March 5, 2000
DAVIS, Calif. - California battled a close contest with UC Davis Sunday afternoon, taking a 4-3 lead into halftime but failing to hold on to the advantage, dropping an 8-7 loss to the Aggies at Toomey Field. Senior defender and co-captain Carrie Scribner notched her first collegiate goal in the effort, as did freshman midfielder Jessie Liu. Junior midfielder Sarah Wheatley led the Bears with a pair of goals and assists.
"We had every opportunity to win the game but struggled with some poor decisions trying to rush the ball in," said California head coach Jill Malko. "We stopped going to what was working for us."
Sarah Breyer scored first for Davis (4-0 overall, 3-0 in the WWLL) just 3:30 into the first half, but the Bears pulled together and regrouped on the attack. With 18:49 remaining in the stanza, Scribner stepped up and launched a shot past Kate McCall to tie the game up at 1-1. Wasting no time, a familiar combo threat in Wheatley and sophomore attacker Halsey Monger arrived on the scene, settling down the California (1-2 overall, 0-2 in the WWLL) offense and moving the ball around for an eventual Monger feed to a scoring Wheatley, claiming a 2-1 Bears lead with 17:22 left to play in the first half.
"I thought Carrie Scribner had an awesome game, end-to-end. She scored an early goal that was crucial to getting our momentum going," said Malko. "It was very apparent she wanted the ball the whole game."
Jenny Shargel would score another goal for Davis with 12:04 remaining in the first half before the Bears wrapped things up pre-halftime. Junior midfielder Joelle LeMoult took a Wheatley pass in for a score with 10:25 left on the clock while freshman attacker Britni Must notched her fourth career goal, unassisted, with 1:58 to play in the half, sending California into the break up 4-3 following a goal by Davis' Jenna Rivett with 0:30 on the clock.
"Britni is starting to grasp her role as a playmaker," said Malko. "That's a tall order as a freshman, but she's been doing a great job."
In the second half, the Bears offense just didn't seem to be operating as cohesively as before, with five agonizing Aggie goals not helping much on the other end. Wheatley and Monger combined again for another goal/assist performance with 25:07 left in the game to break up the Davis streak.
"We needed to come out strong in the second half, but Davis swung the momentum their way with two quick goals," said Malko. "Our usually strong defense got disorganized and caused a few breakdowns and Davis capitalized on those."
Sophomore attacker Laura Kado, who leads the Bears with six goals, would find an answer to a confident Aggie defense with 11:12 on the clock, driving to the net and scoring off an assist from Must to pull Cal within two at 8-6. Liu, just 2:58 later, found her own lane into the net, burning McCall with 8:14 left in the game to score an unassisted goal, her first for California, bringing the Bears to within one, 8-7. Unfortunately, later scoring opportunities would not produce, including several solid efforts with under a minute to play.
"We had trouble working our transition from defense to offense," said Malko. "Looking back, I think the transition game was a big factor today."
California returns to action next Saturday, March 11th, at UC Santa Cruz in a 1 p.m. WWLL match-up.
GOALS: Cal - Wheatley 2, Scribner 1, LeMoult 1, Must 1, Kado 1, Liu 1, DAVIS: - Stonebarger 2, Breyer 2, Snyder 2, Rivett 1, Shargel 1. ASSISTS: Cal - Monger 2, Wheatley 2, Must 1, DAVIS: Deal 1, Stonebarger 1, Breyer 1, Roberts 1. SAVES: Cal - Coelho
