Quotes: NCAA Championships (Semifinal I)
4/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
April 17, 2015
Recap | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Michigan Head Coach Bev Plocki
On the meet ... "I'm so proud of them and heartbroken at the same time. I feel like we did our job today. It's heartbreaking that this team isn't going to be advancing to the Super Six. I believe wholeheartedly that they deserve to be there."
On the season as a whole ... "We beat a lot of odds. I think we got the attention of a lot of people who had written us off as a contender before this season even started. I think we deserve to be competing tomorrow night and it's a shame we won't be. I think it hurts that much more knowing that we have beat all these odds and do so much more than people expected, yet still coming up short of the ultimate goal. It's like a punch in the stomach. I feel bad for them, especially our seniors, but I'm so incredibly proud of everything they've done. We wouldn't have been able to do what we did without their leadership."
On motivation for next year ... "We'll sit down and talk about that like we do at the end of every year -- things that were awesome, things that we need to improve on. There are kids on this team that need to step up now. They've been sitting back and following the lead of our upperclassmen that they watched this year. They see the level of expectation that we have for this program year in and year out. We've got a couple great freshmen coming in next year that we're excited about. Just hard to think about that right now."
On the toughness of the kids that were competing ... "That was the big issue for us this year. Depth. We had eight kids that did everything for us and we were never really able to give them a break. Nicole's shin is killing her on one foot and because she's favoring that, it's hurting her ankle on the other. This season is a real grind. I applaud these kids for being as tough as they were all year long and hanging in there."
U-M Sophomore Talia Chiarelli
On the meet ... "Like Bev always says, we can only control the controllables. I think we did exactly that. This competition can be cutthroat. Every one of the teams here are good. We did our job, but everyone else did, too. You have to accept it, as hard as that is."
On her individual performance ... "I think it was probably the best meet, but I wasn't really thinking about that during the meet. I was happy with the performances, certainly, but it's more of a team thing."
On the seniors ... "I'm so proud of them. They all had a great meet for us, even though we didn't make it. They led us the whole way this year and were fantastic tonight."
Players Mentioned
