Florida State ready for College Cup showdown

Florida State ready for College Cup showdown
December 2, 2011

KENNESAW, GEORGIA – Mark Krikorian’s Florida State Seminoles are more than happy to be overlooked coming into this year’s NCAA Women’s College Cup.
 
The 18-6-1 squad has been here five times in nine seasons (3rd best in the nation and best in the ACC), and while they haven’t won the biggest prize yet, there’s no questioning the team’s belonging at this level. Still, most of the talk heading into this year’s event is about #1 Stanford, which comes into the College Cup undefeated for the 3rd consecutive year.
 
A sampling of comments from the coach and players make it pretty evident that they aren’t running scared.
 
florida state women's college soccer playersTori Huster, Toni Pressley, and Kelsey Wys at the press conference on Thursday.
“Basically what I’m telling them is that this is another game,” Krikorian said. “We know they are a very good team, but we’ve played a number of very good teams. We know it’s a big stage but we’ve played in front of a lot of people before.”
 
When the team’s 5-0 loss to Stanford in last season’s quarterfinal was brought up in Thursday’s press conference, standout midfielder Tori Huster said that game doesn’t mean much to the Seminoles, except perhaps as another motivator prior to the big contest.
 
“They have different players. We have different players,” Huster said. “I’ve pushed that game pretty much out of my mind because it was heartbreaking. It won’t mean anything when we play tomorrow.”
 
Florida State comes off a very impressive 3-0 win over highly-regarded Virginia in last week’s quarterfinals. The Seminole offense is paced by Tiffany McCarty, who has recovered from an injury that cost her all of last season, to score 18 goals so far this year. The attack is supplemented by Huster, Jessica Price, Jamia Fields, Janice Cayman and Icelandic international Dagny Brynjarsdottir. Goalkeeper Kelsey Wys superintends a rock solid defense, which also includes Ines Jaurena, Kassey Kallman, Tiana Brockway and Toni Pressley.
 
Huster will be essential to the team’s chances to knock off the Cardinal. Krikorian praised her multi-faceted skill set as a ball-winner and distributor. Wys also complimented her team’s ability to defend as a unit. The sophomore netminder said if the need arises, she is confident to face post-match PKs, just as she did in the ACC fi nal where she came up big to help her team lift the conference tournament championship.
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