May 3, 2008
BERKELEY -
California first-year head coach Theresa Sherry was named the 2008 MPSF Coach of the Year and Golden Bears Brittany Aungier, Alyse Kennedy and Danni Zuralow were named to the All-MPSF team, as announced at the conference banquet on Friday night.
It was a busy Friday, as just hours before the banquet, tournament host Cal lost to Oregon, 9-8, in the MPSF Championship third-place game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. Sherry led her squad to a 9-9 overall record, an improvement on Cal's last two records of 7-10 in 2007 and 8-11 in 2006. Her team also produced six MPSF Player of the Week awards along with a 4-1 conference record.
Only a few years away from her own collegiate playing days, the former Cal assistant coach (in 2007) encouraged and inspired creativity among her Bears both on the offensive and defensive ends of the field. The former Princeton All-American and U.S. under-19 star has also encouraged her players to become obsessed with the sport of lacrosse and to aspire to reach and win the "Natty C," or national championship, as she did twice at Princeton. Sherry is building upon a good foundation as Cal seeks to become the first true western team to reach that goal.
Zuralow, a senior attacker, ended her career as Cal's leading scorer in 2008 with 58 points (40 goals, 18 assists); she scored twice in Cal's semifinal loss to Stanford. The product of Fairfax, Va., earned three MPSF Player of the Week honors this season and paced the Bears with three game-winning goals. She earned her third MPSF Player of the Week honors for her play in the Bears' 13-11 win over George Washington on March 20. She scored a game-high four goals, including the game winner and the last two goals of the game. Zuralow also earned MPSF Player of the Week honors for her play against Northwestern (career-high 6 points) on Feb. 17 and Stanford (career-high 5 goals) on Feb. 23.
Aungier, another senior attacker who claimed one MPSF Player of the Week honor in 2008, wound up as Cal's second-leading scorer with 47 points (26, 21) this year. The Syracuse, N.Y., product collected seven of those points (2 goals, 5 assists) in a 16-13 win at Connecticut on April 18. Her five assists tied her for the school record with former Bears star Colleen O'Mara and with Kennedy. Aungier's career-high seven-point total tied her for fourth place on Cal's all-time single-game scoring list.
Kennedy, a sophomore midfielder who was also an MPSF Player of the Week honoree this year, ended up as Cal's third-leading scorer with 35 points (27, 8) and is the Bears' draw controls leader (33). The Scituate, Mass., product scored two goals, added one assist and snared four draw controls against the Cardinal today. Kennedy scored a career-high eight points in a 21-10 rout at UC Davis on April 5. Her five assists in that game tied the school record.
