BERKELEY --- Reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year Arielle Ship's second half penalty kick sealed a hard-fought 1-0 victory for the No. 17 California women's soccer team over the Washington State Cougars Sunday morning at Goldman Field.

Ship's third game-winning goal of the season was the difference in what was a tightly contested match throughout. 

Cal (10-2, 3-0 Pac-12) was outshot 6-5 by WSU (5-5-1, 0-3 Pac-12) in the first half -  the only time that has happened all season - as the visiting Cougars used a consistent press and physical play to go into intermission even with the Golden Bears, 0-0. As the Bears have done all season, the team made their adjustments and found more opportunities to create space and scoring chances. Within the first 20 minutes of the second perioud, Cal had already matched its shot total from the entire first half. One of those chances came in the 61st minute, when freshman Abigail Kim intercepted a misplayed pass from WSU goalkeeper Ella Dederick and nearly converted converted on a breakaway in transition.

By the time Ship was given her penalty kick chance in the 77th minute, Cal had regained offensive control of the game, outshooting Washington State 9-6 in the second half and 14-12 overall. However, the physical nature of the contest had not diminished foul and a Cougar foul of freshman Kayla Fong resulted in the PK for Ship, her seventh overall score of the year and second on penalty kicks.

With the victory, Cal improved to 3-0 in Pac-12 action for the first time since 2005, when the Bears knocked off Washington, WSU and Stanford to begin conference play. Ship's tally was her 25th of her career, placing her in a tie for 7th all-time at call with Winnie Burns (1985-88) and Andrea Rodebaugh (1984-87). Junior goalkeeper Emily Boyd also recorded her eighth shutout of the year, bringing her career total to 23.3 and moving her into second place all-time, 3.2 behind all-time leader Maite Zabala (1997-00).

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Cal will begin a three-game road trip on Thursday, October 6 when the Bears head south to take on UCLA at 7 p.m. PT.