Cal Plays Stanford in MPSF Semifinal on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Memorial Stadium :: No. 2-seeded Bears defeated No. 3-seeded Cardinal, 11-9, earlier this season

April 29, 2008

BERKELEY - Host and No. 2-seeded California (9-7) will play No. 3-seeded Stanford (10-8) at 3 p.m. in the second Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship tournament semifinal on Thursday, May 1, at Memorial Stadium.

As the No. 2 seed, the Golden Bears had a bye in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday, April 30, while Stanford routed No. 6-seeded Saint Mary's, 19-4, in Wednesday's second quarterfinal. In the first quarterfinal, No. 4-seeded Oregon dispatched No. 5-seeded UC Davis, 14-9, to set up a semifinal match with top seeded Denver at 1 p.m. on Thursday. The Pioneers likewise had a first-round bye.

The Bears defeated the Cardinal, 11-9, on Feb. 23 in Berkeley in their second game of the season. In the all-time series with its rival, Cal has a 6-16 record against Stanford.

Admission to the tournament is free.

CalBears.com features an MPSF lacrosse tournament page here

http://calbears.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/08-mpsf-w-lacrosse.html

Fans can also follow the Live Stats of the games on CalBears.com via this link

http://calbears.cstv.com/livestats/w-lacros/xlive.htm

Cal won the first MPSF Championship title, defeating Stanford in 2004. The Cardinal has won the last three conference tournament crowns.

Scouting the Golden Bears
Cal dropped a key MPSF match, 12-8, against Denver on April 26 at home. The Bears' loss clinched the top seed in the MPSF tournament and the MPSF regular-season conference title for the Pioneers.

Danni Zuralow leads Cal in points (53), goals (37), free-position goals (13), game-winning goals (3) and caused turnovers (18); she also has 16 assists. Zuralow also paces the MPSF in free-position goals per game (0.81) and is tied in total free-positions goals (13). Also in the conference, she ranks fourth in shots per game (5.06) and points per game (3.25) and sixth in goals per game (2.25), is tied for second in game-winning goals (3) and is tied for fifth in assists per game (1.00).

Brittany Aungier leads the Bears in assists (19) and ranks second at Cal in points (44) and goals (25). She ranks fourth in assists per game (1.19) in the conference.

Four more Bears have scored in double-digit points: Alyse Kennedy (24 goals, 7 assists, 31 points), Madeleine Dale (21, 7, 28), junior defender Sam Price (13, 7, 20) and sophomore midfielder Alex Tickner (16, 3, 19). Kennedy and Tickner are tied for the Cal lead in draw controls (29 each).

Cal freshman goalkeeper Allie Shropshire has a 10.11 goals-against average in 11 games and four starts, while junior Morgan Dyson has an 11.10 GAA in 15 games and 12 starts. Shropshire and Dyson rank fourth and sixth, respectively, in the MPSF's GAA category. Dyson (.463) rank and Shropshire (.462) second and third, respectively, in the conference's save percentage category.

Theresa Sherry, a three-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion at Princeton, is in her first year as head coach at Cal. Also an Under-19 World Champion with the United States in 1999, Sherry began her Cal career as an assistant coach last season.

Scouting Stanford
Stanford won its last game prior to the MPSF tournament, an 11-10 result at Dartmouth on April 27. That win snapped a two-game losing streak, with a pair of 13-9 setbacks at Cornell on April 13 and at Denver on April 20.

The following Stanford statistics were accurate as of April 29: Senior attacker Daphne Patterson led Stanford in scoring with 48 points (37 goals, 11 assists). She collected four goals and one assist in the Cardinal's 12-11 win over Denver in the 2007 MPSF tournament final. Sophomore attacker/midfielder Dana Lindsay, who led Stanford in scoring with four assists against Dartmouth, is her team's second-leading scorer with 34 points (23 goals, 11 assists). Sophomore attacker Claire Hubbard paces the Cardinal in assists with 14; she has also tallied 15 goals and 29 points.

Sophomore midfielder Julie Christy, who scored three goals against Dartmouth, leads Stanford in draw controls with 33. Sophomore midfielder Bess Siegfried paces Stanford in caused turnovers with 17.

Senior goalkeeper Laura Shane is one of this week's MPSF Players of the Week after making 15 saves against Dartmouth. She has a 9.88 GAA, .543 save percentage and a team-high 48 ground balls in 17 starts and ranks first in save percentage, third in GAA and second in ground balls per game in the MPSF. Shane is 2008 Tewaaraton Award semifinalist. As a junior in 2007, she was selected as an All-American by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches' Association (IWLCA) and named the MPSF Championship MVP.

Adam Norton and Jen Kasper are in their first year as co-head coaches at Stanford, which will host the 2009 MPSF Women's Lacrosse Championship.