After playing a pair of road games to open the 2025 season last weekend, the California field hockey team returns to Underhill Field for its home opener, hosting No. 6 Harvard on Friday at 6 p.m. PT and Ball State on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
Cal is 1-3 in the all-time series against Harvard. The Bears won the last matchup 3-2 on Oct. 10, 2010, at home.
 
Cal is 0-1 against Ball State with the sole matchup taking place Nov. 12, 1992, during the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
A win against Harvard would be Cal's first ranked win since beating then-No. 5 Penn State, 3-2 (OT) on Sep. 1, 2023.
 
Last Time Out
Cal splits its road games to open the season with a loss at Monmouth and a win at Delaware. In the win at Delaware, the Bears played 22 minutes down a player and Liz Klompmaker scored a career-high three goals. Five different Bears registered an assist against the Blue Hens.
 
2024 Recap
The California field hockey team finished its inaugural season as a member of the ACC with an overall record of 7-10 after a 6-1 start. The Golden Bears were featured in the Penn Monto/NFHCA DI National Coaches Poll three times throughout the season, marking their first appearance in the rankings since 2018.
 
The Bears advanced to the ACC Championship for the first time in program history and fell 5-0 in the first round to North Carolina, which captured the 2024 ACC Championship. The Donna Fong Director of Field Hockey, Shellie Onstead, secured her 300th career win in a 2-1 regular-season victory against Louisville, which also gave the program its first-ever ACC matchup win.
 
The Bears were led by ACC Freshman of the Year Liz Klompmaker, who led the team in points (31), goals (15) and game-winning goals (5). Klompmaker registered at least two goals in six games during the 2024 campaign. Canisha van Duyn made an immediate impact in her lone season at Cal, leading the Bears in assists (11) and defensive saves (7) while ranking second on the team in points (17). Both Klompmaker and van Duyn were named to the NFHCA All-Region and All-ACC Teams.
 
300 wins
Onstead is now one of just eight active head coaches in the country to have reached the 300-win club. She is also one of just 23 all-time head coaches to reach the milestone.
 
Fresh Faces
The Golden Bears welcome 11 new players to this year's roster, which includes six freshmen and five transfers. Highlighting this year's newcomers are freshman Emma Becker and graduate transfer Lieve Schalk. Becker was a standout for her club team, the Dusseldorfer Hockey Club, while Schalk was a full-time starter at Iowa and helped the Hawkeyes earn three-straight NCAA Tournament bids from 2021-23.
 
Returning Experience
Cal will have plenty of experience coming back to the team as it returns six full-time starters from last season highlighted by Klompmaker, who was named to the Preseason All-ACC Team. Also expected to make an impact is goalkeeper Delphine Ayitey-Hammond, who missed last year due to injury but helped the Suribton Hockey Club win the 2024 EuroHockey Club Championship prior to coming to Cal.
 
About The Harvard Crimson
The matchup against Cal will be Harvard's season opener. The Crimson is coming off a 16-4 season in 2024 and a trip to the quarterfinals of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
 
About The Ball State Cardinals
Ball State is coming off a 5-13 record in 2024 and currently sits at 1-1 with a win over Saint Louis in its most recent match. The Cardinals will play back-to-back games against Stanford and UC Davis before coming to Underhill Field.
 
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