Oct. 27, 2001
Berkeley, Calif. - No. 17 California (10-4, 5-1 NorPac) earned a share of the regular season NorPac title with a thrilling 1-0 victory over No. 20 Stanford (9-7, 5-1 NorPac) in the final regular season game of the year for both teams at Kleeberger Field on Saturday. Nora Feddersen scored the only goal of the game unassisted with 11:17 remaining in the second overtime. The defeat was Stanford's first of the year in NorPac action and snapped a Cardinal six-game win streak, as well as an eight-game string of victories against NorPac opponents.
The Golden Bears earned the top seed in the NorPac West Division for the NorPac tournament, which runs from November 1-3 at Appalachian State in Boone, North Carolina. The Cardinal and Golden Bears split their two regular season games with both teams winning 1-0 on their respective home field. The tiebreaker used to determine the tournament's seeding was the performance of each team against common non-conference opponents. Both clubs played Delaware in non-conference games with California winning, 2-1, and Stanford falling by a 1-0 score to the Blue Hens.
Stanford finishes the regular season as the NorPac's co-champion and will be the No. 2 seed from the NorPac West in the conference tournament. The Cardinal will face Radford, the No. 3 seed from the NorPac East, in the first game of the tournament on Thursday, November 1 (9:30 a.m., ET). California faces Davidson, the No. 4 seed from the East, on Thursday at 1:30 p.m., ET. Other first round matchups on Thursday are scheduled between Southwest Missouri State (No. 1 East) and Saint Louis (No. 4 West) at 11:30 a.m., ET, as well as Pacific (No. 3 West) against host Appalachian State (No. 2 East) at 8:00 p.m., ET.
Both teams had opportunities to score in regulation Saturday.
Stanford's Liz Ott had a penalty stroke thwarted by Golden Bear goalkeeper Emily Rowen with 24:47 remaining in the first half. The Cardinal also had six penalty corners in the first half.
California had seven shots in the first overtime but Cardinal goalkeeper Rebecca Shapiro stopped four and the Golden Bears missed on the other three.