The Bears took third place at the MPSF championship in Los Angeles this weekend.
The first two games yielded expected results. No. 4 Cal beat No. 14 San Jose State 15-7 in its debut match Friday, bringing its record to 4-0 with another decisive victory. Then the Bears lost to No. 1 UCLA the following day, but the 14-15 loss showed improvement from an earlier 7-12 defeat March 8.
The real surprise came Sunday in the third place game: Cal upset No. 2 USC.
In game one, although the Spartans scored first, the Bears quickly dominated with four uncontested goals in the first period. The second quarter had Cal outscoring San Jose State 3-2, which sent the Bears into halftime with a 4-point lead.
Cal similarly outperformed the Spartans 4-2 in the third. To finish off the game, San Jose State burst into the fourth quarter with two quick goals to narrow the deficit to 5 points, but sophomore Julia Bonaguidi, freshman Holly Dunn and sophomore Kate Meyer all scored in the final minutes to propel Cal to a tone-setting 15-7 win in its MPSF debut.
The next day, the underdog Bears faced off against the hometown Bruins.
The first quarter saw multiple changes to the scoreboard as both schools rallied for the lead. In the second quarter, Cal began to break away and led 7-4 with three minutes remaining in the half. But in a defensive lapse amid an offensive surge by the Bruins, UCLA outscored Cal 5-1 before the buzzer, reducing the Bears’ lead to 1 point.
After the half, UCLA gradually increased its advantage to 13-10. Determined to go into the quarter break on a high note, freshman Miriam Bogachenko found the back of the net with three seconds remaining.
The fourth quarter began with a stalemate: Neither team scored for almost two and a half minutes. Suddenly, the ball came flying out of sophomore Feline Voordouw’s hand, penetrating the Bruins’ defense to make it a 1-point game. UCLA fought back, but Bonaguidi put away her fourth goal of the game — tying her career high — to make the score 15-14 with 56 seconds remaining.
The stars aligned for Cal as it forced a turnover in the following possession, and head coach Coralie Simmons called a timeout with 26 seconds left. The opportunity did not pan out though, and the final whistle blew with a bitter loss for the Bears.
“I think we match up well with (UCLA), and we found a fun rivalry with them — with any of the top teams that we face. We’re always in the mix with big games with them, and getting the opportunity to play them again at the NCAA tournament would be awesome,” Simmons said. “I think really highlighting our speed, our center play and our ability to shoot the ball at a very high level is going to be very hard for them to contend with.”
In the final test of the three-day saga, Cal returned Sunday for another uphill battle against the Trojans.
Just 24 seconds into the game, USC scored on a power play. Undeterred, Cal responded with five uncontested goals — three of which came from Voordouw. The Trojans then racked up 3 points, but the Bears got the final word with two more goals to wrap up the first quarter. With the scoreboard already reading 7-4 after the first eight minutes, the game looked poised to be an offensive duel between two powerhouse programs.
Fueled by a penalty shot, Bogachenko notched the first point in the second quarter. USC then reduced its deficit to two, but Cal’s offense was unrelenting. Led by freshman-senior duo Eszter Varró and Ruby Swadling, the Bears went into the half with a 4-point advantage.
Cal’s offense buffered in the second half — the team failed to score in the third quarter and put up 1 point in the fourth.
“We scored one goal in the second half, which made our ability to make stops on defense super important. I thought our defensive plan, and our grit and our grind to get the job done elevated in the second half where things weren’t dropping, we weren’t able to put shots away,” Simmons said. “Our good start and strong finish on the defensive end allowed us to come out on top, and we knew that was going to be a down-to-the-wire finish.”
The Trojans put up one last goal with 3:54 left, but Cal’s stellar defense held on for a stunning 13-12 upset to secure third place.
While the Bears aimed to appear in the championship game, the victory over the Trojans still highlighted Cal’s growth since its 9-13 loss to USC on March 22.
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