BERKELEY. – The California women's soccer team was defeated by No. 2 Stanford 8-2 at Edwards Stadium Thursday in the final match of the regular season. The Cardinal scored three goals in the first half and five in the second half to capture its first ACC regular-season title.
With No. 1 Notre Dame falling on the road to Pitt 1-0, Stanford (15-1-1, 9-0-1) finishes the regular season as the lone undefeated team in ACC play and will have the No. 1 seed in the ACC Championship. The Golden Bears (8-3-8, 4-2-4) suffered just their third loss of 2025 and second loss of conference play but finished just outside of the top six of the highly-competitive ACC and will miss the conference tournament.
Stanford, the highest-scoring program in the country this season, scored in the 3rd, 20th, and 26th minutes to take a 3-0 lead into the half.
Cal showed life early in the second half as former Cardinal
Lumi Kostmayer scored her team-leading eighth goal of the season to cut the lead to 3-1. A pair of fifth year players in
Noelle Bond-Flasza and
Mia Fontana setup Kostmayer perfectly and the graduate-student forward rolled a shot past the diving Stanford goalkeeper to give her a goal in three straight matches and four goals in her last five. Her five ACC goals rank 10th in the conference.
Kostmayer received a penalty kick in the 85th minute, which was saved by the Cardinal keeper, but Bond-Flasza was first on the scene firing the rebound into the net for her first goal of the season to give her three points on the day.
Stanford recorded goals in the 61st, 74th, 82nd, 84th, and 89th minutes to end its highest scoring match of the season.
Cal will now await the NCAA Selection Show on Nov. 10 to see if it has qualified for its second straight NCAA Championship. The show will be aired on NCAA.com.