Field hockey beats UC Davis:

DAVIS – Junior Lisa Lohre and redshirt freshman Megan Shimojima scored twice, helping the California field hockey team garner a 5-3 victory at UC Davis to close out the regular season. With the win, Cal improved to 6-10, 4-2 in the NorPac Conference, while the Aggies fell to 3-12, 0-5. Sophomore Erin Magill earned Cal’s other score. In addition, junior Sophie Sproats notched three assists.

UC Davis got on the board early to open the scoring. Lindsey Valadez scored off of a penalty corner in the fourth minute of the match. In the 20th minute, Magill tallied her seventh goal of the season off of a penalty corner, as well. Sproats earned the assist.

The Bears took a 2-1 lead with Lohre’s first goal in the 31st minute. Lohre converted on a penalty corner, as both Sproats and freshman Deanna Kennedy recorded the assists. It was Kennedy’s team-best eighth assist on the campaign. The teams headed into halftime with Cal up, 2-1.

In the 53rd minute, Lohre scored her second goal, which proved to be the gamewinner. Once again, Cal scored off of a penalty corner, and Sproats racked up her third assist. The goal was the third of the season for Lohre.

In the 57th minute, Shimojima got on the board for the first time with her goal, which was assisted by junior Natalie Nurnberg. The assist was the seventh of 2009 for Nurnberg. Shimojima added her second goal of the afternoon, fourth goal of the season in the 65th minute.

VBall beats ASU:

BERKELEY – The No. 15-ranked California volleyball team (12-7, 5-4 Pac-10) won its third consecutive match in a three-set sweep (25-18, 25-17, 25-13) of Arizona State (11-10, 1-8 Pac-10) Sunday, Oct. 25, at Haas Pavilion. The Golden Bears were led by senior outside hitter Hana Cutura’s match-high 21 kills (3e, 32att, .562). Cutura moved past fellow All-American outside hitter Angie Pressey (2004-07) into third place all-time at Cal with 1,736 career kills.

Sophomore outside hitter Tarah Murrey put up 11 kills (1e, 24att, .417) and posted her fifth double-double of the season with 10 digs. Senior libero Kristen Kathan led all players with 18 digs and senior middle hitter Mindi Wiley posted seven kills (2e, 16att, .312) to go along with five blocks. Junior setter Carli Lloyd dished out 38 assists and nabbed three kills (0e, 7att, .429). The Sun Devils were paced by junior outside hitter Sarah Reaves, who had 14 kills (7e, 39att, .179) to go with a team-high 13 digs.

Cal enjoyed its best offensive match of the year with a season-high .426 attack percentage. The Bears put down 49 kills on 101 attacks with just six errors. The Sun Devils were held to a .109 attack percentage with 30 kills on 101 attacks (19e) as the Bears out-blocked Arizona State, 9.0-2.0, and out-dug the Devils, 44-38.

After three straight hitting errors put the Bears behind, 11-10, Cutura got a kill out of the back row to pull the third set into its sixth tie at 11-all. Freshman defensive specialist Robin Rostratter came in to serve and forced an overplayed pass, which Lloyd slammed to the ground for Cal’s final lead of the match. The Bears ended up ripping off a 15-2 run to close the match with a 25-13 win in the third set. Rostratter served four straight points before Murrey went back to serve six straight points. The Bears led, 22-13, before Lloyd dumped a pass from Murrey. Freshman middle hitter Tia Gaffen took a quick set from Lloyd and recorded a kill to give the Bears set match point before Cutura flew in from the left side and blasted her 21st kill of the night off Reaves to seal Cal’s 3-0 sweep of the Sun Devils. The Bears put up 15 kills in the final set and attacked at a .314 rate (4e, 35att) but also held the Arizona State attack at bay with a -.056 attack percentage (6k, 8e, 36att).

Men’s soccer loses to SDSU:

BERKELEY – No. 20/25 California lost to San Diego State, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon at Edwards Stadium. Forward Raymundo Reza scored two first-half goals for the Aztecs, who improved their record to 6-4-4 (3-2-2 Pac-10). The Golden Bears’ record fell to 8-7-0 (2-5-0 Pac-10).

Prior to the match, Cal honored its seniors – forward Jeff Cosgriff, goalkeeper Patrick Fry, defender Imaan Kerchgani, defender Evan Sassano and defender Jacob Wilson – on Senior Day, marking the five Bears’ last regular-sesaon home game.

“All five seniors have been a pleasure to coach and have around this program,” Cal head coach Kevin Grimes said. “I’ve been here 10 years; Jacob’s been here with me six. He’s been here with me most of the time I’ve been here, and we’ve had Jeff here only for a year. Everything in between has been great. We’re going to miss all those guys. They’ve done big things for the program and have had big contributions. It’s been a tough season, but they should hold their heads up high. Those seniors were fantastic.”

The Bears, who have been plagued by injuries the last few weeks, have lost four straight and five of its last six games.

Cal had the edge on possession for most of the first half and at one point took a 5-0 advantage on shots over San Diego State. Its three shots on goal during that stretch were junior midfielder Hector Jimenez’s effort in the 10th minute blocked by a defender, a Cosgriff shot cleared off the goalline by a San Diego State player in the 11th minute and junior forward Andrew Wiedeman’s close-range, 20th-minute shot that caromed off an Aztecs’ goalpost.

Men’s water polo beats Pepperdine:

The No. 2-ranked Cal men’s water polo team (14-4, 2-1) was able to break away from a 6-5 deficit by scoring eight of the matches’ next nine goals on the way to a 13-7 victory over No. 5-ranked Pepperdine (7-9, 1-3) in an MPSF match Saturday morning at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The Golden Bears were led by sophomore Luka Saponjic’s three goals and 11 saves from sophomore goalie Wil Toppen. Senior captains Spencer Warden and Mike Sample, and junior Brian Dudley added two goals apiece.

The match was nip and tuck in the first half as the two teams traded goals through the first and second periods. Dudley closed the first quarter with a goal with seven seconds left in the period, and freshman Spencer White closed the first half with a last second goal on a counterattack to make the contest, 5-5, at the half.

Pepperdine notched the first goal of the second half on a score by Jacob Young with 7:10 in the third quarter to give the Waves a 6-5 advantage. From that point on it was all Cal. Warden scored a goal at 6:46 in third period to tie the contest, 6-6. Then Dudley gave the Bears their first lead of the match, 7-6, on a lob shot over Wave goalie Tommy O’Connell with 6:08 in the third quarter.

Cal continued its onslaught by outscoring Pepperdine, 6-1, the rest of the way with Saponjic scoring two of his three goals during the Bears’ run. Sophomore Ivan Rackov, who entered the match as Cal’s leading scorer with 36 goals, didn’t score against the Waves, but led the Bears with five assists. Sophomore Cory Nasoff tallied a goal and paced Cal with five steals. Brett Auer led Pepperdine with three goals and goalie O’Connell finished with eight saves.

“We were able to finally pull away in the fourth quarter,” said Cal coach Kirk Everist. “Pepperdine started out strong, but we were able to weather the storm and adjust in the second half. The guys did well adjusting to their defense and we started getting good looks at two-meter.”

Women’s soccer loses to WSU:

PULLMAN, Wash. – The No. 23 California women’s soccer team scored in the 25th minute but could not find the back of the net again to drop a 2-1 overtime decision to No. 20 Washington State on Sunday morning at WSU’s Lower Soccer Field. WSU scored at 94:07 on a penalty kick to take home the conference victory. Redshirt junior Lisa Kevorkian scored for the Golden Bears, who are now 8-7-1 overall and 2-4-0 in the Pac-10 Conference, while the Cougars bolster their record to 11-4-1 and 3-1-1 in Pac-10.

Kevorkian took Cal’s first shot on goal at 13:35 but WSU keeper Meghan Berlingo made the save. The Cougars came crushingly close at 21:45 when a shot from Kiersten Dallstream that hit the post. Just 22 seconds later, the WSU offense fired again, this time with a shot from Mallory Fox that went wide right.

Twenty-one seconds prior to Kevorkian’s score, Fox took another shot but Cal goalie Gina Pellegrini made the stop. In the 25th minute, Kevorkian score Cal’s first goal of the weekend. Junior forward Alex Morgan crossed the ball from the left side into the box, where senior Katie Oakes touched it and then Kevorkian came in for the goal from four yards out.

The WSU and Cal squads traded shots that went both high in the 37th and 38th minute from Dallstream and freshman Lauren Battung, respectively.

The referees issued a yellow card against the Cal team at 61:56, which awarded the Cougars a free kick from 20 yards that was taken by Jacquelyn Roth. Roth converted for her second goal of the season and to knot the game at 1-1.

VBall beats Arizona:

BERKELEY – California volleyball senior outside hitter Hana Cutura earned 32 points for the Golden Bears as No. 15 Cal (11-7, 4-4 Pac-10) defeated No. 16 Arizona (15-4, 4-4 Pac-10) in four sets (25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-16) tonight (Oct. 23) at Haas Pavilion. Cutura logged a career-high 31 kills on 47 attacks with just one error for a .638 attack percentage and posted her sixth double-double of the season with 11 digs on Dig for the Cure night.

Senior libero Kristen Kathan led all players with a season-high 21 digs and moved ahead of Jessica Dinaberg (1994-97) into fourth place all-time at Cal in career digs with 1,258. Sophomore outside hitter Tarah Murrey posted 14 kills (10e, 40att, .100) and added five digs and four blocks for the Bears; while freshman opposite hitter Correy Johnson had 10 kills (2e, 17att, .471) with four blocks. Junior setter Carli Lloyd tied her season-high with 59 assists and added eight digs and senior middle hitter Mindi Wiley added seven kills (3e, 14att, .286).

Arizona was led by junior outside hitter Whitney Dosty’s 14 kills (4e, 31att, .323). Sophomore middle blocker Courtney Karst added 12 kills (3e, 29att, .310) while senior libero Alanna Resch paced the Wildcats with 14 digs.

The Bears posted a .331 attack percentage as they logged 66 kills (20e, 139att) and out-blocked the Cats, 11.0-6.0 to hold Arizona to a .155 attack rate (48k, 26e, 142att) in the match.

Women’s Tennis doing great:

STANFORD, Calif. – All three seeded California women’s tennis players earned berths into the singles quarterfinal of the 2009 Wilson/ITA Northwest Regional Championship in day-two matches Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. Top-seeded sophomore Jana Juricova, fourth-seeded junior Marina Cossou and sixth-seeded junior Mari Andersson each earned the right to join the final eight players remaining in the singles championship. Cossou and freshman Annie Goransson will also play in the doubles quarterfinal.

After a campus-wide power outage suspended matches on the first day, singles round of 64 matches were completed as the first order of business on day two. A pair of Golden Bear freshmen advanced to the round of 32; Nelly Radeva took a 6-2, 6-0 win against Carmen Pham of Santa Clara and Goransson blasted Blair Reed of San Francisco in a 6-0, 6-0 win. Freshman Tayler Davis was barely edged in a 7-5, 7-6(3) match against Catherine Isip of Saint Mary’s College. Sophomore Stephany Chang was also eliminated after her opponent, Joyce Ardies of Washington, pulled out a three-set victory with a 6-3 win in the third.

Juricova flexed her No. 4 ranking in the round of 32 and took out Stanford’s Jennifer Yen, 6-1, 6-2, before she advanced to the quarterfinal with a 6-0, 6-2 win against the 11th seed, No. 67 Brittany Blalock of Cal Poly. Cossou also had little trouble in the round of 32 as she dispatched Laura Pola of Fresno State, 6-1, 6-0, to advance. She then grinded out a three-set victory against Stacy Tan of Stanford. Cossou fell, 11-9, in the first set tiebreaker and won the second-set tiebreaker, 14-12. No. 26-ranked Andersson defeated Veronica Li of Stanford, 6-4, 6-1, in the round of 32 before she took out a second Cardinal, No. 75-ranked Carolyn McVeigh, 6-4, 6-4, in the round of 16.

Men’s tennis doing well, too:

BERKELEY – The California men’s tennis team completed the second day of the 2009 Wilson/ITA Northwest Regional Championship with five doubles teams headed to the round of 16. In the singles championship, four Golden Bears also earned spots in the round of 16 including freshman Christoffer Konigsfeldt, who upended the top-seed, No. 7-ranked Alex Clayton of Stanford, in three sets.

Konigsfeldt dropped the first set in his match, 6-4, before battling Clayton to a second-set tiebreaker where he came away with a 7-4 win. Konigsfeldt maintained control of the match and won the third set, 7-5, to upset Clayton and advance. Fourth-seeded junior Pedro Zerbini continued his run with a quick 6-1, 6-2 victory against Rainer Nachbauer of San Francisco; while sophomore Nick Andrews pulled out a three-set win over Nicholas Bjerke of Oregon, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, as one of the ninth seeds.

Junior Bozhidar Katsarov was the fourth Cal player to move into the round of 16 with his 7-5, 6-2 win against David Ayoun of Fresno State. Fellow juniors Zach Gilbert and Jonathan Dahan didn’t fare as well, however, as each fell in two sets. Gilbert went the distance with Rikus DeVilliers of Fresno State before falling, 11-9, in the first-set tiebreaker; before coming up short in a 7-5 loss in the second set. Dahan was eliminated by Artem Gramma of Pacific, 6-1, 6-4.

In singles consolation matches, sophomore Sky Lovill dropped just five games on his way to two victories that put him into the round of 16 in the back draw. First, Lovill defeated George Anastopoulos of Sacramento State, 6-1, 6-0. Then he took out Nick Amaroli of UC Davis, 6-1, 6-3.

ESPN fired analyst Steve Phillips earlier this evening.

Baseball analyst Steve Phillips was fired by ESPN on Sunday night, less than a week after he admitted having an affair with a production assistant at the cable network, according to an Associated Press report.

A representative for Phillips also announced the former Mets general manager was entering a treatment facility "to address his personal issues."

Has anyone seen the movie Law Abiding Citizen. It got shitty reviews on RottenTomatoes but I kinda wanted to see it…

with the entire world coming online on Sunday nights? Seriously, I never have more friends on Facebook chat than I do on a Sunday night. It’s like we’re all trying to cling to the vestiges of our weekend by talking online…

Okanes:

Nose tackle Derrick Hill suffered a sprained shoulder against the Cougars. Jeff Tedford said Hill is day to day. The good news for the Bears is backup Kendrick Payne saw a handful of snaps yesterday after retuning from a foot injury. And Aaron Tipoti has played well in Payne’s place. That being said, Hill played at a pretty high level yesterday and would be missed if he has to sit out Saturday’s game at Arizona State.

Props for dedication Twist.

1) I’m applying for an internship with the Giants this coming season. Needless to say, I’m excited. Anybody happen to have any thoughts on doing internships or what i should do/not do in applying? I’m pretty comfortable with my resume and cover letter so far.

2) Slightly unrelated: what do I wear to a lunch with Billy Beane and Sandy Alderson? It’s not a super-formal thing, but I want to make a good impression.

Rushing Yards:
..2007…221
..2008…1580
..2009…775…Projected…1329
..Total…2576…Projected…3130

Rushing TDS:
..2007…2
..2008…15
..2009…11…Projected…19
..Total…28…Projected…35

Receiving Yards:
..2007…74
..2008…246
..2009…156…Projected…267
..Total…476…Projected…587

Receiving TDS:
..2007…1
..2008…1
..2009…3…Projected…5
..Total…5…Projected…7

Total TDS:
..2007…3
..2008…16
..2009…14…Projected…24
..Total…33…Projected…42

all courtesy of: http://espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=238184

Do Cats Riverdance?

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LINK

The two victories — one last week against UCLA at the Rose Bowl, the other on Saturday in an expected 49-17 decision against Washington State at Memorial Stadium — mask a defense that has yielded huge yardage to two of the worst offenses in the Pac-10.

In fact, the unit has given up 440 yards or more of total offense in each of its last four games — not exactly the numbers expected from a defense that was supposed to be one of the best in the West this season.

Steve Fanua???

“We lost our focus,” defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said. “We got out to an early lead and thought it was too easy and lost our focus, particularly the secondary.”

Concerned with the letdown, members of the coaching staff and backup players voiced their opinions during the halftime meeting.

“We had some nice fire words in the locker room at halftime,” defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “It even came from one of the young bucks. Steve Fanua came in and fired everybody up. He doesn’t like losing. The boy is crazy.”

LINK

LINK

Senior outside hitter Hana Cutura led the team with 21 kills and a .562 hitting percentage, finishing the best weekend that any Cal player has had this season. Cutura moved into third place on the program’s career kills list with 1,736, moving ahead of former standout Angie Pressey.

“Right now I’m healthy, I don’t want to jinx myself, but this season has been great so far regarding that,” Cutura said. “This weekend, things came together and we played good. We played the best we’ve played so far.”

With 52 kills on just four errors and a .600 hitting percentage in two matches this weekend, Cutura is almost sure to be named the Pac-10 Player of the Week, an honor she has never earned despite her illustrious Cal career.

“She was definitely very, very smooth,” Feller said. “I sure hope she gets Player of the Week in the Pac-10 because she had some pretty unreal numbers. With (four) errors on the weekend in 60, 70-some swings, that’s pretty good.”

Cutura’s play was only one impressive element of a very successful weekend for the team.

I was surprised to see Florida had a vastly superior Strength of Schedule when compared to USC. SC is 40 spots behind Florida, in spite of the fact USC’s OOC schedule includes @Ohio St and @Notre Dame, while Florida played solely at home and thus far includes Troy and Charleston Southern.

Florida’s Opponents:
Charleston Southern FCS
Troy 5-2
Tenn. 3-4
Kentucky 4-3
LSU 6-1
Arkansas 3-4
Miss. St 3-5
…Florida has beaten three winning teams, and only two from BCS conferences.
…Excluding Charleston So. the combined record of their opponents is 24-19. If you include only BCS conference teams their records drop to 19-17.

USC
SJSU 1-5
Ohio St 6-2
Washington 3-5
Wash. St. 1-6
Cal 5-2
Notre Dame 5-2
Oregon St. 4-3
…USC has beaten 4 winning teams, all of whom are from BCS conferences.
…The total records for their opponents is 25-25, including only BCS opponents the total record becomes 24-20.

Add in USC played more road games, why are they 40 spots behind Florida in Strength of Schedule?

I wonder if Coach Tedford watched the Texans-Niners game:

“Our offense is in a rut, and we have playmakers on the field. And we need to get the ball to them,” the coach said, explaining his instinct. He called for Alex Smith at the start of the second half, reasoning: “Let’s see what he can do in an adverse situation.”

Houston head coach Gary Kubiak, a former journeyman quarterback, said it best. “You know, I was that guy for many years,” he said, “and when you’re the backup guy, and your team’s struggling, you can just go in and cut it loose.”

I note that Sweeney was 3-3 for 21 yards in garbage time. No, I’m not saying Riley had a bad game I’d just like to see an opportunity for the man-child from Fresno.

25% off at the student store, for students (or people with student IDs)!

Hattip to Grey Bear, Bear Insider

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