Oct. 18, 2009

Final Stats

BERKELEY - Three Golden Bears scored their first goal of the season, as the California field hockey team defeated Pacific, 4-1, Sunday afternoon at Maxwell Family Field. On the season, Cal is now 5-9, 3-1 in the NorPac Conference. Pacific falls to 3-7, 2-2. Today's game marked the final appearance at Maxwell for forward Natalie Nurnberg and defender Sophie Sproats.

The Tigers struck first with a goal in the sixth minute. Lisa Muhl converted on a penalty corner. Katy Mcdonough and Brianna Cummins recorded the assists. Pacific had all the momentum in the first 10 minutes of the game and had the Bears reeling.

"I started thinking, it was the trip and this and that," head coach Shellie Onstead said. "They got their feet under them a little bit. We talked about it in the pregame that Pacific will come at you like that, and we have to be able to handle it. We got on our heels a bit. We got it under control, but those first 10 minutes were not fun."

The momentum changed when junior Lisa Lohre converted on a penalty stroke in the 17th minute to tie the match at one heading into halftime. It was Lohre's first score of 2009.

Redshirt freshman Claire Dougherty scored her first goal of the season in the 44th minute, which also proved to be the eventual gamewinner. She deflected a shot from freshman Laura Spellman into the cage. Dougherty led all players with two shots on goal and tied with Nurnberg with four shots all together. In addition to her assist on Cal's second goal, Spellman also notched her first goal of the season in the 67th minute.

Sandwiched in between Dougherty and Spellman's goals was a score from sophomore Jessica Kreck, who earned her fourth goal of the season in the 62nd minute.

"I've been wanting to see more goals from the forwards," Onstead said. "We've been getting them from the midfielders and on corners. Lisa got a stroke, which is great. That's a really difficult, high-stress situation. It was her first chance to take one in a game, so that was big. Laura Spellman played almost the entire game. She's one of my freshmen and she's starting to look pretty comfortable in there. That is handy because then maybe I can get Natalie into the front line more."

The Bears outshot Pacific, 17-6, while the Tigers earned seven corners to Cal's five.

Cal has certainly played its best games at home this season. All five of Cal's victories have been in Berkeley, and 19 of the Bears' 24 goals have been scored on their home field.

Cal hits the road for the final week of the regular season. The Bears play Stanford on Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. and UC Davis on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. in the regular-season finale.