BERKELEY, Calif. - Despite a valiant second-half comeback, California fell to Connecticut, 13-12, in a non-conference game on Friday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. The Golden Bears fell to 3-1 with the loss, while the Huskies improved to 4-1. "I'm proud of the way they battled," Cal head coach Jill Malko said of her team. "They showed a lot of intensity in the end. You've got to give them credit for coming back in this game, and, who knows? Another 30 seconds and we may have sent this game to overtime."

Junior Danni Zuralow led Cal in scoring with five points (3 goals, 2 assists) and senior teammate Laura Cavallo scored four goals. Connecticut's Shannon Burke led all scorers with eight points (4, 4). Cal outshot UConn, 31-23, and dominated the draw controls, 20-8. Cavallo and sophomore teammate Madeleine Dale collected five draw controls each.

Zuralow scored just 24 seconds into the game, off senior Liz Reifsnyder's assist, to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. After a goal by UConn's Kim McGinty at the 1:19 mark, Cavallo scored two goals to give the Bears a 3-1 lead. The Huskies scored the game's next three goals, with one from Kristin Link and two from Burke, to give UConn a 4-3 lead. After a UConn foul at 24:11, Cavallo converted a free-position shot to send the teams into halftime with a 4-4 tie.

Link gave the Huskies a 5-4 lead with a strike at 32:36. But the Bears scored the next four goals over a span of one minute and 51 seconds - with junior Mary Down contributing two goals and one assist - and Cal took an 8-5 lead at the 34:30 mark. "Mary Downs really put the ball in the net and did some nice things for us," Malko said. "We caught them offguard in transition, and then they did a nice job of taking care of the tempo. They recognized that they really needed to slow it down, and they did."

UConn took a timeout and then scored the game's next three goals to tie the game at 8-8. After a Cavallo goal gave Cal a 9-8 lead at 39:25, the Huskies scored five straight times to lead 13-9. Zuralow scored her final goal at 53:48 and Reifsnyder scored Cal's final two goals, the last one with 1:45 remaining. But the Bears were unable to draw even.

Cal plays two games next week, hosting Colgate at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13, and William & Mary at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 15.

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BERKELEY, Calif. (March 9, 2007) - Senior Shannon Burke (Camillus, N.Y.) tallied four goals and four assists as the University of Connecticut women's lacrosse team staved off a second-half comeback to earn the 13-12 win over California Friday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. With the victory, the Huskies stay a perfect 6-0 in the state of California and move to 4-1 on the season, while the Bears pick up their first loss of the year and fall to 3-1 overall.

UConn was also led by fellow seniors Kristin Link (Slingerlands, N.Y.) and Janet Williams (Reisterstown, Md.), who each tallied hat tricks, and sophomore Kim McGinty (East Rochester, N.Y.) with her third consecutive multi-goal game. On defense, Laura Trzasko (Plainsboro, N.J.) dominated play for the Huskies, causing three turnovers, while freshman goalkeeper Jenna Moulton (East Rochester, N.Y.) was stellar between the pipes, making a career-high 13 saves.

The Bears pulled out to an early 3-0 lead over the first 9:19 of action, but the Huskies went on a 4-0 run to pull ahead by one with 7:01 to go in the opening period. Burke scored two goals in this stretch, putting back an unassisted tally and a free position opportunity just :36 apart. After another goal for the Bears, the teams then entered halftime tied at 4-4.

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2007-03-10