BERKELEY - Senior Liz Reifsnyder scored four goals and two assists in California's 14-5 victory over Le Moyne College on a cloudy Sunday afternoon in Memorial Stadium. The Golden Bears improved their record to 2-0, while the Dolphins fell to 0-1.

Amanda Keegan led Le Moyne with two goals and one assist. Both goalies were busy, as Le Moyne's Samantha Falcone made 21 saves and Cal senior Hilary Lynch had 16 saves.

"I was pleased," Cal head coach Jill Malko said. "We showed a lot of depth throughout our attack, which is nice. And I thought Hilary Lynch had a big game. It's always nice when your keeper can make some big saves, as you're heading into the tough part of the season and you're getting her confidence up. She made some big saves there where it should have been some goals for them, but she stepped up.

"Their goalkeeper is very strong. We had a lot of shots. We just weren't able to finish them. Give credit to their goalkeeper. If you didn't move her or change the level of your shot, she was going to make the save.

"Then Reif took over and all our attackers stepped up. They spread it out and were more calm and poised. And I thought our defenders played very well at the beginning of the game, taking them out of any kind of groove they were trying to get into."

After scoring just 38 seconds into its 18-6 season-opening win over Canisius on Thursday in Berkeley, Cal didn't score until the seventh minute against Le Moyne. Bears junior midfielder Danni Zuralow notched an unassisted goal, her first of the season and first of two on the day.

Another Bear got her first goal of the season and of her career, as freshman defender Alex Tickner tallied an unassisted goal at the 13:11 mark to give Cal a 2-0 lead. At 17:41, Le Moyne's Lauren Byrne scored off a McKenzie Gray assist to cut Cal's lead to 2-1.

But, powered by three straight goals by Reifsnyder, Cal outscored the Dolphins, 5-0, the rest of the first half to take a 7-1 into the break. Sophomore Madeleine Dale, converting a free-position shot at 29:08 and sophomore Brittany Aungier scoring at 29:42 off senior Laura Cavallo's assist, tallied the other Cal goals during that run.

Cavallo opened the second-half scoring, with a strike at 36:27 off a Reifsnyder assist. That gave Cal an 8-1 lead. But the Dolphins, with Keegan collecting both of her goals, scored four of the next six goals to climb within five goals, at 10-5.

The Bears then scored the final four goals of the game, with Cal freshman attacker Tighe Hutchins, from a Tickner assist, scored her second goal of the season to give Cal an 11-5 lead at 46:48. Zuralow, off a free-position shot, Cavallo, off freshman Alyse Kennedy's first-career assist, and Hutchins, from Reifsnyder's assist, scored the game's last three goals.

Cal is back in action when it hosts MPSF opponent UC Davis at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 4, at Memorial Stadium. The Bears also host the STX Invitational, a youth tournament, next Saturday and Sunday at Memorial Stadium and Maxwell Family Field.

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BERKELEY, Calif. – Liz Reifsnyder scored four goals and assisted on two more to lead California to a 14-5 win over Le Moyne in a non-conference women's lacrosse game at Berkeley. Senior Amanda Keegan (Marcellus, N.Y./Marcellus) scored two goals and assisted on another for Le Moyne (0-1).

California (2-0) scored the game's first two goals and opened up a 7-1 lead at the intermission. Lauren Byrne (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Ludden) cut the Le Moyne deficit to 2-1 with 12:19 remaining in the opening half, but Reifsnyder scored three consecutive goals and the Bears closed out the first half with four goals in the final three minutes and three seconds. Le Moyne cut its deficit to 10-5 in the second half, but Cal scored the final four goals of the game to collect its second win over a MAAC opponent this season. The Bears downed Canisius 18-6 in their season opener.

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2007-02-25