CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS (5-7, 1-5 ACC) at XAVIER MUSKETEERS (2-8, 0-1 BIG EAST)

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2026 • 2:30 PM PT
CORCORAN FIELD (CINCINNATI, OH
WATCH
— Xavier+ (Rich Hidy)  
 
CALIFORNIA-XAVIER HISTORY
— Cal and Xavier will be meeting for the first time.
                                                                                                                                                  
CAL'S RECENT CONNECTION TO STATE OF OHIO
— Tuesday's game at Xavier marks the third straight season Cal has played a nonconference game against a team from the state of Ohio. The Golden Bears started their 2024 campaign with a 19-10 home win over Akron and then were a 14-7 winner at Kent State in 2025.   
                                                                                                                                                       
ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR MORE WINS
— Each time Cal wins during the remainder of the 2026 season, the Bears will reach a milestone. Cal's next win will give the Bears six victories for a third straight season. After posting at least six wins in each of the first 15 seasons of the program (1999-2013) the Bears have not had at least six wins in three straight campaigns since. 
— Two more wins this season will get Cal to seven wins for the first since the 2019 team finished 7-12.
— Three more wins in 2026 would get Cal to eight victories for the first since the 2013 team was 9-7.
— Four more victories and Cal would finish at .500 or better also for the first time since 2013.
                                                                                                                                                       
LAST TIME OUT: LOUISVILLE 12, CAL 5 (MARCH 21, 2026)
— Louisville scored the first three goals of the contest and never trailed.
— The first half was dominated by both defenses with the Cardinals scoring the game's only goal in the first period and adding the first two in the second before Katie Bloomer picked up the Golden Bears' lone tally of the opening 30 minutes on an assist by Avery Hoeft with just 2:43 remaining before intermission.
— Cal was able to keep the game close in the opening half due in large part to six first-half saves from starting goalkeeper Lulu Murphy
— Clara Page added a game-high-tying four ground balls along with teammate Ari Tavoso.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
— Cal's contest Tuesday at Xavier is its second contest on its current season-long three-game road trip that started last Saturday with a 12-5 loss at Louisville that extended Cal's road losing skid to three. The Bears will stay on the road for the entirety of their trip that ends Saturday at No. 13 Notre Dame and is Cal's fourth roadie of the 2026 campaign. Cal started the season with a two-game trip to San Diego State/USC (Feb. 6, 8), followed by a single game at Oregon (Feb. 19) and its first ACC trip to No. 23 Duke (Feb. 28) and No. 15 Syracuse (Mar. 3). Cal also has a trip across the Bay for its regular-season finale at No. 2 Stanford on Apr. 16.
  
TRIO OF WONG, MOES, HOEFT LEADING OFFENSE
— Courtney Wong has posted career highs and is Cal's leader in points (38) and goals (22) through 12 games. She also has a career-high-tying 16 assists and is second on the team one behind Avery Hoeft's 17. Emily Moes has 27 points on 19 goals and a career-high eight assists, while Hoeft has 25 points on eight goals and her team-high 17 assists.
  
WONG MOVING UP ON CAL'S SINGLE-SEASON DRAW CONTROL RECORD
— Courtney Wong's 57 draw controls have moved her within 26 of Kennedy Goss' all-time single-season school record of 83 set in 2023. If Wong can remain on her current pace of 4.75 draw controls per game, she would end the regular season with 80 draw controls. Wong, who had a career-high 12 draw controls March 9 against Stonehill, ranks ninth in the ACC in draw controls per game.
 
CAL LEADS ALL ACC TEAMS, PAGE ALL ACC INDIVIDUALS IN GROUND BALLS
— Cal leads all Atlantic Coast Conference team with 201 ground balls, while Clara Page is the ACC's individual leader with a career-high 36, as well as third in the conference in ground balls per game (3.00). Cal is also fifth nationally, while Page is also seventh.
 
MURPHY LEADS NATION'S FRESHMEN IN SAVES
— Lulu Murphy leads all freshman goalkeepers with 82 saves while ranking tied for 16th nationally overall. 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.
 
RAND PICKS UP FIRST CAREER WIN IN THE NET
— Chloe Rand saw increased action between the pipes off the bench in back-to-back home games against No. 1 North Carolina and Marist in back-to-back Cal home games on March 12 and 16. She relieved starter Lulu Murphy at the end the first period against the Tar Heels and picked up a career-high-tying 10 saves while allowing just nine goals during a 45:00 performance that tied for the second-longest of her career. Then, she relieved Murphy again against Marist with the Bears trailing 4-2 with 4:46 to go in the first period and went on to allow only five goals and make five saves during her 44:07 of action in a game the Bears went on to win 18-10. She did not play in Cal's most recent game at Louisville last Saturday. On the season, Rand sports an 8.39 goals against average in six games all off the bench and has recorded 22 saves while allowing 16 goals.
 
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 its last six against ranked teams and dropped all four (at No. 23 Duke, at No. 15 Syracuse, No. 10 Boston College, No. 1 North Carolina) with its lone victories over the stretch coming against in home games against unranked Stonehill and Marist. Cal also lost to an unranked team in its more recent contest at Louisville (March 21). The Bears play a third straight game against an unranked team at Xavier on Tuesday before going up against ranked squads in three of its first four regular-season games at No. 13 Notre Dame (March 28), against No. 2- Clemson (April 3) and at No. 2 Stanford (April 16). 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.
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ABOUT THE STARTING LINEUP
— Cal has had 10 players start all 12 games (Attack – Ashleigh Masterson, Emily Moes, Courtney Wong; Midfield – Katie Bloomer, Annette Ciupek; Defense – Kennedy Herndon, Grace Kerr, Clara Page, Ari Tavoso; and Goalkeeper – Lulu Murphy).
— Cal had the same starting lineup in each of its first seven games (Attack – Josie Lillquist, Masterson, Moes, Wong; Midfield – Bloomer, Ciupek, Willow Cyr; Defense – Herndon, Kerr, Page, Tavoso; and Goalkeeper – Murphy). In each of the next four games, Avery Hoeft and Jane Middleton started in place of Lillquist and Cyr, before Lillquist moved back into the starting lineup for Hoeft in Cal's most recent game last Saturday at Louisville.
 
FROM ONE-GOAL GAMES TO BIG MARGINS
— 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 on Feb. 23. Each of Cal's last seven games have been decided by at least seven goals with the Bears going 2-5 in those contests.
 
NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS
— Cal has a 9-3 record in nonconference games over the last two seasons since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference prior to the 2025 campaign, posting a 6-1 mark in 2025 and a 4-2 record through its first six nonconference contests of 2026. The Bears have only one regular-season nonconference game remaining in 2026 at Xavier (March 24).
 
WEATHER REPORT
— The AccuWeather forecast for the Xavier campus on Tuesday at first draw at 5:30 pm ET calls for mostly cloudy skies, a 0% chance of precipitation, a temperature of 54 degrees, 34% humidity and winds out of the east/southeast at 6 miles per hour. If the temperature forecast at first draw holds true it will end a string of six straight that have gotten underway at 65 degrees or above or indoors. All in all, the temperature at first draw had been 65 or above at first draw (at USC, at Duke, Boston College, Stonehill, North Carolina, Marist, Louisville) or indoors (at Syracuse) on eight occasions.
— 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 the Bears' game Feb. 19 in Eugene, Oregon was 41 degrees.

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
— Seven of the eight teams to visit California Memorial Stadium in 2026 will come from more than 2,500 miles away. UC Davis, who visited Cal on Feb. 23, is the Golden Bears' only home opponent in the Pacific Time Zone and just over 60 miles away.
 
BEARS IN BORDERING STATES
— Cal does not have anyone on the roster from the state of Ohio but does have two who list hometowns in the bordering states of Indiana (Sophie Mock, Carmel) and Pennsylvania (Clara Page, Wynnewood).
 
WE ARE CALIFORNIA
— When referencing any California athletic team, please use either "California" or "Cal" to denote the institution and "Golden Bears" or "Bears" when indicating the mascot. Please do not use any other references.
 
THE FIRST 12 GAMES
— Cal 13, at San Diego State 12 (Feb. 6): Maddie Willkomm's first career goal with 6:01 remaining was the game-winner and final score in a contest that neither team ever led by more than two goals.
— at USC 16, Cal 9 (Feb. 8): Cal led by a pair of goals in the first quarter and hung tough for most of the opening half before USC pulled away. Courtney Wong and Emily Moes each had four goals for the Bears.
— at Cal 10, Florida State 9 (Feb. 13): Cal won its first-ever ACC lacrosse game as Emily Moes scored the game-winner with a free position goal with 1:38 remaining.
— Cal 14, at Oregon 9 (Feb. 19): Josie Lillquist and Courtney Wong led the way with six points each as Cal improved to 3-1 for its best start since 2007.
— UC Davis 13, at Cal 12 (Feb. 23): Cal led by a pair of goals in the fourth period but could not hold on as the Aggies scored the final three goals. Maddie Willkomm had a career-high four goals.
— at No. 23 Duke 16, Cal 7 (Feb. 28): Cal never led as the Blue Devils scored the game's first four goals/ The Golden Bears would never pull any closer than three the rest of the way. Courtney Wong scored three of Cal's seven goals.
— at No. 15 Syracuse 13, Cal 3 (March 3): Cal was able to stay close for much of the opening period largely in part to goalkeeper Lulu Murphy fending off six of the first eight shots she faced but Syracuse pulled away in the second quarter and led 10-1 at halftime.
— at No. 10 Boston College 15, Cal 7 (March 7): Cal stayed within striking distance of No. 10 Boston College and trailed only 7-5 late in the third period until the Eagles' put away the contest with four straight goals.
— at Cal 17, Stonehill 10 (March 9): Cal scored nine goals in the fourth period after the game had been tied 8-8. Megan Moes' four goals and one assist led 10 Cal goal scorers and 12 who had at least one point.
— No. 1 North Carolina 20, at Cal 3 (March 12): North Carolina scored all 11 of the goals in the opening period and led 13-0 before Katie McMullen got the Golden Bears on the board late in the second stanza.
— at Cal 18, Marist 10 (March 16): Cal scored 10 consecutive goals in the second half to turn a two-point deficit midway through the third period into a runaway victory. Courtney Wong led a season-high 12 goal scorers with four and added two assists for a career-high-tying six points. The 18 goals scored by Cal were the Golden Bears' most since a 19-16 victory at Charlotte on April 11, 2025,
— at Louisville 12, Cal 5 (March 21): Louisville scored the first three goals of the contest and never trailed. The first half was dominated by the defense with the Cardinals holding a 3-1 lead advantage at the break.