Oregon lacrosse’s (3-1) dream start to the season came to an abrupt close as it fell to the California Golden Bears (3-1) in its second home game of the season; 14-9. 

From the get-go, Cal took control with the first score of the game after not even a minute of play from senior attacker Josie Lillquist who connected with Emily Moes lobbing the ball up from behind the net and finding the stick of Lillquist who dodged two Oregon defenders for the opening score. 

Cal game out swinging again taking the ball down their way and leading scorer for the Golden Bears senior attacker Courtney Wong got her first goal of the game. Back up top Wong gets the draw control and not even a minute later Cal scores yet again from Lillquist.

With five turnovers from Oregon, Cal took advantage, putting up three goals and goalie Lulu Murphy not allowing Oregon’s offense to find any net, not allowing the Ducks to score in the first quarter for the first time this season.  

To open the second quarter, Cal found the net in less than a minute of play, with Wong extending the lead and senior attacker Brynn Gallagher putting the Golden Bears up 5-0. Oregon found fire with three-straight goals by the Ducks leading scorer of the season senior midfielder Anna Simmons, junior attacker Avery Young and redshirt attacker Emma Ing. 

With Oregon Head Coach Jessica Drummond frustrated with Oregon’s defensive performances, puts Franscea Viteritti in goal for the Ducks for Kate Shields just before the half. Cal’s Lillquist sinks two in for the Golden Bears less than 30 seconds apart, testing the redshirt junior and putting a cushion on Cal’s 7–3.

“It’s just like any sub and I talk to them about that all the time,” Oregon Head Coach Jessica Drummond said. “Like, you never know if you’re going to go back into the game, so always stay ready and take your reset and come back and be ready to go, and she did that today.”

Cal continued to dominate out of the half with yet another goal in the first minute from Wong. The Golden Bears took advantage of man-up as Oregon senior midfielder Jadyn Laing received a green card putting Lillquist for the score. Ing responded quickly with a goal of her own followed by two Cal goals from junior midfielder Katie Bloomer and Senior attacker Avery Hoeft with a man-up advantage as Simmons sits in the box after a green card.

Drummond, still not satisfied with the in-goal performance, puts Shields back into play who will stay in for the rest of the game saving one shot before the end of the quarter for the Ducks as Cal maintains the stifling 12-4 lead.

The fourth quarter opened looking like an Oregon comeback on the horizon as Rachel Pallo found the back of the net just over three minutes in, assisted by junior midfielder Lexi Jenkins. Simmons follows with a net in and junior attacker Lyla Hurley gets her first of the season, keeping the Ducks within striking distance. 

“You know, just find the back of the net,” Drummond said. “You know, we’ve got, we had some great looks, we had some great ones, and being able to see that trend in a game and making sure that we continue to keep doing that.”

Cal maintained its composure though using their strong defensive play identity. Freshman midfielder Katie McMullen extended the Golden Bears’ lead with a goal off an assist from Wong. The Ducks used a man-up advantage to set up junior attacker Gabby Santucci for the goal but Cal’s Hoeft responds silencing any efforts from the Ducks 

“This team doesn’t give up, and I appreciate that about them,” Drummond said. “We talk about that, you just never count yourselves out of a fight.”

Pallo scored the final goal of the game but despite the five goals in the fourth quarter alone, the late momentum found by the Ducks was not enough to close the gap enough and the Golden Bears will hand Oregon their first loss of the season 14-9.

The Ducks will continue on their 7-game home series next up facing Eastern Michigan on Sunday.