March 11, 2009

Box Score

BERKELEY - Despite a second-half comeback in which California outscored William and Mary 8-7, the Golden Bears lost the nonconference game, 17-11, to the Tribe on Wednesday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Senior attacker Sam Price led Cal in points with four (2 goals, 2 assists), junior midfielder Alex Tickner, the current MPSF Player of the Week, scored three goals and Cal senior goalkeeper Morgan Dyson made eight saves in a complete-game effort. The Bears' record fell to 4-4, while William and Mary improved to 3-3.

The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for Cal. William and Mary, meanwhile, rebounded after losing 18-9 at Stanford on March 8. Cal now has a 1-3 record in the all-time series with the Tribe.

"We had a slow start," Cal head coach Theresa Sherry said. "We had worked on that, but William and Mary came out hard from the beginning, just coming off of their hard loss the other day. It's always hard for us to play on a school day and they're obviously on spring break, completely focused on the game. I don't know if that was a factor early on, but we are a very good team when we're fighting. We just can spot a team that many goals. I was extremely proud that we pulled back within range. We just didn't have the gas. We had the guts, but we didn't have the gas at the end."

Cal junior attacker Catie O'Mahoney tied Tickner by scoring a career-high three points (career-high 2 goals, 1 assist). Freshman attacker Tara Arolla, notching her first multi-goal game as a Bear, and freshman Vail Horn each scored two goals against the Tribe.

William and Mary sophomore attacker Ashley Holofcener led all scorers with five points (2 goals, 3 assists). Junior attacker Mary Zulty and sophomore midfielder Grace Golden collected four points each (3 goals, 1 assist apiece). Two more William and Mary players - sophomore defender Molly Wannen and sophomore attacker Maggie Anderson - scored hat tricks.

William and Mary began the game on fire, outshoot Cal 21-9 in the first half and 35-26 for the game. The Tribe took four shots in the first 4:08 of the game before scored an unassisted goal at 4:28 to give her team a 1-0 lead.

Junior midfielder Katie Rees put the Tribe ahead 2-0 with a goal at 5:11.

Horn momentarily stemmed the tide with an unassisted goal at 6:21.

But William and Mary scored the game's next six goals to put Cal in an 8-1 hole on Martin's goal at 19:06.

The Bears traded goals with William and Mary the rest of the half, with Tickner tallying another unassisted goal at19:59, Anderson scoring an eight-meter goal at 22:04, Cal freshman Tara Arolla scoring at 23:19 and Grace scoring her second goal of the game at 29:54.

Cal trailed, 10-3, at halftime.

William and Mary started out hot again in the second half, as the Bears allowed the Tribe to score twice in the first minute. Wannen converted an eight-meter shot at 30:46 and Clare Dennis scored at 30:58 to give their team a 12-3 lead.

Down nine goals, Cal caught fire, making a 6-0 run of its own over a span of 14 minutes and 21 seconds. Five different Bears scored - Arolla at 32:34, Horn at 33:47, Price at 5:15, O'Mahoney at 42:27, Price again at 44:31 and Tickner at 46:55 - to pull Cal within three goals of the lead, at 12-9. The Bears outshot William and Mary, 10-4, during their run and outshot the Tribe, 17-14, in the second half.

"Finally we were executing on the attack and going hard and going with a purpose and taking care of the ball in transition, but mostly we were sticking those draws," Sherry said. "It always starts with the draws. On the attack, we weren't holding back. We were going hard and taking that extra second to focus on the crease behind the keeper. I think in the first half we shot right at her on a couple of eight-meter shots, so that hurt us down the road. It was the attack picking it up, and on defense, we were a little more proactive. We put a different set in, and that helped. It's just hard to play that way for 30 minutes. It's hard to sustain that energy."

Cal couldn't keep up with the Tribe, which scored five of the last seven goals of the game. Price assisted on O'Mahoney's goal at 51:32 to make the score 14-10, and Tickner scored the last goal of the game at 58:46 for the final 17-11 scoreline.

Cal plays the finale of its current homestand when it plays nonconference foe Vermont for the first time at noon on Saturday, March 14, at Memorial Stadium.

GAME SUMMARY

			1	2	F
William and Mary	        10	7	17
California		3	8	11

William and Mary Scoring
Goals: Zulty, Mary 3; Golden, Grace 3; Anderson, Maggie 3; Wannen, Molly 3; Holofcener, Ashley 2; Martin, Julia 1; Dennis, Clare 1; Rees, Katherine 1. Assists: Holofcener, Ashley 3; Martin, Julia 2; Dennis, Clare 1; Golden, Grace 1; Zulty, Mary 1.

California Scoring
Goals: Alex Tickner 3; Sam Price 2; Catie O'Mahoney 2; Vail Horn 2; Tara Arolla 2. Assists: Sam Price 2; DennaFaye Herald 1; Catie O'Mahoney 1.

Goalkeeping
William and Mary: Emily Geary, 7 saves, 11 GA, 58:46; Lauren Binzer, 2 saves, 0 GA, 1:14. California: Morgan Dyson, 8 saves, 17 GA, 60:00.

Records: William and Mary 3-3. California 4-4.

Att.: 89.