Dec. 1, 2007

Recap

Head Coach John Loughran
On the game:
"I thought we missed a couple of early opportunities to get into the flow of the game. We played real solid defense in the first half, and our offense obviously struggled, as well as our power play. We just missed some opportunities to execute. I thought USC was a little tight, a little hesitant, and we had some opportunities to stay close but lost those, unfortunately. Our guys played strong and played well together, we just made some poor decisions at some key times to keep the game close. Our plan was to keep it close heading into the fourth quarter, but things got away from us just before the half."

"One part of the game plan today was taking quick shots and we just didn't do that. We held the ball too long, let ourselves be fouled, and passed up shots.. It was frustrating to watch kids not take the chance that they needed to take, but USC has some really big shot blockers, so when you see those guys waving in front of you, the net looks different."

On Stevens' performance:
"Andy was our best player. I thought he started making the other team think a little bit, and our defense really clicked at times. Andy was doing a great job leading our defense, and I thought the five-meter save was really nice and inspiring. He played with some poise today and really led our defense."

On the kickouts early on:
"It was really hard for us to get into a rhythm, especially with the number of offensive fouls called against us, which I found strange because of the size difference of our teams. They were bigger than us and we were getting called for offensives. It looked like the power plays were 2-to-1 for the first half, but it is what it is. When you're playing the number one team in the country, they're gonna get some calls."

Freshman Goalkeeper Andy Stevens
On his performance:
"A lot of the USC guys, I've played with them over the summer with the Junior National Team, so I kind of knew what they were gonna do. They definitely had a lot of opportunities, we were able to stop a lot of them, but just not enough."

Junior Utility Tim Hummel
On LMU's goal before halftime and its effect:
"We kept it pretty close in the first half, but we just didn't get enough shots on cage. We needed to make [USC's Adam] Shilling work hard in cage, but without putting enough shots on him, he wasn't forced to make any teams. Our defense was playing well, and Andy did great in the cage, but when we needed to force them to make a mistake or a switch, we didn't capitalize on that."

On LMU's recent successes:
"We bought into a new system that we started about two weeks before conference tournament, it really helped our team get closer as groups, and helped us play well as a team, which was one of the key things that got us to the NCAA Championships. We just didn't get enough goals today."