Sarah Patterson Quotations

We struggled in practice this week and I think a lot of it was due to fatigue and the stress the ladies were under academically with mid-terms. Usually you perform like you practice but in this instance I though were able to do a little bit better. Certainly I was concerned coming into tonight's competition.

There are times when it's definitely to the University's benefit that we work together because we're working all the time. When we're home we still talk about it; we actually have to make a conscious decision not to talk about work.

On a Friday night, if you're off, the team in seventh place in this conference can beat you. You have to be on for every competition.

On the floor and the vault, I think we're performing at a championship level, not only in terms of performance but in our enthusiasm and intensity as well. We just need to do the same on the bars and beam.

I think we gave it our all. You have to give credit where credit is due. ... (Georgia) handled the pressure of an undefeated season.

I think this meet is indicative of the competition within the Southeastern Conference and certainly among the nation's top-12. At this level of competition, you can't afford to count a fall and tonight was no exception.

I think the stage is set for a great meet next Friday.

I think the reason we're successful is that we complement each others' strengths and weaknesses.

I said all along I felt all along it would come down to the last rotation and we would have to go out and hit our floor routines exceptionally well to win the meet. This Stanford team is a great team. They just beat UCLA and they tied us two years ago at nationals.

Today was all about adjusting the equipment, getting a feel for it. We did a really good job of that, and staying loose and having fun.

To look at her face and see that smile pop up really says a lot about Terin's season. It's been my goal to let Terin have fun again with gymnastics, and she's starting to see that.

When they ask for your occupation, I can't imagine there would be a little box to check describing my job.

We gave it our all, and you have to give credit where credit is due. Georgia is one of the best gymnastics teams I've seen in the last 10 years.

We are up against an extremely talented Stanford team next weekend. The fans are going see a meet that is going to come down to the wire. It's going to come down to who hits the final two routines of the meet. It will definitely be a sit on the edge of your seat type of meet and an awesome display of gymnastics.

Brittany Magee continues to be a rock on three events for us.

Brittany has been a rock for us this year, so I told the rest of the team that we are going to have good teamwork and we are going to do this. I think what happened tonight, I'm sorry that happened for her but I have faith that she'll come back and dominate.

Beating the Auburn Tigers never gets old, even after 27 years. The pressure and the magnitude of this event never ceases to amaze me.

There's only been two times in our 28 years that we haven't worked together: when I was pregnant and in bed with our second child for four months and when David was recovering from kidney cancer. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as when he was there.

Our conference championship in Birmingham had the big crowd and it had all the pressure. Make no mistake about it, the meet schedule we have to compete between each other has made each other better. Some teams, you go up against twice, so there's not much break in your schedule.

This information is going to be used to monitor changes in our community's needs and identify unmet needs.

The biggest thing we tried to do this season was develop depth, and it wasn't really happening about midway through the season. You never know when something can happen, and Michelle is ready to step up when we need her. Her performance tonight was awesome.

Things didn't go perfectly for us tonight. But I think what we learned from tonight will be invaluable for us down the road and will serve to make us a better team. We had great team work, we had enthusiasm and we saw great leadership from a few of our veterans. We also saw the determination and enthusiasm from our freshmen that are going to help us contend in the future.

I'm hoping that Birmingham is fan-friendly. You put four judges in it and you're taking it to the podium, that takes out some of the advantage.

Being at the national championships never gets old. And advancing to the Super Six is a highlight of the year. You never take it for granted. I think what happened to us, will only serve to make us better (tonight).

I figured it would be really close. I told the ladies coming into the meet that we would have to really hit our floor routines to win.

The first three events, we put the pressure on them and made them beat us. To count a fall on the beam was tough. It's one of our better events. But, Georgia had won it by then. Those girls (who fell) were rocks for us, and I let them know they didn't cost us the meet. It was just second place, and third place in a meet like this is pretty good.