BERKELEY - With the sun setting in the hills, a back-and-forth battle between California and No. 18 Stanford went down to the final minutes, but the Golden Bears' women's lacrosse team lost to the Cardinal, 13-11, Saturday afternoon from California Memorial Stadium. The Bears fell to 4-6, 1-2 on the season. The game was also Cal's third matchup with a ranked opponent in 2019. Stanford never led by more than three goals at any point during the contest. Cal answered every time the deficit got to three, pulling the Bears closer and keeping the game close. Moral victories never appear in records, but head coach Brooke Eubanks was pleased with the effort she saw from her team today. "I really think today was the first game this season where we put 60 minutes together," Eubanks said. "We didn't have that point where we kind of crumbled and then have to recover from it. There are a couple things we need to fix going forward. The main thing is being finishers. We had some great shot opportunities, and credit to their goalie who made some great saves today. We just need to finish on more of our shots. "It's been four years of putting in the work in practice and grinding. I really do think that it's starting to turn and click. That stuff doesn't happen overnight. We're getting physically stronger. We're faster. Really, it comes down to believing. Having these close games is giving us more confidence. Today was good, but just not good enough." Cal struck first, scoring two of the game's first three goals. Stanford answered with a run to go up, 5-2, before the Bears battled back. Cal had four different goal scorers in the opening half and the teams went into the locker room with the score, 7-4, Stanford. Eliza Christman wasted no time in setting the tone at the outset of the second half, scoring within 90 seconds after the break. Kuberra followed suit and the Bears were only down by one just like that. With just under nine minutes remaining, Stanford led by three when the Bears garnered back-to-back goals from Nikki Zaccaro and Kuberra completed her hat trick to cut the lead to one just three minutes later. Following a Stanford timeout, the Cardinal were able to obtain possession and tally a game-clinching goal at the 1:25 mark to make the score, 13-11. Six Bears scored on the day with Kuberra leading the way with a hat trick. Christman, Kirsten Swanson and Zaccaro each scored twice while Caroline Corzel and Catherine Roxas each found the back of the net. Zaccaro added an assist to tie her with Kuberra for three points on the day. Susie Ropp chipped in with two assists. Defensively, Jenny Wilkens collected nine saves with a team-best four ground balls. She is now 10 ground balls shy for the school career record. Kendall Swenson caused three turnovers and garnered two ground balls, while Christman paced the Bears with six draws. Cal heads on the road now to USC and Arizona State next week. First is a battle with the Trojans on Saturday, March 23, at noon.