MARIST RED FOXES (1-6, 0-0 MAAC) at CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS (4-6, 1-4 ACC) 

MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2026 • 3 PM PT
CALIFORNIA MEMORIAL STADIUM (BERKELEY, CA)

WATCH
—   ACCNX/ESPN+ (Sara Ach, Play-By-Play; Jill Malko, Analyst)  

CALIFORNIA-MARIST LACROSSE HISTORY
— Cal holds a 2-0 all-time lead in the series, including a 14-10 victory in the most recent meeting when Emily Moes led the way with five goals in a neutral site contest on March 17, 2025 at Diginity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.
— The Golden Bears were also a 17-6 winner over Marist in their only other meeting in Cal's first season as an intercollegiate program in 1999. 
 
RARE PAIRING
— Monday's meeting marks the only time during the 2025-26 academic year that the schools are scheduled to meet directly in any sport and according to Chat GPT there have only been four known previous direct meetings ever between Cal and Marist with two in lacrosse (1999, 2025), one in softball (2012) and one in men's tennis (2011). Cal has been a winner in all four.
 
THIRD AND FINAL MONDAY HOME MATINEE
— Cal's game against Marist is the Golden Bears' third and final 2026 regular-season contest scheduled on a Monday and all at home. The Bears fell against UC Davis in their first Monday game (Feb. 23) before defeating Stonehill in their second (March 9). Prior to this season, the last time the Bears had played at home on a Monday was when they were a 12-7 winner over Robert Morris on March 5, 2018.
 
LAST TIME OUT: NO. 1 NORTH CAROLINA 20, CAL 3 (MARCH 12, 2026)
— Cal was defeated 20-3 by the nation's top-ranked team and defending national champion North Carolina in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at California Memorial Stadium.
— North Carolina scored all 11 of the game's first-period goals and led 13-0 before Katie McMullen got the Golden Bears on the board when she powered her way through a host of North Carolina defenders and found the back of the net for an unassisted goal with 5:20 to go in the second period.
— Courtney Wong was able to pick a pair of goals in the final period for the Bears with McMullen registering an assist on the second one before UNC wrapped up the game's scoring with the final two goals.
— Chloe Rand entered the contest at goalkeeper for Cal with the Bears trailing 11-0 at the end of the first quarter and posted a career-high-tying 10 saves, while limiting North Carolina to only nine additional goals during a 45:00 outing that tied for the second-longest of her career.
 
SEASON-LONG FOUR-GAME HOMESTAND ENDS AGAINST MARIST
— Cal is concluding a season-long four-game homestand against Marist on Monday that began with a 15-8 loss to No. 10 Boston College and also included a 17-10 win over Stonehill and a 20-3 loss to No. 1 North Carolina.  
 
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 against Marist (March 16) and at Xavier (March 24).                                                                                                                                                                                        
SCHEDULE SHIFTS
— Cal played its first five games of the 2026 season against unranked opponents and posted a 3-2 record in those contests but has played four of the last five against ranked teams and lost all four (at No. 23 Duke, at No. 15 Syracuse, No. 10 Boston College, No. 1 North Carolina) with its lone victory over the stretch coming against unranked Stonehill. Cal returns to playing unranked teams in each of its next three games (Marist, at Louisville, at Xavier) and will not play a currently ranked team again until visiting No. 11 Notre Dame on March 28. Cal also still has a home game on the docket against No. 9 Clemson (April 3) and the regular-season finale at No. 2 Stanford (April 16) to make it three games against ranked teams over its final four. All seven currently ranked teams on Cal's 2026 schedule played in the 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 in 2026 were decided by a single goal with the Bears winning the 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. Each of Cal's last five games have been decided by at least seven goals.
  
WONG, MOES AND HOEFT LEADING OFFENSE
— Courtney Wong has career highs in points (30) and goals (16), while she is Cal's leader in points and assists (14), as well as second on the team in goals behind only Emily Moes (23 points – 18 goals, 5 assists) through the first 10 games of 2026. Avery Hoeft (20 points – 7 goals, 13 assists) is second on the team in assists, third in points and tied for fourth in goals.
 
WONG WITHIN RANGE OF CAL'S SINGLE-SEASON RECORD
— Courtney Wong's 52 draw controls have moved her within 31 draw controls of Kennedy Goss' all-time single-season school record of 83 set in 2023. Wong, who had a career-high 12 draw controls March 9 against Stonehill, ranks seventh in the ACC and 52nd nationally with an average of 5.20 per game.
 
PAGE THIRD IN THE ACC IN GROUND BALLS
— Clara Page is third in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 28 ground balls while her 2.80 ground balls per game rank her 27th nationally. In addition, her nine caused turnovers are second on the team to the 10 recorded by Kennedy Herndon, while Katie Bloomer has eight.
 
MURPHY SECOND NATIONALLY AMONG FRESHMEN IN SAVES
— Lulu Murphy is second among the nation's freshman goalkeepers with 72 saves while ranking fifth overall in the ACC and tied for 15th 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 each of the last three games, Avery Hoeft and Jane Middleton have 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 82 degrees, and winds out of the north/northwest at 8 miles per hour. There has been a heat advisory issued that begins at 10 am on Monday and is scheduled through Friday at 8 pm. If the temperature forecast holds true it will be the warmest temperature at first draw for a Cal game this season.
— Six of Cal's first 10 games and each of the last five have been in weather of either 65 degrees or above at first draw (at USC, at Duke, Boston College, Stonehill, North Carolina) 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, including Marist at 2,950 miles. UC Davis is Cal's only home opponent in the Pacific Time Zone and just over 60 miles away.