BERKELEY - California routed visiting Canisius College, 18-6, in both teams' season-opening game on a cold and rainy Thursday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. Golden Bears senior Laura Cavallo and sophomore teammate Madeleine Dale tied for high-scoring honors, with each tallying five points from four goals and one assist. Cal opens 2007 at 1-0, while the Golden Griffins fall to 0-1.

Whitney Card scored two goals and Brett Poissant had three assists for Canisius. Seven different Bears scored goals today.

"With a lot of people scoring a lot of goals, that's hard to stop," Cal head coach Jill Malko said. "You can't key on just one person. Even our top scorers are doing a great job of distributing the ball and making other people look good."

Cal freshman Tighe Hutchins notched her first career goal just 38 seconds into the game, taking a pass from junior Brittany Aungier to score past Canisius goalie Rasheeda Brenton. Sophomore Madeleine Dale, coming off a 21-goal season as a freshman in 2006, scored an unassisted goal at the 1:54 mark to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.

"Dale's phenomenal," Malko said. "She had a great preseason, and I expected a game, a season, like this. It seems to be coming together - her confidence, her leadership and her field vision. She's that type of a player. She's very good."

The Bears took a 7-0 lead before Canisius scored its first goal. Aungier, who sat out last season with an injury, and Dale each scored two goals and one assist during that run. Aungier, who scored 15 goals as a freshman in 2005, later completed a hat trick against the Griffins with a goal in the second half.

Cal sophomore Sam Price converted the first of her two goals at 18:14 of the first half to cap the 7-0 run. The Griffins kept pace with Cal the rest of the half, as Ashley Gray, Card and Bobbi Jo Harris each scored a goal to match two goals from Bears senior Liz Reifsnyder and one from Cavallo. Cal took a 10-3 lead into the break.

The Bears bolted out to a 5-0 run to open the second stanza, with two goals by Dale and one each from junior Danni Zuralow, Aungier and Cavallo. Cal led, 15-3. Canisius and Cal each scored three goals the rest of the half, with Price ending the scoring with an unassisted strike at 57:42.

Cal next takes on another MAAC team, Le Moyne College, at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday at Memorial Stadium. That will be Le Moyne's season-opening game.

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California scored the opening seven goals of the game en route to defeating the Canisius College women's lacrosse team 18-6 in the season opener for both teams.

Freshman Brett Poissant (Syracuse, N.Y.) led the Golden Griffins with three assists while Whitney Card (Alton, Ont.) had two goals for the Blue and Gold. Sophomore Ashley Gray (Baldwinsville, N.Y.), Lauren Walsh (Auburn, N.Y.), Bobbi Jo Harris (Beaverton, Ont.) and Brittany Farrugia (Elbridge, N.Y.) also scored for Canisius.

After Cal jumped out to the 7-0 lead, Gray got the Griffs on the board, and Card followed with her first of the game. Cal responded with two goals before Harris tallied her first goal in a Canisius uniform to make the score 9-3. The Golden Bears closed out the half with another goal that started a 6-0 run to extend their lead to 15-3.

Laura Cavallo and Madeline Dale each had a game-high four goals for the Golden Bears while Liz Reifsnyder joined Cavallo and Dale for a game-high five points. In net, Rasheeda Brenton (Clarence, N.Y.) made nine saves and led the team with seven groundballs.

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2007-02-23