BERKELEY – Tasked with a high-powered offensive attack by Kent State, Cal's young defense struggled as the Golden Bears (0-2) fell to the Golden Flashes (3-0), 2-0, on Friday night at Underhill Field.
 
Two saves and a host of blocks by veteran goalkeeper Kori Griswold, as well as a defensive save by senior Monica Marrazzo, were not enough to push the Bears past Kent State, who outshot Cal 12-6.
 
"We showed some youth today, and we are young," said head coach Shellie Onstead. "We have some young players in key positions and they've got to get that experience, but I think there's enough experience on the field that we should have played better today."
 
The Golden Flashes outshot Cal 5-2 in the first period, but neither team dominated possession of the ball, and each headed into the half with two corners apiece.
 
Kent State finally broke the scoreless tie at 36:49 when Alison Harmatz broke free from the Cal defense and dribbled the ball straight into the cage.
 
With Cal playing man-down due to a green card at 47:47, Kent State capitalized and created a skirmish in front of the cage. Laila Richter sent the ball out of the scrum to teammate Kortney Keller, who tapped it in for the insurance goal, 2-0.
 
"We started spiraling down and don't really yet have the tools to stop that and figure that out. It was a disappointment considering the way we started last week," Onstead said.
 
Cal debuted its offensive corners on Friday, finishing with six total corners for the evening after failing to earn a single corner in the season opener vs. Northeastern. The Bears produced two shots on frame from their corner set plays via sophomore Keats Iwanaga, both of which were blocked by Kent State keeper Andrea Rinehart.

HEAD COACH SHELLIE ONSTEAD'S TAKE

On overall performance:
We showed some youth today, and we are young. We have some young players in key positions and they've got to get that experience, but I think there's enough experience on the field that we should have played better today.
 
We started spiraling down and don't really yet have the tools to stop that and figure that out. It was a disappointment considering the way we started last week.
On keys in loss:
We were forcing things that we didn't need to force, and I think that's just a reaction to pressure. We need to get better under pressure and be more confident. The team talked about being tentative. That's a repetition thing and belief in the system.
 
We went with a little bit of a smaller lineup in the sense that I used fewer players today because we wanted to see if we could get more quality, but we'll probably have to rethink that for Sunday.

KENT STATE'S GOALS

36:39 – Alison Harmatz (unassisted)
47:28 – Kortney Keller (assisted by Laila Richter)

NEWS & NOTES

• Cal is 0-2 to start the season for the first time since 2010.
• This is the first time Cal was shut out in a game since Oct. 18, 2015, when the Bears lost to Stanford 4-0.
• Cal is 2-3 all-time against Kent State. 

NEXT UP

Cal wraps up a three-game Underhill Field homestand vs. No. 10 Michigan, live on the Pac-12 Networks beginning at noon on Sunday.