BERKELEY – Gaku Nishimura scored his first goal as a Golden Bear to help lead the California men's soccer team to a 1-1 tie with Virginia on Saturday at Edwards Stadium and earn the Bears their first point in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
 
Cal improved its record to 3-4-1 (0-2-1 ACC). The Cavaliers have a 2-2-3 record (0-1-2).
 
The teams battled to a 0-0 score at halftime, but both produced good scoring opportunities in the first 45 minutes. At 24:17, a Virginia free kick led to a close-range shot by forward Hayes Wood, with Cal junior goalkeeper Marco Brougher making the save. Cal's Arik Duncan had a chance to give Cal a first-half lead at 32:07. With a defender draped on the senior forward at the top of the six-yard box, Duncan quickly turned and fired on goal, but Virginia goalkeeper Joey Batrouni saved the shot.
 
Cal's goal came in the 56th minute, as Nishimura first took a long-range shot that was blocked by a Cavalier and then collected the rebound. The junior midfielder made no mistake with his second shot, a 22-yard blast to the upper left corner of the net that Batrouni had no chance to save. Cal led 1-0.
 
Nishimura, in his first year at Cal after transferring from San Jose State, is no stranger to finding the back of the net. The product of Yokohama, Japan, ranked second in goals (3) and points (12) for the Spartans in 2023.
 
"He's been who we'd hoped he would be," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said. "He's a very talented midfielder who had a great career at San Jose State. He was an all-conference player, and we wanted him to come and be someone to settle the game for us, help initiate the attack from the middle of the park, and he's done just that. He also has a little bit of bite on the defensive side and covers a lot of ground. He's an all-around good addition to our group."
 
Virginia quickly turned up the intensity after Nishimura's goal, with midfielder Luke Burns forcing a save out of Brougher in the 57th minute. Cal followed that in the 58th minute with a free kick by Alfredo Ortiz that hit the crossbar.
 
The Cavaliers scored the equalizer in the 59th minute, with forward Kome Ubogu heading in Paul Wiese's cross to make the score 1-1.
 
In the back-and-forth affair, the Bears' last best chance came in the 87th minute after a long goal kick by Brougher found Cal sophomore Justin Knighton streaking towards the UVa goal. While battling a defender, Knighton fired on goal from about 16 yards out, with his shot hitting the crossbar.
 
After arguably one of the Bears' better performances of the season, they settled for a draw.
 
"We feel like we could've gotten more out of that and gotten a win," Griffin said. "I'm proud of our guys for, one, how hard they fought and, two, how many chances we created today. I think we had to have created more than in previous games. Not to come out with the win feels a little bit empty. But we have to take that as a positive and keep pushing and keep trying to create chances. I think on another day we score multiple goals in a game like that. We're looking forward to building on the point we got today and turn it into three points in the games coming up."
 
Cal outshot Virginia 16-14 and put four shots on goal. Brougher finished with three saves.
 
Next Saturday, the Bears play another ACC match when they travel to North Carolina to face the Tar Heels.
 
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