NCAA Preview
Bears Eager for Shot at Powerful Ohio State

For most, the No. 12 Cal field hockey team’s reaction at its NCAA tournament selection show party Wednesday may have been puzzling.

The prospect of facing two of the top five teams in the country in your side of the bracket isn’t often a comforting scenario, yet the Bears couldn’t have been happier with their 11th seed and a shot at No. 5 Ohio State in the first round of the tournament Saturday.

“We finally performed well enough during the season to get a reasonable draw,” Cal coach Shellie Onstead said. “That’s been our goal for the last five or six years, to set us up and give us a chance at something. This gives us a different path than we usually travel.”

The three times the Bears have made it to the tournament in the past four years, Cal has drawn the No. 1 overall seed in the first round.

The Bears (17-4) failed to make it into day two in all three attempts, which is why this weekend’s game against the sixth-seeded Buckeyes (14-3) at 11 a.m., at Williams Field in Durham, N.C., shows so much promise.

“We’ve played them the last few years, so it’s more of an even match,” Onstead said. “Our kids have a lot of belief right now.”

The last time Cal met up with Ohio State was on Michigan’s campus in 2004, where the Bears, led by now-senior Valentina Godfrid’s three-goal, seven-point performance, downed the Buckeyes 4-2.

But this year’s Ohio State squad looks much different than it did in the ’04 campaign that saw the Buckeyes flounder near the bottom of the Big Ten standings at 1-5.

Ohio State features one of the most high-powered, balanced scoring attacks in the country and combines it with a defense that’s giving up just 1.47 goals per game.

The Buckeyes are led a pair of co-conference players of the year in junior Yesenia Luces and sophomore Linda Haussener, who both tallied a team-high 11 goals on the season.

Luces and Haussener were also one and two on the team in assists, with 11 and 10 respectively.

But Ohio State’s offensive production doesn’t end with two players. The Buckeyes have three more players with at least nine goals, including senior Saskia Mueller, who has also accounted for a league-high 14 assists.

“They’ve got a lot of tools, but we’re very confident right now,” Onstead said. “They were one of our first big wins when I started coaching here.”

Like Ohio State, Cal is also getting contributions from a number of players on the offensive side of the ball.

Four members of the Bears squad have scored seven or more goals this season, including Godfrid, who leads the nation with 33.

Cal is stabilized by a stern defense as well. The Bears have given up two goals or more just once in the last nine matches, bringing their goals-against average to just 1.90 on the season.

“There’s still going to be that perception that we’re just a NorPac team,” Onstead said. “But I don’t think we’re the lowest conference anymore, and our ranking speaks for itself.”

Tags: