BERKELEY – California (3-7, 1-3 Pac-12) returned to action Friday for the first time in 12 days and played competitively against the Pac-12's first-place team No. 19 USC (9-2, 4-0 Pac-12) before dropping an 11-6 decision to the Trojans at California Memorial Stadium. USC was in control early, scoring the game's first five goals in the opening quarter before Cal tallied four in a row of its own to cut the Trojan advantage to 5-4 with 8:48 to go in the opening half.

But USC's defense would hold the Bears without a goal for the next 26:28 while scoring six of its own to extend the lead to 11-4 before the Bears picked up pair of goals over the final 2:20.
Shelby Tilton registered a game-high five points on one goal and four assists for the Trojans, while Maggie Brown and Isabelle Vitale each posted a hat trick. Maddie Dora added two goals, while Ella Heaney had one goal and one assist, Sloane Murphy two assists, and Christina Gagnon one goal.

Kennedy Mason and Amanda Morse each had a pair of goals for the Bears, while Quinnlyn Mason and Mya Wang added one each. Maya Lawliss, Josie Lillquist and Kate Rothman all had one assist.

Brown scored the game's first two goals at 14:13 and 12:05 of the first quarter both on assists from Tilton to start USC's game-opening 5-0 run. Dora followed with an unassisted goal at 10:41 before assisting on Vitale's first goal with 4:28 remaining in the opening period. Tilton capped the run when she scored unassisted with 2:35 to go.

Quinnlyn Mason started Cal's four-goal answer with the final goal of the first quarter on an assist from Lawliss with 0:24 to go in the opening 15 minutes. Kennedy Mason scored a pair of unassisted goals with 14:01 and 8:48 to go in the second quarter, sandwiched around Morse's first goal on an assist by Rothman with 12:35 remaining.

Christina Gagnon would score the only other goal in the second quarter unassisted with 4:16 to go and the Trojans were ahead 6-4 at the intermission.

The score remained 6-4 in favor of the Trojans for the first 10-plus minutes of the third quarter before USC took control by scoring all three of the period's goals in the final 4:47 of the frame and adding the first two goals of the fourth.

Dora started the stretch with an unassisted goal with 4:47 remaining in the third before Vitale (1:06) and Heaney (0:22) scored on assists from Murphy.

The teams started the fourth with another long scoreless stretch before Tilton assisted Brown (6:27) and Vitale (5:20) on the Trojans' final two tallies of the game. Morse (2:20) and Wang (0:07) on an assist from Lillquist wrapped up the scoring.

Riley Drullinger and Alicia Souliotis both played in goal for the Bears. Drullinger played the final three quarters and picked up eight saves while allowing six goals after Souliotis gave up five goals with one save in the opening frame.

Kait Devir played the entire game in goal for the Trojans, stopping six shots and allowing six goals.

Cal held a 14-7 advantage in draw controls led by Kacie Riggs with a game and season-high seven. Both teams picked up 18 ground balls with USC's Alexis Niblock collecting a game-high four. The Trojans were called for twice as many fouls as the Bears (34-17), while leading in shots (29-16), shots on goal (20-12) and caused turnovers (9-7). Cal turned the ball over 20 times, while USC had 11.

The 17 goals scored between the teams were the fewest combined goals in a Cal game this season, while tying for the lowest in a USC contest.

Cal will next host Arizona State (2-7, 1-3 Pac-12) on Sunday at California Memorial Stadium. First draw is scheduled for noon PDT and the matchup will be streamed on Cal Live Stream-3.