Kate Martin & Iliana Rupert: GS Valkyries Postgame Presser vs. Washington Mystics | 07.31.25
Am I good to go? Take it away. Um, yeah, crazy finish. Um, what did you guys kind of see there on the floor in that last play, that defensive stand? I mean, I think we just stuck together and stuck to our game plan there and um, not a stop. Uh, you know, there’s just like a ball screen jaw got over and um, had her hands up, made it difficult for her. Um Jaws used her length well and um I just think down the stretch we stayed together whenever things weren’t going our way and that’s um a positive thing. Yeah. After last game resilience was a word that everyone kept using. Do you guys feel like that was kind of the theme for this for this game as well? Um yeah, obviously we know that it’s it’s never easy to win on the road. Uh even though we we were up by I think 12 at halftime, we knew that it was going to be tough. they were not obviously like um let it easy for us. So we we were really together like uh like K said um even when they were coming back and we made some stops, we stayed confident in each other and that’s that was the most important. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. How do you guys make sure that it doesn’t unravel in a situation where you guys didn’t score for I think it was like four minutes. There were some turnovers there, but like like you said, Kate, like you guys were able to stick together. Like how do you guys do that? like is it motivation on the bench or like where does that come from for you guys? Yeah. Well, I think we do have a great bench with great energy, but also like not getting too frazzled and relying on our defense. Like we’ve gotten here because of our defense, not our offense. And so if we’re not scoring, we make sure, you know, to hold them uh as much as possible. And um that’s obviously we talked about resilience, but obviously there’s some things that we can work on. We shouldn’t be giving up a 12-point lead, but it, you know, on the road sticking together and still coming out with a win like that is is huge. something to be proud of. What does it say about this group’s resilience overall? Not even just tonight, but the past few days, like KT’s been out, you guys were missing Mo. Tip went off tonight for a little bit. Obviously, Cheti wasn’t playing. Um, you guys played a lot of minutes late in this game like on a long road trip, too. Like, how how energizing is it when you get a result like this off of all of these difficult circumstances? Um, we can be proud of ourselves. um you know that we were able um to step up. Uh I think that’s also the the big strength of our team is that threat can come from everybody and I think we we’ve been showing that um on the last couple of games. Um and yeah, even though we we lost a couple of players, we stick together and they helped us al also a lot. They bring a lot of energy. They they have a lot of trust in us and we trust also a lot each other and that helps when you step on the court obviously. Yeah. And then just Jaw obviously getting the game-winning shot and she had a good defensive game too. Just like what’s it been like to kind of see her grow and develop this year? For me. Um I’m really really happy for her. Um she deserves all of that. She’s a really hard uh worker. Obviously, I’ve known her for almost 10 years now. And yeah, seeing her just like having that much confidence in her because she can have a really bad game, but still she will step up at the end and that’s that’s really her. That’s her killer mentality and and I’m happy that she can bring that to the league. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you.
Golden State Valkyries Postgame Media Availability: Kate Martin & Iliana Rupert. Postgame presser vs. Washington Mysticson July 31st, 2025.
Final Score: Valkyries 68-67 Mystics
Courtesy: Golden State Valkyries
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