Cal Falls To UAlbany To Open America East Play

ALBANY, NY – The Cal women's field hockey team had their chances early but could not capitalize on the early momentum as host UAlbany defeated the visiting Golden Bears 5-1 on Friday afternoon at Alumni Turf.

Cal (1-6, 0-1 AE) finished the afternoon with six shots, three coming in the opening minute and the final three late in the fourth. Sophomore Sophie Everett scored her first collegiate goal late in the fourth quarter. UAlbany (6-2, 1-0 AE) hounded the Bears with 22 shots on the day, 16 on goal. The Great Danes got a pair of goals from Luisa Knapp and Alison Smisdom.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to Albany, they really put us on the back foot," said the Donna Fong Director of Field Hockey Shellie Onstead. "I think we were sort of unnecessarily frantic and that led to some early errors. I thought we were fine through the first half, I'm not usually concerned about a scoreline. In the second half, we had some really great moments, but it just wasn't sustainable, but we have a pretty clear idea of what we want to work on."

Knapp scored in the opening minute for UALB when she scored on a breakaway, taking a pass from Sophia Schoonmaker, and Knapp scored on the one-on-one opportunity against Cal keeper Cato Knipping.

Cal had three early goal-scoring opportunities, all coming in the opening minutes of the contest. Cal earned three penalty corners in the first 45 seconds. In all three attempts, Jane Onners attempted a shot. The first attempt 26 seconds into the match went wide right and the other two were blocked. The final attempt led to the counter by the Great Danes and the goal by Knapp.  

The remainder of the opening period was quiet until the end when Smisdom scored the Great Danes' second goal of the contest on a penalty corner, taking the feed from Charlotte Triggs and Robyn Murray.

Cal outshot UAlbany 3-2 in the opening period and had a 3-1 advantage on corners, however, it was the Great Danes who took advantage of their opportunities. The second period was quiet with neither team doing much offensively.

In the second half, UALB continued to apply pressure on the Golden Bears' defense. The Great Danes scored three times after the intermission and outshot Cal 18-3 with 13 of those shots on goal.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears doubled their offensive output with three shots including two on goal.

Late in the fourth Caoimhe Byrne fired a shot on goal that was saved by UAlbany keeper Hannah Mangan, however, the Great Danes were not able to clear the ball and Everett took the rebound and blasted a shot past Mangan to get the Bears on the scoreboard.

Knipping was tremendous in front of the cage, finishing the day with 10 saves. It marked her third consecutive game with 10 or more saves. She now has 49 saves on the year and 214 for her career.

"Cato had another really strong performance, she shouldn't be judged by the scoreboard," added Onstead. "We played everybody today and for us, that's really significant, that's going to help us in the future. It was great to see Sophie get her first collegiate goal."

UP NEXT
Cal returns to action on Sunday morning when they make the trip to Providence, R.I. to take on new America East foe Bryant at Providence College. Sunday's game between the Bears and Bulldogs is slated to start at 9:00 a.m. PT. The game will not have video but will have live stats which can be accessed on the Cal field hockey schedule page.
 
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