NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - SACRED HEART VS STANFORD

March 16, 2023

Olivia Tucker

Ny'Ceara Pryor

Carly Stroemel

Maples Pavilion

Sacred Heart Pioneers

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's press conference for the Sacred Heart Pioneers student-athletes. Today we are joined by Ny'Ceara Pryor, Carly Stroemel, and Olivia Tucker.

We will now take questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Ny'Ceara, what are you thinking about your matchup with Talana? Have you got see her much this year, and what's it like knowing that it's a matchup here of freshman point guards.

NY'CEARA PRYOR: She's a great player. We are just going to stick to the game plan. Really not much to say. I haven't really seen here. She's not in our conference. I think she's a great player.

Q. Olivia and Carly, and Ny'Ceara if you want to chime in, what has the last 16 hours been like since the win? How many messages have you got on your phones or anything like that? I'm assuming Olivia, quite a few?

OLIVIA TUCKER: Yeah, a lot. Social media has been blowing up. I know our school has been blowing it up, the administration. We have the best administration you can ask for. Our fans are amazing.

So social media has been crazy, but it's just been an awesome feeling. It was a quick turnaround but it was the first win ever in NCAA history for our school, so it's a huge accomplishment. I'm so proud of my girls and the coaches for coaching us through it as well.

CARLY STROEMEL: Yeah, it's been really exciting. It's a really big stage that we're getting an opportunity to play on, and just been a really exciting opportunity for all of us to write a chapter in this book and create history for our school.

With everybody's support it's been a really awesome experience so far.

Q. Congratulations.

CARLY STROEMEL: Thank you.

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Thank you.

OLIVIA TUCKER: Thank you.

Q. Following up, you suddenly win a game and have this triumphant first-time ever, but suddenly you need to start game planning for tomorrow and watching film. Did you celebrate last night and get right back to work in the morning, or stay up late and start watching film? How did the process go?

CARLY STROEMEL: Well, I guess we kind of celebrated last night. Obviously it was a big win for us, first in history, so we had to take in that moment a little bit.

This morning with got back to business though. Watched film, locked in on our scout, game plan, and now we're just headed into tomorrow and excited to see what we can do.

That's pretty much it.

Q. So Ny'Ceara, you played 39 minutes. Took a bunch hits yesterday driving to the basket. How are you feeling physically heading into tomorrow?

NY'CEARA PRYOR: I'm feeling good. Body a little sore, but that's what comes with playing basketball. So I'm here.

Q. Olivia, obviously there was a lot of volume of threes and you've been a good three-point shooter on the season. Is it tough when they aren't falling to kind of keep wiping the mental slate and just keep moving on to the next shot when so many of them are bouncing off?

OLIVIA TUCKER: Yeah, I think that's a big part of being a shooter, is having a shooter's mentality. My teammates always had my back and said, keep shooting the ball. That's what I'm known for.

So just having them telling me to keep shooting the ball, they have confidence in me. That really up lifts me when my shots aren't falling. It's a new gym, new arena, so just getting used to the rims and the balls.

Overall my coaches believed in me and they believe the in me, so I'm going to continue to do what I do best.

Q. Carly, I don't know who the tallest team you guys have played this season is, but I would imagine Stanford ranks pretty high in terms of the size. What kind of challenge do they present inside for you guys tomorrow?

CARLY STROEMEL: Yeah, I definitely haven't matched up with anybody that's 6'7" this year. Not in the NEC at least. It's going to be a big challenge for us, but we're just going to have to stick to our game plan, what we know, guard early, jam them, push them up the lane, and do what we can do.

Q. I think it's a tradition up here to ask the question, there has been one 16 versus one upset here. Coach told you about who it was and where it happened?

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Yeah, she said it was Stanford.

But why not Sacred Heart?

Q. Any thoughts on Stanford and what they do well from your initial scout?

OLIVIA TUCKER: So after doing a lot of scout they look for a lot of mismatches against our smaller guards, so I think just pushing up the post is going to be a really important part of this.

But, yeah, I mean, they look for your teammates. There's a selfless team, so always making extra passes. It's really important to lock in, helping each other, help the helper.

Yeah, they really look for mismatches, and that's what we have to lock into. They also like to offensive rebound, so we really have to put a body on someone and box them out.

Q. Coach Mannetti mentioned yesterday, tough first quarter, and you've had a few tough first quarters throughout the season. Is that going to be a point of emphasis so you don't fall behind against a Stanford team that might be a little harder to come back from?

NY'CEARA PRYOR: For sure. Our defense has to be better. We take pride in our defense and that's what we're going to do tomorrow, just take pride in our defense and let that create our offense.

Q. Ny'Ceara, Southern focused a lot of their attention on you, and I'm sure that's something you got used to. When you go up against a brand new opponent, maybe not one in a conference the way Southern wasn't in your conference, the way Stanford isn't. Do you have to be ready for something you're not expecting, or do you kind of feel like they might just keep throwing the same thing at you?

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Yeah, you always expect the unexpected. You just play your game. You know, you might not never know what they might throw at you, but you just play your game and you find your shooters when you're not hitting.

Q. Maybe they won't.

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Maybe. You never know.

OLIVIA TUCKER: I'm hoping for that.

Q. Maybe one more. People touched on getting a lot of the messages and congratulations. For each of you, did you have one in particular that stood out that you got last night or this morning after the win?

OLIVIA TUCKER: I would definitely say my parents. They flew to California and it was an awesome surprise to see them. They're my number one supporters, and my brother at home.

So I think just my family and friends reaching out has been an awesome experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

CARLY STROEMEL: Yeah, my parents, too. They flew here and surprised me as well, so that was really awesome to be able to have them here last night supporting us.

Just family, friends, administrators, everybody that's reached out has been awesome.

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Yeah, like they said, my parents, family, but also a lot of the people from my city. They was talking about how, you know, put it on for the city and helping young girls come up that want to play basketball as well.

It's just amazing to see that I'm doing things outside of my own, like I'm helping other girls who want to play basketball, too.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for the student-athletes? Thank you Ny'Ceara, Carly, and Olivia. Good luck tomorrow.

NY'CEARA PRYOR: Thank you.

CARLY STROEMEL: Thank you.

OLIVIA TUCKER: Thank you.