Tambroni on whether it’s important to get an early lead against the Orange: "I think confidence plays a factor in that if you can get up early, like you saw yesterday, our guys played with a lot of poise. But I don’t get the sense that if we go down by three goals with the group that we have, there’s going to be a lack of confidence or a panic button. It’s going to be important, but more important is going to be our guys’ ability to commit to 60 minutes of lacrosse and just play with poise throughout – whether we’re up by three or down by three."

Tambroni on getting a rematch against a regular-season opponent for the third consecutive game: "In terms of preparation, it helps a great deal, but it’s not an advantage or disadvantage. Both teams do what they do in terms of scouting reports and film breakdown. We were hopeful that we were going to have a chance to move on and compete. The good thing is we got a chance to play all three of these teams that were in the final four, so we had scouting reports and film on all of them. You’ve got to refresh what you kind of knew and what you did in the regular season. But I think we’re going to have to be the team that adjusts knowing that we lost by five goals during the regular season, with [Syracuse adding junior attackman] Cody Jamieson, and they seem to be playing very well. … But by the same token, I believe in our guys at this point. They’ve proven our entire coaching staff and each other right that if you give these guys the freedom to play the way they’re capable of, they were going to have a chance."

Romero on the Big Red’s share-the-wealth philosophy on offense: "I think what’s great is when [senior midfielder Max Seibald] is drawing the best guys, guys are stepping up and filling it up. You’ve got guys on the second midfield who are making plays, and the attack is coming along. For us as an offense, there’s no one individual matchup. It’s a team effort. We’re just trying to play six-on-six."

Tambroni on how the regular-season loss to Syracuse on April 7 affected the team: "It probably was the turning point. Back in 2007, we got to the point where we felt like we needed to start running in order to compete against these kinds of teams that are competing in the final four and have won national championships. And then I felt like we kind of got away from who we were in 2008 and in the beginning of 2009. We really felt like we kind of shot ourselves in the foot against Syracuse. We were actually talking about it this morning at breakfast with Rocco and Chris that we gave up a lot of easy possessions. But I think this is [an Orange] team that creates a ton of transition for both teams, and you have to take what they give you. So I think if we get transition, we’ve got to put our foot on the gas and run a little bit and take the opportunities that we get."

Finn on how confident the team that it can control the pace of play against the Orange: "I think in the second quarter of that Syracuse game, we had the ball for maybe a minute and 30 seconds. That kind of showed our attack unit that it’s our job to control the pace. We just weren’t doing a good job. So we practice and no matter what drill it’s been, we take so much more of a focused look at how we’re doing at controlling the pace of the game. I think if we can focus on that tomorrow, we’ll have a good chance to win again."