ORONO, Maine – The California field hockey team secured the fourth seed in next week's America East Tournament with an emphatic 4-1 win over host Maine on Sunday morning at the UMaine Field Hockey Facility. The Golden Bears extended their winning streak to a season-best five games, their longest streak since 2017.
 
Cal (9-7, 5-3 America East) finished the day with 18 shots, 12 coming on goal. The frontline trio of Kitty Baccanello, Bente Baekers and Daniella Rhodes was too much for Maine (7-11, 3-5) to contend with. It was Baccanello's brace that gave Cal all the cushion it would need as the defense held the Black Bears to one goal on 16 shots. Tina Jolly (9-7) earned her ninth win of the year, tallying eight saves.
 
"Heading into the final regular season conference game I was just really asking for the team to stay present and not think too far ahead and keep our momentum and keep learning from game to game and I'm happy we did that," the Donna Fong Director of Field Hockey Shellie Onstead said. "Once again Tina had a really good game, they had a flurry of corners at one point there that we were worried about and she stood up really well."
 
The first period featured little in the way of action. The Bears tallied three shots, two of which were on goal – both coming from Baccanello; she finished the day with five shots – all on goal. The Black Bears countered with just one shot.
 
The second period began with Maine attempting to take control. The Black Bears got three early looks on goal with Jolly saving all three attempts. Cato Geusgens recorded a defensive save, her third of the season, to keep Maine off the scoreboard.
 
With two minutes left in the first half, Cal broke the scoreless tie. Kiki de Bruijne took a pass down the right side of the field and found Baekers in the attacking circle, Baekers moved to her right and fired a shot past the keeper for her 16th goal of the season. It was the first of two assists on the day for de Bruijne, who finished the regular season with a career-best five assists on the year.
 
The 1-0 advantage stood till midway through the third period when Rhodes scored her 15th goal of the season to give the Bears a 2-0 advantage. The goal came off a penalty corner, with Geusgens and de Bruijne credited with the assist.
 
In the fourth, Maine outshot Cal 7-4. The Black Bears also had six penalty corners, but Jolly stood tall. The lone blemish was a goal by Poppy Lambert midway through the period to make it 2-1 in favor of the Golden Bears. Cal got back on the attack late in the period with Baccanello putting the game away thanks to a pair of goals four minutes apart.
 
The first came at the 52nd-minute mark off the assist from Baekers and Rhodes. The second was a beautiful unassisted goal that came in the 56 minute to make it 4-1 Golden Bears.
 
The fourth-seeded Golden Bears will play No. 5 seed Vermont in the first round of the America East Tournament. With the location and time still to be determined.
 
"I think it's about keeping it rolling," Onstead said about the winning streak. "I've tried to tell everybody to be patient with us as we went through the year. It's a really good sign of confidence in the group and I think we are just growing confidence by the quarter, so I'm just really excited about next week. When we ended our season last year I immediately started thinking about how we were going to make the tournament in 2023, so mission accomplished. Now I need to shift our focus to next week and keep this run going, we've got to start planning for three games in four days. All the way back to the beginning of the season I scheduled three games in four days to get us ready for it." 
 
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