March 20, 2008

Box Score

BERKELEY - California trailed George Washington by five goals at the 41:43 mark but rebounded to defeat the Colonials, 13-11, on Thursday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The Golden Bears evened their record at 4-4, while GW fell to 2-6. Senior attacker Danni Zuralow scored four goals in Cal's come-from-behind victory.

"In the first half we were very passive on defense, because we didn't want to make mistakes," Cal head coach Theresa Sherry said. "On the attack, we weren't moving enough because we didn't want to make a mistake. We needed to get back to our risk-taking, especially since we were down."

Cal actually took a 1-0 lead on junior attacker Madeleine Dale's first goal of the game, set up by junior defender Sam Price, at the 1:51 mark of the first half.

But the Colonials scored the game's next six goals, starting with Kristin Karsch's successful eight-meter attempt at 5:14 and ending with Hayley McDonough's unassisted goal at 17:50. During that span, Lindsay Melvin scored two goals and Mia Breheny and Katherine Sampson each scored once for GW, which took a 6-1 lead.

Zuralow scored her first goal at 19:02 to end the Colonials' run, but Sampson converted an eight-meter attempt at 20:00 to give GW a 7-2 lead.

Cal's DennaFaye Herald, at 21:28, and senior attacker Brittany Aungier, at 24:23, each scored an eight-meter goal around a strike by GW's Laura Wunk's at 22:34, and the Colonials took an 8-4 lead into halftime. The Colonials claimed a 19-17 edge in shots in the first half.

In the second half, "They were challenging harder," Sherry said of her Bears. "That's something we talked about [at halftime]. Right when you catch it, go hard. Whether you're going to goal or not, you need to make the defense think you are. Also, getting the draws. We just battled until we finally got in a rhythm and things started going our way."

George Washington had a 7-6 edge on draw controls in the first half, but Cal took a 10-3 advantage on draws in the second stanza.

The Colonials, who displayed plenty of quickness in the first half, began to tire in the second. GW substituted just one bench player - Morgan Appel - into the game, and she played just one minutes and 27 seconds in the second half.

Cal played to its depth advantage by continually pushing on the attack.

"Sometimes that hurt us in the first half because we kept turning it over on the attack," Sherry said. "That was something we kept trying to continue to do, to take risks on the fastbreak and take advantage of that, because personnel-wise we had a little more to offer."

The Bears outshot the Colonials, 23-13, in the second half and outshot GW, 40-32, for the game.

Wunk assisted on Melvin and Katelyn Honeyford goals, sandwiched around a Ghillie Little strike at 37:23, to give GW a 10-5 lead at 41:43.

Cal then went on its own six-goal scoring streak to finally take an 11-10 lead on Zuralow's eight-meter goal at 55:22. Six different Bears scored during that run, including Dale, sophomore midfielder Alyse Kennedy, Aungier, sophomore midfielder Alex Tickner, and senior midfielder Cristen Andrews.

GW wasn't finished, as Honeyford scored her second goal of the game at 55:47 to tie the game at 11-11.

But Zuralow scored twice, at 58:06 and at 59:37, to clinch the 13-11 win for the Bears.

Cal begins a stretch of seven straight road games when the Bears play William & Mary on March 28 in Williamsburg, Va., and UMBC on March 30 in Baltimore, Md.

GAME SUMMARY

	         1	2	F
George Washington	8	3	11
California	4	9	13

George Washington Scoring
Goals: Melvin, Lindsay 3; Karcsh, Kristin 1; Sampson, Katherine 2; Wunk, Laura 1; Honeyford, Katelyn 2; McDonough, Hayley 1; Breheny, Mia 1. Assists: Wunk, Laura 2; Karcsh, Kristin 1; Melvin, Lindsay 1.

California Scoring
Goals: Danni Zuralow 4; Madeleine Dale 2; Brittany Aungier 2; DennaFaye Herald 1; Alex Tickner 1; Alyse Kennedy 1; Cristen Andrews 1; Ghillie Little 1. Assists: Sam Price 2; Madeleine Dale 1; DennaFaye Herald 1.

Goalkeeping
George Washington: Caitlin Garman, 15 saves, 13 GA, 60:00. California: Morgan Dyson, 3 saves, 6 GA, 19:02; Allie Shropshire, 5 saves, 5 GA, 40:58.

Records: George Washington 2-6. California 4-4.