April 14, 2005
BERKELEY, CA -
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Sun., Apr. 17 at San Jose State The Aquatics Center 1 p.m.
BEARS VISIT SPARTANS: No. 7-ranked Cal (13-8, 4-5 in MPSF) visits No. 10 San Jose State (10-13, 2-6) Sunday for its lone match this week. The Golden Bears are looking to finish the regular season strong in order to gain their highest possible seed entering the MPSF Tournament. After the San Jose State match, Cal will be playing its final two contests at home, including the Big Splash versus Stanford Apr. 23, before hosting the MPSF Tournament Apr. 28-May 1. The Bears are 4-1 in matches played at Spieker Aquatics Complex this season, with their only loss being to top-ranked UCLA. Cal owns a 47-14 (.770) all-time record at Spieker. The Bears defeated the Spartans earlier this season, 13-9, in the fifth-place match of the Stanford Tournament, Feb. 13. Cal also defeated San Jose State twice last season, 8-6 during the Gaucho Tournament and 6-5 at Spieker Aquatics Complex. One of the Bears' top victories in 2005 was topping Loyola Marymount, 8-4, Feb. 18 in Los Angeles. The Lions were the 2004 national runners-up. Cal is currently fourth in the MPSF in team scoring, averaging 8.4 goals per game.
WINDES AND GOLD PACE CAL: Cal's top player is sophomore Elsie Windes. Windes, an honorable mention All-American as a freshman and a member of the gold medal-winning USA Junior National Team, leads the team with 37 goals and is 10th in the MPSF with 1.76 goals per game. She has led the Bears in scoring in seven matches this season and has already tallied 70 goals in less than two years. Junior Allison Gold is now second on the team in scoring with 31 goals after an impressive weekend versus No. 1-ranked UCLA and No. 9 UC Santa Barbara. Gold led the Bears with three goals against the top-ranked Bruins and had two goals in Cal's 10-9 overtime victory versus the Gauchos. She has now recorded 79 career goals after finishing third on the team last year with 26 goals. Cal has had 13 other players score goals this season, including junior Lauren McGee, who has 17 goals, including the match-winning goals versus UC Santa Barbara in overtime. The Bears have been utilizing two goalies, junior Alex Feune de Colombi (18 matches, 121 saves) and freshman Heather Stuart (nine matches, 36 saves). Feune de Colombi recorded a career-high 11 saves at Hawaii Mar. 23.
BEARS VERSUS UCLA AND UC SANTA BARBARA: Cal split a pair of MPSF matches last week at home, falling to No. 1 UCLA, 15-6, with Gold scoring half of the Bears' goals. Junior Katie Card, Windes and freshman Vanessa Lindsey also tallied scores against the Bruins. Gold, Windes and junior Brittani Llorente had two goals apiece in the overtime victory versus UCSB, but it was McGee's goal with 2:33 in the second overtime period that proved to be the game-winner. It was Cal's second overtime victory this season.
NOTING SAN JOSE STATE: No. 10 San Jose State (10-13, 2-6) is coached by Lou Tully (ninth year) and led by senior Laura Scott with 38 goals. Last weekend, the Spartans defeated No. 11 San Diego State, 12-6, but fell to No. 17 ASU, 7-1.
BEARS HOST 2005 MPSF TOURNAMENT: Cal hosts the 2005 MPSF Tournament, Apr. 28-May 1 at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The MPSF champ gets an automatic bid into the eight-team NCAA Tournament May 13-15 at Michigan. The Bears last competed in the national championship in 2000 when it was a 16-team tournament, placing fourth. Cal was national runners-up from 1996-1998.
Amber Drury-Pinto (90-53-1, .628), is in her third season as Cal's women's water polo coach (44-29, .603), leading the Golden Bears to a 17-12 mark last year, including winning five of their last six matches. Drury-Pinto coached Michigan to a 25-13 record, a CWPA Eastern championship and a berth in the 2002 NCAA Final Four, prior to being selected as the Cal women's water polo coach Sept. 4, 2002. In two seasons with the Wolverines, she compiled a 46-24-1 overall record (.655). In the summer of 2002, Drury-Pinto led the USA Junior National Team to a gold medal at the 2002 Junior Pan American Championship. Drury-Pinto has extensive water polo experience as a player and a coach. She was a member of the USA National Team from 1984-94, playing in over 30 international tournaments and competing for the United States at the 1990 and 1994 World Championships. In 1991 and 1994, Drury-Pinto was named United States Women's Water Polo Player of the Year.
Did You Know?
*At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Cal had three former players (Ericka Lorenz, Heather Petri, Courtney Johnson) and a assistant coach (Bernice Orwig, starting goalie) compete for the United States in the first-ever Olympic water polo competition for women, earning a silver medal. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Lorenz and Petri helped the United States to a bronze medal.
*The Golden Bears have compiled a 224-80 record (.737) since their charter season as a varsity sport in 1996, including three straight national runner-up finishes from 1996-98 and a MPSF title in 1999.
