All the way across the country on Saturday, the No. 11 Cal men's soccer team's season came to an abrupt halt.

Playing No. 3 Maryland in College Park, Md., in the third round of the NCAA tournament, the Bears fell 2-1 to end their postseason run.

Maryland came out strong early, with insistent pressure on the Bears' goal. It paid off in the 19th minute, as Omar Gonzalez gave the Terrapins the lead by heading a corner kick high into the corner of the goal.

"We came out slow, a little timid," Cal junior Jacob Wilson said. "I can't really put my finger on what it was exactly. We have had that problem this season, taking time to get in the game and take teams on."

The second half saw the Bears pick up the pressure, but Maryland again found the back of the net shortly after halftime, as an unlucky deflection off of a defender sent the ball spiraling past Cal keeper Stefan Frei.

The two-goal deficit prompted the Bears to make changes to their lineup.

"We switched the formation and put more numbers up, including me," said Wilson, normally a defender. "We had three guys up top and really pushing for goals, because we needed goals quickly."

The shake-up paid dividends, as the tempo of the game shifted towards Cal.

"We definitely controlled the game once we went to a 3-4-3," Bears forward Andrew Wiedeman said. "When we went down two, it woke us up. We were dominating, we had a lot more opportunities, we started controlling the game."

Wiedeman cut the lead to one in the 68th minute when he flicked a pass from Wilson over Terps keeper Zac MacMath for his fourth goal of the postseason.

But MacMath would redeem himself only a few minutes later as he raced out to make a sliding save on an oncoming Wiedeman, preventing the forward from notching the equalizer.

Despite an offensive flurry by the Bears in the closing minutes-including a rocket by Pat Marion that went barely wide of the post-the final whistle closed the 2008 season for Cal.

The team finishes with a 12-4-5 record and an appearance in the final 16 of the tournament, a step farther than it reached in last year's competition.

"We were disappointed," Wiedeman said of the result. "I think we knew that we could compete with them, especially if we had played a full 90 minutes the way we played the last 30."

In the second round of the tournament, the Bears upset 15th-seeded UC Santa Barbara, 3-2, in double overtime to advance to the clash with Maryland. Davis Paul put Cal up early, with Wiedeman doubling the lead.

The Bears would see their two-goal cushion disappear in three minutes as the Gauchos rallied. But it would be Wiedeman again sealing the win, as he pounced on a bad clearance by the Gauchos to end the game.

Cal was drastically outshot, 24-12 by the Gauchos, but a stellar performance by goalkeeper Stefan Frei kept the game even. The junior made eleven saves during the match, a season-best.

Tags: CAL MEN'S SOCCER, KEVIN GRIMES, ANDREW WIEDEMAN, NCAA TOURNAMENT