BERKELEY --- The 35th season of California women's soccer kicks off this weekend with a pair of matches against California teams: Friday, August 19 at home against Cal Poly at Goldman Field (4 p.m.) and Sunday, August 21 at No. 21 Santa Clara (1 p.m.).

Cal comes into the 2016 campaign with noticable buzz and expectations. After a 13-6-3 campaign that earned the team its 12th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and a final National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Top 25 spot, the Golden Bears enter this fall with national rankings of No. 18 (NSCAA) and No. 15 (TopDrawerSoccer.com, SoccerAmerica). The Bears were also predicted to finish in third place in the Pac-12 preseason coaches' poll, behind second place USC and defending conference champion Stanford.

Senior forward Arielle Ship, Cal's first-ever Pac-12 Player of the Year after winning the award last season, is primed to lead the way for the Bears in 2016. A 2015 NSCAA All-American and All-Pac-12 First Team selection, Ship has already been named to the Watch List for the prestigious MAC Hermann Trophy and been cited twice by TDS - as the No. 19 player in its National Top 100 rankings and a Second Team selection to its Preseason Best XI teams. Helping Ship carry the load will be fellow junior goalkeeper Emily Boyd, senior midfielder Emma Fletcher and redshirt senior forward Ifeoma Onumonu. Boyd and Fletcher were 2015 All-Pac-12 second team and honorable mention choices, respectively, while Onumonu enters the season after posting the second most goals, assists and points of any returner last year.

Friday's contest against Cal Poly will be the ninth in series history and third straight, with Cal holding a 5-2-1 edge all-time. The series' only draw was the scoreless variety, coming in their match last September. The Mustangs ended 2015 with a 6-8-5 record and finished in the top 100 of the NCAA RPI rankings (96).

In Santa Clara, Cal will take on the first of seven NCAA Tournament teams and five NSCAA preseason ranked teams on its schedule. The Broncos went 14-6-2 in 2015 and reached the second round of NCAAs as a 4-seed, defeating Long Beach State before falling to Arizona. The all-time series lead resides in Berkeley, with the Bears holding a 20-16-7 advantage over the Broncos after a 1-0 home victory last October.

Links to Live Stats and Video (for Santa Clara) can be found above and fans are also encouraged to follow the program on Twitter (@CalWomensSoccer), Facebook (Cal Women's Soccer) and Instagram (@CalWomensSoccer).