When the Cal field hockey team travels to UC Davis this Sunday at 11 a.m, it will have a chance to reach its highest regular season win total in five years.
The squad will also have the opportunity to help its longtime coach reach an impressive milestone.
Coach Shellie Onstead, now in her 17th year coaching the Bears, currently sits at 199 career victories and is already the winningest coach in Cal field hockey history. After Sunday, she hopes to make that total a nice round number.
“You know, I didn’t even realize I was almost at 200 until I was talking to my mom before the Stanford game,” Onstead said. “I joked that she jinxed me for that game because she’s a Stanford fan and all.”
The loss to Stanford last Sunday, 3-2, was only the Bears’ third loss of the season as they dropped slightly from the No. 12 ranking to the No. 14 ranking this week. However, Onstead still isn’t worried about her team’s play as the Bears (12-3, 3-2 in NorPac) end the regular season and look to the NorPac Tournament the following week.
“I think we played pretty well against Stanford but we still have some things to work on,” Onstead said. “The good news is that this is our last chance to get some things tuned up before we head into the tournament.”
Cal’s opponent, UC Davis (3-9, 1-2 in NorPac), will be a familiar one, as the two squads just faced off against each other last Friday on Maxwell Field.
Despite their lackluster record, the Aggies played tough in the defeat, staying in the match until the final few minutes of play.
Late in the match, Davis looked poised to make a run and tie the game before Cal’s Lara Kruggel put the game out of reach with a final score of 3-1.
“I expected a game like that from Davis,” Onstead said. “They’re a very tenacious team that likes to come out of the gate hard and on the attack.”
For this upcoming match however, the Cal offense — which ranks among the best in the nation — might find facing UC Davis on its home field in Aggie Stadium a tougher task than expected.
The Bears’ aggressive style of offense utilizes their team speed and ball-handling skills to overwhelm their opponents in their own end. To do this, they employ a hockey-like style of line changes but also depend on the thin Maxwell turf to keep the ball moving and moving fast.
The thick turf at Aggie Stadium on the other hand, lends itself to a slower, defensive pace – something the Bears might not be accustomed to.
“We’re definitely going to have to make some adjustments out there on that surface,” Onstead said. “We’ve started practicing on a thicker turf because there’s a good chance the game will be very different from the one we’re used to playing.”
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