The Cal Bears and Stanford Cardinal softball teams took different paths to first-round NCAA Tournament victories, but both Bay Area teams moved closer to a College World Series berth on Friday.

Santa Clara’s Hope Alley homered three batters into the Broncos’ first-ever NCAA Tournament game and the Broncos didn’t fold after yielding a four-run second inning, but couldn’t complete the comeback against 13th-ranked Arizona and are one loss from elimination in the 64-team tournament.

No. 16 ranked Stanford rolled past Binghamton of New York 9-2 in Eugene, Oregon, scoring in each of the first four innings of the rout. In Norman, Oklahoma, Annabel Teperson allowed two hits in Cal’s 1-0 win over Omaha, and in Tucson, Arizona, SCU fought back to cut a five-run deficit to one in the fourth inning, but was doomed by two more big innings in a 13-5, five-inning loss to the 13th-ranked Wildcats.

Stanford (41-11) entered the tournament with the second-highest team batting average in the nation (.357) and averaged 8.1 runs during the regular season and came out swinging against the Bearcats (36-13) quickly building a seven-run lead. Caelen Koch had four of the Cardinal’s ten hits and drove in two runs. Emily Jones also drove in two runs, and eight different Stanford players scored at least once against the Bearcats, who are in the tournament for the second time in school history.

The Cardinal, who are looking to reach the CWS for the third straight year, face No. 16 Oregon today at 1 p.m.

Cal (36-19) broke a scoreless tie against the Mavericks (39-12) in the bottom of the fourth when Elon Butler led off with a double and then scored from second on Tianna Bell’s two-out single. Cal had just two hits, but produced its fourth shutout in the past six games. Omaha had runners on second and third in the second, and then again in the fifth (after two Cal fielding errors), but Teperson worked out of the jams with a strikeout and a groundout, respectively. The senior retired seven of the final eight batters she faced to record her third complete-game shutout.

The Bears, who are also making their third straight tournament appearance but haven’t reached the CWS since 2012, face four-time defending national champion and No. 2 tournament seed Oklahoma today at 11 a.m.

The Broncos (32-21) play the loser of Friday’s late Mississippi/Grand Canyon game at 3:30 p.m. With a win, they’d play another potential elimination game at 6 p.m.

Alley, who transferred from Cal as a grad student, hit her fifth homer of the season with two out in the bottom of the first. The former Foothill High (Pleasanton) star has reached base in 28 straight games. Arizona (46-11) tied the score in the bottom of the first, erupted for four runs in the second and made it 6-1 after three innings. SCU got back into the game with a four-run rally of its own in the fourth, with Robynn Balmediano and Lauren Bryson producing consecutive back-to-back two-run hits. But Arizona pulled away for good with a three-run fourth and a four-run fifth.

Soccer

A game between Angel City and the Utah Royals should not have continued after Savy King collapsed on the field and had to be hospitalized, the National Women’s Soccer League said Friday.

The league said it came to the conclusion after reviewing its protocols and listening to feedback from stakeholders. There were persistent questions this week about the league’s procedures.

A league statement expressed regret for allowing last Friday’s match in Los Angeles to go on after the 20-year-old Angel City defender was carted off the field while shaken players and fans looked on.

“The health and well being of the entire NWSL community remains our top priority, and in any similar situation going forward the game should and would be abandoned,” said the statement.

King was drafted by Bay FC second overall in 2024 and traded to the Kansas City-based club in February.

She underwent surgery on Tuesday after doctors discovered a heart abnormality. The team announced she is recovering and her prognosis is good.

The NWSL Players Association was among those that said the match should have been suspended after King’s collapse in the 74th minute. The players’ union issued a statement Friday saying it was grateful the league listened to the concerns and that the move “represents a meaningful step forward.“

“Player safety is not a slogan,” the union said. “It is a practice.”

WNBA

Napheesa Collier scored 34 points, spoiling the WNBA debut of fellow UConn alum Paige Bueckers and leading the Minnesota Lynx to a 99-84 victory over the Dallas Wings in the season opener for both teams Friday night.

Bueckers scored the first points of the season for the Wings, and the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft finished with 10 in front of announced sellout at the 7,000-seat arena on the campus of Texas-Arlington.

Brittney Sykes scored 19 of her 22 points in the second half, rookie Sonia Citron added 15 of her 19 after halftime and the Washington Mystics beat the Atlanta Dream 94-90 on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

NFL

The 49ers are expected to sign kicker Greg Joseph to compete with Jake Moody in training camp, according to Joseph’s agent, Brett Tessler.

Joseph, 30, kicked for the Giants, Commanders and Jets last season, making 16 of 20 field-goal attempts and all 11 extra points, and has a career success rate of 82.3%.

Moody, a third-round pick in 2023, has made 45-of-59 field goals in his career (76.3%) and 92 of 94 extra points but finished last season on a cold streak, missing four of six field-goal attempts over the final three games — all four from 40-plus yards.