2024 WSOC Celebration SMC
Michael Cox
3
Winner California CALIF (8-1-1, 1-0-0)
1
NC State NCSU (3-5-1, 0-1-0)
Winner
California CALIF
(8-1-1, 1-0-0)
3
Final
1
NC State NCSU
(3-5-1, 0-1-0)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
California CALIF 0 3 3
NC State NCSU 0 1 1

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | | Cal Athletics

Lema’s 5-Point Night Lifts Cal Over NC State 3-1

Bears Win First ACC Match

RALEIGH – Senior forward Karlie Lema and the Golden Bears picked up a win in their first ACC contest Thursday night defeating NC State on the road 3-1. The California women's soccer team has now won seven straight contests, boasts an eight-match unbeaten streak, and has surpassed its win total from last year.
 
Lema, the nation's leading scorer, extended that lead tonight scoring two goals and an assist. It was her fourth brace and fifth multi-goal performance of the season, and the third time the forward has been responsible for the game-winner. Her 13 goals this year are just two shy of cracking the top five single-season scoring list, and her 31 points are five short of tying Alex Morgan for fifth-most in a single season.
 
After a scoreless first half where both teams put three shots on goal, the Bears (8-1-1, 1-0-0) and Wolfpack (3-5-1, 0-1-0) emerged from the locker rooms with a different sense of urgency and pace. The host Wolfpack got on the board first with a goal from Mana Nakata in the 54th minute to take an early 1-0 second-half lead.
 
Less then 10 minutes later the Bears got a great opportunity as Lema got into a footrace with an NC State defender in the middle third. The Cal senior drove the ball all the way up the touch line and into the penalty area and forced the Wolfpack defense to collapse before playing the perfect ball across the net to Velize King. Lema's fellow senior forward finished the job scoring the equalizer and her second goal of the year to tie it at one apiece in the 63rd minute.
 
In the 74th minute the Bear that dons the number 12 scored her 12th goal of the year and it was a beauty, as she fell away from the goal with a defender on her and chipped the NC State keeper with her right foot and curled it in. That goal would stand as the game-winner but that wasn't enough for Lema who scored again just one minute and 19 seconds late with an assist going to freshman Kenley Whittaker.
  Graduate-transfer Kelly McManus earned her eighth-straight start and picked up her second-most career saves with five. She now has a 7-0-1 record between the posts.

The Bears will now travel to Winston-Salem to take on the No. 13 Demon Deacons of Wake Forest who just defeated No. 2 Virginia and No. 1 Stanford.
 
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