After suffering its first loss since August, the California women's soccer team is back home at Edwards Stadium for a tough pair of matches. The Golden Bears face No. 1 Virginia on Thursday and a Virginia Tech team that was a preseason top-15 selection Sunday. Thursday's match marks the team's ACS Breast Cancer Awareness game and Sunday is Senior Day.
 
Cal (6-2-6, 2-1-2 ACC) comes into the week tied for sixth place in the ACC while the Cavaliers (10-0-1, 4-0-0) sit in third and the Hokies (4-6-3, 0-4-1) find themselves in a tie for last. Virginia has been the top-ranked team in the country for four straight weeks and has only allowed three goals this season.
 
The Bears are coming off just their second loss of the season and first in conference play. They were defeated 2-1 at SMU where their only score came by way of a Mustang own goal.
 
Match Information                                                                                                                                          
 
No. 1 Virginia (10-0-1, 4-0-0)
·       Date and Time: Thursday, Oct. 9 at 3:30 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Edwards Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+ (PXP: Greg Wong, Analyst: Keely Roy)
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Virginia Tech (4-6-3, 0-4-1)
·       Date and Time: Sunday, Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Edwards Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+ (PXP: Greg Wong, Analyst: Keely Roy)
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Senior Day
Prior to Sunday's match the Bears will honor the six members of the class of 2026 with a special Senior Day ceremony. Seniors Teagan Wy, Mia Fontana, Alex Klos, Lumi Kostmayer, Noelle Bond-Flasza, and Coco Thistle will be honored.
 
Wy Earns Second ACC Defensive Player Of The Week Award
Goalkeeper Teagan Wy earned her second ACC Defensive Player of the Week award of the season on Sept. 30. The senior led the Golden Bears to their first two ACC shutouts of the year last week defeating Syracuse on Thursday 1-0 and earning a scoreless draw with Boston College on Sunday. Wy made four saves in both contests leading to her becoming the first repeat winner of the award this season.
 
Wy's six shutouts this year are a career-high mark in a single season and rank 24th in the country. The Rancho Santa Margarita native ranks second in the ACC with 53 total saves and fourth with a 3.79 saves per game average. Her 0.86 goals against average and .815 save percentage are the best lines of her career since taking over as the everyday starter between the posts in 2023.
 
Bears Win Battle Of The Bay
The 56th meeting between San Francisco Bay Area rivals Cal and Santa Clara went the way of the Bears on Sept. 20 by a score of 2-0. It was a gritty, physical match between two teams that have met at least once a year since 2007 and seven times in the NCAA Championship. In all there were 17 fouls committed, and six yellow cards distributed.
 
Freshman Mia Van More provided the first-half game-winner on an unassisted effort in the 38th minute that was described by ACCNX analyst and Cal alumna Keely Roy as a "class-act finish." Junior center back Malia McMahon came off the bench and scored a header off a corner kick in the 69th minute to seal the win for the Bears, who now lead the all-time series over the Broncos 25-22-9. Cal did not allow a single shot on goal, which has only happened to SCU twice in 15+ years.
 
Brace Yourself
Senior transfer Lumi Kostmayer doubled her season goals total earning a brace on the road at Clemson. She scored in the 52nd minute on an assist from junior Miriam Hils and found the net again unassisted in the 60th to become the first Bear this year with a multigoal match. Kostmayer now leads the team with four goals and 10 points.
 
Spreading The Love
Cal's 17 goals this year have come off eight different boots with Lumi Kostmayer leading the way with four. Thirteen total Bears have accounted for the team's 48 points with all but four goals being assisted on so far. Thirteen of the 16 goals have been scored by newcomers and Bears that missed all or most of last season with injuries.
 
200 Club
On Aug. 21 Cal head coach Neil McGuire achieved his 200th victory as the leader of the Golden Bears. The Bears' 3-2 win over San Francisco sealed the career milestone for McGuire, who is the program's all-time wins leader. His Cal record currently sits at 204-119-59 and he has 248 wins in his career.
 
Warm Welcome
Two new forwards helped lead Cal to its 3-2 win over UCSD in the season opener. It took five minutes and 56 seconds for freshman Elhom Khursand to earn her first collegiate assist, playing a ball into Coco Thistle, who scored to tie the match at 1-1. Senior transfer Lumi Kostmayer scored the go-ahead goal in spectacular fashion, chipping the Triton goalkeeper from outside the 18-yard box in the 25th minute. Kostmayer currently ranks first on the team with two goals, 17 shots and 289 minutes played at the forward position.
 
Warm Welcome Back
The first match of the season saw the return of two Bears that all missed all of last season with injuries. Senior midfielder Coco Thistle, who missed all of last season with a cancer scare and back issues, played and started in her first match in 665 days and scored an early equalizer in the sixth minute.
 
Seventh-year forward Mia Fontana, who missed all last year with a torn ACL, made her return and tallied 25 minutes in her first match in 660 days. She had a chance at a goal of her own but was taken down in the box by a UCSD defender, leading to a penalty kick. In stepped Soleil Dimry, who missed most of last season with an injury of her own. The junior forward scored what would be the game winner on that PK.
 
Wy Named Preseason All-ACC
For the second straight year, goalkeeper Teagan Wy was named to the Preseason All-ACC team as selected by the conference's head coaches.
 
The 14-player team featured just one keeper spot, giving Wy the nod of being the best at her position heading into the season in what is widely regarded as the top conference in the sport.
 
Despite missing a large portion of last season to lead Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2024 U20 FIFA World Cup, Wy was named Second Team All-ACC. She 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, she ranked fourth with a .794 save percentage, seventh with 4.50 saves per game, and eighth with 1.246 goals against average. Wy ended the regular season with a 6-3-0 record.
 
Wy continuously showed up big when the lights were brightest, making a career-high nine saves vs. No. 3 North Carolina, including a PK stop with just 11 seconds to go before the Bears ultimately fell to the eventual national champions. Wy 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. Wy capped off the season with another seven saves on the road at No. 4 Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA Championship.
 
Year 2
Cal enters its second year in the ACC, which features many of the top teams in the sport. Nine ACC teams advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship last year. The Bears faced all four teams that made the Women's College Cup during the regular season and posted a 1-2-1 record against them.
 
2024 Recap
The Cal women's soccer team enjoyed a successful inaugural ACC season in 2024, highlighted by its first win in the NCAA Championship in 10 years. The Bears posted a 13-6-2 overall record with a 5-4-1 ACC mark. Both records are the team's most wins and highest win percentage since 2019. 
 
Cal added three ranked wins, two of which came on the road over No. 14 Stanford and No. 22 Pepperdine. The Bears also had their most wins at home in 15 years, going 9-2-1 at Edwards Stadium. Finishing tied for seventh out of 17 teams in the ACC, the Bears narrowly missed the six-team ACC tournament but were selected to their 28th NCAA Championship. Cal went on the road and defeated host Pepperdine in double overtime in the first round, giving the Bears their first NCAA Championship road victory in 12 years. 
 
Perhaps the biggest story of the year was the outstanding season of senior Karlie Lema, who was named ACC Offensive Player of the Year and First Team All-ACC. After scoring 15 goals in the first three years of her career, Lema erupted with 16 during her final season, which was the third most in the country and the fourth most in Cal history in a single year. She totaled 38 points, which was tied for the second most in the nation and is fifth in program history. Following her collegiate career, Lema signed with Bay FC, the local NWSL organization.
 
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