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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2006Vanessa EspinozaMolly NohrJen WardenDENVER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: On the podium now is Jen Warden and student athletes Molly Nohr and Venessa Espinoza. Coach, if you will open up with some comments and then we'll it up for questions. COACH JEN WARDEN: I thought San Diego State was very well prepared. Obviously they knew our quick hits. They made good adjustments. Michelle Strawberry is an extremely talented player. Erin Jackson had a great game. I have a lot of respect for Beth Burns, and the way she's going to bring that program around. So I thought they were very competitive and they were tough down the down the stretch. I'm proud of our players and the opportunity to live for another day so to speak. Obviously when you have someone like Vanessa playing with so much confidence and so much spirit right now, it doesn't hurt that's she's going 5 for 5 from the three point line. I thought they made really nice adjustments on screening situations and on angles. We found that Vanessa was hot, we kept going to her. Even though when she was foul she stayed hot. And then Molly I thought really gave us a contagious look of attacking the basket, staying aggressive offensively. I know our team gets confidence when they see Molly Nohr going to the rack. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. You guys were out-rebounded. You start 1 for 7. There's a lot of things going badly. You end up with a nine point lead. I didn't know if you get off the hook a little bit you ended up getting such a nice lead? COACH JEN WARDEN: I think that is really perceptive. I think we acknowledge that in the time out. I think we had a 16-minute time out. We said look it's not going our way right now. We can do one of two things. We can panic and stay on our own rearends for the rest of the game or we can relax and know things are going to turn. I thing Vanessa again would hit a clutch 3 to give us a little a little bit of life. Molly would get a layup out of a press break to give us a little bit of life. But we really were, as you would say, searching for baskets and going to half time down 8 on the boards I think is something you immediately got to change. They have 10-O boards at halftime. That's not acceptable. Q. Can you comments on that what it felt like, not panicking and staying cool under that situation? VANESSA ESPINOZA: That's staying calm. You know, half time we talked about getting out rebounded and that's what we would focused on. And went out and I thought second half we kept our composure and played well. Q. Want to add anything? COACH JEN WARDEN: No. No. THE MODERATOR: Next question. Q. Vanessa, after those two steals and maybe there was a little frustration if you thought you might have been fouled when they were stealing it, you came back and hit the huge 3. Was that a lot of determination because of what just happened with the steals? VANESSA ESPINOZA: Yeah, I mean, we were only up by I think 9 at the time, and you know my teammates set me up, great job giving me the ball, set me up and great pass and lucky shot. Q. Vanessa, for you and your classmates, obviously you guys have been through this a few times, but it being your senior year, is there a little bit more desperation to it? Is there a different kind of mindset you're bringing to it? VANESSA ESPINOZA: Definitely is. Every year we're one and done. This year we want to go as far as we can. You know, the determination, we're ready to go for BYU for tomorrow. Q. Coach, do you feel like you're kind of looking at a similar program across the floor? I mean, you're both new coaches. What are your thoughts on that? COACH JEN WARDEN: I think your initial thoughts are you know no matter what you're doing or who you're doing it against, you're jockeying for a position. And as Beth and I kind of start at the grass roots level, I think we see each other initially and we're competing. And you know, then you move up on Air Force, and you move up on Wyoming, and then UNLV. But first and foremost it as competitive 8/9 as it is competitive in 1/8 or 3/6. And I think that you really got to take heart that you've got a position and you got to recruit and you've got to teach. You have to be out working the other guy whether it's Wyoming State or BYU. Q. Maybe other teams in your situation knowing that they're going to have to play a number one seed and the team that's only lost three games I think all year would be kind of a not as confident, but after the way you played BYU last Thursday, what do you feel like you have to do maybe to turn that around and get an upset tomorrow? VANESSA ESPINOZA: I think if we play like the other night, a few adjustments, I thought the team played hard and each game we're improving. We are feeling extremely confident right now. And you know, rebounding is going to be a big key for us. They're great inside and out. We have to do the little things to beat BYU tomorrow. MOLLY NOHR: They're a real tough team. We need to out hustle them, get all the loose balls to really get ahead of BYU. Q. Vanessa, I just wonder what your mindset was in this game after all the frustrations of this season? And you were saying to your teammates, I'm not going to let this one get away? VANESSA ESPINOZA: Definitely, we had a bad showing in Air Force. And that kind of was in the back of my mind today. You know, we didn't show up to play. And tonight we weren't going to let that happen. The atmosphere before the game, everybody was just -- the intensity, the fire, you could see. You know, for these seniors, we're not going to be one and done. Every year you know we come in here and we lose. And you know, again, that's just in the back of our mind. THE MODERATOR: Last question follow up. Q. Molly, can you just talk about what Vanessa meant to and the energy she brought? MOLLY NOHR: It's really nice knowing you can go to a player, especially like Vanessa, and knowing she's going to get the job done. I have all the confidence in the world in Vanessa. I mean, towards the end of the game, and we ran all the plays towards her, and she hit everything. I mean, the rest of the team did a really good job setting her up and she did -- I mean, she was 5 for 5 from the three-point line. Especially down towards the end of the game, we were only up by 6 points and she hit that 4-point play. I mean, she just -- I don't know. She's kind of the heart of the team I think. Really whenever we get in the huddle, everyone looks towards Vanessa. I don't know. She keeps her composure really well on the floor. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. COACH JEN WARDEN: Thank you.
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