May 1, 2008

Box Score

BERKELEY - Second-seeded California held a 6-6 tie with third-seeded Stanford early in the second half of their MPSF Championship semifinal on Thursday at Memorial Stadium, but the Cardinal outscored the tournament host, 5-2, the rest of the way to win, 11-8, and claim a spot in Saturday's final opposite top-seeded and 17th-ranked Denver. The Golden Bears will play fourth-seeded Oregon at 1 p.m. on Friday in the third-place game.

Cal is on a season-high three-game losing streak.

In the other semifinal earlier in the day, Denver defeated Oregon, 18-12.

The MPSF tournament champion does not earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Cal had defeated Stanford, 11-9, the last time the Cardinal came to Berkeley, on Feb. 23 in the second game of the season. Today's game was likewise a close one. It also marked the first time a lower seed defeated a higher seed in this year's MPSF tournament.

"It's always a battle with Stanford," Cal head coach Theresa Sherry said. "But it's always a batter with anyone in your conference come tournament time. It doesn't matter if you played yesterday. It doesn't matter what your seeding is. You have to go out there and execute for 60 minutes or for however long it takes.

"And Stanford did a better job of that. I thought that Laura Shane played great. We couldn't find the net. That was a huge part of it as well."

Shane, Stanford's senior goalkeeper, made 13 saves, including 11 in the first half. Junior attacker Madeleine Dale (3 goals) and sophomore midfielder Alyse Kennedy (2 goals, 1 assist) led Cal with three points each. Stanford's Daphne Patterson led all scorers with six points (2 goals, 4 assists).

Cal junior goalkeeper Morgan Dyson made seven saves in close to 46 minutes before giving way to freshman teammate Allie Shropshire, who had three saves in 14 minutes.

"Our defense actually played pretty well," Sherry said. "We had some uncharacteristic lapses pretty much all over the field. Dale had a couple of big goals for us, but we need that all the time and we need that from everybody all the time."

Cal scored first, with Zuralow converting a free-position shot at 1:22. After Megan McClain struck with an unassisted goal at 3:41, Kennedy scored her first, also unassisted, at 3:49, and Cal led, 2-1.

Stanford's Julie Christy hit on a free-position shot at 6:20, and then Kennedy scored from a free-position shot at 10:05. The Bears led, 3-2.

Dale scored her first at 16:58 to put Cal ahead, 4-2. The two-goal margin was Cal's biggest lead of the day, but it didn't last long.

Stanford's Karen Nesbitt converted another free-position, or eight-meter, attempt at 19:02 and Patterson scored at 25:45 to knot the game at 4-4. The two rivals were still deadlocked at 4-4 at halftime.

But the Cardinal struck first in the second stanza, with Patterson setting up Claire Hubbard for a goal just 36 seconds into the half. At 34:46, Patterson scored an eight-meter goal, and Stanford led, 6-4.

Cal clawed its way back, as Dale (at 35:39) and Zuralow (38:53) each scored eight-meter goals to tie the match at 6-6.

Stanford scored the game's next three goals - Leslie Foard (39:51), Christy (44:05), Nesbitt (44:50) - to forge ahead, 9-6.

Dale struck with an unassisted goal at 45:53 to pull Cal within two, at 9-7.

Neither team scored for the next 11 minutes and seven seconds. During that span, Shropshire replaced Dyson. Stanford outshot Cal, 3-2, with Shropshire saving all three Cardinal shots.

The Cardinal ended the drought with a pair of goals, by Nesbitt (57:01) and Dana Lindsay (58:16), as time wound down. Stanford led, 11-7.

In the final minute, Kennedy set up a goal by freshman attacker Nellie Hayes to make the score 11-8 at 59:26. Cal did not produce another shot.

GAME SUMMARY

	         1	2	F
Stanford	         4	7	11
California	4	4	8

Stanford Scoring
Goals: Karen Nesbitt 3; Daphne Patterson 2; Julie Christy 2; Dana Lindsay 1; Claire Hubbard 1; Megan McClain 1; Leslie Foard 1. Assists: Daphne Patterson 4; Claire Hubbard 1; Dana Lindsay 1.

California Scoring
Goals: Madeleine Dale 3; Alyse Kennedy 2; Danni Zuralow 2; Nellie Hayes 1. Assists: Alyse Kennedy 1.

Goalkeeping
Stanford: Laura Shane, 13 saves, 8 GA, 60:00. California: Morgan Dyson, 7 saves, 9 GA, 45:53; Allie Shropshire, 3 saves, 2 GA, 14:07.

Records: Stanford 11-8. California 9-8.