Box Score Stockton, Calif. – The Pacific Tigers won for the 12th time in their last 13 games today, defeating the California Golden Bears 3-1 at home to move to 12-4 on the season. Marguerite van Wyk scored two goals for Pacific, putting her fourth in the nation with 17 on the year.
Laura Pujade stopped four of the five shots she saw in the game to pick up her 12th win this season.
Early action started with the Tigers earning a penalty corner seven minutes into the game. Van Wyk's shot off that corner went just high over the crossbar, the only real scoring chance in the game's first 15 minutes. Van Wyk would have two more shots at 16:05 and 16:10 that were saved away.
Despite a dangerous sequence of prolonged possession by Cal, the Tigers counterattacked and got the game's first goal at 32:58. A foul set up Savannah Burns at a harsh angle near the goal. Burns' quick pass along the ground was tipped up and into the goal by Ali Campos to give Pacific the lead.
That goal gave Campos nine this season and gave Burns her tenth assist. That makes Burns the second Tiger with double-digit totals in both goals and assists, joining van Wyk.
Pacific struck again at 52:42 to increase their lead to two. Emma Leach sent a stretch pass to van Wyk down the sideline. The sophomore then carried the ball into the center of the circle and let off a backhand shot on the run that beat the goalie.
The Golden Bears went without a goalie with eight minutes left in the game to try and make up their two-goal deficit.
Just a few seconds later, van Wyk scored in the empty net to put the game away. Rylee Comeau was able to break away into a foot race with the kicking back, then threaded a pass to van Wyk. Van Wyk beat the only other defender back and deposited the ball for her second goal of the day.
That gave van Wyk her fifth multi-goal game of the year. The assist, Comeau's third, matched her assist total from last season as well.
Cal was able to add one goal as time wound down but couldn't do enough to get the game close. Melina Moore scored for the Golden Bears. Her first shot was blocked hard off a stick but bounced right back to her. Moore was then able to fire away before Pujade could scramble back into position.
The win puts Pacific in a tie for first place with Stanford in the America East West Division. Both teams have two conference games remaining, one each against UC Davis and Cal.
Pacific will play its last home game of the regular season this Sunday, taking on UC Davis at 2:00 pm.
Make sure to follow Pacific field hockey on Twitter with the username @PacificTigersFH and on Instagram at pacifictigersfh.
