FRESNO, Calif. — In its two previous trips to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship match, the UC Davis women's lacrosse team came up empty.
The Aggies would not be denied a third time.
Sorana Larson,
Maddie Myers, and
Anna Hofgard, each tallied five goals on the day and top-seeded UC Davis used a second-half offensive explosion to break open a one-goal contest, cruising to a 23-13 victory over host and No. 3-seeded Fresno State in the MPSF title tilt on Saturday afternoon at the Fresno State Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium.
Larson was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, headlining a list of six Aggies on the all-tournament squad along with Hofgard,
Alex Agnew,
Taylor Mathieson,
Anna Belenis, and
Annie Dalton, as the Aggies improved to 12-4 on the year and laid claim to their first-ever MPSF championship.
The 12 wins are the most for the UC Davis program since the 2004 squad finished 12-5 overall.
Following a nip-and-tuck first 30 minutes, UC Davis opened the floodgates to start the second period, scoring six straight goals — and eight of the first nine in the half — to build an 18-10 advantage it would not relinquish, outscoring the Bulldogs by a 13-4 count overall after the break.
Fresno State, on the other end, was held off the scoreboard for the decisive first 10 minutes of the second half, turning the ball four times and limited to just five shots in that span. The Bulldogs played most of the second period without leading scorer Sydney Skalstad, who picked up her second yellow card with 23 minutes to play and the Aggies pulling away.
In collecting her team-best 12th hat trick, Larson's five goals give her 65 on the year, moving her into third place on the school's single-season list, while her six points on the day bumped her total to 81 for the year, matching Katie McMahon for third on the single-season chart.
Meanwhile, Myers' five goals earned the MPSF Player of the Year her 10th hat trick this season, while Hofgard's five scores were a career high en route to her fourth hat trick of the year.
Kendall Seifert added four more goals to her total, clinching her seven hat trick of the season, while Agnew added three more scores to go with a pair of assists for her eighth hat trick this year.
Kaley Stunz, who scored midway through the first half for a four-goal advantage at the time, accounted for the Aggies final score of the day.
Mathieson finished with nine saves in net for UC Davis, five of those coming in the second half after she reentered the game and helped shut down the Fresno State offense, and moved into a tie with Jordan Majka (2011-14) for fifth on the school's career list in the process with 253 stops.
Defender
Ally Deremer scooped up a game-high five ground balls, with four each in the pockets of Larson, Dalton, and Belenis, while
Kate Graham got the offense started with a match-high eight draw controls — falling just one shy of Elizabeth Landry's single-season record. Dalton and
Julie Byrne added a pair of caused turnovers each, accounting for four of the Aggies' 10 on the day.
After surrendering the first goal of a back-and-forth first half, UC Davis quickly answered with three straight to take their first lead, but it didn't last long. Fresno State answered with back-to-back scores and thought it had a third before a stick violation wiped the go-ahead goal off the board.
Myers broke the tie and Larson added another on an 8-meter shot for a 5-4 advantage, forcing a Bulldogs' timeout. The Aggies didn't miss a beat after the break, as Larson and Myers went back-to-back for three goals in the span of 22 seconds, and Stunz added her score for an 8-4 advantage with 11:28 to play.
Fresno State then found a groove, answering UC Davis' burst with a four-goal spurt of its own to tie the match at eight apiece as both teams went blow-for-blow to close out the first half. Seifert scored to break the tie, only to have the Bulldogs' Megan Walaitis answer to tie the game once again. It wasn't until Myers found the back of the net on an eight-meter attempt to complete her hat trick and give the Aggies a 10-9 lead at the half.
UC Davis finished with a 47-37 shot advantage — 36 of those on goal — and finished 6-of-8 in free position attempts compared to Fresno State's 3-for-8 from the 8-meter line. The Aggies also corralled 27 ground balls — the fifth time this season that they have had 20-or-more ground balls in a match this year.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
