The California lacrosse team started the 2024 season with a 19-10 win over Akron in a non-conference game at California Memorial Stadium on Friday. Mya Wang led the Golden Bears with a career and game-high six goals, while Kennedy Goss and Kennedy Mason each added hat tricks. Wang also had an assist to finish with a career and game-high seven points.
 
MORE KEY STATS
— A total of 10 Golden Bears scored goals with the trio joined by Annette Ciupek, Addie Fischer, Simone Holland, Isabel King, Kathleen Michaud, Emily Moes and Courtney Wong with one goal each.
— Kate Rothman had a career-best three assists with her three points tying a career high, while Fischer, Mason and Wong, in addition to Wang, had a single assist.
— Goss had nine draw controls to run her Cal career record total to 211 as the Bears dominated the draw, 21-11
— Cal also held sizeable team statistical advantages over Akron in shots (41-25) and shots on goal (30-17).
— Cal played three goalkeepers in Callan Fritsch, Alicia Souliotis and Chloe Rand. Fritsch got the victory while playing the entire first half and giving up eight goals with two saves. Souliotis played the first 25:40 of the second half and was the most effective (1 GA, 3 SV) before Rand (1 GA, 2 SV) played the final 4:20 to wrap up the contest. Akron's Hannah Sanders played the entire game in the net for the Zips and took the loss, allowing 19 goals while stopping 11 Cal shots.
— Akron's Jacquelin Glassey and Sienna Hinchcliffe each had a hat trick with Glassey adding two assists for a team-high five points. Macy Vail (one goal, two assists) and Noelle Boyd (three assists) matched Hinchcliffe's three points.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
— Cal jumped out to a 7-0 lead by putting together each of the game's first seven goals in a span of less than seven minutes beginning on an unassisted Mason goal with 9:17 remaining in the opening period. Goss followed with back-to-back unassisted goals of her own in a 38-second span followed by Wang's first goal on Rothman's first assist before Mason's second goal on an assist by Fischer, a King score on an assist from Wang and an unassisted Fischer goal to end the run with 2:32 to go.
— Akron rebounded by scoring the next six goals to cut Cal's lead to 7-6 with Glassey and Hinchcliffe picking up two each before Emily Moes, Mason and Kathleen Michaud gave Cal three of the final four goals of the half and a 10-8 lead at the break. The goals for the freshman due of Moes and Michaud were the first of their Cal careers.
— The second half was almost all Cal as the Bears tallied the first five goals to extend their lead to 15-8 with Wang starting the run with a pair of unassisted goals over a 30-second period, followed by single goals from Wong, Ciupek and Goss. Heather Carey pulled the Zips back within 15-9 when she stopped the Cal run but Wang and the Bears answered by scoring the next four goals with the first three by Wang and the fourth the first career goal for Simone Holland, who was a defender her first three seasons before moving to attack in 2024. Akron's Graceann Schwab wrapped up the scoring on an assist by Glassey with 0:15 to go in the game.
 
NOTES
— Cal's 19 goals were its most since a 20-10 home win over Saint Mary's on Apr. 7, 2017.
— Cal won its season opener for the second straight and its season opener at home for the first time since 2018.
— Cal played all 28 players that suited up from its 33-player roster including nine that made their Cal debut.
 
WHAT THEY SAID
"Today's game was a wonderful team win. We had a lot of scorers and people contributing on the defensive end. Akron played a hard-fought game and put us on our heels in the second quarter. I'm proud of how the team responded at halftime and how we finished the game. It was a great start to the season and we will get back to work to prepare for our trip to New York." – Head Coach Jennifer Wong
 
"I think our team came in with excitement and energy for our opener. I'm proud of us for being able to come back and dominate after some first-game nerves. Scoring a career-high six goals is definitely an accomplishment I'm grateful to have, but it wouldn't have happened without the efforts of all my teammates. I'm proud of how we played together in our opener, and I can't wait to see what more is to come for us down the road." – Mya Wang
 
UP NEXT
— Cal returns to action with a trip to New York to face Le Moyne and Cornell in non-conference road games next Thursday and Saturday.