Schedule for this weekend:
It's a pretty busy slate of games for Cal Athletics this weekend.
On TV:
Men's Water Polo makes their season Pac-12 Networks debut when they host Navy today at 12:30 pm.
Cal Volleyball face another top 5 team tonight when they host No.4 Washington at 8 pm, also on the Pac-12 Networks.
We will be holding a book drive at tomorrow night's match against Washington. Make a donation and earn a chance to win a prize! #GoBears.
— Cal Volleyball (@CalVolleyball) September 25, 2014
On next Thursday, Cal Men's Soccer will kick off Pac-12 play at Washington with the game on the Pac-12 Networks.
Online Video Stream:
Cal Women's Soccer's Pac-12 opener at Colorado will be stream live online (sadly most of this game overlaps with the Cal-Colorado event at Kabam Field).
Live stream is also available for the Cal Nike Fall Invitational women's tennis tournament hosted by Cal Women's Tennis.
Fri,
Sep 26
|
Women's Tennis | Cal Nike Fall Invitational |
Fri,
Sep 26
|
Men's Water Polo | Navy |
Fri,
Sep 26
|
Field Hockey | Duke |
Fri,
Sep 26
|
Men's Soccer | Santa Clara |
Fri,
Sep 26
|
Volleyball | Washington |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Women's Tennis | Cal Nike Fall Invitational |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Cross Country | Roy Griak Invitational |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Cross Country | Stanford Invitational |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Women's Soccer | Colorado |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Football | Colorado |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Men's Water Polo | Davis Shootout: Cal Baptist |
Sat,
Sep 27
|
Men's Water Polo | Davis Shootout: Whittier |
Sun,
Sep 28
|
Women's Tennis | Cal Nike Fall Invitational |
Sun,
Sep 28
|
Men's Water Polo | Davis Shootout: Occidental |
Sun,
Sep 28
|
Field Hockey | Wake Forest |
Sun,
Sep 28
|
Men's Water Polo | Davis Shootout: Chapman |
Mon,
Sep 29
|
Men's Golf | Palouse Collegiate (Host: Washington State) |
Mon,
Sep 29
|
Men's Tennis | ITA Men's All-American Championships |
Tue,
Sep 30
|
Men's Golf | Palouse Collegiate (Host: Washington State) |
Tue,
Sep 30
|
Women's Tennis | ITA Women's All-American Championships |
Tue,
Sep 30
|
Men's Tennis | ITA Men's All-American Championships |
Wed,
Oct 1
|
Women's Tennis | ITA Women's All-American Championships |
Wed,
Oct 1
|
Men's Tennis | ITA Men's All-American Championships |
Thu,
Oct 2
|
Women's Tennis | ITA Women's All-American Championships |
Thu,
Oct 2
|
Men's Tennis | ITA Men's All-American Championships |
Thu,
Oct 2
|
Men's Soccer | Washington |
Men's Water Polo (8-1, 3rd Place Finish in Kap7 NorCal Classic)
Win of the Week: No.4 Cal over No.3 (and 6 times defending NCAA Champs) USC 11-10 in NorCal Classic 3rd place game.
From CalBears.com
In a huge victory for the Cal men’s water polo program, the Golden Bears defeated six-time NCAA champion USC, 11-10, Sunday in the third place match of the Kap 7 NorCal Classic in Stockton. Kirk Everist’s squad was led by junior Colin Mulcahy’s three goals and 10 saves from senior goalie Jon Sibley.
With the win, Cal improved to 8-1 on the year and defeated a Trojans’ squad that had captured the NCAA title every year since Everist’s squad won back-to-back national crowns over USC in 2006 and 2007.
This is a pretty huge win for the Bears given how the team last year was not able to beat any higher ranked teams (USC, Furd, UCLA, and Pacific) last year while feasting on the lesser teams. Bears are able to get this win in a neutral pool in Stockton. Bears will have another chance to face these top teams in the SoCal Tournament before the regularly schedule contests.
USC is far from the invincible beast that they were early in their current run, but they managed to get it done comes December.
The Bears were only in the 3rd place game after losing in the semifinal to Bay Area rival Furd (and top ranked squad) by a score of 11-8.
Bears got to the semi by dominating Santa Clara 19-4 and then edge No.5 Long Beach State 8-6.
This weekend, the Bears will participate in the Davis Shootout, after hosting Navy on a Pac-12 Networks game today.
Former Cal Water Polo players are featured in a Daily Cal piece about their work in their family's Tivoli Caffe near campus.
Tivoli Caffe opened more than three years ago when Chris, the older of the two brothers, enrolled at UC Berkeley to study and play water polo.
It was always George’s dream to open a restaurant. A place where the family business would have a close bond with the community and his children could adopt the morals of family, faith and hard work. He named the cafe after the Italian town where he took Nancy on their first date 35 years before.
Daniel and Chris were immediately put to work in the kitchen when the restaurant opened. Soon after, Daniel followed his brother’s footsteps when he went to college and also joined the Cal water polo team.
"They (Chris and Daniel) don’t give up," George says. "They don’t take no for an answer. They have a good foundation. We work as a family. They like to eat. We enjoy eating, and what we enjoy, we’d like everybody else to enjoy. That’s very crucial for us."
Cal Volleyball (8-3, 0-1 in Pac12; beat St. Mary's to close out non-conference schedule, drop Pac-12 opener to No.1 Furd)
Bears fell to another top ranked Stanfurd team in Volleyball on Tuesday night. The 2nd set saw the Bears battled the Cardinal really close but lacked the killer instinct to get the kill on set point. Furd won in straight sets, 25-16, 26-24, 25-16in the first of two Big Spikes (the rematch will be in Berkeley on November 28th). Christina Higgins led the Bears with 13 kills as Lillian Schonewise was neutralized by the terrific Furd middles.
On the plus side, one of the two Furd players who sported a better than 0.500 hitting percentage was sort of neutralized by the Bears. Redshirt freshman and 6'8" Merete Lutz was kept to only a hitting percentage of 0.200 thanks to a great number of terrific digs by the Bears. On the other hand, All-American Inky Ajanaku hit 0.632 with 14 kills for the match.
Pac-12 schedule does not get any easier for the Bears this week as they host No.4 Washington. Furd and UW are 7 of the 12 Pac-12 teams currently ranked in the top 25 (the list does not currently include our Golden Bears).
A Lara Vukasovic-less (she also missed the Furd match) Cal squad was able to beat St. Mary's in Moraga last Friday night in 4 sets. Sophomore Jenelle Jordan was terrific in filling in for Lara both against SMC and against Furd. The SMC match was highlighted by the terrific serving streak of Defensive Specialist Mary McKennon.
Cal Women's Soccer (8-1, Pac-12 play starts this weekend)
In Soccer, at least for the moment, the Golden Bears do not have to worry about a top ranked Stanfurd Cardinal team since the dominant schools on top of both the men and women soccer polls is UCLA. Yep, conference play is also quite hard in soccer as the UCLA women are the defending NCAA Champs (winning the program's 1st title last year). The long reign of North Carolina is at least temporary on hold as those Tar Heels are merely ranked in the 20's (after the Bears).
Pac-12 play starts this weekend for the Bears at Colorado. This marks the first road match for the Bears outside of the Bay Area. Can the Bears withstand the altitude to start the conference play on a high note?
Last week, the Bears closed out the non-conference schedule with a 3-0 victory over Pacific.
Taylor Comeau scored two goals in the Cal victory. Comeau now has 6 goals on the season to lead the Bears.
More on the win from CalBears.com:
Head Coach Neil McGuire’s Take
On the game: We are always pleased with a shutout. Scoring three goals is not easy no matter who you are playing, I thought Pacific did a nice job at taking away our rhythm and taking away our space, so we are happy to end non-conference play with a win. We are looking forward to our next game against Colorado.
On valuable minutes: You always want to finish your non-conference schedule with motivated players. You want to be healthy and you want to be playing great soccer. We are in that position. The ladies that came off the bench did a great job.
On Taylor Comeau: Taylor is a special talent. No matter where you play her she seems to have a significant impact on the game.
Golden Bear Goals
24’ – Samantha Witteman (assisted by Grace Leer) – Leer crossed to Witteman who took a hard shot to the right corner.
Witteman says: Grace had the ball and did a cut-back cross to me through split two players. I just ran past my mark and hit in it. I thought the keeper was going to save it, but it went by her. I was so nervous, because she got a touch on it.
54’ – Taylor Comeau (assisted by Samantha Witteman) – Witteman crossed right to Comeau who shot into the upper left of the net.
66’ – Taylor Comeau (assisted by Grace Leer) – Leer passed into the box to Witteman who tipped it to Comeau for the shot.
Comeau says: The second goal of the game, WItteman was in, running down the sideline and generously passed it to me. I just tapped it in. The third goal, Grace had a nice cross. Witteman made a committed front-post run and I also just tapped that in.
The key stat of the match was that all healthy Bears got in the match.
Cal's senior forward Grace Leer is featured on the Daily Cal this past week. We get to learn more about the former American Junior (American Idol spinoff) competitor.
In just a few months, Leer will be packing up her room in Berkeley and heading back to the familiar streets and trimmed soccer fields of Danville after graduating in winter. It feels like the wrong place to begin a music career, but with a list of old contacts waiting to be called — and, as she points out, a place to live — it’s as good a launching point as any.
Leer hopes her pursuit of country music will eventually take her to the recording studios of L.A. or Nashville. But she also knows that no matter where she is, she’ll never feel more at home than with a microphone in her hand, finally fulfilling the promise she made to herself more than a decade ago.
"She’s ready," Kristi Leer says. "She’s ready to go out into the world and do this."
Cal Men's Soccer (5-1, face Santa Clara this weekend before Pac-12 play starts on Thursday)
Bears scored two big wins last weekend in the Cal/Stanford tournament where Cal and Stanford do not play one another.
Cal 4, Delaware 2
No.15 Bears scored a home upset win over No.11 Delaware and this one wasn't that close. With just 4.5 minutes into the match, the Bears already got a 2-0 lead. A brace (2 goals) was scored each by Connor Hallisey and Christian Thierjung.
Cal 2, Souther Illinois Edwardsville 1
Bears got goals from Stefano Bonomo (5th of the year) and Connor Hallisey (6th of the year) to go up 2-0 by the 21st minute, but they had to withstand a bit of a scare after SIU-E cut the lead to 1 late in the 2nd half.
Bears close out the non-conference schedule with a match at Santa Clara this weekend, they will then travel to Washington to take on the Huskies on next Thursday to open Pac-12 play.
Cal Field Hockey (5-3, 1-1 in NorPac; beat UC Davis but got edged by Furd)
Back "home" to open conference play, the Bears open conference play by downing UC Davis 5-2 to extend the win streak to 4. Playing at their home for the season, but also the home of Stanfurd Cardinal down at the Farm, the Bears nearly pulled off a huge upset in falling to No.8 Stanfurd by a score of 2-1.
The Golden Bears nearly pulled off the upset, but No. 8 Stanford found the deciding goal in a 2-1 NorPac rivalry game at Varsity Turf.
Freshman Paula Seibt scored her second goal of the weekend to put California (5-3, 1-1 NorPac) ahead, but the Cardinal (8-1, 2-0 NorPac) scored two first half goals of their own to come away with the win.
“I told the team after the game that that’s a top 10 team and we just need to make a couple of adjustments to get to that level,” California head coach Shellie Onstead said. “I thought we played a really good, hard fought game. We had a lot of opportunities. It was really even across the stats, and we look forward to the next one.”
Bears face a really tough trip this weekend when they again travel east to take on No.5 Duke and No.16 Wake Forest. A weekend split this week would be just terrific.
GO BEARS!