UC Irvine Saddened by Death : Soccer: Freshman Terrie Cate dies three days after collapsing during first day of practice for women’s team.

Terrie Cate, an incoming freshman excited about a chance to play for the UC Irvine women’s soccer team, died Saturday morning at Irvine Medical Center three days after collapsing during a six-mile run Wednesday evening on the first day of practice.

Cate’s mother, Shirley Cate of Escondido, said doctors believe her daughter suffered heatstroke. An autopsy is scheduled for today, according to a spokesman for the county coroner’s office.

Cate became the second young Southern California athlete in three days to die after a collapse related to a team workout. Sergio Echevarria, a 17-year old San Fernando High School football player, died of heatstroke Thursday after collapsing after practice Tuesday.

Cate, 18, had played soccer since age 5 and was a member of two San Diego Section championship teams and one runner-up during her career at Escondido San Pasqual High School. She spent the summer working alongside her mother in an escrow office and preparing to play at Irvine, where she had earned a partial scholarship and was considered the team’s top recruit.

Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor for student affairs at Irvine, spent time at the hospital with the family while doctors tried to save the young athlete.

“They essentially--and we all--were hoping for a miracle,” he said. “The situation was very critical. . . . It is devastating to her family, certainly, and to the team and the university. There’s not much more one could say.”

Shirley Cate said her daughter had run four to six miles a day recently as part of the training regimen prescribed by Irvine Coach Ray Smith. But shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, at about the five-mile mark of an annual six-mile run designed to certify the players’ fitness before they participate in further drills, Cate collapsed.

Her new teammates ran the final mile to get help from Smith, assistant coach Keri Bello and trainer Erica Angel. After reaching the fallen runner, Bello ran across a street and dialed 911. Paramedics arrived and were followed by an ambulance that transferred her to Irvine Medical Center, where Cate was in critical condition until her death Saturday at 9:58 a.m.

Shirley Cate said her daughter had been in “excellent” shape and that the family found no fault with the workout, which had been postponed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. because of concern over temperatures that reached the 90s. Smith said the temperature did not seem “bothersome” at the time.

“No one’s to blame; the school did everything it could possibly do,” Shirley Cate said. “We’re not going to bring that issue up. Athletes are very, very competitive. They have to train to be in peak condition. She was aware of it. She talked to me about it. The night before she left, she wrote me and her Dad a note--we found it in her things later. It said how the six-mile run would be hard to complete, and the last mile is the most difficult because it’s uphill. She said she was going to give it her best, and she did.”

Though Cate had no serious previous medical problems, her mother said she suffered from allergies and was slightly asthmatic.

Some of her new teammates later told Smith that Cate didn’t seem to eat or drink much Wednesday before the run.

“They thought it was due to anxiety, wanting to do well in the run,” Smith said. “That’s not a cause, but dehydration could be part of it.”

Mitchell said there were no indications the workout was inappropriate.

“Our general understanding is she was in good physical condition, and the regimen the coach put them through is consistent with their training,” Mitchell said.

Smith had scouted Cate often and expected the sweeper to be his best new player.

“She was a very determined athlete and displayed a lot of leadership qualities not usually present in a person at that level,” he said. “Her presence would have been felt.”

The team has continued to train since Wednesday, in part at the urging of Cate’s parents.

“They keep telling us not to stop; Terrie would have wanted us to keep on,” Smith said. “It’s been a tough week. We’ve been trying when we have breaks to go over to the hospital. The practices have been quite somber.”

In addition to her mother, Cate is survived by her father, Webb Cate, and a brother, Clifford Cate, a junior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Earlier this week, they watched the youngest member of the family--an honor student, student body president and active volunteer--say goodby to friends and family as she prepared to depart for college.

“We had given her a new little car because we wanted her to be safe making the trip back and forth,” Shirley Cate said. “She had her car packed up. In the back, she had her soccer gear, and she had a Cabbage Patch doll buckled in. She was going off to do what she most wanted to do, train for soccer.

“She was a very, very special girl and we are very, very pleased to have had her here for 18 years.

Times Staff Writer Steven Herbert contributed to this story.