Feb. 23, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
Wednesday, Feb. 25 - STANFORD, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 28 - FRESNO STATE, 1 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Sunday, Feb. 22 - at Saint Mary's (W, 14-13 [2ot])

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC Davis (1-1, 1-1) picked up its first win in wild fashion: recovering from an 8-5 deficit, taking a 13-10 lead with 1:41 remaining, surrendering three goals in a 46-second span to force overtime, then snatching victory on Gina Hoffmire's goal with 0:36 left in the second three-minute OT period... Hoffmire, a sophomore midfielder, enjoyed a strong all-around game, shooting 4-for-6 with an assist, three ground balls, four draw controls and two steals... Junior Molly Lapolla and sophomore Christina Corsa each performed hat tricks, while senior Patrice Clark added 2-0-2 offensive numbers...

Late Addendum: Hoffmire was selected as MPSF Co-Player of the Week, sharing the award with Stanford's Lauren Schmidt... She is the first Aggie to win the honor this season... The last MPSF Player of the Week winner was Katie McMahon, who split the honor with Oregon's Jen May on March 31, 2008.

Another sophomore, goalie Alyssa Cranska, tallied seven saves in 51:01 in the crease... She had two key stops in the second overtime period, including one against an eight-meter attempt... Cranska started the opener vs. Oregon, then gave way to teammate Kjersten Nordmeyer in that game... The roles reversed on Sunday, with Nordmeyer manning the cage for 15 minutes before being relieved by Cranska...

Eight-meter shots (loosely akin to a penalty kick in soccer) played a key role in the win... In addition to Cranska's save in the OT, all three of Lapolla's second-half goals were scored on such opportunities... UC Davis shot 5-for-6 from the arc, a marked improvement from the 0-for-3 against Oregon or the 44-for-122 shot throughout 2008.

UP NEXT: The Aggies host their home opener against Stanford on Wednesday night, then continue the string of MPSF games with Saturday's contest vs. Fresno State... Wednesday's contest will be the first Aggie home game under the lights... In fact, the team will prepare for such conditions with a rare 8 p.m. practice on Monday night.

No. 17 STANFORD (3-1) handily dispatched Oregon (17-5) and Fresno State (20-1) before picking up a 15-10 win over Albany on Wednesday... Lauren Schmidt, Dana Lindsay and Sarah Flynn each scored three goals against the Danes... Stanford then lost to No. 3 Syracuse by a 15-10 final, battling to an 8-8 first half before the Orange scored six straight to open the second... Schmidt scored two goals with three draw controls in Saturday's loss, while sophomore Leslie Foard held a 2-1-3 scoring chart.

Playing in its inaugural season, FRESNO STATE (0-3) seeks its first win after falling to California (19-0), Stanford (20-1) and Canisius (20-1) in its first three contests... The two Bulldog goals thus far have come from Heather Jack, who played club lacrosse at Nevada; and Molly Sovacool, an FSU grad student... The Bulldogs play for head coach Sue Behme, previously of SUNY Geneseo (four years) and Nazareth College (nine years).

HEAD COACH ELAINE JONES:
"The object to overtime is to get that goal early. Patrice [Clark] had a good shot at it, she just hit the crossbar. That was unlucky. In the second overtime, we followed the game plan, possessed it until we worked it down and had our one player drive. Alyssa came up with some big saves in the latter part of the second half then in the overtime."

"It was close yesterday, but the bottom line is that we won the game. That's partially what we take away from it. The other half is that we can't allow teams to come back the way they did. So draw control is important, we'll keep working on that. We also need to be tighter on the cutters. Saint Mary's had opportunities to feed. That's something to work on before we meet other good-feeding teams."

"I want to see continued scoring and better execution, draw controls and defense. We're always working on being cleaner. The main thing is to improve in each game, to execute what we're doing in practice and put that on the field in a game. I definitely felt we were well-prepared for Saint Mary's. I didn't see any of the jitters in the game yesterday."