Cal Takes 3rd in Sony Field Hockey Challenge at Stanford :: Bears finish 4-2 at tournament, including wins over powerhouses Penn State, Wake Forest

Bears finish 4-2 at tournament, including wins over powerhouses Penn State, Wake Forest

April 10, 2008

STANFORD, Calif. - California took third place at the second annual Sony Field Hockey Challenge hosted by Stanford April 5-6 at the Varsity Field Hockey Turf. The Golden Bears defeated such 2007 collegiate powers as Penn State, 3-0, and Wake Forest, 2-1, on the way to a 4-2 overall record at the tournament.

Cal head coach Shellie Onstead, who is also an assistant coach for the U.S. national team, was on hand to lead her Bears at Stanford. After a brief stop in Berkeley this week, she will be away with the national team until after its Olympic qualifying tournament later this month. The United States will compete in an Olympic qualifying tournament April 19-27 in Kazan, Russia, to try to earn a berth to Beijing. Only the champion of the six-team field qualifies for the Olympics.

Back at Stanford, Cal faced a challenging field of its own. Penn State was the 2007 NCAA runner-up, while Wake Forest, which defeated Cal, 4-3, during the 2007 regular season last fall, lost in the 2007 NCAA semifinal round to Penn State. In the final 2007 STX/NFHCA Division I Coaches Poll, which came out before the NCAA tournament, Wake was ranked No. 2 and Penn State was ranked No. 9 in the nation.

On the morning of April 5, junior forward Ashley Glosz, junior midfielder Andrea Lo and junior forward Katie Knoche scored Cal's goals as the Bears blanked the Nittany Lions. In the afternoon, Glosz scored the first goal against Wake and then Cal newcomer and Wake transfer Christine Suggs scored the game winner against her old team.

The Bears defeated NorPac Conference foe Pacific, 2-1, on goals by Suggs and junior defender Christina McGrath in their last game on April 5.

On the first match of the morning of April 6, Cal lost to the Sony Ichinomiya Bravia Ladies, 2-1, with Glosz collecting the Bears' lone goal. The Japanese club consisted of a few members of the Japanese national team. Later that morning, Cal completed pool play with a 4-1 record after beating host Stanford, 3-0. Lo, junior defender Carolina Bistue and freshman forward Natalie Nurnberg scored against the Cardinal.

In the tournament's semifinal round, Cal fell to Wake, 1-0. The Demon Deacons eventually lost to the Bravia Ladies, 3-1, in the final. Penn State finished fourth, Pacific was fifth and Stanford finished last.