March 2, 2002

BERKELEY, Calif. - The California women's lacrosse team (2-1, 2-1 in MPLL) was outscored by a margin of 8-3 in the second half Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium, as the University of Denver Pioneers (1-1, 1-1 in MPLL) came from behind and handily defeated the Bears 10-7.

The Pioneers scratched the scoreboard first as junior midfielder Mariana Spry put one past Bears' goalkeeper Eden Coelho at the 27:35 mark to put Denver on top 1-0. The Bears answered two minutes later, though, when sophomore attacker Emily Edwards netted her first of four goals on the day to notch the score at one apiece. Two more goals by senior attacker Halsey Monger and Edwards put the Bears up 3-1 at the midway point of the first half. Sophomore midfielder Kelly Queisser's second goal of the season and Denver's Patience Baldwin's first of three goals made the score 4-2 Bears at the 13:43 mark. Some strong defense by the Pioneers and some nifty point blank saves by Coelho and the score remained 4-2 going into the second stanza.

"Denver seemed to be taking most of the possessions off the draw in the first half," said head coach Jill Malko. "We talked about it at halftime and started to win more draw controls in the second half."

The Bears wasted no time in extending their lead when Edwards scored her third goal just a minute into the second half. With the score 7-4 and 24 minutes to play, the Bears seemed to have things going their way. But 16 turnovers and 20 fouls didn't help the cause as the Pioneers' stifling traps at the restraining line seemed to take the Bears out of their possession style of play. Denver went on to score six unanswered goals in the game's final 20 minutes to take away any hope for a comeback for the struggling Bears. To add insult to injury, Pioneers' senior goalkeeper Sarah Hazard looked sharp in the second stanza, stopping many point blank shots and finishing with 17 saves on the day.

"Denver put a tremendous amount of pressure on us," said Malko. "We weren't looking to hit the open cutter and we didn't convert on the eight meter shots. We took plenty of shots but we just couldn't get it into the net. We had turnovers and poor decision making at key times, leading to most of their goals and possessions. It was a deflating loss for our team as a whole."

Cal returns to action Friday March 8 at 7:00 p.m. when they travel to Denver to face the Pioneers for the second time this season.

"We'll see them again in less than a week," said Malko. "We need to be mentally ready to play and we need to get our confidence back. We have the talent and the potential to beat this team but we need to take care of the ball better."

BOX SCORE:

	               1      2       F
Denver                 2      8       10
California             4      3       7

GOALS: Cal - Edwards 4, Monger 1,Queisser 1, Preble 1, Denver - Baldwin 3, Spry 3, Gerl 1, Fuchs 1, Cook 1, Holecheck 1. ASSISTS: Cal - O'Mara 1. Denver - Baldwin 1, Fuchs 1.

GOALKEEPING: (UC) Eden Coelho (60 minutes, 15 saves, 10 goals), (DENVER) Hazard (60 minutes, 17 saves, 7 goals).

SHOTS: DEN 25, UC 24, GROUNDBALLS: DEN 12, UC 19, FOULS: DEN 14, UC 20, TURNOVERS: DEN 7, UC 16, CAUSED TURNOVERS: DEN 11, UC 24, DRAW CONTROLS: DEN 5, UC 8.