May 17, 2014

Kansas Head Coach Megan Smith
Opening Statement:
“Tough way to end the season, but proud of our girls and the effort tonight. I felt like we fought the whole game and played a really good Nebraska team again for the third time this season. They played a great game. I thought (Alicia) Pille threw extremely well and gave us a chance to win, but we just did not do enough offensively to come away with a win. But give a lot of credit to Nebraska. They have a great a program and good luck to them and Mizzou both tomorrow.”

On the senior class:
“They are phenomenal. Everyone that has that jersey on right now is phenomenal and has done a lot to get us here. I told the team afterward that five years ago, I was here playing Mizzou and I had an entirely different speech for that team then. It was a rough day for us here and we have come leaps and bounds since then. It is all because of those girls that put on that jersey and work hard every day. Alex and Ashley, those seniors have been through a lot and they have worked really hard to turn things around and they have done Kansas well today.”

On having young talent coming back next season:
“We definitely have young talent. We have good talent coming in next year. I think that just getting to this stage, they now know what they're working for. Before they had no idea what it felt like and now they know and they're going to want to get back. They're going to want to do even better. We proved that we can compete at this level and that we belong here. I know that we won't be satisfied from here on out unless we're getting here and doing even better.”

Kansas Junior P Alicia Pille
On keeping Nebraska's potent offense in check for most of the game:
“I just think our team has been playing well. We've had great defense all year and I don't do it by myself. Everybody is behind me and Nebraska is a great team. We've gave them a run for their money and it just did not fall our way today.”

On what the season meant for the program:
“It was amazing. Since my freshman year, it has been our goal to get to regionals and we made it here. I'm proud of every one of us. I'm happy for our seniors that we got to come here and accomplish what we did and I can't wait to build on this next year.”

Kansas Senior IF Ashley Newman
On facing Nebraska on back-to-back days:
“We knew what we were getting into. We've seen their hitters plenty of times, we'd played them twice before. Seeing a new pitcher was probably different for a lot of us.”

On Nebraska's pitching change shifting momentum:
“I don't think it changed momentum too much. We hit her plenty of times before. We hit her well yesterday so I don't think it changed much.

On this season and her career:
“This season was obviously by far the best season that we have had since I have been here. This really was an amazing experience. We just wanted to know what it was like to get this far and it truly is a great feeling.” 

Kansas Senior P/OF Alex Jones
On this season and her career:
“It's always upsetting to lose, but everyone is going to play their last game at some point eventually. I'm going on my fifth year now and people kept telling me that whenever I got hurt my junior that it happened for a reason. I think the reason 100 percent was so I could get to experience this and it was amazing. I'm not disappointed at all. We played some great teams this weekend and showed that we can hang with them and we did really well and the experience was amazing. So I don't regret anything at all and I'm just so glad that we made it here.”

Nebraska Coach Rhonda Revelle:
Opening Statement:
“I thought we played really complete softball today. We set the tone in the first game. I think we scored in four of the five offensive innings that we played and Tatum Edwards picked up a no-hitter which is special especially in postseason play. Game Two was like a tie-breaker for our series against Kansas this season. Each game has been really hard fought battles. I really thought that both teams played really good softball tonight. This three-game series with Kansas started back in March and it reminded me of old school softball: low-scoring, pitcher's duels, key hitting, moving runners.”

On playing Mizzou tomorrow:
“I've watched Casey and she's crafty, composed, poised and she stays with her strengths. She's done a brilliant job this weekend and I expect to see more of the same tomorrow.”

“There's a lot of history. We play competitive games. We've come out on top some and they've come out on top some. They always pitch efficiently and they pitch to their strengths. They make you beat them; they don't beat themselves. On offense, they have everything. Earleywine will put kids in roles they haven't necessarily been in before and they'll produce. He completely maximizes and he has a lot of talent.”

Nebraska Sophomore IF Dawna Tyson
On her big hit:
“I just told myself that I was going to have a quality at-bat and I wasn't going to make it easier for the pitcher. I wanted to battle through my count and then (my pitch) came up.”