Cal Falls At No. 11/11 Virginia, 18-5

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Cal scored first and held a lead early in the second period before No. 11/11 Virginia stormed back and scored 14 of the game's final 15 goals in an 18-5 victory over the Golden Bears during snow flurries Sunday at Klockner Stadium.

Amanda Morse scored both of her goals in the first period, getting the Bears on the board with an unassisted goal just 0:27 into the contest. After two unassisted scores by Virginia (Jamie Biskup 13:22, Courtlynne Caskin 10:09), Morse struck again with 0:08 to go in the opening quarter on assist from Brooke Baker to tie the contest at 2-2 at the end of the first period.

Cal would score the first goal again in the second period when Kacie Riggs notched an unassisted tally to put the Bears ahead, 3-2. Virginia answered with three consecutive goals on unassisted scores by Ashlyn McGovern (12:15) and Kiki Shaw (11:44) before Morgan Schwab found Biskup with 8:16 to put Virginia ahead, 5-3. Olivia Dey moved the Bears back to within one goal by scoring with 4:54 to go in the second period on assist from Kelly McIntyre but Virginia tallied the final two goals of the half to lead 7-4 at the intermission.

The second half was all Virginia with the Cavaiiers scoring the first three and final eight goals. Morse assisted Megan Mix on the lone Cal goal after halftime coming with 7:05 remaining in the third.

"This is as tough as it gets to take a six-hour flight, play in the snow and go up against two top teams," Cal head coach Brooke Eubanks said about the team's season-opening two-game road trip at Navy and Virginia. "We challenged ourselves in our opening weekend. Now we know our strengths and focuses. We are ready to focus into next week and apply what we learned on this trip in our home opener."

Cal (0-2) hosts San Diego State (0-1) in its first home game of the 2022 campaign on Friday (5 pm PST) to begin a three-game homestand at FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium that also includes non-conference games against No. 14/14 Denver on Sunday (Noon PST) and UC Davis on Saturday, Feb. 26 (2 pm PST).