Sept. 13, 2012

BERKELEY -

The No. 22 California field hockey team takes to the road for the first time this season. They will square off on Friday, Sep. 15 against the Indiana Hoosiers and finish the trip the next day with a neutral site game against the Missouri State Bears. Both games will be played at 11 a.m.

Bears Finish Homestand Last week, Cal earned its second shutout of the season, blanking the Bryant Bulldogs, 5-0. Lara Kruggel scored three goals in the contest. Caroline Struijk and Jordan O'Reilly added their first tallys of the season. They finished their homestand by losing a heartbreaker in overtime to the Drexel Dragons on Friday, Sep. 7, 3-2. Lara Kruggel and Lauren Livingston scored goals in the effort.

In The Cage Freshman Joelle van Hoorn won the NorPac West Player of the Week Award during the first three weeks of the season. Though she missed out on the award in week three, van Hoorn and the Golden Bears lead the NorPac Conference in goals allowed, having only allowed opponents to score six goals through five games for an average of just 1.20 goals per game. Van Hoorn's two shutouts also tie her for the league lead. Van Hoorn's save percentage of .760 also paces the league. Her goals allowed average of 1.17 is good for ninth in the country. Cal's goals against average is ranked tenth nationally.

Golden Goals Lara Kruggel leads the Bears and the NorPac on the season with seven goals through five games. Last years NorPac Rookie of the Year also leads the NorPac with 1.40 goals per game, and is first in the league with 14 points. Kruggel is third in the league with 24 shots. Kruggel and the Bears lead the league in scoring margin at +1.53. Nationally, Kruggel is fifth in goals per game and seventh in points per game. For her efforts last week, Kruggel was named NorPac West offensive player of the week.

Elmitt Plays, Onstead Coaches in PanAmerican Junior Games Junior midfielder Shannon Elmitt will be missing from the matches this coming weekend as she is representing Canada in the PanAmerican Junior Games. Elmitt and her teammates will need to make the finals in order to qualify for the Junior World Cup. Both tournaments play a big part in the selection for the 2016 Olympic games to be held in Rio de Janeiro. Head coach Shellie Onstead has also left the team for the weekend, as she is also in Guadalajara, Mexico on assignment as the assistant coach of the US squad.