Aug. 23, 2008

STANFORD - California routed Stanford, 5-1, in a scrimmage with Golden Bears head coach and U.S. Olympic assistant coach Shellie Onstead looking on Saturday at the Varsity Field Hockey Turf. Five different players scored for the Bears, who play a scrimmage on Tuesday before opening the 2008 season on Aug. 30 at Pacific.

Redshirt freshman Erin Magill scored the first Cal goal off a penalty corner, junior midfielder Caitlin Byrne scored the second, senior defender Rachel Moffitt scored off a penalty stroke, senior midfielder Andrea Lo scored on a backhand and senior forward Katie Knoche pounced on a corner that went wide to knock in the Bears' final goal of the game.

Cal redshirt freshman Maddie Hand and freshman teammate Haleh Nourani shared time in goal.

"It's nice to show some attack this early," Onstead said. "Sometimes that comes later, as far as finishing skills and goalscoring. We have to still to work on things, like tackling. I'm fairly satisfied for a starting point. It's a good start."

Onstead returned earlier on Saturday from her stint in Beijing, where she was on the staff for the U.S. women's Olympic field hockey team.

"It was beyond my expectations," Onstead said. "There was a working component in the actual tournament, with the games we played. That experience as a coach was really high end. I got a lot out of it. With the whole Olympic experience, I had heard that term a lot, but I didn't know what it meant till I was in it. It was an incredible feeling to be in the village and be part of the whole thing, interacting with the athletes there. Everyone felt how special the time was. I had felt it might get old, but it never did. Beijing made you feel special for three weeks. Everything was very well done. It was incredible."

Peter Milkovich, Onstead's volunteer assistant coach at Cal, was also in Beijing as the Canadian men's assistant coach.

"I saw Canada in the village but did not see them compete. I saw Peter and other people I knew in that group. We wanted to get a photo of some of us with Cal gear on, but that didn't work out."

Cal hosts the University of Victoria in a scrimmage at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Maxwell Family Field in Berkeley before officially opening the season with a 1 p.m. non-conference game on Saturday, Aug. 30, against the Tigers in Stockton, Calif.