Season Recap
Despite Tournament Loss, Cal Turns In Impressive Season

Shellie Onstead knows a little something about Cal field hockey.

After transferring from UC Davis at the end of her freshman year, the once All-American propelled the Bears to some of their their best postseason showings in school history, including Cal’s first and only national championship game appearance in 1980.

But even though she’s witnessed first hand arguably the greatest success the program has had to offer, the 12-year coach seems to think that the 2006 Bears that dropped out of the NCAA tournament Friday against Ohio State may have surpassed all others.

“Unless you win it all, everyone’s going to end their season with a loss,” said Onstead, who earned conference coach of the year honors for the sixth time of her career this season. “But you have to look past (the loss against the Buckeyes) and look at the big picture. In terms of complete teams, this is probably one of the best to ever come through here.”

While its place in school legend is debatable, the No. 12 Cal field hockey team’s numbers this season are not.

After posting their first undefeated league record since 2003, the Bears’ final statistics revealed something that Cal may have never seen before.

For the first time in recent memory, none of the Bears’ five loses were against unranked teams, a fact that justified Cal’s standing among the best squads in the country.

And interestingly enough, the Bears’ four regular-season losses came at the hands of the only four teams left in the national championship hunt—Maryland, Wake Forest, UConn and Duke.

“The fact that we didn’t drop an unranked loss all season is amazing,” Onstead said. “That shows the kind of determination and work ethic we had all season. To be that consistent is going to be something that inspires us for quite a while.”

Cal’s success may have been steady, but its offensive production was nothing short of explosive.

En route to tallying a school-record 76 goals on the year, the Bears featured a balanced attack that contributed to one of the most potent offenses in the program’s history.

Led by senior Valentina Godfrid, who garnered NorPac player of the year honors after scoring a nation-leading 35 goals, three other players—Ashley Glosz, Jenny Crane and Andrea Lo—posted goal totals of eight or higher for the first time since 2001.

“The scoring was obviously a change from years past. We were really fluid with each other all year,” said Lo, a sophomore who recorded eight goals and nine assists on the season. “The balance helped a lot. It was nice knowing you didn’t have to depend on one player.”

While scoring is important, the top programs in the country must also place a large emphasis on defense.

After scoring an average of 3.31 goals per game—which was tops in the NorPac—the Bears defense held opponents to just 1.91 goals per game, largely due to its stinginess in the latter half of the season.

Since its 5-3 win against then-No. 13 Louisville on Oct. 2, Cal held opponents to one or fewer goals in seven of the next nine contests, including a 1-0 loss to then-No. 4 Duke.

“Defense is always kind of an unappreciated unit because there’s not a lot of stats,” Onstead said. “It’s a lot of mental work, as well as physical, and I give a lot of credit to our team. Defense is a hard thing to master, especially for a young team.”

It’s safe to say that the Bears’ youth had them flying under the radar for the early portion of the season, but Cal may find it tough to go unnoticed next year since it returns most of this year’s team.

“We didn’t have the normal up-and-down graph as far as progress this season,” Onstead said. “We played tough all season long, and our optimism for the future is really high right now.”

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