BERKELEY – The California lacrosse team had its season end Wednesday with a 7-5 loss to Arizona State (6-12) in a Pac-12 Championship quarterfinal matchup at California Memorial Stadium.
"Today's game was a hard-fought effort by both teams and unfortunately it marked the end to our season," head coach
Jennifer Wong said. "We played a great defensive game, continually battled for the draws and showed offensive improvement. We have made progress all season long and laid the foundation for a great future."
The Sun Devils held a critical edge in free position shots, making three of their six while Cal had twice as many attempts but was only 2-of-12. The other team stats were nearly identical with Cal holding slim advantages in shots (30-28), ground balls (22-17) and draw controls (9-7), while Arizona State just edged the Bears in shots on goal (17-16), caused turnovers (7-6) and saves (11-10). Both teams committed 14 turnovers.
Nine Cal seniors –
Olivia Dey,
Kacie Riggs,
Maya Lawliss,
Kelly McIntyre,
Amanda Morse,
Riley Drullinger,
Brooke Baker,
Siena Davies and
Quinnlyn Mason – were recognized prior to what turned out to be their final collegiate game.
Our seniors have been the catalyst to turning around this program, and I will be forever grateful to them for their leadership this season," Wong said. "They have been wonderful examples to the rest of the team and their legacy will live on in our program."
Lawliss led the Bears with a pair of goals, while Morse,
Kennedy Mason and
Kate Rothman each picked up one.
Mya Wang had the Bears' lone assist.
Morse got Cal off to a quick start when she scored unassisted just over a minute into the contest with 13:48 remaining in the first period to give the Bears a 1-0 advantage. Arizona State would score the only other two goals in the first period with Kaylon Buckner (6:54) and Tate Stokesberry (3:25) to give the Sun Devils a 2-1 lead after 15 minutes.
Cal retook the lead by scoring the first two goals of the second on a Lawliss tally (14:13) and a player-up score from Rothman (10:48) with Wang picking up the only assist of game by either team. Arizona State again closed out the period with the final two goals from Teagan Ng (10:12) and Bella Ingrao (1:18) to lead 4-3 at the half.
Lawliss' second goal with 10:57 to go in the third tied the score again at 4-4 but Arizona State would seize control of the low-scoring game with the next three goals. Mina Scott got the run going at 2:58 in third and closed it with 13:43 in the fourth, while Greta Stahl scored in between with 0:28 remaining in the third.
Mason picked up the game's final goal with 12:03 to go in the fourth but neither team would score again.
Drullinger had 10 saves for the Bears, while Katie Vahle picked up 10 for the Sun Devils with half of them in the fourth period to help thwart the Bears' comeback attempt.
Kennedy Goss picked up a game-high five draw controls and in the process broke Cal's single-season record by finishing with 83 on the campaign. Goss, who is also Cal's career leader in draw controls with 202, moved past the former single-season record of 81 set by Eliza Christman in 2019 and her own career-high of 80 in 2022.
California improved its win total by three games from 2022 and won its most since the 2019 squad finished 7-12.
"I'm incredibly proud of our team for their heart and effort all year long," Wong said.
Cal's season may have ended Wednesday but the action at the 2023 Pac-12 Championship being hosted by the Golden Bears for the first time ever will continue with Thursday semifinals pitting top-seeded USC (14-3) and fourth-seeded Arizona State at 4:30 p.m., followed by the nightcap between second-seeded Stanford (10-7) and third-seeded Colorado (10-7). The winners of Thursday's two semifinals will play in Saturday's title game at noon. Colorado was a 16-10 winner over sixth-seeded Oregon (5-12) in Wednesday's other quarterfinal, while USC and Stanford both had byes in the quarterfinals. All games are being televised live by Pac-12 Network.
