California Golden Bears Athletics
California
Harvard
Bears (7-1, 2-0) Win Seventh Straight, Edge Harvard with Last-Second Goal
3/24/2003 12:00 PM | Lacrosse
March 23, 2003
Berkeley, Calif. - The California women's lacrosse team (7-1, 2 -0, MPLL) won its seventh in a row in dramatic fashion this afternoon in Berkeley, rallying back from three goals down at the half to edge the Harvard Crimson, 7-6, at Memorial Stadium. The Bears have won seven consecutive home matches dating back to 2002, and have tied the program's longest winning streak of seven straight in 2001 (3/6 - 3/28).
What a difference a year makes. Last season, Cal went into Cambridge and played possibly its worst game of the season, taking an 11-2 defeat at the hands of the Crimson. Through the majority of this afternoon's game, it looked to be a repeat performance. But no such luck for the visiting Harvard squad.
The first half started slowly, with the teams feeling each other out in back-and-forth play. It wasn't until over seven minutes had ticked off the clock that Harvard scratched the scoreboard first as sophomore attacker Casey Owens found the back of the net for the early 1-0 Crimson lead. Harvard attacker Emma Millon took a nice feed from Bessie Clark at the 17:44 mark to extend the Crimson lead to 2-0 with 12:16 to play. Things started to slide downhill for the Bears as the stifling defense from the bigger and stronger Harvard squad began to have its effect. It didn't help the Bears' cause that the Crimson starting goalkeeper, Laura Mancini, stopped the first eight of the Bears' 12 first half shots. Accordingly, Harvard jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Jen Brooks' goal at the 18:04 mark and Millon's second goal at the 23:04 mark. The Golden Bears called a timeout with 6:56 remaining in a desperate attempt to regroup. Something clicked in the team huddle as junior attacker Emily Edwards put Cal on the board with her free position goal with less than three minutes to play. The Bears went into halftime down three goals, 4-1.
Upon the opening whistle of the second stanza, Harvard's Katie Shaughnessy took the draw control, broke through the Cal defense and slid one past netminder, Eden Coelho, to give the Crimson the commanding 5-1 lead. But the Bears seemed to find something that worked ... give the ball to your playmaker, Julianne Wu. First, the junior from Denver converted on a free position shot at the 1:23 mark to give the Bears the second goal of the day. Next, Wu brought Cal within two, 5-3, with her second consecutive goal at the 10:33 mark.
In the ensuing eight minutes, the Bears defense - led by Carlie Hoof and Coelho - stepped up and allowed little Harvard momentum. With the defense shining, it was up to Cal's offense to respond. Junior attacker Colleen O'Mara was up to the task, finding the back of the net with 11:49 remaining to bring the Bears within one goal, 5-4. But, in what looked to be the dagger in the heart, Harvard responded with another score by Owens with a little over six minutes to play in the game.
Down 6-4 with time running out, Cal turned to leading goal scorer Emily Edwards. With 4:13 left on the game clock, Edwards pitched in her second goal of the year to cut the Harvard lead to one, 6-5. Then, the All-MPLL attacker took a nice pass from O'Mara to tie the game at 6-6 with only 1:34 left to play. It was beginning to look like overtime, but the Bears weren't through.
After securing possession with 1:00 remaining, Cal looked content to run out the clock for the last shot, or perhaps even overtime. O'Mara, the field general, didn't get the message as she slipped a pretty pass past her defender into the stick of her teammate, Julianne Wu for the score with 14 ticks left on the clock. Freshman Leanne Zilioli won the final draw as the Golden Bears completed the come-from-behind victory for their seventh of the year.
"We were mentally tougher than Harvard was out there today ... that's why we won," claimed head coach Jill Malko. "We wanted it more and we were able to use last year's loss to them as a motivator."
Cal continues its five-game homestand Wednesday, March 26 as it challenges Brown at 4:00 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
BOX SCORE:
1 2 F Harvard 4 2 6 California 1 6 7GOALS: CAL - Emily Edwards 3, Julianne Wu 3, Colleen O'Mara; HARVARD - Casey Owens 2, Emma Millon 2, Katie Shaughnessy, Jen Brooks.
ASSISTS: CAL - Colleen O'Mara 2; HARVARD - Bessie Clark, Jen Brooks.
GOALKEEPING: CAL - Eden Coelho (60 minutes, 8 saves, 6 goals allowed); HARVARD - Laura Mancini (30 minutes, 9 saves, 2 goals allowed), Kristin Demorest (30 minutes, 5 saves, 5 goals allowed).
SHOTS: HARVARD 14, CAL 26; FREE POSITION SHOTS: HARVARD 4, CAL 11; GROUNDBALLS: HARVARD 24, CAL 27; FOULS: HARVARD 19, CAL 12; TURNOVERS: HARVARD 22, CAL 8; CAUSED TURNOVERS: HARVARD 15, CAL 9; DRAW CONTROLS: HARVARD 10, CAL 7.
