NCAA Softball Tuscaloosa Regional Press Quotes
5/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The 2016 NCAA Tuscaloosa Softball Regional held its media and practice day Thursday afternoon at Rhoads Stadium. Quotes from the press conferences are below:
NCAA Tuscaloosa Softball Regional
Press Conference Quotes
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Alabama
Head Coach Patrick Murphy
"Well, I just want to say welcome to you guys. We appreciate you being here. Welcome to Cal, Texas State and Samford. You guys know Samford's been here for the regular season before. Cal was here I think maybe 2006 or 2007. This is the first time for Texas State. It's really exciting for us to host another regional. Believe me when I say this, it never gets old."
Junior Pitcher Sydney Littlejohn
"I just want to say welcome to everyone. I'm excited all of these teams are here. Texas State is a new one coming into Tuscaloosa. It'll be a fun regional, especially for me. I have some friends coming here, so I'm excited for that. Welcome and Roll Tide!"
Senior Infielder Leona Lafaele
"Same thing, just welcome to all of the teams. It's going to be a really exciting regional, especially because we have some new faces coming into Tuscaloosa. It's exciting for me, because it's going to be a PAC-12 team coming in. It's really nice to have those California girls and the West Coast come and experience Tuscaloosa."
California
Head Coach Diane Ninemire
"We're just very happy to be here in Tuscaloosa. I know this is a great place for softball. I know we're going to have outstanding crowds this weekend. This is a dream-type of regional to play in. We're very pleased and very honored to be here. We've had a great year and we hope to continue it."
Senior Pitcher Nisa Ontiveros
"Just going by what coach said, it's an honor to be here playing in the south. So, I think we're ready to come here, compete and show everybody what we have."
Sophomore Utility Jazmyn Jackson
"Yeah, it's my first time playing at an SEC field. [It's] probably a lot of our first times playing at an SEC field. We're pretty excited for the environment. [We're] ready to hopefully win some ball games."
Samford
Head Coach Mandy Buford
"We're just really excited to be here. It's been a really fun year. We've experienced a lot of success and so far we've been able to hit a lot of the goals that we set at the beginning of the year. Some people have asked `what's it been like?' It hasn't been a month-long process, it's been a four-year long process, starting with this senior class. It's been a combination of a lot of hard work, buying in to the process and they are reaping the rewards of it now. I can't say enough how proud I am of one-through-20 on our roster this year. It's the biggest team we've ever had. We've never carried more than 16 or 17 players. I was really nervous about carrying 20 females that all got along and bought into one goal which was to win every game and the conference. It's been the most fun we and I have ever had at Samford. I know winning is fun so that goes with it, but very easy going and laid back group. It's been a fun year so far."
Senior Outfielder Megan Dowdy
"I would say the same thing. Our goal at the beginning of the year was to make it to regionals, obviously by winning the SoCon Tournament . That was the main goal. So, we came up with a statement called `over a cliff' and that's what we live by. You go over a cliff for someone. Day-in and day-out, that's what we live by. It's been a year of firsts for us. Being a senior, this is something that our program hasn't done in a long time. Being able to be here at such a great place with an atmosphere that's going to be awesome is what we are looking forward to. There are a lot of great teams here, so we're excited for it."
Senior Pitcher Mollie Hanson
"We are excited to be here. I know it sounds cliché, but we are. It's been a fun ride, especially for the senior class. We won 17 games our freshmen year. We want to take that and what we've learned and pass it to the sophomore and the freshmen classes. They all bought in and they all want it. It really is a family for us."
Texas State University
Head Coach Ricci Woodard
"Let me just start by saying that we are honored to be here. It couldn't be any greater than to come back to the `home of Kelly Kretschman' as she tells us. We appreciate the hospitality. It's already been a great atmosphere and environment. We've been wandering around town; we've been able to tour the campus a little bit today. So, it's been fun. We're trying to make it a great experience for our young ladies in a place where they want to get back to every year. So again, thank you for having us. We appreciate the hospitality already and we are excited to be here."
Sophomore Pitcher Randi Rupp
"We're just very excited to be able to get this opportunity to play in the postseason. It's a great experience for us and I'm very proud of all of us. We're here to have some fun. I can't wait to see how we handle it and see what all we do."
Junior Utility Kimberlin Naivar
"Like they said, we're all very excited. It's great to be able to come here and represent our university, have this great experience and go out there and keep playing. Anything is possible at this point."
Follow the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional on Twitter at @TuscRegional and Alabama softball at @AlabamaSB.
