The California women's soccer team (12-5-2) is headed to Malibu for the first round of the NCAA Championship as the Golden Bears will face seventh-seeded and 22nd-ranked Pepperdine Saturday on ESPN+.

Match Information

No. 22 Pepperdine (12-3-5)
·       Date and Time: Saturday, Nov. 14 – 12 p.m. PT
·       Location: Tari Frahm Rokus Field
·       Live Stream: ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast 

Tickets 
Tickets are available at PepperdineWaves.com and are limited. Bleacher seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis, so fans are encouraged to bring their own chairs.

Postseason History
This is the 28th NCAA Championship appearance for the Bears and 14th under head coach Neil McGuire. Cal has an all-time record of 15-24-4 in the tournament and will be searching for its first win since 2014 when the Bears defeated San Diego State 3-2 at home. The last time the Bears won a first-round match on the road was in 2012 – a 1-0 win over Pepperdine at the same stadium as Saturday's game. In more recent memory the Waves got the best of the Bears in 2016, advancing to the second round by winning a penalty kick shootout 3-2 following a 1-1 draw in regulation.

Waves Watch
The host Waves come into the weekend with a 12-3-5 overall record after earning a share of the WCC championship with No. 11 Santa Clara. The Broncos were granted the automatic bid to the NCAA Championship due to goal differential. This will be the 14th NCAA Championship appearance for the Waves and their first since they made a Sweet 16 run in 2021. The Waves and Bears had six common opponents this season in UC San Diego, Santa Clara, Gonzaga, San Francisco, San Diego and Saint Mary's. Pepperdine went 4-0-2 against those teams while Cal went 4-1-1. The Waves' most notable win of the season came on Sept. 1 when they defeated then third-ranked UCLA 1-0.

Pepperdine received 10 All-WCC selections, including WCC Offensive Player of the Year Tori Waldeck and WCC Midfielder of the Year Karina Gonzalez.

The Lema Legend
Last week, senior forward Karlie Lema was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year and First Team All-ACC. She became the first Bear to win a major postseason award since Angelina Anderson took home the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2019 and the first field player to take home top honors since Arielle Ship earned the Pac-12 Player of the Year award in 2015.

During the regular season, Lema ranked fourth in the country with 16 goals and second with 38 points. She also ranked fourth in the nation in points per game (2.00). All those marks were good for first in the ACC. This season, Lema has a hat trick, four braces, three equalizers and four game-winners. On Sep. 8 against San Diego, she broke into the program's top-10 scoring list and now sits tied for sixth place with 31 career goals. It took her all of six matches to tie her previous season-high goal total of six set during her freshman season, and two matches later she had nearly doubled that total.

Lema's 16 goals are good for the fourth-most in a single season in Cal history and are the most scored by a Bear since 2000. She passed Alex Morgan for fifth on the single-season points list on Oct. 27 with 38.

That's Wy
Junior goalkeeper Teagan Wy was named Second Team All-ACC this season despite missing a handful of matches to participate in the 2024 U20 FIFA World Cup. Wy served as Team USA's starting keeper for the entire tournament and helped bring home a bronze medal, making key plays down the stretch, including a walk-off PK save that put the Americans into the semifinals.

For the Bears, Wy showed up big when the lights were brightest, making a career-high nine saves vs. No. 3 North Carolina, including a PK save with just 11 seconds to go. She picked up her first shutout of the season vs. No. 16 Pitt, making five saves in the win and added five more saves in 56 scoreless minutes against No. 1 Duke before leaving the match with an injury.
 
The Rancho Santa Margarita native ranked in the top 10 of the ACC with a .788 save percentage and 1.14 goals against average for the overall season. In ACC play, Wy ranked fourth with a .794 save percentage, seventh with 4.50 saves per game, and eighth with a 1.246 goals against average. She ended the regular season with a 5-2-0 record. 

Give It A Chance
Cal had one of the top offenses in the country during the regular season, ranking 14th with 43 total goals, a mark that is also good for fourth in the ACC. The Bears have put over half of their attempts on frame, ranking second in the conference with a .504 shot on goal percentage. On the individual side, Lema ranks fifth in the conference in that category, giving .588 of her shots a scoring chance, and ranks sixth in the nation with 2.47 SOG per game. The Bears, who have only been shut out once this season, have 12 multi-goal performances and boast a 10-1-1 record in those matches.

Second-Half Surge
Cal has done the bulk of its scoring in the second half this season with 31 of its 43 goals coming in the final 45 minutes. The Bears currently hold a 31-17 second-half goal differential and have only been shut out three times in the period. Thirteen goals have been scored in the 75th minute or later and on four occasions the Bears have come back from one or two goals down to earn a result. 

Stay Posted
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