BERKELEY - For the first time in three seasons, Cal field hockey is back in Berkeley for the start of official practice.

Due to lack of full-field practice space as a result of changes to Maxwell Field, training camp for the 2014 and 2015 seasons took place in San Diego. That all came to an end on Friday morning when the Bears got their first official practice underway at their new home, Underhill Field.

While the facility is not fully completed, the Bears now have a fully functioning field, which includes water cannons that use reclaimed water. It's a big step in making sure the Golden Bears are ready come Aug. 28 when they open the season against Northeastern at home.

"This is a state-of-the-art field, which means that skills can be developed rather quickly," said head coach Shellie Onstead. "We're able to deliver the promises of top athletics and top academics that we come to expect here at Berkeley."

Senior captain Monica Marrazzo was especially excited about the change in venue after spending the last few seasons training away from Berkeley.

"It's awesome. We're able to wake up, get here, have our own time and breakfast, and get in your own zen," she said. "Everyone has their own individual thing to get ready, so in San Diego it was much harder."

The new field will also ease the transition for Cal's newest crop of student-athletes, as the Bears welcome a class of seven new faces to the squad. On the first day of practice, the freshmen went through several tests to measure their fitness levels, including push-ups, sprinting and the infamous beep test, which measures cardio fitness using a series of timed beeps.

"It was very hard and we had to test how we run and how fast we run," said freshman Femke Delissen, who joins the Bears from the Netherlands.

Despite the high level of difficulty, Delissen and her classmates were excited to finally begin training at their new home with their new teammates.

"I still can't believe I am here," she said. "Today's practice was so exciting and it was everything that I thought it would be and better. The girls are so nice. They help us with everything and I really love it here."

As for what the next few weeks will bring for the 2016 Bears, captain Marrazzo expects a successful training camp.

"(Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave Ziemba) has got us in really good shape coming in, so now it's just all about refining the skills," she said. "We can stick through those drills now. We're not going to be so tired because of our fitness level."