On the lost to Duke in the 2001 NCAA tournament: "We always have great games versus Duke. Back then they hadn't changed the rule so we went into double overtime and played another two periods and then penalty kicks. Duke was on the winning end of that one, so I guess there was a little bit of redemption here."

On scoring chances in regulation time: "We created phenomenal scoring opportunities for ourselves. I think our forward line is extremely dynamic. When we can get in behind or face up against the backline, its pretty threatening to any backline we face. Their keeper played amazing. She made an unbelievable kick-save on Ali Christoph's 1v0 with the keeper. Mick (Imgram) had a point-blank shot from six yards out. We had ample opportunities to put the game away, but that's also the game of soccer. You can outshoot a team 30-1 and lose the game. That's how vicious the game can be. You just have to survive by your will. That is what I am trying to share and teach my young ladies. There has to be a sense of fortitude and you have to have the will the win. You have to will yourself to win that 50-50 ball and will that ball across the line. It's a test of two wills, and you just have to always be sure you come out on top."

On playing North Carolina: "We haven't played them since the opening game of last season. We played them on turf in Topeka, Kansas. I went to school there and I have a tremendous amount of respect for their program. It was a pleasure being a part of it, but my heart is in Tennessee now. I'm definitely a Lady Vol through and through. I'm just excited to take my squad versus them. I'm not afraid to face anyone in this country. In our out-of-conference schedule we played Santa Clara, Stanford and Virginia. We challenge our girls so that when we get to this point we are going to be very well prepared. I think that we are extremely well prepared at this point, especially now that Jaimel is back, to face North Carolina." Jaimel Johnson, sophomore goalkeeper

On the penalty kicks: "I think I do well under pressure. I love saving penalty kicks because the pressure isn't on me. The pressure is really on the player taking the shot. With the fi rst save, I just read her body. She went to my left, and I just went for it. I got my hand on the second one, but I knew that by saving the fi rst, that took the pressure off my players. It just gives them another opportunity to walk up to the line and put it in the back of the net. So it was defi nitely good saving the fi rst one."

On returning to play after being injured: "It is great to be back with my defensive line and the rest of the team as well. It wasn't really frustrating sitting on the sideline because Sarah Kitchin stepped up big time. I was there supporting her. I'm glad to be back and excited to just get back into it."

On her strategy for handling penalty kicks: "A lot of players won't look at the goalkeeper, but I just stare right at the player. Sometimes that is intimidating. Some players don't look up, and some do. I just watch their hips and their eyes. I watch everything that can give me a clue as to which way to react."

Kylee Rossi, sophomore forward
"It is great. It has been really fun. This is my fi rst Sweet 16, which is pretty exciting. The team just gives it their all every single second, and we play for each other. We're hoping to take on the top team in the nation. On any given day, any team can win, and we've proved that this year in some losses. We're excited to get to North Carolina and show them what we have.

On all Tennessee's chances to score in the match: "It is frustrating, but it's NCAA time. People's nerves are up and you have so much adrenaline. It's a lot harder than you think to put the ball in the back of the net. We just have to stick with it, and if we miss some, we just have to keep the attitude positive and get the next one."

On her penalty kick: "I don't stare at the goalkeeper at all. I look at the ball. I put the ball down, think about my technique and put the ball in. Some people change, depending on how the goalie moves, but I didn't change. We practiced penalty kicks in practice. I knew which way I was going beforehand. I was pretty confi dent going into this one. Jaimel took the pressure off me when she saved the fi rst one because I knew we couldn't lose. If I missed we would just keep going. I wanted to make it, but I didn't have to because we weren't going to lose at that moment in time."

Duke Head Coach Robbie Church: "I thought you saw a great women's college soccer game. It was a very high level game with end-to-end action back and forth. I thought you saw two very good goalkeepers in action who were coming up with outstanding saves. Allie Lipsher played a phenomenal game. She came up and really saved us. I'm just proud of our team. It's been an interesting roller coaster of a year, but we have fought every game. We've had opportunities to fold, but we haven't. We have a lot of character on our team. Congratulations to the University of Tennessee for advancing, and we wish them well. It's a tough game to decide on penalty kicks, but they haven't come up with a better way of doing it. Somebody has to advance. I don't think many players could have played much longer than that."

On the number of shots Tennessee took: "We've had a number of games like this when we've been on the other side. Times when we've controlled play and controlled shots and haven't been able to break through. When Tennessee was running up shots and controlling play, we hung in there. We got big saves by Allie and then we started to put some things together. I thought we played very well in overtime. We had a number of quality opportunities to fi nish it up at that point. But this is a funny game. Scoring goals is a funny thing. We did a lot of good things, we just could not put one past them. Again, I think it was a great game, a great showcase game for our sport with two quality teams. Unfortunately for us we're going home, and fortunately for Tennessee they're going to Chapel Hill."

Allison Lipsher, junior goalkeeper
On the penalty kicks: "I think it was a huge advantage for them when Jaimel stopped that [fi rst] penalty kick. It certainly got the momentum going a little bit. It made it a tough shootout for us. I'm really proud of everyone. We've been practicing penalty kicks and everyone came through when we needed them to. I think that was about as good as we could have done." On earning her career-high nine saves: "That's about as lucky as I can remember getting. They had some quality chances and we got lucky on some of those."

KayAnne Gummersall, freshman forward
On the season: "We've defi nitely had our ups and downs. We came together for the second season and played with heart and as a team. It just hurts so much to go out this way. Tennessee played a great game. We both had our chances. We didn't fi nish, and neither did they. To go to a shootout hurts just so much more."