After an undefeated exhibition schedule, which included two convincing wins and a tie with Stanford, the Cal field hockey team will visit No. 16 Louisville at 3 p.m. at Trager Stadium for the first official game of the season.
Coming off last year’s disappointing finish — a loss to Stanford in the NorPac Tournament final — the Bears hope to start the season strong as they embark on a mini-roadtrip to Louisville, Ky., for games against the Cardinals and No. 13 Michigan State.
Louisville enters this season with some new faces. Justine Sowry is the new head coach, and a number of senior leaders from last season have since graduated. The squad, however, returns three All-Big East preseason selections along with a number of experienced players to fill out the rest of the roster. The Cardinals finished the 2010 season with a 13-7 record and a 5-1 conference record, good enough for second in the strong Big East conference. Louisville’s season ended in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament, a 2-1 loss to No. 4 Connecticut.
Last year, the Cardinals defeated the Bears, 2-0, in Louisville under then-head coach Pam Bustin, who later took on head coaching duties at Duke. Returning sophomore Erin Scheidtmiller provided one of Louisville’s goals in that game while the other came from Tuli Lim, who has since graduated.
One thing the Bears have going for them is an extremely strong preseason, which began with a dominating 10-2 victory over UC Davis. Sophomore Jordan O’Reilly started the tilt off with a pair of early goals and the Aggies never recovered. Sophomore Andrea Earle, freshman Marcia Venter and senior Erin Magill each provided two goals in the offensive barrage.
Cal then went to No. 20 Stanford and tied a tough Cardinal squad, 1-1, due to strong goalkeeping from senior Maddie Hand and sophomore Courtney Hendrickson. Senior Megan Shimojima provided the Bear’s lone goal.
In its final preseason scrimmage, Cal defeated the University of Alberta, 4-1, with another fine offensive performance from Shimojima, who netted two goals in the match.
The road does not get any easier after Louisville as the Bears face No. 13 Michigan State the following day. The Spartans, who finished with an 15-6 record last season, figure to be one of Cal’s toughest matchups this upcoming season. Last year, the Bears fell to Michigan State, 3-4, in their second game of that season. The match saw seven different lead changes before the Spartans scored the game-winning goal in 69th minute to close out the Bears.
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.