Eastwood Scores Four as No. 1 Cal Poly Escapes No. 4 Michigan 9-7 in National Collegiate Club Championship Quarterfinals

Kat Godlewski goes up to make a save as Merideth Segovia tries to block the shot

DAVIS, Calif. --  Roxanne Eastwood (Jr., Riverside, Calif.) scored four goals to lead No. 1 California Polytechnic State University to a dramatic comeback win over No. 4 University of Michigan in the quarterfinals of the 2009 National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of California-Davis. Cal Poly advances to face either No. 8 University of Arizona or No. 10 University of Pennsylvania this evening (Saturday, May 2) at 8:40 p.m. in the semifinals with a berth in the national title game on the line.

Trailing 5-3 at halftime, the Mustangs erased the deficit and took a two-goal lead in the third period with four unanswered tallies, including three by Eastwood.  

She opened her one-woman show by collecting a loose ball in front of the cage and depositing a shot 30 seconds into the period, before Kate Warner (Fr., Lafeyette, Calif.) registered a counter-attack goal at 4:55 to tie the game at 5-5.

Eastwood struck again at 3:13 with a backhanded goal with Michigan netminder Kat Godlewski (Jr., Troy, Mich.) and a defender strung on her back to give the Mustangs a 6-5 lead.  She added an insurance tally before the end of the period with a man-up goal inside the near post at the 1:12 mark to push the advantage to 7-5 with the seven-minute fourth period to play.

Michigan rallied back to erase the margin in the first four minutes of the last period as Sarah Peterson (Jr., East Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Merideth Segovia (So., East Grand Rapids, Mich.) connected on long-distance lob shots at 6:16 and 3:07, respectively, to knot the game at 7-7.

However, the defending National Champion Mustangs had one more trick left in the bag as Eastwood connected on a sweep shot from set for her fourth and final goal of the day at the 2:48 mark for the game-winner.

Facing a potential Michigan comeback to tie the game and force overtime, 2008 National Player of the Year Sarah Ur (So., Lompoc, Calif.) accepted a crossing-pass on the left-side and buried the ball into the cage on an advantage chance at the 1:52 mark for insurance as the Mustangs held on for the two-goal victory.

The game was a story of swings as Michigan went in front 2-0 midway through the first period as Peterson drilled a shot into the upper-right 90 of the cage at 4:31 and Jacque Gowin (Sr., Santa Clara, Calif.) flipped a backhand shot past Cal Poly goalie Hayley Chilton (So., Santa Barbara, Calif.) at 3:46 to hand the Wolverines a two-goal advantage.

Cal Poly tied the game-up before the end of the first period as Ur lofted a shot into the cage at 3:28 and torqued a spinning shot into the upper left 90 of the cage at 1:42 to even the game at 2-all.

The Wolverines regained a two-goal lead to open the second period and pushed the margin to three by the end of the frame as Anne-Lise Maag (Med., Menlo Park, Calif.) side-armed a shot into the upper right corner of the cage at 6:41 and fired a point-blank shot into the netting at 4:07.  Following a bar down by Kelley Gause (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) at 3:44 to move Cal Poly back to within 4-3, Segovia closed out the first half scoring with a rocket over the head and off the fingertips of Chilton with 26 seconds left on the second period clock for a 5-3 Wolverines' lead at the break.

In cage, the Mustangs' Chilton and Noelle Wondergem (So., Arroyo Grande, Calif.) combined for seven saves, while Godlewski corralled 11 saves for Michigan.

Michigan will continue the tournament at 6:20 p.m. tonight against the loser of a second round game between Arizona and Penn with a berth in the fifth place game at stake.

Cal Poly Goals: Roxanne Eastwood (4); Sarah Ur (3); Kelly Gause; Kate Warner

Michigan Goals: Anne-Lise Maag (2); Sarah Peterson (2); Merideth Segovia (2); Jacque Gowin;

Saves: Cal Poly - Hayley Chilton (4, 14 minutes), Noelle Wondergrem (3, 14 minutes) ; Michigan - Kat Godlewski (11)

Ejections: Cal Poly - 3 ; Michigan - 4

Sprints: Cal Poly - 3 (Ciani Sparks - 1st, 3rd, 4th) ; Michigan -  1 (Caitlin Cramier - 2nd)