STANFORD – Cal (1-2, 0-1 Pac-12) was playing strong early on and led into the second quarter of its Pac-12 opener at No. 15 Stanford (1-1, 1-0 Pac-12) before the Cardinal unleashed long scoring runs in the second (5-0), third (6-0) and fourth (6-0) quarters in a 20-8 victory over the Golden Bears in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Amanda Morse registered a hat trick and an assist to lead the Bears but three Cardinal players had four or more goals with Annabel Frist's five leading the way, while Ashley Humphrey and Katy Gilbert had four each. Humphries also had three assists and finished with seven points, both game highs.

Cal led on three different occasions over the first 18-plus minutes of the game with the Bears' first advantage coming at 2-1 with 6:59 remaining in the opening period following back-to-back goals from Courtney Wong and Morse within 25 seconds of each other with Morse also providing the assist on Wong's goal while Mya Wang assisted on Morse's first tally. Stanford and Cal would then trade the next four goals with the Bears going up 3-2 on a Kennedy Mason goal (assist Kate Rothman) with 5:44 to go in the first and 4-3 on an unassisted Morse goal with 12:06 remaining in the second.

"Even with a quick turnaround from our opening weekend we were able to start the game off strong," head coach Jennifer Wong said. "We executed the game plan and took care of the little things. Our goal is to play with that level consistently throughout the game."

Stanford took control of the game with its first run comprised of goals by Gilbert, Frist, Ailish Kelly, Kelsey Myers and Rylee Bouvier staking the Cardinal to an 8-4 advantage with 1:07 remaining in the second period. Humphrey assisted on the goals by Kelly and Bouvier, while Jay Browne assisted on Myers' tally.

Cal was able to get the final score of the opening half on Hanna Deringer's free position goal 0:20 before intermission to cut the Cardinal lead to 8-5 at the break and the Bears looked like they were going to make a game of it when Morse picked up her third goal with 11:34 to go in the third to get Cal within 8-6. But Stanford ran off six goals over the next 5:40 to take a commanding 14-6 lead. Humphrey started the run and also scored the fifth of the six goals. Gilbert, Frist, Maddigan Miller and Browne also scored, while Browne and Humphrey assisted on each other's goals.

Cal got the last goal of both the third and fourth periods when Kate Rothman tallied on assist by Wang and Josie LIllquist scored on assist from Wong, but Stanford put together another 6-0 run between the two Cal goals with Browne starting the run followed by Kelly, Humphrey, Gilbert, First and Gilbert again. Frist, Sarah Jaques and Gilbert also had assists on the third, fourth and fifth goals of the run.

"Stanford is a great program and they were able to pull away from us in the second half," Wong said. "Playing this game so early in the season helps us understand where we need to make improvements and what to expect from the Pac-12 schedule. We will study the film, make adjustments and get back to work."

Cal resumes its season at San Diego State in a non-conference contest on Sunday (Noon PST) that will conclude a stretch of four consecutive road games to open the campaign.