NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - HOLY CROSS VS MARYLAND

March 16, 2023

Diamond Miller

Abby Meyers

Faith Masonius

XFINITY Center

Maryland Terrapins

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us, everyone. We have the No. 2 seeded Maryland Terrapins here. We have after this we'll have Head Coach Brenda Frese.

Q. This can be for any. Start with Faith. What's the vibe around the team right? You guys work all season long to get to this point and it's finally here. You guys sound very cheery from the hallways. What's the vibe just like in the locker room?

FAITH MASONIUS: You can hear us?

Q. No. You guys are quiet.

FAITH MASONIUS: I think coming in today everyone is kind of, you know, it's like a realization moment. You know, it's coming full circle. We have been working since the summertime and we're finally here in March in the best time of the year. Being able to get our gifts today. We got all this nice stuff. And it's kind of coming, it's lock-in season. And it's coming full circle. For a lot of people on the team it is their first time being in March Madness. It's exciting. Everyone is really excited to get to practice and get locked in on film. Everybody has good vibes all the way around.

Q. When you play in the Big 10, obviously a very physical league. You kind of get used to teams, that type of thing. And now you get into this tournament setting and you are playing teams from all over the place: Boston, essentially Arizona, teams across leagues, across the country. You're getting national officials. What do you expect to maybe change from the Big 10 league and how you play to now these tournament games? Is there any difference, and what would that be?

ABBY MEYERS: You know, I think that if anything, that's to our advantage. We have been playing bigger, physical, more talented clutch teams. And that's not to discredit any, you know, mid-major or whatever team that we're going to face. They are going to bring their A-game just like we're going to bring our A-game. The biggest thing for us is to not kind of look back. To appreciate and be grateful for our journey and how much work we've put in. But I think right now, as Diamond always says, it's a new season. So we have to take what we've learned, the lessons we've learned and just the overall connection that we've made as a team throughout the entire year and just apply it to this game, play our game, stick to our fundamentals and come in, as Faith said, locked in and as prepared as we can be.

Q. For any of you guys. All of you guys up here are seniors. From your first time being in the NCAA Tournament to now, reflect on that and how you guys have grown and just the vibes and emotions for the tournament from your first.

DIAMOND MILLER: Yeah. It's kind of crazy how fast four years goes by. And when you're in the midst of freshmen, sophomore, even junior year, you kind of feel like this is forever. I need to get out of here. And when you're a senior it kind of just goes really quickly. So, you know, just because the way we ended last year, I think it puts a lot of fire in our hearts because we're really excited for what we could do this year. And obviously do better than what we did in the past. So we got a little fire in us, so it's very exciting to see what we can do.

ABBY MEYERS: Yeah my freshman year actually for the NCAA Tournament we went to NC state and the first round we played Maryland. It's a weird switching sides kind of moment. We lost by 20. But it was, you know, it kind of just -- it's also a really cool thing where my freshman year when we knew we were going to lose by the end of the fourth quarter and I just saw my seniors get subbed out, walking to the bench crying and hugging their teammates, as a freshman at that time I was almost like, I'm going to miss these guys but also I'm so glad I'm not in their position. I can come back next year and keep playing. Now I'm that senior, and this is officially my last year. And, you know, there's a different feeling approaching each game. This could be your last collegiate basketball game ever. Because of that, there's almost just this, like, increased intensity that, you know, for me, I want to bring my best game for this team. And if anything I've learned it's any team can be a unicorn team. Any team can be the best -- just this amazing team coming out from the blocks, so we have to be as prepared and as ready mentally, physically as possible.

FAITH MASONIUS: I think for me, looking back on all the years going to the NCAA Tournament freshman year, obviously got cut a little short from COVID, which is kind of that year was taken away from, I mean, Diamond and I -- that year would have been ours.

DIAMOND MILLER: We actually would have won. I don't know what happened to Princeton. We actually would have won it. At least fought them for it.

FAITH MASONIUS: Yeah. That would have been a deep run for us. And I think the past two years, I mean, yeah we made Sweet Sixteen, but it was short-cutting for our liking. But this year we're coming back spitting fire like dragons on the court. And just coming out really excited for what we can show people. Getting that 2-seed means a lot, and it's showing the work that we put in from the summer to off the court, on the court, in the classroom, and just moving forward we want to come out and play our best basketball, and we're really excited.

Q. Curious, Diamond, you saw the roster turnover this team had since last season. How have you seen Brenda mold this team into sort of the style that she likes to play?

DIAMOND MILLER: I think lucky for us this wasn't their first time this happened to Maryland. So she kind of understood what to do. So it was kind of like, okay, back to the drawing board. We got a new group of girls and let's regroup. I mean, she's the head coach and gets paid the way she does for situations like this because she knows how to always, like, recover. So yeah, I think this is what she does. That's why people come to schools like this, because there's no let-down no matter what, she's going to put us in the best situation she possibly can. And I think knowing who -- the newcomers coming in and what she had left, she was able to put in the game plan and execute the plan for this team in order for us to be in the situation we are today. So yeah, she did her job, you know.

ABBY MEYERS: Pretty good at it.

Q. Diamond, you know, kind of going off the question I asked earlier. When you get to get out of the Big 10 a little bit. Teams aren't seeing you for a second, even third time with Iowa. How excited are you to kind of get out of it and maybe have a little scouting tendencies, get to the Euro-step a little easier.

DIAMOND MILLER: I feel like everybody the scout is going to be the same. You know, even from our perspective, watching scout on film and playing them in real life, it's two different -- sometimes you know this girl is a shooter and you see on film, you can be like, oh yeah, she has a quick release. But you don't really know how quick it is until you are live in action. You know, I think it's a fair game for everybody. Just they can scout out but they don't know how we actually play in person, and we're going to scout them too. It's an even playing field for everybody. It makes it a lot more interesting, put it that way.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys.