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THE SOLHEIM CUP

August 22, 2009

Alison Nicholas

SUGAR GROVE, ILLINOIS

BETHAN CUTLER: Welcome back, Alison. Great day for Europe today. Tied 8 and 8 with the Americans going into the final day singles. How are you feeling about the position that your team is in?
ALISON NICHOLAS: They've done a fantastic job today. We were one point behind, and we've squared in the match, so that's always a good day.
It's going to be very exciting tomorrow.
BETHAN CUTLER: What about some of the highlights of the day today for you.
ALISON NICHOLAS: Yeah, if I can remember anything. I think -- have you got the results there? I'm trying to think. I'm so tired.
I think Catriona Matthew has to be -- pulling that half match out of the bag was tremendous. And Diana Luna, a rookie who, you know -- what a great effort that was. You know, she was disappointed not playing before this morning's matches. We had some great conversations, and she said, no, I'm ready.
So I can thank the rookies who have played really well, and obviously nicking those last two matches.
And this afternoon we were looking like we were up in three for a long time, and then that's part of what happens, and I think it's a fair result.

Q. Alison, can you clear up the confusion with Laura, who apparently said she was fine when you spoke to her, that she was fine at sitting on the sidelines, but seemed to be anything but fine by the time she got in front of the television cameras?
ALISON NICHOLAS: I think that was misunderstood what I said. I said that I talked to her. I didn't say she was fine about sitting out necessarily. I think she said that she knew she wasn't going to play five. I think that I miscommunicated that to you.
She didn't say I'm fine about sitting out. Laura wants to play whenever she can.

Q. You just said that she was fine about it. I think those were your words.
ALISON NICHOLAS: Well, I had some conversations with her in practice and stuff about, you know, possibly sitting out. But it wasn't necessarily, you know -- I think she understood that she wasn't going to play every match. I think that somebody somewhere said something that wasn't quite understood properly there, because, yeah. No, of course, Laura is a competitor, and obviously she's not happy because she likes to play.

Q. You had said she wasn't going to play in the morning, but what went into the decision to hold her out in the afternoon, and when did you make up your mind to do that?
ALISON NICHOLAS: Well, all the other players were just playing so well and gelling together that I thought that that was the best team decision. You know, that's what I thought, that it was best for the team. It was a tough decision, and I know it's not nice being left out, and I know that I've been in that position myself. But you know, I have to make a decision that I think is best for the team and that's what I did, because it's a team game here, you know. It's not about any one person.

Q. (Indiscernible.) with some kind of injury she played with well with. Why didn't Suzann play the four matches, Pettersen?
ALISON NICHOLAS: She's played four matches, yeah. Why?

Q. I know it's very important, but maybe in the afternoon, she seemed so tired.
ALISON NICHOLAS: I saw that, but I just spoke to her now and she said she was fine. She was just a little bit tight in her hip flexors. It was nothing major. There was no injury or anything. She was just a little bit tight, and she just got the physio to come and stretch her up, so there's no injury.
You know, I asked her. I said, you know, can you go five, and she said, yeah, no problem. So I think she's just a great player and a great leader, and I just felt that it was important to play her.

Q. Can you please talk about the message you got from Seve? Was there a tape or a message from him?
ALISON NICHOLAS: Yeah. Yeah. We had a little message from Seve, a little video, just wishing us good luck, which was very inspirational for the girls.

Q. Were you wearing something --
ALISON NICHOLAS: Yeah. We got these arm bands which is Seve Ballesteros Foundation, which he asked us to support, basically. I think the Tour is going to support his foundation.

Q. Alison, with the U.S. record in singles, how much did you want to go in tomorrow with either being a full point ahead or even a half point, and what kind of message do you give to your team tonight about overcoming that?
ALISON NICHOLAS: Yeah. I mean, you know, after being one point down yesterday and bringing it back to all square, I'm happy with that, because we won the session in matches.
Singles is always difficult. We haven't been that good over the years, but we have won singles series, and I think we've got nothing to lose. We just got to go out there and play our hearts out and hopefully do a bit better than we have in the past.

Q. Maria seemed to be very, very disappointed afterwards. Did you talk to her, and what did she say?
ALISON NICHOLAS: I didn't actually get to see her because I was doing the singles draw, so I was having a meeting really at that time. So I haven't actually spoken to her, but she seemed perfectly fine when I saw her a minute ago.

Q. The video from Seve, when did it arrive and when did you show it to the team?
ALISON NICHOLAS: Well, I've had it in my possession for a couple of weeks, or maybe a week and a half, and so I've known about it for a long time, but obviously didn't show the team until Thursday night.
BETHAN CUTLER: Anything else? Okay. Thanks for joining us, Alison. Good luck tomorrow. Thanks.
ALISON NICHOLAS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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