Portal:2003 Spring Women/Memorable Events

Pre tournament publicity There was little separating anyone in the Final Four in 2002. Air Force defeated Penn State 12-7 in the final, after beating Illinois 7-5 in overtime. Penn State had beaten Navy 17-14, who lost to Illinois 19-17. So first to fourth were separated by ten points. "I guess the one thing to our advantage," said Air Force head coach Alan Osur, "is that we have relatively recently played all these teams. So we know a little about them." Air Force has seen outstanding play from experienced players like No. 8 Leslie Kastrup (National Tournament MVP), but Osur points out that weakside flanker Victoria Matthews has been, what he calls, a "silent hero." Doing the hard work, she always shows up on tape as having strong games on big days. "We will need to play for 80 minutes to defeat Penn State," said Osur. And they have shown they can do that. This promises to be a massive game. Read about the results of the 2003 Final Four Results