BERKELEY – Cal (1-2) scored the first five goals of the game and then held on for its first victory of the season in an 11-10 road win over Mercer (2-2) in a non-conference contest Friday at Five Star Stadium. The Golden Bears never trailed in the contest but would need to force a turnover on Mercer's final possession to secure the victory.

Quinnlynn Mason, Susie Ropp and Nikki Zaccaro each registered a hat trick to lead the Golden Bears with Mason and Zaccaro also adding an assist.

"We played together, we had each other's backs and were able to make up for our mistakes," Ropp said. "We were also able to adjust to their defense and capitalize on our opportunities."

The Golden Bears needed just over five minutes to take a 3-0 lead with Mason scoring twice at 28:51 and 27:52 and Ropp once at 24:40. Catherine Roxas registered the first of her two assists on Mason's second goal.

Marisa Kuberra made it 4-0 for Cal with an unassisted goal at 16:42 before Mason's third goal of the game on an assist by Zaccaro put the Golden Bears up 5-0 with 15:28 to go.

"We came into the game with high energy and had a great start," Ropp said.

"It was very exciting to get ahead quickly," Mason said. "We knew what we needed to do to get the win and we did it throughout the whole game."

The score remained 5-0 in favor of the Golden Bears until a goal by Mercer's Cailey Thornburg (assist Haily Rhatifan) at 11:27. Rhatigan got her own goal unassisted less than a minute later at 10:44 to cut the Cal lead to 5-2 but Zaccaro responded with her first two goals of the game unassisted at 4:35 and 2:00. But the momentum would turn back to Mercer before the end of the half when Eva Thorn scored 1:26 before the break and then assisted on a Thornburg goal with 0:22 remaining in the half to make Cal's halftime lead 7-4.

Thornburg also started the scoring in the second half with a goal at 28:41 on an assist by Katie Martin but Ropp answered with back-to-back goals at 27:54 and 25:37 as Rojas picked up her second assist on the second goal to push Cal's lead back to 9-5.

Thorn and Zaccaro traded unassisted goals at 21:55 and 18:50 before Mercer rolled off in a row from Thornburg at 18:02 (assist Rhatifan) and a pair from Rhatigan at 17:28 and 16:34 to get within one of the Golden Bears.

Megan Mix gave Cal a cushion it would end up needing by scoring what turned out to be the Golden Bears' final goal on an assist by Mason with 12:08 to go.

Thorn picked up a goal for the final score of the contest with 1:37 to go and Mercer got one more opportunity when Kileigh Casey caused a turnover with 0:41 to go but Rhatifan turned the ball over with 0:21 to go. Ashley Ward picked up the ground ball with 0:18 to go and Cal ran out the remainder of the clock.

"We started the game off strong and when they made their comeback we stayed poised and made the plays to win the game," head coach Brooke Eubanks said. "It was great to get our first win of the year. We will look to build off this momentum."

"It's really nice to start our East Coast trip with a win and it's a good starting point for us as we get closer to conference play," Zaccaro said.

Cal continues its current five-game road trip with a non-conference game at Winthrop on Sunday (Noon ET/9 am PT).