April 26, 2009

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. - California lost to No. 14/15 Stanford, 18-13, in the MPSF Tournament championship game on Sunday afternoon at Cagan Stadium. Junior midfielder Alex Tickner led the Golden Bears with five goals, as Cal ended its season with an 8-11 record. Stanford has a 12-4 record.

Cal senior goalkeeper Morgan Dyson, starting in her last game as a Bear, made nine saves. Junior midfielder Alyse Kennedy (3 goals) and junior defender DennaFaye Herald (1 goal, 2 assists) each scored three points for the Bears. Stanford's Leslie Foard scored a game-high six points (5 goals, 1 assist).

Three Cal juniors - Kennedy, Herald and Alex Tickner - earned spots on the MPSF all-tournament team. Stanford's Karen Nesbitt, who tallied three goals and two assists against Cal, was named the tournament MVP.

Tickner's goal total was a career-high mark for the midfielder.

"She really came alive," Cal head coach Theresa Sherry said. "We put a challenge to her earlier this season and to a lot of the juniors - they had a choice whether to crumble or whether to really step up. She put a lot of effort into extra work and watching film, and I think she adopted an attitude of no excuses. Whatever was going on, she found a way to get it done. This year, especially on the offensive end, she was the answer for us quite a few times, and that's where we needed her. I'm really proud of the way she stepped up and took on that leadership role on the field."

Stanford outshot the Bears, 39-24, though Cal had a 20-13 advantage on draw controls. Kennedy pulled down a game-high six draws for the game.

Cal played Stanford to a close first half. The Bears took a 1-0 lead at 1:24 when Elizabeth T Jahp, assisted by Herald, scored the first of her two goals.

Stanford responded with an eight-meter goal from MPSF regular-season MVP Lauren Schmidt at 2:39.

The rivals traded the next six goals - with sophomore Molly Everett scoring an eight-meter goal (at 3:21), Herald, assisted by senior attacker Sam Price, scoring in traffic at 5:56, and junior attacker Catie O'Mahoney, set up by Tickner, striking at 9:97 for Cal. The teams were tied at 4-4 after Julie Christy's goal at 10:30.

Cal suffered a big blow when sophomore defender Taryn Olson picked up a red card at 11:34. The Bears played down a player only for the next three minutes, but Olson was done for the game. Stanford had a player advantage when it got a Claire Hubbard goal at 12:25 to take a 5-4 lead.

The Bears got a goal from Tickner at 14:52, after a nice pass from Kennedy, and got an eight-meter goal from Kennedy at 15:33 to take back the lead at 6-5.

Sarah Flynn scored for Stanford at 17:25 to again tie the game, at 6-6. Kennedy untied the game after making a nice long run down the left flank and putting away her second goal at 21:18. Cal led, 7-6.

But the Cardinal scored the next three goals, including goals by Karen and Jaime Nesbitt, to claim a 9-7 lead. Overall, Stanford scored five of the last six goals of the first half, with Cal's lone goal in that spanning coming from Tickner at 26:57 on a Herald assist.

Stanford led 11-8 at halftime. The combined 19 goals made this the highest scoring half Cal has played in this season.

Cal traded goals with Stanford early in the second half, as goals by Kennedy (34:23) and Tickner (8-meter goal at 38:39) left the Bears down three at 13-10.

But Karen Nesbitt put Stanford ahead for good with an unassisted strike at 42:18 to make the score 14-10.

That sparked a 5-1 Cardinal run, with Tickner scoring Cal's lone goal in that span at 46:31, leaving Stanford ahead, 18-11.

Tickner scored her fifth and final goal of the season at 52:52, and soon after Dyson made a good save on a Foard shot, at 53:48. Jahp, who had scored the first goal of the game, notched the last one at 56:35 to make the final score 18-13.

Stanford's Christy earned her second yellow card at 59:31, but Cal couldn't take advantage.

"It was tough to get that goal against us right before the end of the first half, just giving Stanford a bigger lead going into the second half," Sherry said. "But we talked at half - we've been in pressure situations before. Stanford did a good job of raising their level, but we played as individuals in the second half instead of playing together as a team, which would have been more effective. So that was disappointing. I think that we didn't make them beat us. Stanford is a good team, but we were right with them. The first half we kept trading goals. We scored that first goal, but kept giving stuff up. That's something to tighten up for the future.

"It's a good experience for the future. It's a good experience for our underclassmen to be in pressure situations. It should be a confidence boost to have at the end of our season. We battled through a lot of adversity. Hopefully the seniors can take that into the real world, and the underclassmen can take that into the rest of their careers here at Cal."

GAME SUMMARY

		1	2	F
California	8	5	13
Stanford	         11	7	18

California Scoring
Goals:

Stanford Scoring
Goals: Foard, Leslie 5; Nesbitt, Karen 3; Schmidt, Lauren 3; Christy, Julie 2; Nesbitt, Jamie 2; Hubbard, Claire 1; Flynn, Sarah 1; Siegfried, Bess 1. Assists: Hubbard, Claire 3; Nesbitt, Karen 2; Schmidt, Lauren 2; Aruffo, Ashley 1; Flynn, Sarah 1; Foard, Leslie 1.

Goalkeeping
California: Morgan Dyson, 9 saves, 13 GA, 45:25; Allie Shropshire, 0 saves, 5 GA, 14:35. Stanford: Annie Read, 5 saves, 13 GA, 60:00.

Records: California 8-10. Stanford: 12-4.

Att.: 298.