PASADENA, Calif. – California lost to No. 13 Notre Dame, 18-8, in its second and last game of the East West Challenge on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Golden Bears' record falls to 2-3 after the non-conference game, while Notre Dame improves to 4-2.

On Thursday, Cal beat Temple, 10-7, in its first game of the East West Challenge. The Irish lost to MPSF team Oregon, 14-13, on Thursday.

Against the Irish, Cal got two goals each from senior attacker Brittany Aungier, sophomore midfielder Alyse Kennedy and sophomore midfielder Alex Tickner and one goal each from senior attacker Danni Zuralow and junior defender Sam Price.

Junior goalkeeper Erin Goodman made 12 saves and junior midfielder Jillian Byers scored five goals and collected six draw controls for Notre Dame.

Next week, Cal hosts nationally ranked Pennsylvania at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday and hosts Quinnipiac at noon on Friday at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

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Pasadena, Calif. -- The Notre Dame women's lacrosse team closed out its Spring Break trip to California on Saturday afternoon with an 18-8 win over the University of California at the Rose Bowl.

Junior Jane Stoeckert (Mendham, N.J.) helped the Irish to a 12-4 halftime lead as she scored four goals and added an assist to lead three Notre Dame players with five-point games. Senior Caitlin McKinney (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) with three goals and two assists and sophomore Gina Scioscia (Summit, N.J.) added a pair of goals with three assists for her career-best five-point game. Junior Jillian Byers (Northport, N.Y.) added five points while Heather Ferguson (Sr., Newtown Square, Pa.), Alicia Billings (Jr., Potomac, Md.), Kaitlin Keena (Fr., Vienna, Va.), Jackie Doherty (Fr., Ellicott City, Md.) and Shaylyn Blaney (Fr., Stony Brook, N.Y.) added single goals in the game.

California was led by Brittany Aungier, Alex Tickner and Alyse Kennedy with two goals each. DennaFaye Herald and Danni Zuralow added single goals for the Golden Bears.

The victory snapped a two-game California losing streak for the 13th-ranked Irish as they improve to 4-2 on the season. California falls to 2-3 on the year. Notre Dame is now 5-0 all-time against the Golden Bears.

After dropping a heartbreaking 14-13 decision to Oregon on Thursday night after giving up two goals in the final 15 seconds, Notre Dame scored early and often on the way to a 12-4 lead at halftime, the team's biggest offensive output in the first 30 minutes all season.

Stoeckert led the way, scoring twice in the first four minutes along with McKinney and Billings to build a fast 4-0 lead. The teams traded the next five goals with Cal getting three from Aungier, Herald and Zuralow while McKinney and Stoeckert were scoring for the Irish to make it 6-3 Notre Dame with 13:09 left in the half. The Irish closed out the first half with six of the final seven goals. Byers with two, joined McKinney, Stoeckert, Scioscia and Doherty to build the 12-4 lead. Heather Ferguson assisted on three first-half goals and had four points on the afternoon.

In the second half, the Irish would score just six times, but the defense held the Golden Bears to just four goals as goalkeeper Erin Goodman (Jr., Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) would finish the game with 12 saves. California would score three of the first five goals of the second stanza to make it 14-7 at the 15:49 mark, but that was as close as the Bears would get.

Notre Dame ran off four of the last five goals in the game as Byers added two more and Blaney and Keena got single goals for the final of 18-8. The 10-goal margin of victory was the second-largest for the Irish this season surpassed by the 12-goal margin Notre Dame had in its 22-10 season-opening win against Canisius.

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2008-03-08