April 10, 2006
BERKELEY, CALIF. -
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Fri., Apr. 14 San Jose State, Spieker Aquatics Complex 4 p.m.
BEARS HOST SAN JOSE STATE: The No. 6-ranked California women's water polo team (13-8, 7-3 MPSF), winners of eight of its last nine matches, host No. 8 San Jose State (12-11, 5-5) in the Golden Bears' final home contest of the 2006 season. Cal, paced by two-time All-American Elsie Windes' 35 goals and featuring new head coach Richard Corso, won two league matches last week at Spieker Aquatics Complex - a 6-5 win over No. 11 UC Irvine and a 11-6 victory over No. 12 Long Beach State - to improve to 7-1 at home. The Bears are now fourth in the league at 7-3 and enter this week's contest with their only home loss at Spieker being a 7-5 defeat in the hands of No. 1-ranked USC on Feb. 17. The Bears have shown their potential, upsetting No. 5 Hawaii, 8-6, in its MPSF opener Feb. 10. Cal was also edged, 6-4, by No. 2 Stanford in the third-place match of the Stanford Invitational, Feb. 12, and on Mar. 3 fell to defending national champs UCLA, 6-4, in Los Angeles. The Bears lost to the Bruins, 6-4, in the first round of the Stanford Invitational on Feb. 11 as well. In Cal's two major tournaments this season, they placed fourth at the Stanford Invitational and sixth at the Gaucho Invitational. The Bears are looking to post their best conference mark since finishing 8-3 in the MPSF in 2002.
2006 CAL NOTES: The Bears are led by two returning All-Americans - junior Elsie Windes (third-team) and senior Allison Gold (honorable mention) - and feature five other experience seniors - Breana Allison (11 goals), Katie Card (13 goals), Brittani Llorente (13 goals), Lauren McGee (14 goals) and Holly Farlin (eight goals). Windes paced the Bears with three goals in their upset of Hawaii, and during the Stanford and Gaucho Invitationals added seven goals, and five goals, respectively. On the year, the junior standout leads Cal with 35 goals, is averaging 1.67 goals per game and now has 120 goals in her career. Cal's second-leading scorer is Gold with 18 goals. She notched two goals against both UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, including the game-winner in the Bears' 6-5 road victory over the Gauchos Mar. 4. Gold now has 110 career goals. McGee was the team's top scorer two weeks ago, pacing Cal with three goals at ASU and two goals at San Diego State. She is now third on the team with 14 goals and has notched 55 career goals. The Bears have shown balanced scoring this season as all 14 field players have tallied at least one goal, and nine different players have scored in double figures. Sophomore goalie Heather Stuart had another impressive week, recording 23 saves in the last two matches, including 13 saves versus Long Beach State. On Mar. 28, Stuart recorded a season-high 14 saves at Arizona State. In her first year as the Bears' starting goalie, she has 131 saves in 20 matches, including 11 saves against UCLA in the Stanford Invitational, and 10 saves in the Apr. 2 MPSF contest at Stanford.
NOTING SAN JOSE STATE: No. 8 San Jose State (12-11, 5-5) is coached by Lou Tully (10th year) and is led by senior Rachel Rhodes with 32 goals. The Bears defeated the Spartans in the last meeting, 7-6, in the third round of the Gaucho Invitational on Feb. 26. Cal upended San Jose State three times last year, including, 7-5, in the first round of the 2005 MPSF Tournament, Apr. 28 at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The first-year assistant coach for the Spartans is a former standout goalie for the Bears, Fana Fuqua, who played at Cal from 1998-01 and was a 2000 first-team All-American and 2000 MPSF Goalie of the Year.
Head Coach Richard Corso (First year, 13-8, .619), a coaching legend who has served as head coach of both the United States Men's Olympic Team and the Canadian National Team, was named the head coach of Cal women's water polo program on August 25, 2005. Corso served as the United States men's Olympic team head coach from 1992 to 1996. He led the United States to a seventh-place finish at the 1996 games in Atlanta and a gold medal at the 1995 Pan American Games. The 1996 Olympic team included current Cal men's coach Kirk Everist and former Golden Bear standouts Gavin Arroyo, Troy Barnhart, Chris Humbert and Chris Oeding. Prior to assuming his role with Team USA, Corso served as head coach of the Canadian National Team, which finished fourth at the 1991 Pan American Games. He also gained international experience as the head coach of the USA National Junior Team (1984 to 1988) and as goalkeeper coach for the 1984 and 2004 Olympic teams. Most recently, Corso had served as head coach of the Harvard-Westlake Water Polo Foundation in Los Angeles.
Did You Know?
*At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Cal had three former players (Ericka Lorenz, Heather Petri, Courtney Johnson) 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 Team USA to a bronze medal.
*The Golden Bears have compiled a 242-90 record (.729) 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. Cal has a 58-17 (.773) all-time home record at Spieker Aquatics Complex.
