2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 1, 2025

Melyssa Lombardi

Kai Luschar

Kedre Luschar

Kaylynn Jones

Paige Sinicki

Oregon Ducks

Postgame Press Conference

Oklahoma 4, Oregon 1

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Lombardi. If you have an opening statement...

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Yes, I do. I think about the summer when I'm sitting here with these seniors and we're talking about that we wanted something different from this year and in order to do that, we needed to be uncomfortable and do things in a way that's going to allow us to be here standing at the Women's College World Series.

And to have those conversations with Kai and Kedre and Paige and know that, in order to do that, we have to put ourselves out there, and we did, I just can't say enough about how much I love this team and version seven.

They believed it. I knew they were different from the beginning of the year. They were different. And just for them to show how much they love and care about each other and give each other the strength and the conviction and the confidence to do challenging things individually and as a team and to just watch this ride.

We wanted to keep playing, obviously, ultimately to win a national championship, but we wanted to keep playing because we did not want version seven to end. Today with us and our season being done, to me, it's tears of joy for this group because I love them so much and I'm so thankful.

They have absolutely changed me as a coach. They have my heart, and they will always have my heart. They left a blueprint for our teams to come. And it's not about how to come to the World Series and win a national championship. It's about how to be a group of people that know how to love each other to the absolutely fullest and praise each other to the absolutely fullest and for us all to see our potential.

We saw our potential because of the way that we go about things. I just can't say enough. I'm so proud of this group right here, and I'm just thankful, thankful. And I love them.

Q. For Paige, Kai and Kedre, the game specifically, what was Landry doing to keep y'all off balance a little bit? Because, Paige, you still had the hit late, but it's very uncharacteristic for you to strike out ever. So when it happens, it's worth asking. What was she doing to be effective?

PAIGE SINICKI: Yeah, hats off for her, definitely got me. I think for the whole team it was the change of speeds she was mixing really well that we really had to pick one or the other. That's why we were getting beat by the end of the day.

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Yeah, at this point in the season, everybody is good. You're going to have those strikeouts because pitches are good. You're going to have those home runs because hitters are good. It's a battle and it's the top eight teams, so it's going to look like that.

KAI LUSCHAR: Yeah, I think we're all competing. She had a great day, they're a great team, we're a great team. That's all.

Q. Kaylynn, Coach talks about that blueprint and what the seniors left. Just how do you build that blueprint so these appearances at OKC are the standard of the program?

KAYLYNN JONES: These seniors have created a very high standard for us freshmen, and just holding it not only for ourselves but for them and showing them that they made a difference and just carrying it on forward.

Q. For each of the players, you guys have talked about how special version seven has been for your season. With this season now coming to an end, can each of you pinpoint to a moment this season that stood out to you that you guys have enjoyed the most with this group and why it was so special to you each individually?

PAIGE SINICKI: Yeah, I think it's so hard to just choose one moment because there's been so many special moments with this team. This team is filled with so much love and joy.

And I think that beats anything game-wise that happens on the field when you have a group of girls that just love each other and grow from each other. And we have truly become women, and I'm so proud of them and just all the joy we have had on the field.

This whole post-season has been so much fun because our backs were against the wall, and we just trusted each other and had so much belief. And I think that's something that this program has been able to see, and now we're going to take it and embrace it. I'm so excited to see K-Dub and this class behind them do that in these coming years. I just love them.

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Yeah, same thing as Paige. Can't pick out one moment, not with this group.

Since the very first day of fall practice, we had fun. We had energy. We were smiling, laughing. That just carried on all throughout the fall, all throughout the season. Every away trip. I can't think of one bad trip or honestly one day that was completely bad. Obviously we have our struggles and our growing pains, but that's what makes us. That's why we're here. So I can't choose just one moment.

KAI LUSCHAR: I'm also grateful for every moment, but the Stanford game, when we knew we were moving on, was incredible and a feeling I will never forget. I felt like we just really learned how to fight in that moment and it led us to where we are today, and we're all so grateful to be here.

KAYLYNN JONES: I will go along with them in saying there were so many memories created this year as freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors and just carrying every little moment that we've built from, as Coach likes to say. We had a lot of growing pains. So learning from those and growing and taking this program farther than it's ever been before with what the seniors have left.

Q. Paige, you being a mainstay in the starting lineup since your freshman year, all the starts, all the consecutive starts in a row. You have had so many different teammates. Can you pinpoint one, maybe two, that had the biggest impact on who you are as a player today?

PAIGE SINICKI: Like I said, with the moments, that's hard to pick too. Honestly, this senior class, these two sisters right here have just been amazing. They're my roommates, and I couldn't have imagined four years without them.

They truly made being a Duck so special, and they shown me so much joy and love and so many fun things off the field that I just can't imagine doing this without you guys.

I love you guys. You guys continue to teach me how to be a strong leader, strong woman, and we wouldn't be here without you two. So I love you.

Q. For the three seniors, again, I realize this is so fresh and it's hard to encapsulate four years, but when you go back to the Jane months from now, years from now, and your names are on the glass and it's an All-American honor and a Golden Glove honor and a Golden Boot honor and four Selection Sundays where you knew you were making it and a second year where you make it to a super, and now you make it to this. How do you encapsulate four years when you know, when you first came in as freshmen, that some of those players didn't get to experience all you got to experience?

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Yeah, I think we're going to be able to look back and think of all the fun memories we had throughout all four years. I mean, this year probably tops it out for me, but I'm just so grateful for these girls. And when we do come back as alumni, we're just going to be cheering our girls on because Ducks forever and just so grateful and proud of everybody.

KAI LUSCHAR: Yeah, I think personally I'm so grateful to go to the greatest university in the country and play with this team and the teams before. There's been so many amazing memories and so much growth. It's just been incredible. To be a Duck is one of the greatest things I have ever done.

PAIGE SINICKI: We talked about before, beside and behind. That's always been part of our culture, and now us three are becoming behind. And I think it's just so cool that you get to experience all of this -- the before, the beside, and behind. We get to experience all three. And now you're the behind. It's embracing what you did here and loving on those and being excited for what the people that are there now are going to do. I'm so blessed to be a behind now.

Q. Kai, what has it been like to watch your sister flourish the last year and be an All-American?

KAI LUSCHAR: It's been the coolest thing of my life, honestly. (Crying) she's my best friend, and to see her compete so hard this year and fulfill her dreams, It's indescribable.

THE MODERATOR: That'll wrap it up for the players.

Questions for Coach Lombardi?

Q. Missy, to the game specifically, for Lyndsey, 17 of 18 hitters go at least four pitches. How much of that from your observation was strategic on their part and maybe her struggling with fatigue to find the zone, and how much of that was a tough zone that was tough for all the pitchers tonight at times?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I thought Lyndsey was amazing and she found the zone all night long. They're a great hitting team, and they foul pitches off and foul pitches off and they make you work and make you work.

What I love for Lyndsey, I watched her in the Ole Miss game start the game, come out, and then come back different than I've ever seen her. And she's had an unbelievable year, but to watch her transform into an elite pitcher on the grandest stage ever and see her do that at Ole Miss and then see her do that tonight, I'm so proud of her.

I'm so proud of her leadership. And I love that she has another year. Sometimes... I have been doing this for a long time, and sometimes you have to go through a little bit of pain to get what you want.

I think our seniors left it out there. They did everything possible, and I know that their tears are of joy, but I think about Lyndsey and our returners and what this has done for them. This year has changed their life. And I'm so excited to see what she has next year.

Q. Patty talked about your guys' standards being very similar, and just going back to what you were saying about this summer and the players saying you want to be different this year, how much does that idea coming from the players and wanting to do that set the standard for what you want to do going forward as well?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: A lot. I can remember sitting in my office, sitting there with Kai and Kedre and Paige and having conversations of what we have done well to this point but what needs to change for us to elevate and go to another level.

And it was the most uncomfortable and best meeting of my life because we sat down and we got real with each other. I got real with them, and they got real with me. And we needed that.

From that moment on, we did not look back. I'm not a coach that's going to sit at the top of the mountain and tell them what to do. I'm about being in the trenches with these guys, and I have been in the trenches with them all year.

And just watching them blossom as people and as leaders and as teammates and just know, like, we are not finished. We're going to get to the World Series, and we are going to make our freshman play at a higher standard, and we're going to have standards on and off the field. Things that we know are going to make a humongous difference.

And you could see it all year. It wasn't easy. It was hard. It was really hard. Or challenging, as we would say. But I loved every minute of it. Sometimes when things are hard, you want to shy away. This group didn't. They found joy in it, they stuck together, and they got what they wanted.

Q. Coach Gasso had a lot of nice things to say about you, especially your hard work and getting to the World Series. How much has she shaped your career especially since you took to job here at UO?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I played for Coach Gasso here. And then after I got done playing and I graduated, she hired me right out of school. And I was like: Coach, what are you doing? Why are you taking a chance on me, being so young?

And she believed in who I was as a player, and she believed in me as a coach. I think of the 20-plus years we spent together, it was unbelievable.

Our families, you know, it's not just about what we do as coaches on the field. It's so much more about what we do off and how connected our families are, and from there, that connection and what it does for our athletes. I think about the opportunity I have to go be a Duck. And I love that I'm a Duck. University of Oregon is unbelievable.

But I think about all the life lessons on and off the field, and I'm thankful for her giving me the opportunity. I don't think, you know, I would be here without her. So I love her.

Q. Coach, you and the rest of your coaching staff embraced the Oklahoma coaching staff post-game. Can you describe what was said in that moment?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: We prayed together and prayed for them to be safe and continue to play well the rest of the way. We prayed for our athletes for what an unbelievable season that they had, and just we put our faith on each other's shoulders. And it was just for us to be connected afterwards. It means a lot.

Q. Melyssa, you've been on the good side of OU's home field advantage here. How tough was it playing against them in this venue, in this event? And if somebody wanted to fix that, is there an option to even consider?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I think the World Series is in OKC. I love it. That's all we talked about all year, how we can get to OKC. How do we exit on 132A. That's all we talked about. We don't want to go anywhere else other Oklahoma City.

They have some great fans. Our fans were unbelievable. I think all year long big instances where we needed a big win and our fans came through, whether they were on the road or at the Jane or standing here at the Women's College World Series. So I think we've got the greatest fans, and I just love playing at the Jane, and I love being a Duck.

Q. Missy, when it's taken this long and you get to relish in it and the success in here, you're also 30 days from a contract year that I imagine will be changing, one way, shape, or form. How much have you talked to Val, Lisa, Rob about their commitment to you into the future and also the program and what it's going to take to retain and attract talent like your core freshmen with KJ and pitchers like Lyndsey and Elise to sustain and keep this thing building the way you've had it built now in year seven?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Again, I love being a Duck. Our future is so bright. We've worked so hard.

I'm so thankful for our coaching staff, Coach Marder, Coach Lys, Coach Ro. I think of the great athletes we have brought in and their ability to develop our athletes and put them in a position to compete for a national championship.

I think I've got the best coaching staff out there, and it was important for this freshman group to get here. It was important for the senior group to get here and contend for a national championship but also to bring this freshman group because this freshman group is pretty special, and the sophomore group and the junior group. But just to get there your first year and from there now that's the standard, It's pretty amazing. So I love being a Duck.

Q. We have been rooting for you, obviously, from afar. So watching your team grow, and now you're in year seven, where do you feel like -- how much has your program grown, and where do you feel like your program is at at this point in your career?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I think our program is at a really good place. To me, the most important thing is the people. It's about having the right people that are committed to your vision on and off the field and want to do great things. And we have that.

I think of the University of Oregon and the resources we have, phenomenal. Our athletes feel like professional athletes. They're treated like professional athletes. Their resources are unbelievable. And we need that to contend. We fell a little short, and we're going to be right back here next year contending again. So I can't say enough.

Q. You've worked with a lot of great pitchers in your career. Where does Lyndsey align with them and how did you see her grow when she arrived in Eugene?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Lyndsey was a competitor when she arrived, and I love the way she spins the ball. I love how passionate she is every time she steps on the mound. I was so excited to get to work with her. We sat down after she committed and talked about what our plan looked like for the year.

And for that, it was for her to be able to be okay with being uncomfortable and do things that she hasn't done before, and you can just see that journey all year.

I can see different moments this year where just watched her continue to rise to the occasion. And just when you're there, you're committed to that one pitch and nothing else matters. You could feel the best. You could feel the worst. It doesn't matter. You just know that you are the best and you're going to do whatever it takes to win.

And you could see that in her and just what she has done this year. And what it's going to do for her next year, I'm thrilled. I'm so proud of her.

Q. Coach, just kind of putting the season in context. You talked already about how special this group was. Just from a coach perspective, how incredible was this to coach this group of women and see them develop as time goes on? And now seeing them leave their mark, how excited are you for the future of this program?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Extremely excited. I love version seven. Version seven has touched my heart in so many ways. And just to watch how they've touched hearts of people they don't even know. They just don't even know the amount of hearts they've touched across the country, just with the way they play and the way that they play and care for each other.

So blessed, just so many blessings.

THE MODERATOR: Okay, that'll wrap it up. Thank you.