Oregon Edges Cal, 9-8, For Third Place At Tourney

Friday, May 2

Berkeley, Calif.

1 p.m.

University of Oregon

California (Third Place Game)

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

05/02/08 | Women's Lacrosse

By: GoDucks.com

BERKELEY, Calif. ? The Oregon lacrosse team edged California, 9-8, at Memorial Stadium on Friday to claim third place at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.

The Ducks finish their season 13-7, registering the most victories in the program's short four-year history. The Bears end the year at an even 9-9. Oregon entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed with a 2-3 league record, while Cal was the No. 2 seed after a 4-1 finish in the conference.

Regular-season champion Denver will play Stanford tomorrow in the tournament championship game.

For the third-straight season, Oregon participated in the tournament's third place game, and for the third-straight year, the Ducks were victorious.

Oregon was led by the senior duo of Jana Bradley and Jen May, who each scored two goals for Oregon. The one-goal victory marked the 10th time this season an Oregon game has been decided by just one score. The Ducks are 6-4 in those contests.

Jenny Browne (1 goal), Ilsa van den Berg (1 goal, 1 assist) , Alicia Burkhart (1 goal), Casey Rector (1 goal) and Alex Breiner (1 goal) also scored for Oregon.

The Ducks had a narrow 6-4 advantage at halftime, but the second period saw Cal score the opening three goals to go ahead, 7-6. May scored at the 16:50 mark to even the game, but Cal's Cristen Andrews found the back of the net less than two minutes later with a free position shot.

Trailing by one, van den Berg tied the game with 11:13 on the clock on a free position shot. Browne then put away the game winner on another free position attempt with 6:19 remaining. The Sandwich, Mass., native, finished the tournament with eight points (seven goals, one assist). May (6 goals, 3 assists) and van den Berg (7 goals, 2 assists) led the Ducks at the tournament with nine points apiece.

Oregon junior goalkeeper Anna Poponyak made six saves during the game, including a stop on Cal's Ghillie Little with 34 seconds to go.

Cal's Danni Zuralow and Brittany Aungier each scored one goal and added two assists apiece. Bears' goalkeeper Allie Shropshire allowed six goals in the first half, making just one save before being replaced by Morgan Dyson at halftime. Dyson made seven stops in the final 30 minutes, allowing just three scores.

Friday's third-place game marked the career finale for Oregon's first senior class; Lindsay Killian, Theresa Waldron, Laura Lynch, Liora Lobel, Carrie Bateman, May, Browne and Bradley.

Oregon leads Cal 4-3 in the series, with three of those victories coming in the MPSF Tournament.

QUICK QUACKS: Last season Oregon also used a one-goal win to beat out Cal in the third-place contest, 8-7...junior Ilsa van den Berg set two new single-season records for the Ducks in 2008 with goals (46) and points (64)...she has now led Oregon in points the last two seasons...Theresa Waldron finished the year with 27 assists, leading the team in that category for the second-straight year...for the fourth-straight season Jen May led Oregon in draw controls (51) and caused turnovers (31).