Cal’s Season Ends With Loss At No. 19 Stanford

The California women's lacrosse team (5-10, 2-5 Pac-12) got to within one win of qualifying for the Pac-12 Tournament but a 15-8 loss at No. 19 Stanford (11-4, 7-0 Pac-12) ended the Golden Bears' season on Saturday night at Maloney Field at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.

The Bears played the Cardinal even for the first 15 minutes with the score tied 3-3 before Stanford scored six of the game's second-period goals to take a 9-4 lead at the break.

Cal scored the first goal of the second half just 59 seconds after intermission when Courtney Wong found Josie Lillquist to get the Bears back to within 9-5 but Stanford tallied the next five goals to take a nine-goal lead. Cal was able to score three straight times to get back within 14-8 with 4:13 to go on a Jane Middleton goal on an assist from Lillquist but it was too little and too late.

Lillquist finished with two goals and two assists for four points to lead Cal, while six different Bears (Addie Fischer, Simone Holland, Middleton, Clara Page, Mya Wang, Courtney Wong) had a goal apiece. Wong also had a pair of assists.

Callan Fritsch snagged a game-high 15 saves.

Cal finished in a three-way tie with Oregon and UC Davis for fifth place in the eight-team Pac-12 but lost a pair of tiebreakers to get aced out of a Pac-12 Tournament spot. All three teams combined for a 1-1 record against the other two in the tie. Oregon claimed the No. 5 seed based on a regular-season win over No. 4 seed Arizona State. Once Oregon was taken out of the equation, UC Davis won the two-team tiebreaker against Cal for the sixth and final Pac-12 Tournament spot based on a 12-11 victory over the Bears in Berkeley on April 13.

Cal matched both its overall and conference win totals from 2023 in two fewer overall games and three fewer conference contests. Last year, Cal finished fifth in a six-team Pac-12. The Bears will join the Atlantic Coast Conference on August 2 and play in the ACC next season.

Seven Cal seniors – Fischer, Fritsch, Kennedy Goss, Holland, Kate Rothman, Caroline Roxas and Charlotte Smith – were in their final season with the Bears.

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