For two hours, he drove Claire and her older sister Colleen from their home in Santa Clara, Calif., to Sacramento, where Claire’s mother Margaret and her brother were staying for his basketball tournament.

The impromptu trip did not strike Dougherty as strange. At 12 years old, she was more concerned with her interrupted sleep than the sudden visit.

Instead of a hotel room, however, Tim drove to a local hospital, where Dougherty saw a body of a woman covered in veil. Margaret had passed prior to their arrival with a heart-related affliction.

“I was in shock and kind of in denial because you never think that anything like that would happen with no warning like tomorrow’s never promised,” Dougherty says. “I think it was just shock.”

After shock came grief, and after grief came isolation. Before the death, Claire was an active child who played basketball, volleyball and soccer.

Afterward, she lost motivation to continue playing and shelled herself in.

The self-quarantine did not last. At the encouragement of her father, she slowly picked up the activities again. But now, Dougherty resumed her athletics, especially in field hockey, with a new purpose.

She was going to play to make Margaret proud. Dougherty remembered her mother always saying, “Honor your competition with your best performance.”

Every time she stepped on the field, she was going to honor her competition with her mother’s memory.

For the Dougherty family, sports are part of a family tradition.

Both Tim and Margaret were collegiate athletes at Santa Clara University; Tim played rugby, and Margaret played club volleyball. They passed their love of sports to Dougherty, who played a variety of sports.

Margaret raised Dougherty with an emphasis on the importance of sportsmanship and giving her all, lessons that extended further than just sports and into other aspects of her life.

“If you give your best performance, then they have to give their best performance, which is what you do in life whether it’s on the pitch or on the field or in the classroom,” Tim says.

Margaret encouraged Dougherty to play as many sports as possible, including field hockey. Colleen taught Dougherty the ropes of how to play beginning in sixth grade. By seventh grade, Dougherty was playing with a high school club team.

“(Colleen) really introduced me to the sport,” Dougherty says. “She loved it, so she would bring it home with her. She’d want to hit around in the back, so I was always that person.”

When Dougherty eventually had to choose between field hockey and volleyball for her fall sport in high school, Dougherty chose field hockey.

At Archbishop Mitty High School, Dougherty excelled in field hockey as a forward, garnering the attention of college programs like Cal. In 2007, Dougherty joined Shellie Onstead’s program at Berkeley.

This year, Dougherty’s collegiate career came to a close last Saturday at Virginia. And at the stands waiting for Dougherty that night was Tim, who flew all the way from California.

Tim and Colleen are permanent fixtures at Maxwell Family Field. Tim attended all of Dougherty’s home games at Maxwell Family Field, and both have been Dougherty’s biggest supporters.

“She enjoyed me being there and I enjoyed watching her play, and I knew it wasn’t going to be something she would get to do for the rest of her life,” he said. “I’m going to miss it, and she probably will too.”

Once every so often, when a family friend or an extended relative comes to see Dougherty play, he or she tells Tim how much she reminds him of Margaret. Dougherty’s height, facial features and her personality are like facsimiles to her late mother’s.

“It brings back a lot of memories for people when they see me,” Dougherty says. “It brings happiness for them because I’m so similar to her. But for me, it was sad to deal with because sometimes when I was younger, I thought I was reminding people of the sadness or the pain.”

With the absence of her mother, Claire took it upon herself to turn that sorrow and pain into pride for all those around her, especially her father.

“In my mind, he’s already lost someone that he’s loved and I would never want to jeopardize or put anything at risk to hurt him more. I just want to make him happy and proud,” Dougherty says.

“Now I’m so lucky to be able to let people reminisce that she’s living on through me.”

In her five-year stint at Cal, Dougherty was the most vocal player on the sidelines during a practice scrimmage, encouraging and criticizing her teammates.

In her recruited class of five freshmen, all except Dougherty left the team in or less than four years. As the lone fifth-year senior, Dougherty is the oldest and most experienced member of the team.

“I decided to stay because of the team,” she said. “Not that I owed it to the program or to the coaches, but my experience at Cal was so great that it was the least I could do.”

Dougherty believes she has given her all at Cal, just as her mother would have expected. Dougherty aimed to honor the program and her team with everything she had to offer, even at the cost of delaying her graduation.

Now that her field hockey career ends, Dougherty hopes that she made her mother proud.

In leaving Cal field hockey behind, Claire aims to honor her future with her best.

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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The closest the Bears (7-11, 2-4 in NorPac) have gotten to matching Cal’s current dismal record was a decade-worst 8-11 campaign in 2009. But that season, Cal made it all the way to the finals of the NorPac Conference tournament.

Cal won the first round of the tournament and will enter the semifinals on Friday against Stanford. In its first round against Longwood, Cal began the tournament at No. 3 in the West Division because of its weak NorPac record.

In order to have a chance at the NCAA tournament, the Bears must win all three rounds of the NorPac tournament.

“Tournament time is a good time because everybody feels like they have a chance and everybody does,” coach Shellie Onstead said.

Cal defeated No. 2 from the East Division Longwood, 5-1, Thursday night in its first round game. The Bears will continue in a semifinal game against No. 1 in the West Division Stanford on Friday afternoon.

The Bears and the Lancers (7-12, 6-2) were evenly matched for much of the first half. At the 24th minute, Cal made the only goal of the first half with forward Claire Dougherty’s goal off an assist by Rachelle Comeau to take the 1-0 lead.

In the second half, the Bears pulled farther away from the Lancers with four goals. Cal held a brief 5-0 lead before the Lancers were able to retaliate on the 62nd minute for a 5-1 score.

Though the Bears defeated Longwood, there were weaknesses in the defense. In the last 28 minutes, the Lancers fired 12 of its total 19 shots, outshooting the Bears’ 12 shots for the entire game.

The next round against No. 14 Stanford, however, has little room for mistakes.

This semifinal matchup between Cal and Stanford is unusual in the NorPac Conference. The Bears in the past four years faced the Cardinal in the championship round.

“I think it will be a nice change, so it will be nice to get them the second day where there’s not much pressure,” Onstead said before the Longwood game. “I expect to play them, and if it’s the second day instead of the third day, it’s no big deal to me.”

Cal has already lost twice to the Cardinal in the regular season. Last season, the Bears lost twice to Stanford in the regular season but beat the Cardinal in the championship round of the NorPac tournament.

Cal will approach this game as it has in its last two games against Davis and Longwood, in which the Bears defeated them by huge 6-0 and 5-1 deficits respectively. In those games, Cal focused on passing and changed its lineup, moving key players like Comeau from midfield to forward and Deanna Kennedy from defense to midfield.

“I like what we started doing (against Davis) in letting people interchange more and creating more trouble for the defending team,” Onstead said. “There’s a little more creativity in the attack, which should help us get some great opportunities.”

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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On Cal’s first possession, senior Rachelle Comeau passed the ball to fellow forward Claire Dougherty from the right side. Aggies goalie Danielle Herrington was out of the goal to defend Comeau, so Dougherty was able to sneak the ball past Herrington to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead only 63 seconds into the tilt.

Cal (6-11, 2-4) went on to conclude its season with a 6-0 rout over Davis (7-11, 3-3) in the Friday night game at Maxwell Family Field.

In the matchup, the Bears held an uncontested lead from the beginning. Cal’s lead gave the offense the necessary confidence to play an aggressive game.

“We played with a little more freedom,” coach Shellie Onstead said.  “I think immediately when we got the early goal, we just kinda took a deep breath.”

After this initial goal, the game showcased a sloppy and scattered Davis defense that could not hold against Cal and an offense that could not keep possession of the ball. The Bears grabbed the momentum and did not let go.

Cal doubled its lead at the 23rd minute with Jordan O’Reilly’s goal from another assist by Comeau, carrying a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half.

Confident in its early edge, Cal pulled away from Davis even more in the second half with little opposition. The Aggies had only one shot on goal in the first 50 minutes.

In the 45th minute, Dougherty added another goal to the Bears’ lead with a converted penalty to make the score 3-0. Cal again added another five minutes later with a goal from senior Kendra Bills, increasing the lead to 4-0.

In the 61st minute, Comeau added her own goal to the game with a shot from the right side off another assist by Kruggel.

Seven minutes later, Caroline Struijk took the ball past two defenders to Spellman. With no defenders around, Davis’ Herrington stepped out of the goal to Spellman, who passed over Herrington’s stick to Comeau, who found the back of the net for the final score of 6-0.

This team-oriented strategy of passing and strong communication was characteristic of the blowout victory against Davis.

“We finally started making better decisions inside the 25 for our scoring opportunities,”Onstead said. “Instead of just giving the ball away or choosing to go in when we should be going out and around — these sorts of things that give us better opportunities they did a much better job with tonight.”

Even with two key offensive players in Shannon Elmitt and Lauren Livingston out, the Bears were finally able to piece together a strong defense with an improved offense.

In the strong offensive performance, the Bears outshot the Aggies 14 to eight, which is a drastic improvement from the four shots the Bears had in their last game with Davis. Cal outmatched Davis in creating scoring opportunities, a problem that the Bears have had all season.

“Today was one of the best games that we’ve played all season,” Comeau said.

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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This Friday at 7 p.m., the Bears (5-11, 1-4 NorPac) will face the Aggies (6-10, 2-2) at Maxwell Field to end their season.

Stanford has already won the NorPac West division championship, but the NorPac champion is yet to be decided. Cal is ranked third in the West division and will likely stay there.

The NorPac champion, which will win an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, will be crowned at next week’s tournament between the West and East divisions.

This game is Cal’s last opportunity to secure a higher rank and secure a better bracket and a better playing schedule.

There is a sliver of hope that the Bears might leapfrog to second place.

The only way the team will move up to second is if Davis loses its next two games to Cal and Pacific.

Even then, this would tie Cal and Pacific for second place with identical records.

The major consequence of being third in the West division would be facing undefeated Stanford in the semifinals, a roadblock to the Bears’ NCAA hopes. The Davis game is the last opportunity for the Bears to break a four-game losing streak before entering tournament play.

After the first Stanford and Davis games, in which Cal only tallied five and four shots, respectively, the Bears moved key defenders to the midfield in an attempt to repair a disappointing offense.

This change paid off at first when Cal was able to create more opportunities. The offense, however, has still been lacking in its ability to convert shots to goals.

“We’ve made some changes in the midfield that I think worked out well,” coach Shellie Onstead said. “And the last piece is to make some changes in the frontline to give us more opportunities to finish. Friday will be critical for us as far as testing things out.”

After a disappointing loss to Stanford on Tuesday, the Bears are looking to fix some of their offensive errors.

With only four shots in the 2-0 loss to the Cardinal, Cal needs to repair its ineffective attack.

The Aggies will also be coming into Friday’s game with a four-game losing streak.  Davis’ last win this season came against the Bears on Sept. 30.

The Davis offense is led by leading scorer Cloey LemMon, who has seven goals and four assists, and Jamie Garcia, who has been the NorPac West’s Rookie of the Week four times this season.

Garcia has four goals, one of which came from the last game against Cal, and seven assists.

Cal’s low rank in the NorPac West conference will make the road to a NorPac championship more difficult than what the Bears underwent last year when entering the tournament with a higher rank.

“It’s just been a different journey,” Onstead said. “I’ve been humbled by the process in terms of the regular season results, but I still have a tremendous amount of faith in this group.”

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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Despite spending a total of 17 minutes in the first period with a one-player advantage, the Bears (5-11, 1-4) were unable to capitalize on their edge over Stanford (12-6, 6-0) .

The Cardinal was issued two yellow cards and one green card. Stanford’s two leading scorers — Becky Dru and Courtney Haldeman — each had yellow cards and were taken out of the game.

Cal was able to keep up with Stanford for a scoreless first half. The Bears held a slight shot disadvantage in the first half, with two to the Cardinal’s five.

The second half, however, saw a much more aggressive Stanford team. The Cardinal quickly took the 1-0 lead when midfielder Alex McCawley stepped just inside the circle and sent a shot past Cal goalie Courtney Hendrickson four minutes into the second half.

The Cardinal doubled its lead when forward Emily Henriksson converted a penalty corner off assists by forward Hope Burke and defender Kelsey Harbin in the 62nd minute.

Stanford’s offense dominated Cal’s throughout the game. The Bears could not get anything going with goals because of a lack of shots. The Bears were outshot, 13-4 and had one penalty corner to Stanford’s three. The penalty corner is awarded when the offense is in the shooting circle or the opponent’s defending quarter.

The inability to attain these corners for Cal came from its inability to get in the circle to create an opportunity for Stanford to make the foul.

Despite Cal coach Shellie Onstead’s focus on her offense in recent weeks, the Bears were unable to deliver the necessary opportunities to produce any goals on Stanford.

The win marked the Cardinal’s second straight year of going undefeated in conference play.

With only one game left in the regular season, the Bears are running out of time to learn from such losses and seek improvement. With this loss, Cal will likely finish the regular season as third in the NorPac West conference behind Davis and Stanford.

This third-place ranking will place Cal in an undesirable — but not impossible — position going into the eight-team NorPac Conference tournament.

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org.

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Three days from the season finale, the Bears (5-10, 1-3 in NorPac) will travel to No. 14 Stanford.

Cal comes off of a three-game losing streak with a pair of close road losses to No. 25 Wake Forest and No. 24 Duke.

Despite being competitive with the two teams, the Bears will use the 7 p.m. matchup with Stanford on Tuesday as a way to measure its own progress.

“I think it’ll be a great test,” Cal coach Shellie Onstead said. “We’ve had it all going pretty well most of the time on this trip, and I think we’ve learned a lot from this.”

With the current tournament format, the Bears can still advance to the NCAA tournament without winning any of the remaining regular season games by winning the NorPac conference tournament.

The NorPac competition is an eight-team title race between the East and West divisions in which the winner automatically advances to the NCAA tournament.

Even with a loss on Tuesday, it is possible for Cal to win the conference title.

Losing this game, however, means that the Bears will stay in the bottom half of the West Conference ranking going into the NorPac tournament.

Cal finishing third in the West division would put the Bears and the Cardinal in the same bracket for the Norpac tournament, which means Cal would likely face its Bay Area rival in the semifinals in a quick turnaround following Tuesday’s game.

“The difference between two and three isn’t huge,” Onstead said. “No matter what we have to win all three games and get through Stanford. We need to peak next week.”

This Tuesday will be the second and last time the Bears will face the Cardinal before the conference tournament. This is the last regular season game for the Cardinal, who has already secured the West division championship and a relaxed playing schedule for the tournament.

“The difference is more about game times and recovery times,” Onstead said. “You get a little less the lower you are.”

In the Bears’ last matchup against the Cardinal, Cal held Stanford to a 1-1 tie for much of the game before the Cardinal broke apart with just 13 seconds left in the game.

Since last playing the Bears, the Cardinal has held a consistent 5-2 record, only losing to No. 1 Syracuse and No. 4 Connecticut.

For Stanford, defender Becky Dru leads Stanford’s offense with nine goals and eight assists. Unlike the Bears — whose offense rotates around team-leading scorer Lara Kruggel — the Cardinal has several strong offensive players in Courtney Haldeman and Maddie Secco.

Though Cal already lost to superior Stanford, the Bears do have the advantage of familiarity. Whereas Cal did not know what to expect against Duke and Wake Forest, the Bears will play against the Cardinal with previous experience.

No matter the outcome against the Cardinal, the Bears will have an opportunity to redeem an underachieving season at the NorPac conference.

“I feel very good about the tournament,” Onstead said. “I think (winning is) still very achievable.”

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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After the Demon Deacons illegally kicked the ball during the Bears’ first penalty corner, the Bears were awarded another.

Shannon Elmitt took the penalty corner and passed toward Deanna Kennedy’s waiting stick. Kennedy was positioned in front of the net and ready to receive the oncoming ball, but the ball hit a bump in the field and flew directly over Kennedy’s waiting stick.

After a 2-1 overtime loss to Duke Friday night, the Bears fell 4-3 to Wake Forest (8-9, 1-3) on Sunday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“I think in a lot of years this sort of play would have been good enough to win but it wasn’t today,” Coach Shellie Onstead said.

The Bears (5-10, 2-3) began the game with an upper edge in offense. At the third minute, Cal took advantage of its first penalty corner. Captain Laura Spellman took a penalty corner and found Caroline Struijk for the first goal.

The Deacons were finally able to respond at the 18th minute when Jess McFadyen passed to Kari Walkley off a penalty corner. Wake Forest tied the game 1-1 with Walkley’s fifth goal of the season.

Cal regained the lead seven minutes into the second half. Eleven seconds after entering the game as a substitute, Jordan O’Reilly made her fifth goal of the season off of an assist by Lara Kruggel, making the score 2-1.

Just six minutes later at the 48th minute, the momentum shifted when the Deacons made two goals within three minutes and took a 3-2 lead over the Bears.

At the 58th minute, Onstead pulled goalie Courtney Hendrickson out of the game to reinforce her attack with an extra forward in Kendra Bills.

A minute after pulling the goalie, however, Wake Forest was awarded a penalty corner and converted into another goal its fourth goal of the game.

Cal’s luck changed when the Demon Deacons lost two players to green cards. The Bears took advantage of their 11 versus nine advantage when Elmitt made her first goal of the season in the 61st minute, narrowing the score to 4-3.

Despite the two penalty corners in the 68th and 69th minutes, the Bears were unable to push the game into overtime.

“We scored three goals on a very good team, so that’s an improvement for our most recent goal production and those are the things we’re focusing on at this point,” Onstead said.

The Bears, however, are running out of time for improvement. With only two more games in the regular season, Cal is quickly approaching the NorPac Conference tournament.

The Bears can go 5-12 and still advance to the NCAA tournament if they win the NorPac tournament. These next two games, however, are important for rankings and momentum for the upcoming tournament.

“They’re staying focused knowing that it’s just about getting better,” Onstead said. “We’re getting better everyday and trying not to take the win or loss as much as the process, but we fought to the end and that’s going to be important going forward.”

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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Cal will fly to North Carolina to face No. 24 Duke on Friday and No. 22 Wake Forest on Sunday.

“I’ve been excited about this weekend ever since I scheduled it a year ago,” Cal coach Shellie Onstead said. “I just think it comes at a good time.”

The Bears (5-8, 1-3 in NorPac) have had a problem all season with their inconsistent offense. In last Sunday’s loss to Pacific, Cal had 21 shots to the Tigers’ 16. The Bears, however, were only able to convert those shots into one goal.

This loss came after a 5-0 blowout win against Pacific only two days earlier.

Last weekend’s games have been part of a gradual improvement for Cal’s offense. The 1-2 loss to Stanford on Sept. 28 had only five shots from the Bears, and the 1-3 loss to Davis two days later showcased only four shots.

A lack of goals and shots forced Onstead to hold an extra hour of practice twice this week for her forwards.

“We have not been scoring enough,” Onstead said. “I think it will get them more efficient and effective in scoring.”

The opportunity for the offense to have a focused practice gives it time to focus on basic shooting drills.

“It’s a lot of repetition and when you break it down to just a scoring practice it’s hundreds and hundreds of repetitions,” Onstead said. “Which is what I think they need to get their confidence up.”

The offense is led by NorPac leading scorer Lara Kruggel, who was named NorPac West Offensive Player of the Week for her 15 goals.

The Blue Devils have also had trouble getting their offense going in a season long slump. Duke (6-9, 0-4 ACC) has dropped from its No. 5 ranking from the beginning of this season to its current No. 24 ranking.

This drop was due to a series of big losses at the beginning of the season to various ranked teams, including a close 2-3 loss to No. 13 Wake Forest and a 2-4 fall to No. 11 Northwestern.

Duke will be coming off of a close 2-3 loss to No. 8 Old Dominion. In the contest, the Blue Devils kept the game close but were unable to catch up at the end.

The Blue Devils’ offense too has problems with producing enough shots with only nine against the Monarchs this past weekend. Duke’s offense is led by Emmie Le Marchand, who has ten goals and five assists.

As the Bears wrap up the regular season on Oct. 26, they are looking to use this weekend’s break from conference play to reach a peak in performance before the conference tournament.

With the offense’s extra practices, the Bears will need to produce goals like they did in last Friday’s 5-0 win.

“We’ve been breaking down the components, and now it’s time to put it all together; the defense and the midfield,” Onstead said. “Now it’s really been about the attack, so the goal is to put it all together.”

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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In the Friday night game against Pacific (5-10, 1-3) at Maxwell Family Field, the Bears (5-8, 1-3 in NorPac) collected their first conference win in a 5-0 shutout against Pacific. The weekend ended with a rematch against the Tigers. The Sunday rematch at Stockton, however, resulted in a close, disappointing 2-1 loss.

The Sunday game showcased a Cal team different from the Friday one. Under the added pressure of being on the road during the opposing team’s senior night, the Bears could not duplicate Friday’s success.

“We played well enough to win,” coach Shellie Onstead said. “But [Pacific] played a good game, and I don’t want to take that away from them.”

On Sunday, the Bears statistically played a better game than the Tigers. Cal was hovering inside the schooting circle,  tallying 46 circle penetrations to Pacific’s 20. The Bears also outshot the Tigers, 24-15.

The Tigers’ senior day celebrations, however, proved to be too much of a distraction for the Bears.

“I told them before that it would be really dangerous,” Onstead said. “I’m not going to lie, the celebration after was huge.”

Sunday’s win for Pacific marks the Tigers’ first regular season conference win in three years.

On Friday, however, the Bears did not have any problems converting shots into goals.

In the shutout, sophomore forward Lara Kruggel scored all five goals in Friday’s matchup.In addition to Sunday’s lone goal, Kruggel now has a team-leading 15 goals.

Cal got off to a slow start and was not able to connect for much of the first half.

With only five minutes left in the first half,  the Bears were able to convert off of a penalty corner. Senior defender Deanna Kennedy took the penalty and passed to Shannon Elmitt, who found Kruggel on the right side for the only goal of the first half.

The second half showcased a much more aggressive Bears offense as Kruggel scored four goals within ten minutes.

Nineteen minutes into the second half, Kruggel attacked with her second goal of the game. Elmitt passed to Kruggel from the left side to double the score.

Two minutes later on the 56th minute, Kruggel was back with another goal assisted by Allie Swartz after a broken corner.

Kruggel did not stop at three. Instead at the 60th and 63rd minutes, Kruggel had two more goals to lead the offense to a 5-0 victory, both assisted by Elmitt.

The Bears outshot the Tigers 27-7, proving that the Cal offense is recovering from its former slump with an aggressive offense. This improvement comes particularly with the help of Kennedy and Laura Spellman, who have been playing midfield instead of defense as part of a revamped offense.

“Her and Spellman are doing nicely in midfield, and I definitely think it has been a positive change,” Onstead said.

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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Cal will aim for its first conference win in two matchups against Pacific. The Bears (4-7, 0-2 in the NorPac) will host Pacific (4-9, 0-2) Friday at 7 p.m. at Maxwell Family Field before travelling to Stockton to play on the Tigers’ turf Sunday afternoon.

The unique instance of playing the same team twice may be an advantage for the Bears. Cal will have two games to adapt to the Tigers’ style of play.

The Bears won’t know Pacific’s strengths firsthand going into the Friday game, but by Sunday, Cal should be able to play off the Tigers’ weaknesses.

“You’ll get a feel for them in the first game and see what you can exploit in the second game,” said senior forward Claire Dougherty.

The ability to make adjustments is important for the Bears. With a losing record, Cal changed the structure of its midfield last week and began using key defenders in the midfield to maximize the offense.

Integral defenders like captain Laura Spellman and Deanna Kennedy spent the last two games against Robert Morris and Penn State in the midfield to battle Cal’s lacking offense.

“They have very good ball possession skills,” said coach Shellie Onstead. “If you put them up further, you’re taking something away from defense. But if you leave them at defense, maybe you’re taking something from (the offense).”

The new tactic will stay the same this weekend. But this is a huge gamble for the defense as evidenced in the 6-2 blowout against No. 7 Penn State. The bolstered offense came at the cost of a thin defense.

“We’re trying to find a happy medium to keep the ball in our possession,” Onstead said. “I actually think our defense is pretty solid.”

The Tigers have had some big wins including a 3-2 upset of No. 22 Michigan State on Oct. 1, but the team’s most recent loss to No. 14 Stanford detracted from any momentum the Tigers had.

The Tigers held off the Cardinal for a scoreless first period, but their defense fell apart in the second half, leading to Pacific’s 4-1 loss.

“They’re going to be a little bit angry over the Stanford loss, so no matter what you can’t take them lightly,” Onstead said.

The Tigers, however, do have a problem creating opportunities. Losses have primarily been the result of failing to capitalize on shots and create the necessary number of shots. Pacific had six shots to the Cardinal’s 22 in its last game.

For the Bears to have a successful weekend, Cal needs to exploit Pacific’s weak offense with aggressive possession of the ball. If the Bears can be aggressive in attacking the Tigers, Cal has a good opportunity to win its first conference game in this two-game weekend.

“We’re really just focusing on solving some issues as we head toward the conference tournament, which is really our biggest issue right now,” Onstead said.

Jessica Lim covers field hockey. Contact her at jlim@dailycal.org

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