NO. 1 NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS (7-0, 5-0 ACC)
at
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS (4-5, 1-3 ACC) 
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2026 • 4 PM PT
CALIFORNIA MEMORIAL STADIUM (BERKELEY, CA)

CALIFORNIA-NORTH CAROLINA LACROSSE HISTORY
— Cal and North Carolina are meeting for just the second time ever with the first game between the teams a 21-7 Tar Heel victory last season in the Bears' final road game of the season in Chapel Hill on April 13.
— Six of the seven goals scored by Cal in last season's contest with the Tar Heels were by players on the 2026 roster including two each by Emily Moes and Ashleigh Masterson, as well as one apiece from Jane Middleton and Courtney Wong.
 
CAL VS. NO. 1 TEAMS
— Cal has an 0-6 record all-time against teams ranked No. 1 at the time of the game. The Bears dropped five games in a row against No. 1 Northwestern from 2006-10 and then their only game against a No. 1 team since in 2025 at North Carolina. 
 
BEAR TERRITORY
— Cal has welcomed five North Carolina teams to Berkeley in 2025-26 and is 4-1 against the Tar Heels in those contests. The Golden Bears have been winners against North Carolina in football, men's basketball, women's gymnastics and men's tennis, with the only Cal setback suffered by the volleyball squad.
 
LAST TIME OUT: CAL 17, STONEHILL 10 (MARCH 9, 2026)
— Cal scored a season-high 17 goals and also its most goals this season in a single period with nine in the fourth during a 17-10 victory over Stonehill in a nonconference game.
— The Golden Bears had 10 different players score goals and 12 pick up points in the contest. Emily Moes had a season-high-tying four goals and five points while Ashleigh Masterson posted a career-high-tying three goals and Avery Hoeft added season highs of four assists and five points to lead the way. Katie Bloomer and Alina Hsu added two goals apiece, while five others – Juliana Doran, Josie Lillquist, Katie McMullen, Dahlen Vilbrandt and Courtney Wong – had one goal each. Lillquist added two assists and Vilbrandt one, while Jane Middleton and Brynn Gallagher also each had an assist as the Bears had 10 as a team.
— Courtney Wong posted a career-high and team season-high 12 draw controls to help the Bears to a 20-9 advantage overall.
 
SEASON-LONG FOUR-GAME HOMESTAND
— Cal's game against No. 1 and defending national champion North Carolina is third of a season-long four-game homestand over a 10-day period that began with a 15-8 loss to No. 10 Boston College last Saturday before Monday's 17-10 win over Stonehill. The Bears will host Marist on Monday to wrap up the homestand.  
 
NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS
— Cal has a 9-3 record in nonconference games over the last two seasons since joining the ACC prior to the 2025 campaign, posting a 6-1 mark in 2025 and a 3-2 record through its first five nonconference contests of 2026. The Bears have two regular season nonconference games remaining in 2026, beginning against Marist and at Xavier (March 24).                                                                                                                                                                                        
 
SCHEDULE SHIFT
— Cal played its first five games of the 2026 regular season against unranked opponents but starting with its Feb. 28 contest at No. 23 Duke has seven of its final 12 regular-season contests against teams currently ranked in the IWLCA Division I Coaches Poll. Cal has already played and dropped games to No. 23 Duke, No. 15 Syracuse and No. 10 Boston College with contests against No. 1 North Carolina (March 14), No. 11 Notre Dame (March 28), No. 9 Clemson (April 3) and the regular-season finale at No. 2 Stanford (April 16) still on the docket. All seven currently ranked teams on Cal's 2026 schedule played in the 16-team NCAA Championship in 2025, with North Carolina winning the national title and Boston College reaching the semifinals.
   
 ONE-GOAL GAMES
— Three of Cal's first five games 2026 were decided by a single goal with the Bears winning its first two at San Diego State (13-12) and at home against Florida State (10-9) before falling 13-12 to UC Davis in its most recent one-goal contest.
  
WONG, MOES AND HOEFT LEADING OFFENSE
— Courtney Wong (28 points – 14 goals, 14 assists) is Cal's leader in assists and points through the first nine games of 2026, while she is second in goals behind only Emily Moes (23 points – 18 goals, 5 assists). Avery Hoeft (20 points – 7 goals, 13 assists) is second on the team in assists and third in points, while she has also been Cal's leading scorer over the last six games with 16 points on five goals and nine assists over that span. Hoeft has at least one assist in each of her last four games and seven of nine overall.
 
WONG FIFTH IN ACC, 20TH NATIONALLY IN DRAW CONTROLS
— Courtney Wong's 51 draw controls rank fifth in the ACC and 20th nationally. Wong is coming off a career-high 12 draw controls against Stonehill. She has moved to within 32 draw controls of Kennedy Goss' all-time single-season school record of 83 set in 2023.
 
PAGE LEADING THE DEFENSIVE EFFORT AND THE ACC IN GROUND BALLS
— Clara Page leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with 27 ground balls that rank her eighth nationally. Her nine caused turnovers share the team lead with Kennedy Herndon, while Katie Bloomer has eight.
 
MURPHY LEADS NATION'S FRESHMEN IN SAVES, 2ND IN ACC AND 9TH NATIONALLY
— Lulu Murphy leads the nation's freshman goalkeepers with 71 saves while ranking second overall in the ACC and ninth nationally. Murphy is the first freshman to serve as Cal's primary starter in goal since Jenny Wilkens in 2016. Lily Rathbun also saw just over half of the team's action in net as a 2021 freshman.
 
LINEUP CHANGE
— Cal had the same starting lineup in each of its first seven games (Attack – Josie Lillquist, Ashleigh Masterson, Emily Moes, Courtney Wong; Midfield – Katie Bloomer, Annette Ciupek, Willow Cyr; Defense – Kennedy Herndon, Grace Kerr, Clara Page, Ari Tavoso; and Goalkeeper – Lulu Murphy). In games eight against Boston College and Stonehill, Avery Hoeft and Jane Middleton started in place of Lillquist and Cyr.
 
WEATHER REPORT
— The AccuWeather forecast for Berkeley on Monday at first draw at 3 pm PT calls for mostly sunny skies, a 0% chance of precipitation, a temperature of 73 degrees, and winds out of the west at 8 miles per hour.
— Five of Cal's first nine games and each of the last four have been in weather of either 65 degrees or above at first draw (at USC, at Duke, Boston College, Stonehill) or indoors (at Syracuse).
— The differences in weather the Bears played in during two back-to-back road games earlier this season was dramatic. On Feb. 8 at USC in Los Angeles, it was 81 degrees under sunny skies at first draw before dropping 40 degrees to 41 in Eugene, Oregon, 11 days later on Feb. 19.
  
HEAD COACH JENNIFER WONG
— Jennifer Wong is in her fourth season as the Cal lacrosse head coach. In each of her first three campaigns with the Bears, Wong's team has posted a better winning percentage than in the previous season.
— Wong is the only Cal head coach to have won the season opener in each of her first four campaigns.
— Wong led Cal to its first-ever ACC win this season with a 10-9 victory over Florida State on Feb. 13.
— Wong was named Cal's head coach on Aug. 30, 2022, following a long and successful coaching tenure on the staff at Temple, where she spent 14 campaigns as an assistant (2008-09, 2011-15) and associate head coach (2016-22) over two stints.
 
LONG TRIPS TO BERKELEY
— Cal has eight scheduled games at California Memorial Stadium in 2026 with seven teams each visiting from more than 2,500 miles away. UC Davis is Cal's only home opponent in the Pacific Time Zone and just over 60 miles away.
 
NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE
— Cal sophomore Ardyn Henry is the Bears' lone North Carolina native. Henry, who played prep lacrosse and won four state titles at Charlotte Latin School, earned NCISAA All-State and USA Lacrosse Academic All-American honors in each of her final three prep campaigns. Henry also played for the Charlotte Style club lacrosse team.