May 7, 2012

BERKELEY - The California Golden Bear field hockey will begin the 2012 season by taking on defending national champion Maryland in Berkeley. The Bears, who reached a program-best ranking of No. 11 last season, will play a challenging schedule that features five other games against 2011 NCAA Tournament participants.

The Golden Bears season opens on Friday, Aug. 24 when they host the Maryland Terrapins. The Terps have won back-to-back national titles, winning the 2011 crown in an overtime thriller against North Carolina.

The Bears will play four other games against teams that were in the 2011 NCAA Tournament including road games at Penn State (Oct. 5) and Duke (Oct. 19) and their home and away contests against NorPac rival Stanford (Sept. 30 in Berkeley and the Oct. 26 regular-season finale at Stanford). Additionally, Cal will also take on three teams that were ranked in the NFHCA Top-20 during the 2011 season, playing at Indiana (Sept. 15), at Wake Forest (Oct. 21), and a home contest in Berkeley against Northwestern.

In all, the Bears will play eight home games, with non-conference matches against St. Louis (Aug 27), Bryant (Sept. 3), and Drexel (Sept. 7) before jumping into NorPac action. Maxwell Family Field will also host three neutral site games with Northwestern taking on both Pacific (Sept. 2) and UC Davis (Sept. 3) after playing Cal on August 31. Drexel will also face off against UC Davis on Sept. 6, the day before playing the Bears.

The NorPac Conference tournament will be held this year in Farmville, Va. from Nov. 1-3.

Preseason exhibition games will be announced at a later date.

2012 California Field Hockey Schedule

08/24/12 	vs. Maryland 	        Berkeley, Calif. 	4:00 p.m. PT
08/27/12 	vs. Saint Louis 	Berkeley, Calif. 	1:00 p.m. PT
08/31/12 	vs. Northwestern 	Berkeley, Calif. 	7:00 p.m. PT
09/02/12 	Northwestern vs Pacific 	Berkeley, Calif. 	1:00 p.m. PT
09/03/12 	Northwestern vs UC Davis 	Berkeley, Calif. 	1:00 a.m. PT
09/03/12 	vs. Bryant University 	Berkeley, Calif. 	1:00 p.m. PT
09/06/12 	Drexel vs UC Davis 	Berkeley, Calif. 	3:00 p.m. PT
09/07/12 	vs. Drexel 	        Berkeley, Calif. 	7:00 p.m. PT
09/15/12 	at Indiana 	        Bloomington, Ind. 	11:00 a.m. PT
09/16/12 	vs. Missouri State 	Bloomington, Ind. 	10:00 a.m. PT
09/28/12 	at UC Davis * 	        Davis, Calif. 	        7:00 p.m. PT
09/30/12 	vs. Stanford * 	        Berkeley, Calif. 	1:00 p.m. PT
10/05/12 	vs. Robert Morris * 	University Park, Pa. 	3:00 p.m. PT
10/07/12 	at Penn State 	        University Park, Pa. 	8:00 a.m. PT
10/12/12 	vs. Pacific * 	        Berkeley, Calif. 	7:00 p.m. PT
10/14/12 	at Pacific * 	        Stockton, Calif. 	1:00 p.m. PT
10/19/12 	at Duke 	        Durham, N.C. 	        3:00 p.m. PT
10/21/12 	at Wake Forest 	        Winston-Salem, N.C. 	11:00 a.m. PT
10/24/12 	vs. UC Davis * 	        Berkeley, Calif. 	5:00 p.m. PT
10/26/12 	at Stanford * 	        Stanford, Calif. 	7:00 p.m. PT