BERKELEY – The No. 10 California women’s soccer team fell, 1-0, to visiting Sacramento State on Friday afternoon at Edwards Stadium. For the seventh consecutive time, the Golden Bears outshot their opponent – 19-9 against the Hornets.  Junior forward Alex Morgan paced the Bears with four shots while redshirt junior forward Lisa Kevorkian had three. Cal drops to 6-3-0 overall while Sac State is now 5-3-2.

Things started off well for the Bears, who earned a corner in the first two minutes after a Hornet blocked a cross from Morgan to Kevorkian. Cal fired off two shots (Morgan, Brianna Bak) before Sac State got off its first offensive attempt in the 11th minute with a shot from Megan Burg that Cal senior keeper Gina Pellegrini stopped.

Sac State struck gold in the middle of the 18th minute. Kelsey O’Donnell fired off a shot off the dish from Leah Larot that was just beyond Pellegrini’s reach on the left side for the only goal of the game. The goal was O’Donnell’s second of the year.

The Bears had another good look at 20:11 when freshman Samantha Walker put one just wide off a cross from Morgan, who took off on a fast break. Sophomore Danielle Brunache followed up a minute later with a shot that forced a save by CSUS keeper Savannah Abercrombie.

Things appeared promising with 18:50 to play in the first half, when Morgan took a corner kick and then came around to shoot the ball, but hit the crossbar.  Senior midfielder Katie Oakes powered off a suburb kick in the 39th minute, but Abercrombie came out to deflect the shot. Bak made a key defensive play in the final three minutes, when she disrupted a play transpiring between Larot and Elece McBride.

Morgan paced the first seven minutes of the second half, taking three shots – two of which were saved and the other one went high. Bak cleared another play, this time between Erin Tarantino and Ashley Forbes, with a boot to Morgan. In turn, Morgan passed into Kevorkian, but keeper Abercrombie beat her to the ball.

Twenty-five minutes into the second half, the Bears earned a free kick, which sophomore midfielder Katrin Omarsdottir took, but the Sac State line blocked it. Junior midfielder Emily Shibata rebounded the ball and fired off a shot, forcing a CSUS save.

Morgan took off again on a fast break with just under 12 remaining in regulation. Despite being heavily covered by four defenders on her solo attack, Morgan managed to launch a shot, but Abercrombie grabbed it.

Pellegrini came through in the clutch, grabbing the ball before an attacking Ashley Forbes could muster off a shot with 7:14 to play. Bak let a shot loose from well outside the box in the 84th minute that forced another Abercrombie save.

In the waning minutes of the nonconference match-up, Pellegrini made two important stops, both of which came on shots from Larot and one of which was a spectacular diving save. Sophomore defender/forward Miranda White took a shot that went wide with 10 seconds to play and Oakes took a corner kick with just four seconds on the game clock, but could not put one through.

The Bears close nonconference play Sunday at No. 11 Santa Clara for a noon-time kickoff. Cal has won the past four meetings with the Broncos, including a 1-0 victory last year in Berkeley and a 2-0 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.