NSU Postmatch Quotes
Northeastern State Women’s Soccer Coach Chase Wooten
On his overall thoughts…
“I thought we did fairly well. It was a different game then when we played at their place last month. They scored everything they looked at when we played them at their place. We got some nice early goals in this one and was able to create some separation. As the game went on and got into halftime, I felt pretty good about our chances still. They turned around and got a goal back off a corner. That was too bad because it gave them a ton of momentum. It stayed 2-1 forever and we kept missing really good looks to make it 3-1. Our goalkeeper Maggie (Kloza) made a terrific save on a through-ball midway through the second half. Realistically, they should have scored that. But realistically, we probably should have scored two or three of our good looks in the second half. In the grand scheme of things, I thought we battled hard and played well enough to win. There’s certainly some areas that we need to clean up right away to win at the next level, but it’s all in the wheelhouse of possibilities.”
On the momentum-swinging second-half goal by NWMSU…
“This group, to their credit, has battled back fairly well. There have been a couple different times where we were down 2-0 and we battled back into the game. I don’t think there’s a lack of confidence going forward. It’s a momentum swinger for sure, but I don’t think our group gives up one goal and panics. We showed some youthfulness here and there on how to ice the game in the last five minutes, but with all the new faces that we have and at the level we’re playing from a competition perspective, we’ve played a decent brand of soccer.”
On the MIAA…
“This conference is fantastic. There’s really not a big difference as you go through from one through eight. There’s lots of good soccer that gets played here. On the right day, anybody can hang with anybody.
Northwest Missouri State Women’s Soccer Coach Tracy Hoza
On the game…
“We came out really strong, put them under pressure and had a lot of possession. We didn’t do well around the box. We did very well and they came back in the last 20 minutes of the first half and got two easy quick goals. They’re a very good team if you let them have time in space. We didn’t take away their time in space. The second half we changed our system up a little bit and we just pressured them the whole second half. We got a goal, and we would have liked to have another couple, but they did very well. They withstood the pressure. Our team did work well in the second half. I just think we should have put away more opportunities.”
On the momentum swing from the second-half goal…
“It was brilliant. We’ve been down before, and we know what we can do when we’re down. It was a good confidence boost. We changed things up and they had belief in what they were doing. It was a huge goal, especially when you can make it a one-goal difference.”
On the season…
“We did OK. We could have done a lot better with this team. We’re a little bit disappointed with that. There were some games that we should have won and we didn’t put them away. We’ve got to learn how to do that and we have to find the fire to do that. We have to finish strong, we didn’t finish strong this year. We have to learn how to finish strong, and overcome injuries and things that happen throughout the year. They’re a good bunch. We only graduate one starter, so we’re excited to have them come in and do a little bit of recruiting, as well.”
