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No. 8 Arizona Edges No. 17 Boston College 8-5 in Opening Round of National Collegiate Club Championship
DAVIS, Calif. -- Rachel Rodia (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz.) recorded a hat-trick to earn Player of the Game honors as the No. 8 ranked University of Arizona Wildcats stopped No. 17 Boston College 8-5 in the opening round of the 2009 National Collegiate Club Championship at the University of California-Davis. Cameron Kliner (Gr., Los Angeles, Calif.) added a pair of goals as Arizona advances to take on either No. 10 University of Pennsylvania or No. 18 New York University at 10:10 a.m. on May 2.
Arizona never trailed in the game as Rodia opened the scoring at 1:08 into the contest with an even strength marker at the 5:52 mark of the first period before the Eagles' Kristina Norrgard (Fr., Greenwich, Conn.) responded at 4:24 to knot the game at 1-1. The Wildcats went back in front at 2-1 on another marker by Rodia with 2:16 left in the period, but BC came back to tie the game with 59 seconds left when Mackenzie Campbell (So., Foster City, Calif.) found the back of the cage. However, Arizona exited the period with the lead as Jennifer Shah (Sr., Yuma, Ariz.) tallied her lone marker of the day with 34 seconds left in the period for a 3-2 lead after seven minutes of play.
Boston College retied the game exactly one minute into the second period when Torie Pascoe (Sr., Tacoma, Wash.) split the Wildcats' defense to net an advantage goal. The pattern continued through the end of the first half as Arizona's Patricia White (Jr., Tucson, Ariz.) scored at 3:50 to put the Wildcats back in front and Norrgard countered with a goal at the 38 seconds mark to set the score at 4-4 at the end of the first half.
Neither team seemed unable to pull away in the third period as Kliner scored on an exclusion chance at 3:53 and Campbell responded with a natural goal at 1:07 to push the stalemate up to 5-5.
However, Arizona took advantage of a BC mistake with 43 seconds left in the frame as Rodia buried an exlcusion goal to go ahead 6-5 at the end of the period.
The goal would prove to be the game-winner as the Arizona defense, led by netminder Ashley Francis (So., Eugene, Ore.), locked down, while Kilner (5:14) and Abby Tsukamoto (Fr., Orange County, Calif.) (1:36, exclusion-score) tallied insurance markers for the 8-5 final.
In cage, Francis stopped five shots to pick up the win for Arizona, while Lia Breuning (So., Walnut Creek, Calif.) swatted away four shots for Boston College.
BC will continue the tournament at 6:20 p.m. this evening (Friday, May 1) against the loser of the Penn-NYU game.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| No. 17 Boston College | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| No. 8 University of Arizona | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
Arizona Goals:
Rachel Rodia (3); Cami Kliner (2); Jennifer Shah; Abby Tsukamoto;
Patricia White
BC Goals: Mackenzie Campbell (2); Kristina Norrgard (2); Torie Pascoe
Saves: Arizona - Ashley Francis (5) ; BC - Lia Breuning (4)
Ejections: Arizona - 5 ; BC - 9
Sprints: Arizona - 0 ; BC - 4
