Before the second round home game on Sunday afternoon, BC women's lax coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein met with the media via Zoom on Wednesday.
BC will play the winner of Friday's Penn/Uconn meeting with a berth in the quarterfinals on the line, which would be May 18 back at the Newton field. Walker-Weinstein talked about being snubbed in favor of Syracuse, maintaining focus during a week off and her ACC Coach of the Year award.
ON BEING THE THREE SEED INSTEAD OF THE TWO
"It's funny, I think the girls were like, 'we'll play whoever it is,' the joy and excitement and the pride is in being at home and having the bye. Seeing the hard work all year kind of pay off."
ON WHAT SHE'S LEARNED ABOUT PENN AND UCONN DURING INITIAL SCOUTING STAGES
"I think they're both incredibly smart, very aggressive, great athletes. We're preparing for man, we're preparing for multiple zones and then we're preparing for excellent offensive, powerhouse offenses. I think it's exciting. It's new. There's new matchups. It's not the usual. the Loyola. the Fairfield's, the UMass,' so, i think there's a lot of excitement surrounding whoever we play. It feels fresh, which is always a good thing. Unfamiliar, too, is also something to be excited about. I think it's a great opportunity for us."
ON KEEPING PRACTICE COMPETITIVE WITH A WEEK OFF AFTER ACC TITLE
"I just think we have a really rare opportunity to work on all the things we need to be better at. Over the course of the year, there's things that we intend to practice and often times we run out of time. I think it becomes a lot about the opponent, we've decided to take a little risk and really focus on making us a little bit better because regardless of who we play, if we're a little bit better, then I think we can win."
ON THE ACC COACH OF THE YEAR AWARD
"There's been so many exciting things. Jenn (Medjid) got drafted last night. We've got other All American's. We've got other Players of the Year, Coach of the Year is not the exciting piece of this at all. It's really about seeing the hard work of these girls pay off. It's always so fun to focus on the end of the year stuff. It's not really in our nature to celebrate individual awards, but, the three Player of the Year awards is spectacular and seeing Jenn get drafted. So, really, that's the exciting stuff. I believe I hacve the greatest coaching staff in the country. The smartest coaching staff in the country. When I think about that award, it's a reflection of my assistant coaches and a reflection of the girls who let us coach them so hard...it's a coaching staff award."
ON THE GROWTH OF WOMEN'S LACROSSE
"I just think the game is growing so much. The coaching is growing so much. I think the individual personnel...all the levels of play is significantly higher than it was two, three years ago. That's just a testament to the athletes, to the coaches, to the growth of the sport. To the media teams that are creating excitement around the sport, it's very exciting and it's fun to watch as our sport grows."
ON IF SHE'S SEEN OTHER TEAMS TRY TO EMULATE WHAT BC'S DONE OVER THE YEARS
"Yeah, for sure. I don't think there's any shame in copying other people's plays or other people's philosophies because there's a lot of greatness out there. A lot of what we do is what i learned from my mentors Sydney Timshaw and Kelley Amonte. Yeah, I think that's part of the growth. We're copying stuff from the Celtics all the time. I think that's kind of the way it goes and kind of a smart way to help the sport grow."
ON IF THE FEELING IN THE EARLY ROUNDS OF THE TOURNAMENT EVER GETS OLD AFTER SO MUCH POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE
"No. God no. We do have a lot of experience and I know that will come in to play, but I think our team, they're so humble that I don't think they ever take this for granted. I also made it a point at the selection show that we can never take for granted a bye in the first round and a home seed. So, I do think that comes from the girls being really humble athletes. They know not to skip over any of this or find joy in any of this because it is really an incredible opportunity to be in the NCAA tournament. It's an incredible opportunity to play against two spectacular teams, whoever the winner will be. We never take this lightly. We can't, because it's never guaranteed."
