Womens tennis in the NCAAs:

THIS WEEK: The No. 9-ranked California women’s tennis team (17-4, 7-1 Pac-10) looks to return to the national championship match as it hosts the opening rounds of the 2009 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships this weekend at Hellman Tennis Complex. The Golden Bears draw Northeast Conference champion Long Island (10-7, 3-0 NEC) in their first-round match at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 8. Earlier in the day, No. 31 Texas (16-7, 10-1 Big 12) faces off with No. 41 Pepperdine (13-11) at 10 a.m. The winners of the two matches will meet again in a second round match at noon on Saturday, May 9. Saturday’s winner will advance to play as one of the final 16 teams at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. Cal enters the postseason riding a season-high six match winning streak and recently celebrated the selection of five players to the Pac-10 All-Conference team. All three of this weekend’s matches will feature live set scoring and streaming video via links at www.calbears.com/sports/w-tennis/cal09ncaa.html.

TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets for the NCAA first and second round matches are $8 for adults and $4 for seniors, students with valid identification and youth (K-12). Only single-day tickets will be sold and all tickets will only be sold at the Hellman Tennis Complex north gate.

Womens Water Polo rocking hard:

BERKELEY – The No. 5 California women’s water polo team put forth the best season in school history in 2009. The Golden Bears finished the season 31-8 overall, which is the highest number of wins ever and ties the highest winning percentage. This year’s team not only scored the most goals in program history but its goals per game average of 12.54 is also tops in the record books.

• Bears scored 489 goals in 39 games to average 12.54 goals per game
• Cal only allowed 243 goals, averaging 6.23 goals allowed per game
• Seventeen different players turned in multi-goal performances for a team total of 116
• Junior driver Meghan Corso led the Bears with 66 goals and 22 multi-goal games. Freshman Emily Csikos was second (65 goals) followed by redshirt junior utility Camille Hewko (54 goals)
• Thirteen different Bears had double-digit goal tallies
• Cal shut out its opponents in 44 complete quarters
• The Bears were ranked in the top-10 for the entirety of the season, spending eight weeks at No. 5 and were never ranked lower than seventh in the nation
• Camille Hewko was named the MPSF Co-Player of the Week on April 7 after she scored four goals to lead the No. 5 Golden Bears to an 11-9 victory over No. 8 Arizona State on April 4
• Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Stephanie Peckham was lauded as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Co-Player of the Week for the week of March 23. Peckham helped the Bears to three wins at the Aztec Invitational on March 21 and 22. The Coto de Caza, Calif., native garnered 38 total saves over the course of three games. She was also given the award for the week of Feb. 2 after Peckham helped to lead the Bears to four wins at the NorCal Cup. Peckham grabbed three saves in the 20-0 victory over Cal State Monterey Bay and seven stops for the 15-1 demolishing of Sonoma State. Peckham was instrumental in Cal’s two wins – 14-2 over Pacific and 9-7 over No. 9 UC Davis
• Camille Hewko is tied for sixth on Cal’s all-time single-game scoring leaders after she knocked in five goals at Colorado State on Feb. 8
• With 65 goals scored in her freshman campaign, Emily Csikos is second on the all-time freshman scoring list, second only to Kaliya Young, who had 85. Lauren Barron is 10th with 26 goals and Libby McLaren is in the 11th spot (23 goals)
• After leading the team with 66 goals, Meghan Corso moved into seventh place on Cal’s career scoring list with 131 goals in three years thus far. Julie Oreglia is the next current player on the all-time list, in 15th place with 83 scores in three years at Cal
• Stephanie Peckham had 305 saves this season, which skyrocketed her into first place on the single-season goalkeeper saves list. With just one year of collegiate play under her belt, Peckham is fifth on the all-time keeper list with 305 saves
• Camille Hewko was named to the All-MPSF second-team as well as the all-tournament team, while redshirt junior utility Stephanie Schnugg was an honorable mention and freshman driver Emily Csikos earned all-freshman honors

Mens Gymnastics also rocking hard:

BERKELEY – Six members of the California men’s gymnastics team have been selected as Academic All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s scholar athletes for the 2009 season, MPSF Commissioner Al Beaird announced Tuesday.

Receiving honors are first-year law student Kyle Brady, seniors Evan Roth and Kyson Bunthuwong, juniors Bryan del Castillo and Daniel Geri as well as sophomore Eric Haeussler.

Out of all five teams in the MPSF, the six selections for the Golden Bears are the most in the conference. Stanford, Nebraska and Oklahoma each had five gymnasts earn academic honors while Air Force received three.

The student-athletes were nominated for this award by their institution based on the following criteria: 3.0 or better cumulative grade point average and at least a sophomore academically, the student-athlete must have completed one full academic year at the institution prior to the season for which the award is being received and the student-athlete must have competed in 50 percent or more of the institution’s competition.

Softball takes on UW and UCLA:

The No. 12/13 California Golden Bears play their final three games of the regular season this week, taking on a pair of top-five ranked teams. Cal travels to Los Angeles to take on the No. 3/2 UCLA Bruins Thursday, May 7 at 1 p.m. The Bears then head north to Seattle for a pair of games against the No. 4/5 Washington Huskies, playing Friday, May 8 at 3 p.m. and then closing out the regular season on Saturday, May 9 with a game at 12 p.m.

Cal moved up one spot in both polls this week, coming in at No. 13 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25 poll and at No. 12 in the USA Today/NFCA poll. The Pac-10 continues to dominate the polls with three of the top-five teams in both polls coming out of the conference. Oregon and Oregon State are the only teams in the Pac-10 not ranked in the top-25.

The Bears won their final non-Conference game of the season, defeating UC Davis 3-1 in Davis last week, giving them their 25th win this season over a team outside of the Pac-10.

The Bears battled the elements and the Arizona schools over the weekend. The teams lost their fight with the rain on Friday night, having to cancel their showdown with Arizona. Because of the tight schedule, the game will not be rescheduled. Saturday and Sunday’s games each had their first pitches pushed back two hours because of rain, but both ended up being played in almost completely dry conditions.

Womens Golf heads to NCAA Regionals:

The No. 25 California Golden Bears will compete at the 2009 NCAA Women’s Golf West Regional at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., Thursday, May 7 through Saturday, May 9. The par-72 6,230 yard course is the setting for the 54-hole (three-round) tournament to advance teams to the NCAA National Championships. Live scoring will be available at www.golfstat.com.

This is the tenth straight year the Bears have qualified for the NCAA post-season and are looking for their seventh trip to the NCAA National Championships. The Bears last qualified for Nationals in 2006, the freshman season for current seniors Shannon Yocum and Allison Goodman. The Bears placed third at the Regional and went on to finish fifth at the National Championships. Last season, the Bears finished 12th at the Regionals, ending their season at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club in Lincoln, Calif.

This season, the Bears go into the Regional as the No. 8 seed in the field of 21 teams. The top eight teams and the top-two individuals not on those teams will advance to the National Championships in Owings Mills, Maryland.

I thought I might have been promoting this a bit too hard, but now I’m promoting it every moment of every fucking day just to piss off Rishi.

A person who isn’t Rishi decided to spend time not drinking and pretending to have any ability to speak to women by expressing themselves creatively. Now, you have an opportunity to share that creative expression with him:

BERKELEY – California forward Jamal Boykin will hold an art exhibition to showcase his drawings of President Obama on Saturday, May 9, at the Alphonse Berber Gallery located at 2546 Bancroft Way from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Barack Obama Collection features 44 hand-drawn portraits of President Obama, all done by Boykin, with photography by Nican Robinson. There will be a special presentation at 7 p.m. where Boykin will speak along with poetry recited by Cal guard Patrick Christopher. Donations will be encouraged to raise money for art supplies for students at Malcolm X Elementary School. This is the first of a series of shows that will also take place in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Refreshments will be served.

Opened on Feb. 27th, 2009, the Alphonse Berber Gallery is located in a beautiful 7200 square foot Julia Morgan-designed building across from the University of California. The gallery presents the work of dynamic, aggressively innovative emerging to mid-career contemporary artists. With each exhibition, the interior space is re-imagined in order to craft the ideal vehicle for showcasing a diverse range of genres and mediums. For more information, visit the Gallery’s website by clicking here

Don’t forget about the CGB Meme Invitational. Voting on these 6 match ups lasts until THIS FRIDAY MAY 8 AT NOON! So, keep the discussions going. Here are the links:

Tagline v. A-11
Stego v. Hattin’
Chunged v. TuckNJersey
Dorrell Mustache v. Existential Pics
Watercube v. Somebody’s Bitter
Anguish Ape v. Leon Powe

JO reviews RBs from spring practice.

WHERE WE STAND: There’s no deep analysis needed here. We all know Best will be the featured tailback and one of the best in the country if he is healthy. His absence this spring was good for Vereen and DeBoskie. Vereen was steady but not spectacular in the spring, but he proved last season he is a valuable backup. It will be interesting to see if DeBoskie pushed Vereen at all for some second team reps. Vereen is incredibly dependable and one of the most respected players on the team by both coaches and teammates.

MOVING FORWARD: Best said he expects to be completely healthy well before the start of training camp. He hopes to be ready in time for offseason conditioning workouts, which start around the end of June. When the fall comes around, Best will be the most overexposed offensive player on the West Coast. Even if he is completely healthy, which everyone expects, the coaches still may limit him a bit during camp. They do that even when he isn’t injured, simply to protect their star player. Again, that will help Vereen and DeBoskie. There’s no reason to believe Vereen won’t once again get his occassional chances as a backup. He won’t simply be waiting in case Best gets hurt. The Bears will use him.

Schwartz and Kendricks are among Ted Miller’s 20 players to emerge this fall.

California
Offense: Mitchell Schwartz, OT, So.: The general feeling is Schwartz could play his way into a first-day pick in the NFL draft.

Defense: Mychal Kendricks, LB, So.: Talent meets opportunity — will Kendricks take advantage?

I’m swelling with American pride.

hey gang -

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for making this such an enjoyable blog.

The ’thusiasts & the Javidtician / Artist formerly known as BearsNecessity…I bet it takes a lot more time then we imagine. Thank you for your efforts.

The regular posters – Spazzy, T-bred (who’s been absent of late – should we send for an officer?), danzig, chowder, Rishi, The Maharg, zoonews, rollonu, all the dudes from out of state, and 30 or so others – your efforts help make this a vibrant place and keeps me coming back.

The lurkers – stop lurking and join already. We’re a friendly crew, non-PC at times, but friendly nonetheless. Bring some news, an interesting personal story, why you love Cal, why you actually type in californiagoldenblogs.com, anything! The more the merrier.

May this season turn out to be the Unthinkable. Or at least not 2007.

Go Bears.

I wasn’t going to do this, but some unfortunate news hit the waves today so I thought it should be seen.

All links SF Gate unless otherwise noted.

Red Cross confirms US bombs kill 120 innocent Afghans including women & children:

The international Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that civilians were found in graves and rubble where Afghan officials alleged U.S. bombs had killed dozens. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington “deeply, deeply” regretted the loss of innocent life.

Women and children were among dozens of bodies in two villages targeted by airstrikes, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported Wednesday, after sending a team to the district. The U.S. military sent a brigadier general to the region to investigate.

A former Afghan government official said up to 120 people died in the bombing Monday evening.

Opening a meeting with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. State Department in Washington, Clinton said Wednesday that any loss of innocent life was “particularly painful.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai,

Dellums is cutting 140 Oakland cops. This is really not good.

Be careful with Craigslist. Anyone want to buy my Corrolla? For reals?

Education is linked to health.

There’s not doubt in my mind that my dog would try and defend my family from a mountain lion. Hopefully the dog makes it without the family having to take out a small loan to pay for it.

this one’s for chowder. Ranch homes & architecture.

Mendocino! If you have a significant other, take her/him there. You will not regret this.

Sports:

Miller on Cal’s breakout players to be:

California
Offense: Mitchell Schwartz, OT, So.: The general feeling is Schwartz could play his way into a first-day pick in the NFL draft.
Defense: Mychal Kendricks, LB, So.: Talent meets opportunity — will Kendricks take advantage?

KenCraw on TV scheduling:

Cal doesn’t come out bad with 3 games total (Maryland, USC and Oregon) which is 3rd behind USC’s 6 and Oregon’s 4. Washington and Oregon State are the only other teams with more than 1, with 2 each, and Washington State and UCLA were the 2 teams left out in the cold (boy, I wouldn’t want to be on the Bruin Nation website this week if I was an ABC exec).

Speaking of which, I’m somewhat suprised the Cal versus UCLA game didn’t get picked up. It has a history of being a close game in the Rose Bowl and you’d think they’d throw UCLA one bone. Here’s betting that the game gets picked up as ABC’s 12 day selection that they reserved for 10/17 at 12:30 PM. You’ll notice that minus USC games, ABC was very reluctant to pick up games midway through the season and the back end of the schedule is very "reservation" heavy. That says to me that ABC doesn’t have a lot of confidence about which teams will rise to the top and wants to hold out on their picks.

Other games that I wouldn’t be surprised being picked up by ABC for a reserved game are the Arizona State game (reservation is for 10/31 @ 12:30 PM) and perhaps the Big Game (reservation is for 11/21 @ 12:30 PM) although it tends not to attract the big networks because it’s mostly unrecognized outside of the Bay Area. I’d add

Beears with Fangs on NCAA ’10

does that mean she has a southern accent?

Wait…she’s from the SEC and she doesn’t love football?!?!

She must at least have an opinion on South Carolina vs. Clemson. Everyone in South Carolina has at least that!

All links NSFW.

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http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/isite/survivor/images/CarolinaGirls_final.jpg
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http://3.bp.blogspot.com/KktWsaLIqaA/Rw6r-xwX94I/AAAAAAAAAEc/NvGhXnbC7mA/s400/UNC+EG.jpg
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http://www.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/southcarolinafans5.jpg
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The last one may or may not have a “sport package.”

California will stop teasing in 2009

Dude, I just pierced the shit out of a corporate veil. I pierced it hard. Oh yes!