April 30, 2005

Box Score

BERKELEY, Calif. - California clinched the second seed in the MPSF Championship tournament with an 18-11 win over conference opponent UC Davis on a cloudy Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Cal sophomore midfielder Laura Cavallo led all scorers with six points from four goals and two assists. Also, sophomore midfielder Liz Reifsnyder scored three goals and one assist, senior attacker Molly Brady scored a hat trick, and senior midfielder Sunne Smith scored two goals and one assist for the Golden Bears, who improved to 11-6 (4-1 MPSF) on Senior Day.

"We hustled and played really well in the midfield," Cal head coach Jill Malko said. "We've really been working hard on our attackers redefending, tackling back, causing turnovers and hustling all the way. You saw Molly do it. You saw Sunne do it. You saw them all put a lot of heart out there.

"Molly played well. We had her playing defense. She was running up and down. I thought she played very, very well. Erin [Hafkenschiel], too, quietly gets the job done defensively. Cavallo was a little bumpy in the beginning. But she needed a game like this, to play well and score some. She's a sparkplug. That's the Cavallo we're used to. She had a great game."

Three players led UC Davis in scoring with three points each. Sophomore attacker Katie McMahon scored three goals, junior Tiffany Lee scored two goals and one assist, and sophomore Megan O'Connor had one goals and two assists for the visiting Aggies, who fell to 9-7 (2-3 MPSF) and the fourth spot in the conference tournament.

Denver, with a 3-2 conference mark, is the MPSF Championship's third seed, while Stanford, at 5-0 in the MPSF, is the conference's regular-season champion and the conference tournament's top seed.

Cal, which is also the MPSF's regular-season runner-up, had another slow start on Saturday, falling behind 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1 to the Aggies. UC Davis leading scorer Katie McMahon opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 3:56 and, after Davis teammate Megan Miller scored at 4:09, McMahon scored her second with a free position shot at 11:32 to give the Aggies their 3-2 lead.

Last weekend, Cal likewise was down 3-2 to an Oregon team that it eventually beat, 19-8.

"We're getting used to the slow starts," Brady said on Saturday. "It almost lights a fire in us if we're tied or down by a couple. As soon as we see that, we say, 'Oh, man, we need to score,' and suddenly we'll put up 10 goals. It encourages us more than discourages us."

But Cal roared back, scoring the game's next six goals to give Cal an 8-3. Freshman Brittany Aungier began the onslaught with a goal from a free position shot at 12:12. Six different Bears, including Reifsnyder, Jocelyn Paul, Cavallo, Smith and Brady, scored during the run.

McMahon completed her first-half hat trick and snapped the Cal run with a goal at 14:19. The Bears, led by freshman Danni Zuralow's two goals, outscored the Aggies 4-1 the rest of the half to take a 12-5 lead into the break.

Cal, sparked by Cavallo's two goals and one assist, went on another 6-0 run during the first 11:13 of the second half to give the Bears an 18-5 lead. But freshman midfielder Katie McGovern, who scored twice, ignited a 6-0 run for Davis over the rest of the game to make the final score 18-11.

"I was pleased with the middle 40 minutes," Malko added. "The first 10 and the last 10 were kind of ugly for us, and I thought Davis played well in those periods. It was a mixed bag. But it's obviously a huge win. We needed to win to set ourselves up for this weekend coming up."

The MPSF Championship tournament will be held May 5-7 on the campus of Saint Mary's in Moraga. Cal will play in the semifinal round on Friday, May 6, against the winner of one of the two quarterfinal games that will take place on Thursday, May 5.

Cavallo, who now has 42 goals this season, moves into second place on Cal's all-time single-season goals list, passing Brady, who scored 41 last year. With her one assist, Reifsnyder moves up to fourth place on Cal's all-time single season assist list with 18 so far this season. Cavallo, who added two assists today, is right behind her with 16. Also, Cavallo, with 58 points this year, moves into third place on Cal's all-time single-season scoring list. Brady, with 131 career points, stands in fifth place on Cal's career scoring list, just two points behind former Bear Halsey Monger.

Before the game, Cal honored its four seniors - Brady, Smith, Hafkenschiel and defender Megan Cavalier - who were playing in their final regular-season home game in Berkeley. All four started against Davis.

"It was so nice seeing them out there and playing together," Malko said. "Sunne had two goals and one assist, a couple caused turnovers, Pumpkin [Cavalier] had one great takeaway defensively. It's just nice to see them and their families out here and have everyone appreciate them. It's a sad day for me. They've been a really, really strong group for us and persevered for us in our program and taken it to a higher level, so it was nice to let them have that opportunity."

GAME SUMMARY
             1    2   F
UC Davis     5    6   11
California   12   6   18

UC Davis Scoring
Goals: Katie McMahon 3, Tiffany Lee 2, Katie McGovern 2, Megan O'Connor 1, Kaitlin Moore 1, Lindsay Messina 1, Megan Miller 1. Assists: Megan O'Connor 2, Nicole Frantz 1, Tiffany Lee 1.

California Scoring
Goals: Laura Cavallo 4, Liz Reifsnyder 3, Molly Brady 3, Sunne Smith 2, Danni Zuralow 2, Jocelyn Paul 1, Brittany Aungier 1, Cristen Andrews 1, Mary Downs 1. Assists: Laura Cavallo 2, Liz Reifsnyder 1, Sunne Smith 1.

Goalkeeping
UC Davis: Kristen Braasch, 5 saves, 12 GA, 30:00, Hilary Harkins, 10 saves, 6 GA, 30:00. California: Hilary Lynch, 8 saves, 11 GA, 60:00.

Records: UC Davis 9-7 (2-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation). California 11-6 (4-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation).