NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR - SAMFORD VS SOUTHERN U

March 18, 2026

Sierra Godbolt

Kaylee Yarbrough

Colonial Life Arena

Samford Bulldogs

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Okay, welcome back to Columbia and the next press conference in our First Four; Samford Bulldogs. Just have an opening statement and then we'll take your questions. Kaylee, you go first.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: I'm just super, super grateful for the opportunity to play with my team again and just so excited to get out there on the court.

SIERRA GODBOLT: Yes, I agree. We're so excited. We worked so hard to be here and we're excited to be in this atmosphere and in this moment.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes?

Q. This can be for either of you. In the conference tournament to have beaten the one, two, and three seed, coming in as potentially the 16 seed if you are to beat Southern, how do you guys maybe adapt and take on that sort of Cinderella story of just fighting through each game?

SIERRA GODBOLT: Yeah, you know, we showed it in the conference. Like we're not backing down to anyone. As a team we worked ready hard to get here, so as a Cinderella team it feels good. It feels great. We're the underdogs. We like being the underdogs coming in as the 16 seed, and we get a chance to show the world who Samford is.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, like she said, we have just proven ourselves so much from the beginning the season to where we are now. We have confidence and know that we can do anything. Whatever gets thrown our way we are ready to take it on.

Q. Kaylee, first and then to Sierra, what do you know about Southern?

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: They are very athletic. They have a bit of size on us, but that's nothing to us. We prepared really well and we're confident in that. We always talk about where confidence comes from preparation, and so I think that the prep we've had the past couple days has prepared us and I think we're ready to take it on.

SIERRA GODBOLT: For me, I know Southern has been here before and they have experience in this atmosphere. We know they're a scrappy team, very quick, very fast, but we been preparing. We're ready and we're excited to play them.

Q. They talked a lot about your team's three point shooting and trying to run you off the arc a little bit. Hat does that open up for you on offense as far as playing your game and also adjusting to what they're trying to do on defense?

SIERRA GODBOLT: Yeah, the three point shooting opens up gaps and driving lanes for me. I can drive and kick off. I know as far as what we know, they kind of collapse on defense so I'll drive and kick or dump it off to the post players.

I mean, we just have to read it when we get out there.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, like she said we have plenty of players that can do stuff more than shooting, so whatever -- like they take away the three point shooting that's fine. We can drive, kick, open up lanes for other people. That's fine.

Q. Kaylee, you come into the year as a freshmen leading the team in scoring. Is there an extra burden as a freshman to provide leadership or is it pretty much everyone chimes in and plays a key role?

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, I think this team has a lot of leaders and a lot of people that have stepped up. It's like everyone kind of took their role and played into their role now.

We know our roles on the team and help each other and build each other up.

SIERRA GODBOLT: I think everybody is a leader from the freshmen all the way to the seniors. I think that's what makes this team so good is we can all lead and step up. We can all get on each other and we don't take it personal.

Yeah, we play together and it shows out there on the court.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Uh-huh.

Q. So you played some heavyweights pre-season. You played big crowds. How does that help you set up for an NCAA tournament run?

SIERRA GODBOLT: Yeah, we been here about. We played Nebraska, Minnesota, some big teams in the preseason, so we're excited. We been here before and I think we got it.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, I'm just glad we got to see that and get exposure to that to kind of prepare us for this.

Q. To run the table in the conference tournament against the top three seeds, how does that get done? What were the main factors in winning those games?

SIERRA GODBOLT: For me I thought it was just our preparation and then the confidence that the coaches instilled into us previous going into these games.

We lost to I think the majority of those teams twice, Wofford and ETSU, so we had a chip on our back and we're like, we're not going to let them win three times.

Our coaches showed us plenty of film of how we could compete and do better the second time and the third time against them. So we came in with a confident attitude and, yeah.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, I think we just watched a lot of film and learned from the mistakes and stuff like that. We really like prepared for how we're going to do it differently this time. We all bought into that, so that's what led us there.

Q. Under coaching changes sometimes it can take time for teams to gel. How have you guys felt like you've been able to catch on to each other so quickly this year?

SIERRA GODBOLT: We started early over the summer and it just seemed like Coach Matt had his plan from the get-go. We all was bought in, and I think that helped us a lot.

Yeah, that's really it.

KAYLEE YARBROUGH: Yeah, this group, like from the summer I could just tell we were just different. We all just like got so close so quick. Even like with the coaching staff, like we're all just one big family.

It's just so great to be able to play with like people like that and have community around us that feels like family.

Q. Sierra, you came from UCF to Samford. Was this part of the roadmap when you decided to make move? Now that you're here, how would you evaluate that decision to transfer to Samford?

SIERRA GODBOLT: Well, my freshman year at UCF I did play against Samford. Out of the portal they were on me instantly, very consistent. I came up for my visit and it just felt like home, so when I got here the coaches instilled so much confidence into me and poured a lot into me on and off the court.

Yeah, the championship was always the goal no matter where I was. I'm glad it was here.

Q. Martha is from South Carolina, not too far from here. Has she talked about friend and family coming to the game? You guys in Alabama aren't too far away. Are you expecting decent crowds from your family and friends?

SIERRA GODBOLT: Yeah, we sure hope so. We been asking for tickets and we all have our family members coming and we have the support system. We had a lot of people there for our SoCon tournament. Martha is super excited and we know her family is going to be here and supporting us.