But the Wolverines were not terribly pleased with either result.
"I'm disappointed," coach Debbie Belkin said. "We played hard, but we had our opportunities to win."
Friday, California kept coming back and the Wolverines were unable to slam the door in the seesaw affair.
Michigan came out strong in the beginning.
"We knew they were going to hit hard, so we had to hit hard in return," junior Ruth Poulin said.
Freshman Mari Hoff scored to open the game, but the Golden Bears answered by halftime. Another freshman, Marie Spaccarotella, put Michigan ahead in the second half, but California came back again to send the game into overtime.
With 30 seconds left in the second 15-minute overtime, Poulin scored a controversial goal that was taken away.
"There were about five people in the (penalty) box all going for the ball when it hit the hands of a California player. For some reason the sideline referee called the handball on us," Poulin said.
Many players in the box were signaling for the handball before the goal was scored. The question was which team committed the penalty.
"We watched the tape later and it confirmed that it should have been a goal," said Belkin.
The goal would have given the Wolverines a huge upset victory over the ranked California squad.
There was little time to rest, or feel discouraged, however, in preparing for yesterday's game against No. 16 Kentucky.
Once again, the Wolverines almost won in the game's closing seconds, but once again they had to settle for a tie.
With under 10 seconds left in the second overtime, freshman Emily Schmitt took a long shot that hit the crossbar, leaving Michigan with another tie.
Down 2-0 at halftime in yesterday's game, the Wolverines showed what a difference a half can make.
"We were playing pretty nervous in the first half," Belkin said. "We were treating the ball like a hot potato."
But with the wind on its side in the second half, Michigan evened the score behind tallies from Mari Hoff and Amber Berendowsky.
But once again, Michigan could not put the game away.
Belkin pointed to fatigue as a factor in yesterday's game.
"This was only the second overtime game of the season for us," Belkin said.
"All in the course of three days, so we were tired."
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
Sophomore defender Vanessa Lewis and the Michigan women's soccer team were unable to hold a lead against California on Friday, settling for a 2-2 tie. On Sunday, the unranked Wolverines came back from a two-goal deficit to tie No. 16 Kentucky.