BERKELEY - It didn't come easy but the California lacrosse team (2-1, 1-0 ACC) broke through for its first-ever ACC victory on Friday with a 10-9 win over Florida State at California Memorial Stadium. Emily Moes scored the game-winner on a free position goal with 1:38 remaining.
"It's so exciting for us to get our first ACC win," Moes said. "We've been working for this since last May at the end of last season. It's so exciting that all the work we've put in is showing up now. It's something to celebrate and a testament to how hard we've been working."
"The goal was to win some games in the ACC this year," head coach Jennifer Wong said. "We knew that if we ever wanted to make the ACC Tournament that we had to start with this one."
Cal did not lead in Friday's contest until Moes gave the Bears a 9-8 advantage when she took a pass from Ashleigh Masterson and found the back of the Seminoles' net with 7:57 remaining in the fourth period.
Florida State had a 3-0 lead after the first period on the strength of an unassisted goal by Lola Mancuso with 5:26 remaining and back-to-back tallies from Meg Kenny with 4:33 and 3:27 to go in the opening stanza. Summer Harrell provided an assist on Kenny's first score.
Courtney Wong got the Golden Bears on the board with an unassisted goal at the 10:59 mark of the second period but Kenny answered back with her third goal of the game on an assist from Lydia Ward less than three minutes later. Masterson and Brynn Gallagher cut the Florida State to 4-3 with goals at 7:38 and 6:41 on assists from Moes and Wong but Kenny and Harrell closed out the first-half scoring with back-to-back goals of their own with 5:58 and 1:16 remaining to give the Seminoles a 6-3 advantage at intermission. Harrell also picked up her second assist on Kenny's fourth goal before scoring unassisted.
The Bears scored the first three goals of the third period to knot the score at 6-6. Moes and Willow Cyr had the first two tallies with 13:06 and 9:56 to go in the third before Katie McMullen scored on a Josie Lillquist assist. Harrell (4:09, assist Lydia Ward) and Cal's Avery Hoeft (3:17, assist Wong) traded late third-quarter goals to keep the score tied heading into the final 15 minutes.
The teams traded more goals in the fourth period with Brynn Perkins (10:27) and Ward (4:25) scoring unassisted goals for the Seminoles, while Cyr (9:35) and Moes (7:57) on an assist from Masterson had goals for the Bears. The Moes goal gave Cal its first lead of the contest.
"We didn't start out that well today, so we had our backs against the wall a little bit," Jennifer Wong said. "But this team has trained so hard for so long that we were confident we could come back."
Moes' third consecutive hat trick to start the 2025 season and two assists led the Bears, while Cyr had the first multiple-goal game of her career with a pair. Five others - Gallagher, Hoeft, Masterson, McMullen and Wong - had one goal each. Wong also equaled Moes two assists, while Masterson and Lillquist had one each.
Kenny's four goals paced Florida State, while Harrell had two goals and two assists. Mancuso, Perkins and Ward added one goal each with Ward also collecting two assists.
California held a sizable lead in most team statistical categories, including shots (25-16), shots on goal (14-9) and draw controls (14-8). Florida State committed almost twice as many turnovers (19-11) as the Bears.
Cal returns to action with a nonconference game at Oregon (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) on Thursday, Feb. 19. First draw is slated for Noon on BigTenPlus.
The Ducks still have a pair of games on their schedule before hosting the Bears with a neutral-site contest in San Diego against FDU (Saturday, Feb. 14) and a road game at San Diego State (Monday, Feb. 16).
