Lev Kirshner news conference quotes.

SDSU HEAD COACH Lev Kirshner Opening statement:
COACH KIRSHNER: Obviously it's nice to be in here and discuss something that when I first stepped foot 15 years ago, was kind of a dream. The investment of our administration of putting in $1.3 million to put lights and take our program to the next echelon is just ... we have so much gratitude and appreciation for it. Looking forward to getting this information out to the community, selling the deck out and as we have been saying, `stack the deck' while we `light the night.'

We are 0-1-1. We opened up our first games over the weekend against No. 15 Notre Dame, where unfortunately we came up a little short, lost 3 2, and then tied the No. 8 team in the country at Indiana, 0 0.

Q. How good of a test was it opening with two nationally ranked teams?
COACH KIRSHNER: Probably too good of a test with the amount of injuries we have taken prior to the camp getting started. Four of our possible starters are out right now, and our captain is playing at 70 percent, and Jose Altamirano who is a former national team player was unable to play much on the Friday game.

It was a very big test and it showed great fortitude in our group to go out and make sure that they could find the result necessary on Sunday after not a great performance on Friday. But to come back Sunday with the confidence and the ability to get that tie was very good for our confidence in getting us ready for this game on Friday.

Q. And how excited are you and the players for the first night game here?
COACH KIRSHNER: I wish I could actually articulate the excitement that is going on within the program and as much as our kids are very excited to play underneath the lights and in front of a huge crowd here in San Diego. As I mentioned earlier, it's been 15 years of me discussing that lights were very important to our program.

When I first came to Montezuma Mesa, I did mention to our administration that there were about three things necessary for me to never look for another job. Two out of those three things have taken place; getting to a resource level with fully funded complement of scholarships; getting lights up there, and then a full complement of assistant coaches. Hopefully that's coming with the move to the Big East so that our position can be reinstated. But at this moment the administration is not getting rid of me by me leaving. This is very exciting.

Q. Did anything stand out to you last week?
COACH KIRSHNER: What stood out was the mental fortitude, as I used that word earlier, the determination to succeed, the fight and the battle and the will of this team. We are certainly still trying to find ourselves with that being our first two games. We are still struggling to find our lineup with all of the injuries that are there.

But the mental capacity of our group to go out there after a bad performance on Friday in the heat, to turn around in inclement conditions of rain on Sunday against probably a Final Four team. I would be very surprised if Indiana doesn't end up in the Final Four with the talent and depth that they have.

It was telling to me to know that this is a group that no matter who comes to play us, they will have to compete at their highest level to have a chance to beat us, because our guys are going to fight and battle.

Q. Update on injured goalkeeper Blake Hylen.
COACH KIRSHNER: Fortunately it was just a laceration that was able to be stitched up. They put the stirrups on to get him to finish the game and after the game their doctors stitched him up. It would be remiss of myself not to mention the wonderful camp that Tim Peitsch had and for him to step in for that 15 minutes while Blake was getting the stirrups putting on his eye, he was phenomenal. He made a game saving save that kept us in the match and our goalkeeping here, as always, conducted by Matt Hall, our assistant coach, is phenomenal.

Whether it be Blake or whether it be Tim on the weekend, we are fully confident in our goalkeeping.

Q. Could you talk about the huge difference, shots on goal, 29 13 and you guys, 10 4. Just talk about that a little bit if you could.
COACH KIRSHNER: One, you have to give credit to Indiana in what they did on the day. They were extremely sharp and played way better than I thought they played on Friday night.

This is a very good team that came at us very hard. We are down in our numbers right now, and the ability to have game fitness, as that was our first weekend of games, really played a toll on us and our need to defend. Certainly we never like to be dominated like that and the last time I remember being dominated like that was in 2005 against Cal and in fact I think we won that game, as well.

So this is something to put a similarity to, that the resilience and the mentality of this group is going to be very high. Once we get all of our bodies back, we are going to be extremely talented again, not to say that we are not talented right now, obviously looking at our results against the No. 8 team in the country (Indiana).

Q. Do you ever look over at the football players practicing and think you could help those guys out? Just as a bit of tongue in cheek.
COACH KIRSHNER: Yeah, yeah. No tongue in cheek at all. I walked into Rocky Long's offense and told him he would be absolutely crazy not to take Chance Marden. The gentleman is the epitome of what an Aztec student-athlete should be. He's a scholar-athlete. He is a wonderful young man and human being. His work ethic and his locker room presence are enormous.

So no tongue in cheek at all on that. That would have been a big mistake on their part not to grab him for GPA alone, let alone the fact that Chance is a very talented kicker. We actually stole him away from football originally. They were courting him out of high school and Chance's love was in soccer, the real football, since we are going to go tongue in cheek.

So there's no doubt that Chance wanted to try to perform on his first love and he got four years of that and decided to have a go at football where he was extremely talented in the Mission Valley Athletic League, which is my former league. We are actually from the same hometown, as well, to give you another story on that. He went to Washington High School and I went to Michigan San Jose High School.