Cal Lacrosse loses at No.19 Stanford

Oh boy, this one was all Stanford.

Simply put, the Golden Bears still have a way to go to close the gap between themselves and a top 25 ranked team like Stanford (or Colorado last week). Bears were kind of in this one for the first 7 minutes but then Stanford went on to score 5 consecutive goals two separate times before the half to take a commanding 13-3 lead. 2nd half was not that much better for the Bears.

Bears is now 3-4 with a 0-3 record in Pac-12 play. They will host No.15 USC on Friday before a visit from the brand new Arizona State program to Berkeley on Sunday.

GO BEARS!

On this 2nd weekend of the inaugural Pac-12 season in women’s lacrosse, California Golden Bears are still looking for their 1st win in the newly formed conference. Bears are coming off two losses at Pac-12 opponents: 7-12 loss at Oregon and 5-15 loss at then No.19 Colorado. Nothing would be sweeter for the Golden Bears than to get their historic first Pac-12 victory against rival Stanford.

Stanford are coming off the reverse of the same trip as the Bears. They split their two contest by losing 16-18 to Colorado before beating Oregon 19-8. The 19th ranked Stanford Cardinal would be considered a big favorites against the Bears in this contest.

The home contest of this rivalry “Big Stick?” (or is that the term for Field Hockey only?) will take place on April 20th from Memorial Stadium.

For the Cal Bears, who are having a quite successful season thus far to be at 0.500, they are led by senior defender Meredith Haggerty (17 ground ball behind only keeper Jenny Wilkens) on defense and redshirt sophomore Kirsten Swanson on offense with 23 points (18 goals and 5 assists) on offense. Other double digit goal scorers for the Bears include Eliza Christman (15 goals, 2 assists), Caroline Corzel (10 goals, 4 assists), and Marisa Kuberra (10 goals). Cal defense has Haggerty and Elizabeth Koehler as the leaders in caused turnovers; Bears are 3rd in the Pac-12 in this stat category (honestly, I don’t really understand this that well) with 7.75 ctpg. In goal, junior Jenny Wilkens is used to stopping a lot of shots in the past. Things may have changed from past seasons as the Bears are 2nd in the Pac in goals against average (10.01) and 3rd in save percentage (0.463).

For Stanford, graduate student Kelsey Murray has been setting a lot of records for them this year. Murray is now the all-time scorer and assists leader for the Stanford program. Muraray has an active 62-game point streak, dating back to March 7th, 2014. Stanford blew a 7-goal lead in their loss to Colorado; if the Bears do find themselves behind, they know that Stanford is used to blowing a big lead.

California Golden Bears (4-4, 0-2 in Pac-12) at No.19 Stanford Cardinal (4-3, 1-1 in Pac-12)

When: 1 pm PT

Where: Cagan Stadium (Stanford, CA)

Online: Stanford Live Stream

Live Stats: Sidearm Stats

GO BEARS!