April 27, 2002

BERKELEY, Calif. - It was the Golden Bears' last regular season game and the last home game for three of Cal's senior players. One senior in particular though, attacker Laura Kado, played like it was her last game, igniting the Bears' offense with two goals and assist in Cal's (10-6, 5-3) narrow 10-8 loss to the Stanford Cardinal (8-7, 7-0), Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium.

It was a tale of two halves today as the Cardinal opened up a 4-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game on unassisted goals by senior Liz Britt, Jess Scott, Nina Pantano and Kelsey Twist. Twist added her team-leading 30th goal at the 12:37 mark while sophomore midfielder Abbi Hills added another to give the Cardinal a comfortable 6-0 lead going into the break. The Bears' offense was stagnant in the initial stanza, notching only seven shots on goal - the result of winning only one first-half draw control.

Stanford opened up the second half on Twist's third goal of the day to take a commanding 7-0 lead. But Cal would just not quit. Kado would net her first goal of the day at the 24:13 mark - igniting a string of four consecutive Cal goals to bring the Bears within three, 7-4, with just under 10 minutes to play. Stanford answered back on Britt's second goal of the day but senior attacker Sarah Wheatley made her presence known, scoring two unassisted goals in a three-minute span to bring Cal within three again, 10-7. Junior midfielder Jessie Liu would net her first goal of the year with 32 seconds to play but there just wasn't enough time for the Golden Bears to complete the comeback.

"We were forcing it in the first half and that really hurt us," said head coach Jill Malko. "We turned the ground balls to turnover ratio in the second half and it made a big difference. We believe in ourselves and started to stick to the fundamentals and execution in the second half - it made all the difference. Our definition of Cal lacrosse is one hundred percent effort ... there's no giving up. That was evident in today's game and is hugely important to us as a team."

In addition to Kado and Wheatley, senior Halsey Monger played her last regular season game for the Bears while Stanford seniors Britt and Emily Rodriguez played their last regular season game for the Cardinal. All of the seniors from both teams were honored before today's game.

Cal will host the Mountain Pacific Lacrosse League (MPLL) tournament next weekend, May 4-5, at Memorial Stadium. The Bears will face Denver at 11:00 a.m. on May 4 while Stanford will face either Saint Mary's or UC Davis at 2:00 p.m. On Sunday May 5, the third-place match will begin at 11:00 a.m. with the championship match to follow at 2:00 p.m.

"We know from our effort in the second half that we can score against this team," Malko said. "We need to put two halves together and score in the double digits. Who knows, we may get a third chance at them next weekend?"

DIVISION I WOMEN'S LACROSSE BOX SCORE:

             1      2       F
Stanford     6      4       10
California   0      8       8

GOALS/ASSISTS: Cal - Kado (2-1), Wheatley (2-0), Wu (1-0), Queisser (1-0), Liu (1-0), O'Mara (1-0). Stanford - Twist (3-1), Pantano (2-1), C. Calzonetti (1-2).Britt (2-0), Scott (1-0), Hills (1-0).

GOALKEEPING: Cal - Eden Coelho (51:13 minutes, 15 saves, 7 goals), Kathryn Calligaro (8:47 minutes, 3 saves, 3 goals). Stanford - Virginia Solomon (60 minutes, 8 goals).

SHOTS: STAN , UC 22; GROUNDBALLS: STAN , UC 25; FOULS: STAN , UC 9; TURNOVERS: STAN , UC 15; CAUSED TURNOVERS: STAN , UC 16; DRAW CONTROLS: STAN , UC 5.