The University of Minnesota women’s swimming and diving team fell to California-Berkeley 188.50 – 108.50 in a dual meet on Friday at the University Aquatic Center.

California placed fourth at the NCAA Championships last season.

“Cal could very well be one of the teams to challenge for the national championship this year, and right now they’re probably swimming as well as anybody in the country,” Minnesota co-head coach Kelly Kremer said. “To have them as our first challenge of the year, our women responded great. We opened up the year the way we wanted to: swimming fast and getting excited about the rest of the season. This was a perfect opening for us and we handled the meet really well.”

Sophomore Yuen Kobayashi won the only individual event for the Gophers, capturing the 500-meter title free with a time of 4:50.66. Kobayashi also placed third in the 200 free, clocking in at 1:49.46.

Minnesota took the top two spots in the meet’s final event, the 200-yard free relay. The ‘A’ team of Stacy Busack, Jennifer Hasling, Roxane Akradi and Erin Holtmeyer easily took first with a time of 1:33.84. The Gophers’ ‘B’ team of Meredith McCarthy, Jennifer Chang, Castina Wabeke and Krista Kezbers placed second with a time of 1:37.93, tying with the Golden Bears ‘A’ team for second place.

Golden Gopher sophomore Christine Jennings placed second in the 1000 free, touching the wall at 10:11.89, but Cal freshman Blake Hader won the event in 9:59.08.

Junior Roxanne Akradi, who transferred to Minnesota this year from Southern Methodist, took second in the 100 yard back with a time of 56.08 in her first event as a Golden Gopher.

Senior Jennifer Hasling took second in the 50 yard free for Minnesota with a time of 23.69. Emily Silver won the event for the Golden Bears with a time of 23.57.

Senior Jennifer Chang also turned in a solid performance for the Golden Gophers, placing second in the 100 fly with a time of 57.83.

In diving action, Minnesota sophomore Brianna Hubbard took second in both the 1 and 3-meter. Hubbard scored 247.35 in the 1-meter and 262.13 in the 3-meter. Gophers freshman Jacqueline Schroeder placed third in both events, scoring 244.35 in the 1-meter and 244.80 in the 3-meter. Cal freshman Samantha Young won each event with scores of 250.73 in the 1-meter and 273.83 in the 3-meter.

Sophomore Dana Vollmer won three individual events for California. Vollmer took the 200-yard fly with a time of 2:00.48, the 100-yard free with a time of 49.93 and the 100 yard fly with a time of 54.46.

Minnesota will return to competition next weekend, when it hosts Big Ten conference rival Iowa on Friday, Oct. 20 at the University Aquatic Center at 4 p.m.