UC Davis welcomed the best and the newest competition the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has to offer to Aggie Stadium last week.
Defending champion No. 16 Stanford came to Davis on Wednesday, followed by the last-place team in the division of first-year programs, Fresno State, on Saturday. The Aggies split the homestand in expected fashion, losing to the Cardinal and easily dispersing of the Bulldogs.
Wednesday – Stanford 20, UC Davis 3
UC Davis could not open Aggie Stadium with a win for the 2009 campaign.
Coming off a double-overtime victory against St. Mary’s, the Aggies couldn’t hang with a higher level of competition on Wednesday, falling to the Cardinal, 20-3.
“I think our team had moments where we did really well,“ said coach Elaine Jones. “Stanford is a good team and we’re just going to keep working hard.”
Christina Corsa scored the only Aggie goal of the first period, as UC Davis went into the half down 14-1.
The Aggies came out fighting in the second period. Molly Lapolla scored her second goal of the half by denying Cardinal keeper Annie Read on the clearance, scooping the ball off the turf and scoring it.
“We kind of hoped it would be a bigger momentum shifter,” Lapolla said.
The Aggies showed they could hang with the Cardinal in the second half. Stanford left its starters in for the duration of the game’s second session despite the big lead, but only outscored UC Davis 6-2 in the period.
“It was a tough game,” Lapolla said. “It’s good to play against these teams because we can learn from them.“
“We have a lot of season ahead of us,” Jones said. “We are working our way up.“
Saturday – UC Davis 15, Fresno State 3
Coming off of a tough loss to Stanford, it was UC Davis‘ turn to score big on Saturday against Fresno State.
While there was noticeably more Bulldog red than Aggie blue at the Stadium, giving Fresno State plenty of bark but little bite to back it up, UC Davis breezed to a 15-3 win.
Unfortunately for those who made the trip from Fresno, they did not see the Bulldogs get their first win. They did, however, get to see the Aggies put their dynamic offense on display. UC Davis jumped on Fresno State quickly, scoring the games first 10 goals and finishing the first half up 11-1.
Seven different players scored for the Aggies. Patrice Clark and Britt Farquharson each had hat tricks, while Christina Corsa, Gina Hoffmire and Lapolla added two goals a piece.
Rachael Martinez and Jacklyn Taylor each found the back of the net once Saturday, as UC Davis had it’s highest scoring game of the season.
The Aggies also allowed the fewest goals of any game this season, thanks to aggressive defense from Megan Doyle and Eri Ishikawa.
“It’s always fun to win,” Farquharson said. “It was a team effort. We were working together and we were having fun.“
The Aggies hope to bottle up the good vibrations of victory and take it with them to Berkeley, where they’ll face the California Golden Bears on Sunday.
JOHN HELLER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
