Oregon Downs Cal to Advance to Second MPSF Final

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STANFORD, Calif. – California scored five straight goals late in the game but ran out of steam in an eventual 14-11 loss to Oregon in the MPSF Tournament semifinals on a sunny Friday evening at Stanford's Cagan Stadium.

The Golden Bears had trailed 13-6 but clawed back to within two goals of the Ducks at 13-11 on Alexa Rozelle's goal with 2:01 left in the second half. Oregon's Jess Drummond scored with 1:37 to go, and the Ducks salted away the victory. The loss effectively ends the season for the Bears, whose record fell to 8-8.

The Ducks, who improved to 13-4, got a game-high seven points (6 goals, 1 assist) from Drummond. They will play the winner of Friday's Denver-Stanford semifinal in the MPSF final on Sunday, April 29.

Rozelle, a junior attacker, led Cal in goals with four, while freshman defender Gaby Christman scored her first career hat trick for the Bears. Junior attacker Melissa Humphrey scored a team-high five points, with two goals and three assists. She finished the season with a total of 38 assists, just three shy of Cal's single-season record.

Cal trailed, 8-6, at halftime. The Bears scored the first goal – Rozelle's free-position goal at 1:30 into the game – and the last goal – Christman's second of the match at 25:42 – of the first half.

Oregon forged its biggest lead of the game at 13-6, capped by Shannon Propst's goal at 46:05.

But Cal got two goals from Humphrey, the third from Christman and two from Rozelle – the last at 57:59 – to make the score 13-11. One of Humphrey's goals was an amazing, over the shoulder goal that cut Oregon's lead to three at 13-10.

In the end it was another close loss for the Bears against Oregon, which edged Cal, 10-9, on Feb. 26 in Eugene, Ore. Other stats reflected that, as Cal narrowly bested the Ducks in ground balls, 16-15, while Oregon topped the Bears in shots, 23-22, and draw controls, 14-13.

Senior midfielder Emily Abbood contributed a Cal-high five draw controls and three caused turnovers and sophomore defender Teresa Li nabbed a game-high tying four ground balls.

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2012-04-28