Feb. 26, 2002

BERKELEY, Calif. - Sophomore Carley Preble scored the game winning goal at the 2:56 mark of the second half to lead the Golden Bears (2-0, 2-0 in MPLL) to a 9-8 decision over the Saint Mary's Gaels (0-2, 0-2 in MPLL) Tuesday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

Cal jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the game's first 11minutes, sparked by senior captain Halsey Monger's goal and two assists in that span. After missing the first 10 minutes of play, the Gaels' Megan Bryan entered the game and made an immediate impact. Bryan scored her first of four first half goals, six on the day, at the 14:56 mark to put the Gaels on the board. Up 6-1 with 9:20 left in the first half, Cal was looking to cruise into halftime with the large lead. But Saint Mary's had different plans. The Gaels would go on a 4-1 run in the final 7:11 to go into the break down by only two goals, 7-5. In a half that was marked by multiple penalty calls, it was hard for either team to gain an offensive rhythm.

During halftime, head coach Jill Malko must have stressed the importance of defense because the Bears came out fighting and scrapping ... playing with more intensity while matching the physical play of the Gaels. In fact, the second half saw even more penalties and a few green and yellow cards thrown in for good measure. Senior midfielder Sarah Wheatley drew the assignment of shadowing Bryan in the second half, limiting her to two free position goals, one of them at the 20:02 mark cutting the Cal lead to just one, 7-6. Freshman Molly Brady recorded her first collegiate goal with 15:31 left on the clock, raising the Bears' lead to 8-6. With the score 8-7 and time winding down, Preble netted her first goal of the season to put the Bears up by two. It would be an important goal as Saint Mary's junior Thera Luce sent one past Bear goalie Eden Coelho with :55 left in the match to bring the Gaels within one. Another nice save by Coelho, one of six second half saves, and a clever game of keep away would thwart any additional offensive attack by the Gaels.

"Saint Mary's played well today," said Malko. "They are a very scrappy team and they're in every game that they play because they are so aggressive. They forced us to step up and learn to play within ourselves. It was a good game to see where we are and where we need to go as a team. We were trying to focus on our possession style of play but several times we forced it when we didn't need to. When we took our time, we scored. It didn't cost us the game but it made it a lot closer than it needed to be."

In addition to Brady's first collegiate point, freshman Andrea Gough also scored her first collegiate goal at the 9:20 mark of the second stanza. Goalkeeper Coelho notched 10 saves on the day with six of them coming in the second half. In an overly physical match, both teams combined for a total of 63 fouls with the Gaels committing 43 of them.

Cal returns to action Saturday at 1:00 p.m. when they host the University of Denver at Memorial Stadium in an MPLL conference matchup.

"Denver is an unknown ... they have almost an entirely new roster this year," said Malko. "We just have to focus on ourselves but we need to be a lot tougher defensively and just play within ourselves."

BOX SCORE:

	            1      2       F
Saint Mary's         5      3       8
California           7      2       9

GOALS: Cal - Edwards 2, O'Mara 2, Preble 1, Queisser 1, Monger 1, Gough 1, Brady 1, Saint Mary's - Bryan 6, Spencer 1, Luce 1. ASSISTS: Cal - Monger 2, Wu 1,: Saint Mary's - Spencer 2, Davidge 1, French 1.

GOALKEEPING: (UC) Eden Coelho (60 minutes, 10 saves, 8 goals), (SMC) Megan Ceccotti (21:26 minutes, 8 saves, 6 goals), Katie Augustine (38:34, 3 saves, 3 goals).

SHOTS: SMC 21, UC 23, GROUNDBALLS: SMC 28, UC 16, FOULS: SMC 42, UC 21, TURNOVERS: SMC 16, UC 17, CAUSED TURNOVERS: SMC 11, UC 19, DRAW CONTROLS: SMC 6, UC 12