Stanford press conference after losing in a Women's College Cup semifinal to Wake Forest
Dec 7, 2024
Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe and players Andrea Kitahta and Elise Evans after the Cardinal's loss to Wake Forest #Stanford #WakeForest #Women'sCollegeCup
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0:09
okay
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cold you
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this is the post game press conference
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following semifinal one on day one of
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the 2024 NCAA Women's College cup we are
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now joined by the Stanford Cardinal we
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have with us head coach Paul rackliff
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along with student athletes Elise Evans
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and Andrea Kahana we will have an
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opening statement from coach questions
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them for the student athletes so they
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can go on the coach will answer
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questions after that you have a question
1:00
just ra at that
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time yeah I thought it was a you know a
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tough end to uh you know a great season
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I'm really proud of Andrea kaha and
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Elise Evans and Kelly pagador three of
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our leaders on the team they did an
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extraordinary job all season leading us
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and to get back to the college cup was
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phenomenal we wanted to go a step
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further um but I thought it was an
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evenly played match could have went
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either way it was a you know game of
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margins and unfortunately we came out on
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the the wrong side of it so uh tough
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tough end to a great season questions
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for the student athletes
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ra Andre the first best opport you guys
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had game what did you see on that think
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it was get your yeah on set pieces I'm
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just always um thinking it's coming to
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me always ready for that it just popped
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out um right on top of the box and
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wanted to try and lift it over um the
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weight goalkeeper can't believe it hit
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the post and just creeped across that
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line but um you know if you can just
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scuff it in the back of the net um it's
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what you got to do at the end but um
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yeah great chance in the first half uh
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unlucky that we couldn't put it
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away
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questions just talk about the
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opportunity to be here and to
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participate in this event just be around
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this yeah I mean coming to the college
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cup is always a goal for us I think
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getting back here the past two years is
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incredible and something that is that we
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look forward to every single year and
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that's something that we talk about at
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the first day of preseason is that we
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want to get back to the college cup and
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hope to go as far as we can um so be
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back here a second time in a row is I
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think is pretty incredible we're the
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only team um to come back from last year
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and especially with all the adversity
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we've had to go through this year um a
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whole conference transition um having to
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travel thousands more miles than we had
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before many different injuries um being
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a young team and so I think it's
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absolutely phenomenal and incredible
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that we've gone this far and I think we
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still believe we could have gone a step
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further and even further than that um
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but just to be here it's an incredible
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opportunity and something that um you
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don't always get so I think to be back
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here twice in a row is super incredible
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and we're just very grateful to be here
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um and it's a great event for us the
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back so um you had a personally
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up back stage walk like how that's been
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mentally like you felt exhausted
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anything any or to play as much socer as
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possible yeah I think I always love to
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play soccer it's definitely um a unique
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experience and something that not many
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people get to experience and and I
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didn't think I was going to have um a
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whole tournament in the middle of a
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Collegiate season I think that's very
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rare um so it definitely a tough thing
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but I think it I learned a lot from
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being there at the World Cup and grew so
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much as a player and a person I just
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hoped I could bring that back to the
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team and try to help lead the team in a
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positive direction um so definitely both
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great experiences and the fact that we
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were able to go so far um with the u20
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national team and with this team as well
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is um great and then just even the team
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even when I was gone just doing a
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phenomenal job and uh winning so many
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games even when I wasn't here so I think
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we have a great team
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overall this be for either one of you
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guys but after a full year ACC guys
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learned a lot what do you take next
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after
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this um I think it's kind of incredible
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that this uh final four is composed of
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four ACC teams I think it's really a
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testament to the um competitiveness of
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the conference um and definitely going
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to take that into the next coming years
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I think we learned a lot this season um
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being able to play all the teams that
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have made it this far um we felt more
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prepared than last year um in a sense
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and so yeah just really happy to be part
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of the ACC now and just competing with
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all these top
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teams other questions
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student see none welcome to
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go thank you thank
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you questions for
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coach back
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this is probably not the time want to
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talk about it but last year it felt like
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you had a really young team stage this
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year somehow it feels like they were
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even younger um does that kind of
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encourage you looking forward about you
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know the odds of coming back doing this
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all over
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again yeah I think so I mean I'm very
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proud I think we had was it Four
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Freshman starting tonight which was
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phenomenal that they got the experience
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to playing a big game like this at the
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college cup so for them I think it's
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going to be really um great for their
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development and their growth um but at
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the end of the day you know I don't look
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at age too much it's more the quality of
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the player and what they're capable of
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doing and I think some of our freshmen
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stood up tall today and played
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exceptionally I think all of them stood
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up tall today and played exceptionally
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well so it's it's nice to say we have a
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younger team but I do think the older
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players can win out because of that you
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know level of determination and
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experience it's their last chance kind
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of attitude so I do think we need to get
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that more um but in saying that I
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thought the Freshman all of our players
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gave everything they could and it was a
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game of margins it could have went
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either way I thought in the first half
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with had some real good chances to to
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break the ice and get that opening goal
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and then it would have been a different
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game coach back
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missing just how much adversity was this
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team able to overcome and how proud are
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you of them to be able to back the only
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te yeah the the team exhibited
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tremendous character we lost some key
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players to injuries and people stepped
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into their shoes and and played big
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roles for us I thought you know it was
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difficult getting the team chemistry
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right the whole season it's been a a
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work in progress but I thought tonight
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they all jelled together and played
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really well really good soccer and uh
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couldn't be more proud of
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them more questions for coach
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see none coach congratulations greaton
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thanks guys
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