Sports
Girls Lax: Cal Comfortable in NCS First-Round Win
Campolindo no match for Grizzlies in North Coast Section playoffs
California 15, Campolindo 10
Records: Caifornia 13-8, Campolindo 12-9
The Star: Senior Courtney Randall helped lead the Grizzlies past the Cougars, with five goals on the night. Two of her scores came in the last six minutes of the game to close out the Cal win.
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The Turning Point: With seven minutes left in the game, Campolindo pulled to within points. But Cal sophomore Jenna Herana's goal with 6:37 left on the clock put the Grizzlies up 12-9. It was the first of four unanswered goals the Grizzlies would score in the final seven minutes to seal the victory.
The Quote: "We played well enough to win, but if we want to go farther in NCS — and play against teams like Foothill or Monte Vista — we're going to have to pick it up," Cal coach Scott Corso said. "Our effort was there, we just didn't execute every time."
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Who's Next?: Cal will play at Foothill in the quarterfinals on Friday at 5 p.m.
The Bottom Line: The fifth-seeded Grizzlies held a comfortable lead for most of the game against No. 12 Campolindo, but didn't have their best performance. Though Cal had enough athleticism to move on to the second round of the playoffs, they'll need to stop making mistakes in the defensive third in order to continue their NCS run.
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The California High girls lacrosse team took its first step toward repeating its 2009 playoff run which brought the team to the North Coast Section finals.
Despite not playing at the top of its game, Cal still beat Campolindo 15-10 in the first round on Wednesday.
"We played well enough to win," Cal coach Scott Corso said. "But if we want to go farther in NCS — and play against teams like Foothill or Monte Vista — we're going to have to pick it up. Our effort was there, we just didn't execute every time."
After giving up the first goal of the game, the Grizzlies took an early lead and led 9-5 at halftime.
The closest Campolindo came to tying it up was with nine minutes left in the game when the Cougars snuck in two goals in less than a minute to make it 11-9. After an impressive goal by Cal sophomore Jenna Herana, who finished with two goals and two assists, the Grizzlies were back control of the game.
In the last six minutes, Cal closed out its victory with four-straight goals. Two of them came from senior Courtney Randall, who led the Grizzlies with five goals.
"I haven't been scoring a lot lately, so it's good to be back on a scoring streak," she said.
Though the Grizzlies were able to put the ball in the net, they still struggled in other areas of play. According to senior captain Stacy Corich, the team didn't get many of the draws, an important part to keeping possession.
"We played pretty well, but definitely not at our best," Corich said. "It's the little things we need to work on, especially cleaning up our game play."
Despite some sloppy play, the Grizzlies overall worked well as a team. Corso said Cal's depth gave it the opportunity to give its players a rest, a luxury Campolindo didn't have.
Rachel Ozer, who will play lacrosse at Stanford next year, had four goals and two assists, and was helped along by junior Eliza Pedder who scored two goals and had an assist.
"Our girls played well," said Campolindo assistant Peter Hofmann, who took the place of head coach Mike Shumate for the game. "We just ran out of pep towards the end and we didn't end up having everything go our way."
The Grizzlies advance to the NCS quarterfinals and will travel to fourth-seeded Foothill for a 5 p.m. match on Friday. The Falcons beat Berkeley 18-6 in their first-round game.
