May 14, 2005
Stillwater, Okla. –
USC Junior Geraldo Knorr:
On the Crowd and Pressure:
“I’ve been there before…its good to get a win like this…not everyone on the team played well and I was the last one so I could focus with the noise and everything and get this win. I like these situations when I’m the last one and I get to clinch the match for the team. “
On the quality of OU and Big 12 Tennis (compared to SEC tennis):
“[Oklahoma] were pretty good. I was surprised, especially after doubles because we played really good and beat them fairly easy. I was surprised at singles, but that was a good match, it was fun.”
South Carolina Head Coach Kent DeMars
On the Match:
“I know the players that [Oklahoma] have and what they have done. When you get to the NCAA Tournament, you can expect a good match. It was a little sloppy on both sides. It has probably been three or four weeks since both teams played, so you kind of lose your rhythm a little bit, but all four teams are in the same boat. You just aren’t quite as sharp. Instead of coaching by telling them what to do and play, I am just trying to keep them in a rhythm. All of these teams are good and I certainly respect everybody here…You would like to go into the NCAAs playing your very best…I give them (Oklahoma) all of the credit. They could have easily won this match. We were fortunate to win.”
On this week’s severe weather:
“The last few days have been sort of rough, but they predicted this the whole time that today and tomorrow would be good. I am sure glad that it hasn’t turned into an indoor tournament. I didn’t want that at all. We have our own indoor, so it wouldn”t have been a problem for us. I coached in Illinois, so I am familiar with the winds and things like that…but the conditions were perfect.”
Oklahoma Head Coach Paul Lockwood
On the Match
“I thought we fought hard. I didn’t think we played well in doubles and it is hard to give the 19th-ranked team a point and have to come back and win four out of six singles matches. We put ourselves in a position to do it, but we just didn”t have enough shots down the stretch. I am proud of the effort and I think we bounced back from the poor showing in doubles and fought really hard in the singles.”
