Senior Captain's OT Goal Helps Dragons Complete Golden State Sweep

Monday, September 1

Berkeley, Calif.

4:00 p.m. (EST)

Drexel University

Cal

Senior Captain's OT Goal Helps Dragons Complete Golden State Sweep

9/1/2008 8:53:08 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

Berkeley, Calif. – The Drexel Field Hockey team completed a historic west coast road trip as the Dragons downed California, 2-1, in overtime behind an Amanda Kicera (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Township) goal. The win sent the Dragons' record to 2-0 on the season while Cal dropped to 1-1 in 2008. The Dragons defeated Stanford two days earlier, 3-1. Drexel used five different players to score their five goals this season.

The Dragons wasted little time getting on the scoreboard against Cal. Less than three minutes into the game, Drexel earned its first penalty corner of the game. Kim Tunell (Wilmington, Del./Concord) took a direct shot off the corner that was saved then touched illegally by a Cal defender giving Drexel another penalty corner. This time on the corner, Tunell sent the ball to her left where Jennifer Bolger (Berlin, N.J./Eastern Regional) sent a shot wide to Jen Cairone (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) who was sitting on the right post. Cairone deflected the ball into the cage to stake the Dragons to an early lead.

Sofia Sanguinetti (Montevideo, Uruguay/The British School) broke up a breakaway seven minutes later as Ashley Glosz carried the ball into the arc. The Golden Bears continued mounting pressure on the Dragons every time the visitors attempted to clear the ball out of their defensive zone. With 11 minutes remaining, Carolina Bistue drag flicked a shot off a penalty corner to the left post that was saved out of the air by a diving McAndrew to keep the Golden Bears off the scoreboard. With 5:20 to go in the opening stanza, Cal finally broke through on a penalty corner as Erin McGill fired a shot straight off of a settle at the top of the arc. Just two minutes later, Cal nearly took the lead as a shot on their next penalty corner shot off the left post and rolled across the goal line but went out-of-bounds on the sideline.

Both teams had chances in the second half but were unable to convert. With 17:40 remaining in the game Carolina Gibernau (Montevideo, Uruguay/Universidad de la Republica) collected the ball in the middle and whirled around for a reverse shot that was on target but turned away by Kelly Knoche's blocker in mid-air.

With the teams unable to settle the evenly matched game in regulation, the game moved to overtime. Less than two minutes into the extra session, Kim Tunell made a clean tackle at midfield and sent the ball ahead to a sprinting Susan Ciufo. The sophomore forward carried the ball into the arc and sent a pass from the right side of the arc to a cutting Amanda Kicera. The Cal goalie charged to intercept the pass but only deflected it slightly as Kicera calmly one-timed the ball into the empty cage to give the Dragons the victory. For Kicera, Drexel's leading scorer in 2007, the tally was her first career overtime goal, third game-winning goal and tenth career goal.

Cal held a 10-7 edge in penalty corners and a 12-9 advantage in shots for the game. Colleen McAndrew (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) was once again solid in goal for the Dragons as she made 10 saves on the day. She now has 16 saves this season with a goals against average less than 1.00. Knoche made six saves for the Golden Bears.