No. 1 Cal Poly Pounces on No. 15 Arizona 11-4 in Opening Game of 2010 Women's National Collegiate Club Championship

TUCSON, Ariz. -- 2007 & 2008 National Collegiate Club Championship Most Valuable Player Sarah Ur (Jr., Lompoc, Calif.) of two-time defending National Champion and No. 1-nationally-ranked California Polytechnic State University started her run for an unprecedented third MVP honor with six goals to earn Player of the Game honors in an 11-4 victory over host and No. 15-ranked the University of Arizona in the opening game of the 2010 Women's National Collegiate Club Championship.

The Mustangs, who are looking to become the first team since the 2003-04-05 Cal Poly squads to capture three consecutive National Collegiate Club titles, opened their title defense and hunt with back-to-back tallies by Kristy Avis (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) and Ur at the 4:45 and 3:55 marks of the first period, respectively, to build a lead the squad would never relinquish.

Arizona halved its deficit before the end of the period as Patricia White (Sr., Tucson, Ariz.) dashed through the Cal Poly defense to cash in on an exclusion chance at the 2:42 mark to make it 2-1 through seven minutes of play.

However, the Mustangs' defense locked down on the Wildcats' shooters in the second period, while Cal Poly's offense reignited with a natural scored by Ur at 5:18 and another even-strength marker by Kelley Gause (Jr., San Jose, Calif.) with 48 ticks remaining in the first half to give the Green & Gold a 4-1 advantage at intermission.

The deficit expanded quickly for Arizona in the opening minutes of the third period as Erika Bigbie (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) whipped home a man-up tally at 5:40 before Ur completed a hat-trick at 4:15 and started work on her second with an exclusion score at 1:22 to push the lead out to 7-1.  Ur netted her fifth marker 49 seconds later at the 42 seconds mark to make it 8-1 before Ashley Gucinski (Gr., Naperville, Ill.) found the back of the cage with a heave with 27 seconds remaining in the period to pull Arizona to within 8-2.

Cal Poly insured victory with back-to-back scores by Casey Clark (Fr., Agoura Hills, Calif.) and Ur at the 6:38 and 4:39 marks of the fourth period, respectively, to make it 10-2.  Arizona chipped away at the lead with tallies by White and Gucinski at 3:21 and 1:01 before Clark closed out the scoring with 36 seconds left on the game clock for the 11-4 final.

In cage, Noelle Wondergem (Jr., Arroyo Grande, Calif.) picked up the victory for Cal Poly with six stops, while Ashley Francis (Jr., Eugene, Ore.) also blocked away six shots in taking the loss.

Cal  Poly advances a 9:00 a.m. showdown the winner of a first round game between No. 16 Texas A&M University and No. 2 University of California-Los Angeles for a berth in the semifinals, while Arizona will be back in action this evening at 9:50 p.m. against the loser of the Texas A&M-UCLA contest.

Arizona Goals: Patricia White (2); Ashley Gucinski (2)

Cal Poly Goals: Sarah Ur (6); Kristy Avis (2); Erika Bigbie; Casey Clark; Kelley Gause

Saves: Arizona - Ashley Francis (6) ; Cal Poly - Noelle Wondergem (6)

Exclusions: Arizona - 5 ; Cal Poly -1

Advantage Opportunities: Arizona - 1-for-1 ; Cal Poly - 2-for-5

Sprints: Arizona - 3-for-4 ; Cal Poly - 1-for-4