Justine Willard / KLC Fotos
Avery Hoeft and the Golden Bears visit Notre Dame on Saturday.
Golden Bears And Fighting Irish Square Off Saturday At 10 A.M. PT
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS (6-7, 1-5 ACC) at NO. 13 NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (8-3, 3-3 ACC)
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2026 • 10 AM PT/1 PM ET
ARLOTTA FAMILY LACROSSE STADIUM (NOTRE DAME, IN)
WATCH
— ACCNX/ESPN+ (Will Eck, Play-By-Play; Payton Dymek, Analyst)
CALIFORNIA-NOTRE DAME LACROSSE HISTORY
— Notre Dame holds an advantage of 11-0 all-time against California, including a 15-8 win in Berkeley the first time the teams met with both members of the ACC last season on March 13.
— The previous meeting came in Notre Dame more than nine years earlier when the Fighting Irish won 21-2 on Feb. 28, 2016.
— Four of the 11 all-time meetings have been at Notre Dame with the others Fighting Irish wins in 2005, ’07 and ’09.
— The closest game between the teams was a 12-11 Notre Dame win the first time the teams ever played each other in Berkeley on Feb. 27, 2004.
HOMETOWN HEROES
— Cal has one player who lists her hometown from the state of Indiana (Sophie Mock, Carmel), as well as a pair of high school teammates (Annette Ciupek and Ari Tavoso) from Hinsdale High School in the bordering state of Illinois.
SIX OR MORE WINS FOR THIRD STRAIGHT SEASON
— Cal’s victory over Xavier on Tuesday was its sixth of the 2026 season to give the Bears at least six wins in each of the last three seasons for the first time since Cal won at least six games in each of the first 15 seasons of the program (1999-2013).
ONE, TWO, THREE MORE WINS
— One more win this season will get Cal to seven wins for the first since the 2019 team finished 7-12. It will also make it four consecutive campaigns under head coach Jennifer Wong that the Golden Bears will improve upon their winning percentage.
— Two more wins in 2026 would get Cal to eight victories for the first time since the 2013 team went 9-7.
— Three more victories and Cal would finish at .500 or better, also for the first time since 2013.
LAST TIME OUT: CAL 11, AT XAVIER 10 (MARCH 24, 2026)
— Cal never trailed in the first three periods but needed to survive a wild fourth to win 11-10 in a nonconference game against Xavier at Corcoran Field in the first-ever meeting between the teams.
— Cal scored the game’s first three goals (Courtney Wong, Willow Cyr, Josie Lillquist) and looked to be heading towards a decisive victory. Cal led by as many as three goals on six different occasions but could not pull away from the Musketeers.
— Xavier took its first lead with 13:22 to go in the contest but Cal responded with three straight unassisted goals from Wong, Katie McMullen and Juliana Doran to put the Bears ahead 11-9 with 3:12 remaining.
— Doran won the ensuing draw control and the Bears ran off nearly all 90 seconds of the possession clock before Doran also took a shot that was saved by Xavier’s Jada Brandon to give the ball back to the Musketeers. Samantha Balara then earned a free position attempt when Cal’s Clara Page committed a foul with just over a minute remaining and converted with 0:59 to go to pull Xavier within 11-10.
— Xavier won the ensuing draw control but committed an offsides foul and was assessed a green card to give the ball back to Bears, but Cal turned it back over to the Musketeers for one final attempt by Balara that banged off the right post.
— Cyr, Lillquist and Wong ended up with two goals each for the Bears, while Moes had a goal and a pair of assists for a team-high three points.
WRAPPING UP THREE-GAME ROAD TRIP
— Cal’s contest Saturday at Notre Dame wraps up its season-long three-game road trip that started last Saturday with a 12-5 loss at Louisville. The Bears have been on the road throughout the entirety of their trip that is Cal’s fourth roadie of the 2026 campaign. Cal started the season with a two-game trip to San Diego State/USC (Feb. 6, 8), followed by a single game at Oregon (Feb. 19) and its first ACC trip to No. 23 Duke (Feb. 28) and No. 15 Syracuse (March 3). Cal also has a trip across the Bay for its regular-season finale at No. 2 Stanford on April 16.
TRIO OF WONG, MOES, HOEFT LEADING OFFENSE
— Courtney Wong has posted career highs and is Cal’s leader in points (40) and goals (24) through 13 games. She also has a career-high-tying 16 assists and is second on the team, two behind Avery Hoeft’s team-high and career-high-tying 18. Emily Moes has 30 points on 20 goals and a career-high 10 assists, while Hoeft has 26 points on eight goals and 18 assists.
WONG MOVING UP ON CAL’S SINGLE-SEASON DRAW CONTROL RECORD
— Courtney Wong’s 59 draw controls have moved her within 24 of Kennedy Goss’ all-time single-season school record of 83 set in 2023. If Wong remains on her current pace of 4.54 draw controls per game, she will end the regular season with 77 draw controls. Wong had a career-high 12 draw controls March 9 against Stonehill.
PAGE LEADS ACC IN GROUND BALLS, SIXTH NATIONALLY; CAL 2ND, TIED FOR 4TH
— Clara Page is the ACC’s individual leader and ranks sixth nationally with a career-high 37 ground balls, as well as third in the conference in ground balls per game (2.85). As a team, Cal is second in the ACC and fourth nationally with 208 ground balls.
MURPHY LEADS NATION’S FRESHMEN IN SAVES
— Lulu Murphy, who has started all 13 games in goal for the Bears, leads all freshman goalkeepers with 91 saves while ranking 12th nationally overall. Murphy is the first freshman to serve as Cal’s primary starter in goal since Jenny Wilkens in 2016. Lily Rathbun also saw just over half of the team’s action in net as a 2021 freshman.
RAND PICKS UP FIRST TWO WINS OF SEASON IN THE NET
— Chloe Rand saw increased action between the pipes off the bench in back-to-back home games against No. 1 North Carolina and Marist on March 12 and 16. She relieved starter Lulu Murphy at the end the first period against the Tar Heels and picked up a career-high-tying 10 saves while allowing just nine goals during a 45:00 performance that tied for the second-longest of her career. She then earned her first win of the season and the third of her career after relieving Murphy again against Marist with the Bears trailing 4-2 with 4:46 to go in the first period, allowing only five goals while making five saves during her 44:07 of action in a game the Bears won 18-10. She did not play at Louisville before picking up her second win of the season at Xavier when she played the final 20:58 and limited the Musketeers to three goals while making five saves. On the season, Rand sports an 8.44 goals against average while playing in seven games all off the bench and has recorded 27 saves while allowing 19 goals for a .587 save percentage.
SCHEDULE SHIFTS
. — Cal played its first five games of the 2026 season against unranked opponents and posted a 3-2 record in those contests but has played four of its last seven against ranked teams and dropped all four (at No. 23 Duke, at No. 15 Syracuse, No. 10 Boston College, No. 1 North Carolina) with its lone victories over the stretch coming in home games against unranked Stonehill and Marist before Tuesday’s win at Xavier. Cal also lost to an unranked team at Louisville (March 21). After playing three of its last four games against unranked teams, the Bears will go up against ranked squads in three of their final four regular-season contests with Saturday’s game at No. 13 Notre Dame followed by a home contest against No. 10 Clemson (April 3) and a road game in the regular-season finale at No. 2 Stanford (April 16). All seven currently ranked teams on Cal’s 2026 schedule played in the 16-team NCAA Championship in 2025, with North Carolina winning the national title and Boston College reaching the semifinals.
GOOD IN ONE-GOAL GAMES
— Cal has been good in the close ones this year with a 3-1 record in one-goal games. Three of Cal’s first five games in 2026 were decided by a single goal with the Bears winning the first two at San Diego State (13-12) and at home against Florida State (10-9) before falling 13-12 to UC Davis on Feb. 23. After seven straight contests that were decided by at least seven goals with the Bears going 2-5 in those game, Cal played its most recent one-goal contest Tuesday at Xavier and won 11-10.
NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS
— Cal has a 10-3 record in nonconference games over the last two seasons since joining the ACC prior to the 2025 campaign, posting a 6-1 mark in 2025 and a 5-2 record through its in 2026. The Bears wrapped up their 2026 nonconference game schedule with Tuesday’s 11-10 win at Xavier.
