bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the game against Idaho on Friday night. It ended in a 1-1 tie and you earned one point which all points are important.
Blair Quinn: I thought we didn't play very well in the first half which is frustrating again, especially since it's something we worked on the previous weekend with the Sunday home game, starting faster, then continuing to do that. I think we pretty much got outplayed in the firs half. Having said that I think we equally outplayed them in the second half. It was unfortunate to give up that goal. I think we'd been defending really well. They really didn't have anything really dangerous in the second half at all. Unfortunately, that was the kid we had keyed on to keep her from scoring. You can do that in the run of play but when somebody gets a free kick, that's why it's called a free kick. She buried it. She's a very good ball striker, probably the best, if not one of the best forwards in the conference and she buried it. But it was a great response by our team to score five minutes later. That's a pretty big pressure situation, when you're under 10 [minutes] and down a goal. But it is something we train. We train both sides of that. Under ten up a goal and under ten down a goal and we made a quick tactical adjustment after their goal and the adjustment is actually what led to us scoring and getting a point. In one respect we feel like we gave two points away but at the same time we feel like we stole one back as well. It's not as much help as much as we'd like but one point does help us going forward.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the weekend, you had the 2-0 loss at Utah State on Friday but you were able to bounce back and get a good solid victory against Nevada in overtime on Sunday.
Blair Quinn: Yeah that was good. The Utah State game was challenging, that's a very good team. We're playing at their place and they were better than us on the day. I think we were as good as them in a lot of aspects or phases of the game, we just struggled in the final third. That was the third game in a row where we had struggled to get quality chances to goal. Unfortunately that was the difference in the game. It was a long travel day as well. We spent pretty much all of Saturday traveling but we did practice when we got home and specifically worked on some more attacking sequences and things that we're trying to improve on and it finally showed up on Sunday. It was nice to be back at home quite frankly. It was nice to have a home crowd, sleep in your own bed and that showed on Sunday I think.

bc.net: You've talked throughout the season about wanting to get a better Sunday performance from your team. Do you feel like that was your best Sunday performance of the season?
BQ: Yeah, absolutely. We told the team that as well after the game. Regardless of the score even, 2-1, I think might even be a bit generous and I mean no disrespect to Nevada because they are a good team but I just think we were much better than them on the day. We had a lot of the attack, I think we outshot them somewhere around 18-7 or something like. We just were really good yesterday. We played really well, we played hard, we played fast. We started so much faster and I think that's the biggest problem, other than just not scoring goals in the last three games I think part of that was affected due to how slowly we started. We started so much faster. We had a corner kick within the first couple of minutes, we had a couple of shots right out of the gate and that really set the tone for the day.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the 1-0 loss against Louisiana Tech this past Sunday?
Blair Quinn: It was a difficult game, obviously the travel is a little more challenging to LA Tech and it's a long travel day but no excuses there, you've got to travel everywhere you go at some point. We came out a little bit slow. We weren't pressing to their goal so we were content with getting the ball and keeping it and just playing in the midfield. For some reason we weren't really trying to press to their goal. They got a goal right around the 30 minute mark into the game. Unfortunately they got it exactly how we knew or thought they would. It was exactly like we'd had on the scouting report. They played the system we thought they'd play and exactly and what we'd been training that week to stop from happening happened. It was unfortunate to give up a goal like that. Then they made it hard to play after that. To their credit they had a game plan and they did what they wanted to do which was score a goal and then defend. That's really all they did after they scored the goal. I think they had two shots total the rest of the game after they scored which was their intent. They played with five in the back, four in the midfield and one up top which made it hard to break them down. We were much better in the second half. We outshot them 7-1 in the second half. Yolie hit the post with about 15 minutes to go but we just could never get that goal to break them down that we needed to try to get out of there with a point.

bc.net: Obviously you had Jessica Schutter in goal in this game. How was her play in the first half, obviously they didn't take many shots in the second half.
BQ: She did a good job, she wasn't really tested though. The goal wasn't her fault. It was a defensive breakdown. She made a nice effort for it, the girl placed it well, side netting on the far post. She handled a couple of the crosses that they put in well but to be honest they weren't a very dangerous team. We gave them a handful of opportunities that were half chances at best and they took one of them on us. Jess played well. She didn't really do anything wrong in that game and to be honest you just want your goal keeper to make saves and keep you in it. I think she did everything she could in that game. She really wasn't tested in terms of a barrage of shots.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the past two weekends of play, you get a 1-1 tie in double-overtime at Idaho State and a 3-0 loss at Weber State.
Blair Quinn: That was a good weekend for us in terms of it being a challenging weekend. Two road games. That was actually the first weekend that we had two road games where it's more typical, we actually traveled between the games. Prior to that we had a tournament so we were in one place all weekend and prior to that UTEP is just a down and back and then we were at Texas Tech for one. That was a more traditional travel weekend for us, we had to go play at Idaho State and then traveled on Saturday. Idaho is a really hard place to play. It is very possibly the smallest field in the country. It's like 109 yards long by 66 yards wide and their field, the sidelines literally stop at the edge of the grass where it meets the edge of their track. There's very little room there. Then they play a very very aggressive physical style and very direct. Because the field is so small, they really don't try to play a lot, they just try to make the game ugly and try to out-battle you. They did a good job of that in the first half. We knew that going in and we told our team about it in the scouting report but I think it was still a bit of a shock to them how physical it was in that small space but we adjusted well. We scored a good goal in the second half and as soon as we scored, they really ramped up their physicality. The game started to get a little bit ugly, there were quite a few yellow cards at that point, they got a free kick about five minutes after we scored. Their girl got free in the box and buried a header from a couple yards out. That was unfortunate but the game was still good for us in that it was an overtime game as well. That was our first overtime game of the season and which I think it's important to play as you get into conference play because everything is going to be really tight and overtime is very much a possibility. I think we handle overtime very well while we were there.

Weber State, that's a good team. They are quite good. They're much better than their record. That was our tenth game of the season and either their ninth or tenth and that was their first home game. Their very first game of the year was technically a home game but they played it at a neutral site, they played it at a pro field that's up there in Utah. That was actually their first home game of the year on their field and they were pretty jacked up for that. It was kind of a weird situation to be in to be that far into the season and run into somebody playing their home opener. We had a little miscue for their first goal. Five minutes before halftime, the grass was wet, the field conditions were perfect, they have a fantastic field but the grass was wet and we played a back pass back to one of our center backs who just slipped. She was trying to change directions and slipped on the grass and there was nobody there. Their kid just ran in there and shot the ball from the top of the box basically. The goal keeper wasn't ready for something like that to happen. It's not her fault, things like that happen. So the first goal of the game we're down 1-0 going in right before halftime. You kind of hang your head for a second, it was 0-0 and just silly mistakes. Then they just played better than we did that day. Their midfield was very good. They played a different formation than we play and we did not adjust to their formation very well. We were about a half step behind on everything that day and then they were quite good. That's really the gist of that game. Their second goal, there was some question as to whether she was offside. Either way she still scored and then they go a third one which was a great goal. We were pushing forward trying to get back into the game, they scored the third goal off a cross and the header was really nice.

Overall, being separated from it now looking back on it, it was a good weekend for us. Those were two good teams that we were having to fight with for 90 minutes and in the case of Idaho State for 110 minutes to try to get something out of it. I think that's going to pay off for us as we head into the next few weeks.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the last four games, all four were wins and you've now strung together six in a row.
Blair Quinn: The last four games have been good. The girls, the team is starting to understand more and more the system and we're starting to get more consistent good play out of everyone as a group. I think specifically the last two Friday games have been very good. We were very good on Friday night in Alabama two weeks ago and we were very good this last Friday night. We're still trying to put together that really great weekend where we're good on Sunday as well. I think right now we've been good enough on Sunday but we've discussed with the team that we know we can be better on Sundays.

bc.net: On Friday night you get a last-minute goal with the score tied 0-0 to get the win over Northern Colorado.
BQ: That was really exciting. To be completely honest it was absolutely deserved. We really really played well Friday night. Our midfield did a great job of applying pressure and breaking their midfield down. Our forwards were constantly running at the goal. Our backs did a great job of handling two or three great players that they had and for Mary Kate to get the goal with 20 seconds left added a little extra excitement to it, probably a little more than I needed for myself but it was certainly exciting for everyone there.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the home opening weekend, you got a couple of shutouts and you get six goals from six different players.
Blair Quinn: It was a good weekend for us. It was positive. Those were the two key points, getting the six goals and having six different people score them is very encouraging in terms of our ability to be multi-faceted in our attack. Then getting two shutouts is good for our confidence level and I think we're playing a little better defensively. It was a good weekend.

bc.net: What improvements did you see this week offensively, we talked about that being a point of emphasis for this past week's practice, trying to get more shots and more corner kicks which you had eight in the first game and seven in the second.
BQ: Definitely, it's something we spent a lot of time on last week. We focused more on us than we did our opponents this week which is not necessarily typical. Usually you're prepping for who you're playing but we, the coaching staff, decided that we needed to focus on us and getting better at what we do. We spent a lot of time on the attacking side of the ball and just trying to get them to understand that there's no such thing as a perfect goal or a perfect shot. You need to take the shot that you get or that you have the opportunity to take so that we get things like corner kicks and deflected goals and things that work in our favor just by taking shots and being more aggressive with the ball. That was the key for the week, not just aggressive defending but being aggressive with the ball.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the opening weekend against UTEP and Texas Tech?
Blair Quinn: It was a good weekend in terms of playing two challenging opponents on the road. I like starting that way, I think you find out where you're at right off the bat and how good you are and definitely what you need to work on.

We did a good job of riding the momentum in the UTEP game. Of course it was their first home game and they had a good crowd there so they were kind of jacked up a little bit and we did a good job of taking them out of that in the first half. I thought we battled with them evenly in the first half. I wasn't thrilled with how we started the second half of the UTEP game. I thought we came out too tentative. We were content with letting them control the pace of the game for probably about 20 to 25 minutes in the second half before we started evening things out. The free kick goal that the girl scored was a nice goal. They got a second one on a free kick but at that point there's less than 15 minutes left in the game when we're already pushing for another goal.

I thought the girls did a great job mentally of bouncing back and being ready to play at Texas Tech which is a fantastic program. Another great atmosphere in terms of the facility itself and the fans they have there. That's a big, fast team and I thought we played even better against Texas Tech than we did against UTEP. I thought the back line was much stronger. I thought the midfield did a nice job of adjusting to their midfield which is kind of their strengths in terms of the way they play their system. They play a unique midfield system. I thought we did a good job of handling them.

There are no moral victories. We're disappointed that we lost but looking back, a 1-0 loss to Texas Tech early in the year is only going to make us better as we go down the road.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: Your thoughts on the exhibition match against Eastern New Mexico, your first chance to get an up close and in depth look at your team.
Blair Quinn: It was good. I was glad that I was able to get here in time to do that, it was something that was important to me to be able to get a more in depth look at the team before they were done for the semester. We started off kind of slow in the game, didn't really have a lot of rhythm to what we were trying to do. We weren't playing bad soccer, I felt like we were even the better team still in the first half even though we went into halftime down a goal. We just weren't really creating anything dangerous. Really all we talked to girls about at halftime was just changing their mentality a little bit about pressing the game, taking the game to the other team from an attacking standpoint. We did change the formation at halftime to put a little more pressure on Eastern and it resulted in two really nice goals.

bc.net: You talked a little bit in our first interview with you about personality from different positions on the field. What were your impressions of the team's personality?
BQ: I liked the way they came out in the second half for sure. There was some battle to them, some fight to them. Definitely some personality came out and there was a lot more communication amongst the team. It became more fun. They started enjoying the game a little more as they started playing a little better. It's kind of a continuous cycle, you start having more fun, you start playing better, you start playing better, you start having more fun. There was definitely some good personality that came out. Our team defensively toughened up a little bit and put some aggression into the game and our attacking players got a little more creative and a little more flair for the game and played a little quicker. I like the personality of the team. I don't like that we gave up a late goal at the end of the half but I like that they were able to respond from that instead of going in and putting their heads down at halftime and saying, "We're down 1-0 now what?" There's a good mental response from the team to the situation. I like that a lot.  Continue Reading This Post >>

bleedCrimson.net: What attracted the New Mexico State job?
Blair Quinn: A couple things, for me it was the timing in terms of personal and professional development and then the actual job itself at New Mexico State, the university. The community supports the athletic program so much there, including soccer. They were in the Top 20 in attendance both years for soccer so there's a ton of support there and it's a very close-knit family type environment. It's easier to be successful at a place like that.

bc.net: You've had a couple chances to see the team, competing against them in the spring at Arizona State. How much did you know about the program and the team and kids and some of the talent having had the opportunity to coach against them?
BQ: I've got a little idea of the team from playing against them, we actually played against them a couple weeks ago at ASU. I don't know the team that well in terms of their style and personalities but from what I saw a couple weeks ago there are some good pieces there. It's not typically what you'd expect from a second year program. It's usually, you kind of start at the bottom and really have to work a long time working your way up. I think they were started very very well and as such they're already in a really good place talent-wise which I hope to keep improving the talent level with what we have now.  Continue Reading This Post >>