 |  |
Make It Three: No. 1 Cal Poly Claims Third Straight National Collegiate Club Title with 6-5 Victory Against No. 4 Michigan
TUCSON, Ariz. -- 2010 National Collegiate Club Championship Most Valuable Player Sarah Ur (Jr., Lompoc, Calif.) recorded a hat-trick to lead all scorers and earn Player of the Game honors as No. 1-ranked California Polytechnic State University managed No. 4 University of Michigan 6-5 to claim the program's third consecutive national championship.
The Mustangs become the first program since the 2003-04-05 Cal Poly squads to win three straight championships. In addition, Cal Poly picked up its sixth overall title as the Mustangs have appeared in eight of the past nine title games defeating Michigan State University (2003), Dartmouth College (2004, 2005), University of Oregon (2008), University of Notre Dame (2009) and Michigan (2010), while falling to Michigan State (2002) and California State University-Fresno (2007).
Led by Ur, who becomes the first player in the history of the National Collegiate Club Championship (NCCC) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to win three consecutive championship tournament Most Valuable Player awards, the Mustangs built a 3-0 lead and were able to hang on for the victory.
Kate Warner (So., Lafayette, Calif.) opened the scoring with 4:33 left in the first period before Kelley Gause (Jr., San Jose, Calif.) added markers at 4:12 and 1:32 to stake the Mustangs to a 3-0 lead.
Michigan cut the lead to a pair of scores by the end of the period as Clio Finnegan (Fr., Ann Arbor, Mich.) skipped a shot past goalie Noelle Wondergem (Jr., Arroyo Grande, Calif.) with 14 ticks on the clock.
Cal Poly returned the margin to a trio of scoring shots as Ur racked up her team's fourth goal with 3:47 left in the second period. Needing to maintain a reasonable distance to have a chance at downing the Mustangs in the second half, the Wolverines turned to Anne-Lise Maag (Gr., Menlo Park, Calif.) who converted on a 6-on-5 opportunity to set the scoreboard at 4-2 at halftime.
Finnegan struck again for Michigan to open the second half deking and dumping a shot into the cage at the 5:48 mark of the third period to inch the Wolverines to within one at 4-3. However, Ur would not be denied cashed in on a man-up opportunity to make it 5-3 before the Maize & Blue's Jessie Carr (Jr., Palo Alto, Calif.) struck for a score to pull the Wolverines to within one.
Michigan tied the game with 17 seconds remaining in the period as Maag scored off an exclusion to make it 5-5 with a period to play.
However, the Cal Poly defense stiffened and Ur completed a hat-trick with the game-winning goal at the 2:46 mark for the win and the program's sixth national championship.
Noelle Wondergem (Jr., Arroyo Grande, Calif.) picked up the win for Cal Poly making five save in the championship effort, while Michigan's Kathryn Godlewski (Sr., Troy, Mich.) swatted down nine shots for the Wolverines.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -- | Final | |
| No. 4 University of Michigan | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -- | 5 |
| No. 1 California Polytechnic State University | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- | 6 |
Cal Poly Goals: Sarah Ur (3); Kelley Gause (2); Kate Warner
Michigan Goals: Anne-Lise Maag (2); Clio Finnegan (2); Jessie Carr
Saves: Cal Poly - Noelle Wondergem (5) ; Michigan - Kathryn Godlewski (9)
Exclusions: Cal Poly - 5 ; Michigan - 5
Advantage Opportunities: Cal Poly - 1-for-5 ; Michigan - 2-for-5
Sprints: Cal Poly - 0-for-4 ; Michigan- 4-for-4
