CARY, N.C. – The California men's soccer team rallied after trailing 2-0 to No. 7 Clemson in the ACC Championship semifinals Thursday night at WakeMed Soccer Park, but despite second-half goals from Malcolm Zalayet and Adrian Jacobs, the Golden Bears fell 3-2 to the defending NCAA and ACC champion to end their run in the conference tournament.
 
The Bears had been in the Tar Heel State since Nov. 4 and upset No. 14 North Carolina 2-1 and No. 2 Duke 1-0 en route to the semifinals. But their journey ended one step short of Sunday's final. The result also snapped the Bears' three-game winning streak and left their record at 8-8-2.
 
Clemson, which improved to 14-2-3, moves onto play Wake Forest in Sunday's ACC Championship final.
 
Cal – which used the same starting lineup over the past four games – began the game on the front foot. Less than two minutes into the match, Santiago Hopkins' well-placed cross found Nonso Adimabua deep in the Clemson box, but the big striker's header skimmed off the crossbar. In the fifth minute, a nice buildup by the Bears resulted in a shot by midfielder Gaku Nishimura that went wide.
 
But the Tigers quickly countered and got a goal by Tyler Trimnal later in the fifth minute to take a 1-0 lead.
 
In the 23rd minute, Clemson forward Alex Meinhard scored in a crowded box to make Cal's deficit 2-0.
 
Cal got on the scoreboard at the 50:10 mark. After Clemson goalkeeper Patrick Donavan parried a Cal cross out of his box, Cal's Alfredo Ortiz took a long shot that Donavan saved and then Arik Duncan took a shot that was blocked, with the ball lifted into the path of Rohan McEligot. The Cal midfielder headed the ball down to the feet of Malcolm Zalayet, who tapped the ball into the net from close range.
 
The Bears kept attacking, and at 61:51, Ortiz crossed the ball towards the Clemson box. A Tiger – who cleared the ball away from one Bear at the top of the box – sent the ball deeper into the box. Duncan corralled it and played a short pass to Zalayet, who scored his first goal as a Bear to tie the game 2-2.
 
In the 66th minute, Clemson's Ransford Gyan – the ACC Freshman of the Year – scored from in close to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
 
Cal outshot Clemson 5-1 the rest of the way. Cal defender and co-captain Wyatt Meyer came close with his shot at 79:04, with his shot just going wide. Adimabua produced the Bears' last chance of the game, with a shot from 15-yards out that Donovan saved.
 
"We're disappointed," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said. "I'm proud of the group. We've been in every game and showed we could play with anyone in the country. That never changed. We showed that never-quit mentality tonight as well. After the first half, we made some adjustments at halftime and guys rose to the occasion again. But credit to their team – Clemson came up with a big goal to end the game. That's soccer sometimes.
 
"But I love our group. We fought to the end. If we're going to go down, we're going to go down with a fight, and that's what we did tonight."
 
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