Oct. 29, 2010

Final Stats

BERKELEY - Stanford scored two second-half goals in the span of a minute and a half to beat the California field hockey team, 4-2, Friday night at Maxwell Family Field. Cal (8-8, 5-1) and Stanford (11-5, 5-1) are Co-NorPac regular season champions, with the Cardinal gaining the No. 1 seed in next week's NorPac Tournament and the Bears are the No. 2 seed. The victory by Stanford also snapped an 11-game winning streak by Cal against Stanford at Maxwell.

Seniors Megan Psyllos and Lisa Lohre, as well as junior Maddie Hand (senior academically) played their final game in front of the home crowd on Friday.

"Megan had an outstanding game," head coach Shellie Onstead said. "The seniors were great. You'd like to send them out with a win, but we'll turn around and focus on next week and try to make it up then. I think we're going to get a lot out of this. The couple of things that we started having trouble with, like getting the ball out, will be easy to fix once we see the film."

Cal got things off on the right foot when freshman Shannon Elmitt tucked a shot around the side of the cage to give the Bears a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute. The early lead stood for seven minutes until Stanford's Hope Burke pushed a shot in amongst a crowd in front of the cage to even the match at one.

The Cardinal took the lead just before the half. A long pass by Stanford that was missed by the intended receiver was tipped off of the stick of Stanford's Emily Henriksson. The redirection crossed up Hand and the ball was able to just get past Cal's outstretched keeper and into the cage. Stanford went into the half up, 2-1.

In the 44th minute, the Bears tied the match at two when sophomore Megan Shimojima made a nice tip on a shot by Psyllos. Shimojima had a great scoring chance on a breakaway later in the half, but her shot just went wide and past the stick of her teammate coming down on the post.

Stanford's leading scorer coming into tonight's match, Becky Dru, gave the Cardinal the lead again when she converted on a penalty corner in the 64th minute. Onstead noted after the game that she was happy with her team's defensive effort on Stanford's penalty corners throughout the night, despite allowing the goal.

Approximately 90 seconds later, Xanthe Travlos gave Stanford a two-goal lead when she blasted a shot from the top of the circle. Cal thought there was a whistle for a foul on the play, but there was no call by the referees. The distraction allowed Travlos to have a clear shot at the cage, and she was good on her try.

Stanford outshot Cal, 16-12, and earned 12 penalty corners to the Bears' five. Hand made seven saves, while the Stanford keeper, Alessandra Moss, made eight.

Lohre recorded her team-best third defensive save of the season late in the second half.

With the regular season now finished, the Bears trek to Davidson, N.C., for the 2010 NorPac Tournament from Thursday, Nov. 4 to Saturday Nov. 6. Seedings and pairings will be announced at a later date.