Lady Bears fall to Victoria: Cal prepares for regular season

August 27, 12:05 PMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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Sophomore defender Sophie Sproats readies a pass

Cal's female field hockey team finished it's final exhibition scrimmage with a defensive game, but they ran into an even better defensive performance as they lost to the University of Victoria 1-0.

Cal did get more shots on goal than Victoria, but a 7-6 edge doesn't leave many opportunities to miss.  Those shots on goal were only two more than the number of goals that they scored on Stanford when they beat them 5-1 last Saturday.

Head Coach and Olympic assistant, Shellie Onstead, said that they changed things up a bit to put the ladies in different situations to prepare them for the season.  "They were tired.  We're still in our preseason, ending that today. I used most of my players, so we didn't get into a groove as far as the starting lineup. There are things we still need to work on." 

It was all just a training experience for the Bears.  Senior midfielder/forward Andrea Lo explained, "We were a little flat-footed from the get-go and losing 50-50 balls.  We were a little sluggish because we trained earlier today to learn how to play tired."

Next up for the Bears is a trip to Stockton, California for a matchup with Pacific (Saturday, August 30th at 1pm PST Brookside field).  Oddly enough, Pacific has played the same competition that the Bears have in exhibition play with worse results.  They lost to Stanford 4-1, while Cal beat Stanford 5-1, and to Victoria 2-0.  Even though, Pacific has played the same competition, exhibition games aren't a good gauge of how the teams matchup on the field.

Cal will keep working to improve according to Onstead.  Despite their effort, she has seen where the team needs to get better going forward.  "There were a lot of unforced errors, as I would call them," said Onstead, "We're going to work on our receiving and passing because there were a lot of turnovers that didn't need to be. We just need to learn to work under pressure."

Women's Soccer

The Bears will host it's 14th annual Cal Invitational Friday, August 29th and Sunday, August 31st.  Here's a little of the information gleaned from the Cal Bears website:

The tournament actually opens in Moraga, Calif., with Saint Mary's (1-0) playing Saint Joseph's (0-0) at 4 p.m. at Saint Mary's Stadium. Cal (1-0) meets Cal State Fullerton (1-0) at 4:30 p.m. at Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, Calif. Sunday's action begins with Saint Mary's battling Cal State Fullerton at 2 p.m. in Berkeley, and concludes with Cal vs. Saint Joseph's at 4:30 p.m.. Please note that the Cal vs. Missouri home game has been changed to Sept. 6 at 11 a.m.

Cal is ranked 15th nationally and is coming off an opening victory over San Jose St. 3-1.

Men's and Women's Cross Country

Cal will begin their Cross Country season at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Saturday, August 30th.  They will be competing in the 16th annual San Francisco Invitational.  Here's some of the information about the event:

The women's 5K race starts at 9:15 a.m., followed by the men's 8K event at 10 a.m. Last year, the Cal men and women both took second in their respective races. Chelsea Reilly led the Cal women in second place (18:13), and Rebecca Yau followed Reilly in fourth, clocking in at 18:23. The men's team had three runners place in the top 10. John Cheng took fourth (26:21), Austin Jett crossed the finish line in eighth (26:31) and Patrick Lynch finished in 10th (26:32).

Last year, Cal finished the season ranked 8th in the country, their highest ever.  They also competed in the NCAA championships for the first time in Cal history and expect to have an even better year in 2008.