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Just one step away from the CGB Hall of Fame, who will join Mark Bingham, Chuck Muncie, Joe Roth, Jason Kidd, Natalie Coughlin, Marshawn Lynch, Zack Follett, Leon Powe, Jack Clark, Jeff Tedford. Tony Gonzalez, The Play Players, Aaron Rodgers, Alex Mack, Glenn Seaborg, Jill Costello, Brent Woodall, Deltha O'Neal, Matt Biondi, Kevin Johnson, Dana Vollmer, Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, Nathan Adrian, Ron Gould, Joe Kapp, Ken Montgomery, and Robert O. Briggs?
Will it be
(4)Carli Lloyd
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From BTown85: "The anchor of Cal's Pac-10 Champion women's v-ball team and National POY, leading the Golden Bears to the NCAA Finals only to lose (again) to Penn St. What a stud !!!!"
She is only the second player in Cal women's volleyball history to be a three-time All-American, and the only setter to win AA honors. This past year, she led the Bears to a program best 30-win season, their first-ever Pac-10 championship, and their first-ever national championship match. In recognition for her amazing play, she was also named the National AVCA Player of the Year. She is the first Cal woman to ever earn this prestigious award.
This interview with the Daily Cal reflects her winner's mentality:
"Carli Lloyd and Meagan Schmitt, the lone seniors on the Cal volleyball team, were taking a walk on Sunday night, only hours after the NCAA tournament bracket was released.
The cool, crisp November air seemed to hint at the end of the season, the end of the year ... but also the beginning of a new one.
Suddenly Schmitt stopped. She turned to her friend and roommate and asked her if she would be satisfied with getting to the final four, like they did as freshmen in 2007.
"Would that be enough for you?" she inquired.Lloyd looked at her and answered with the intensity that has become her trademark quality in four years at Cal.
"Absolutely not," she said. "I can't imagine anything other than winning.""
As a representative for the US, she helped Team USA win two gold medals and bronze medal. She is the only three-time selection to the USA A2 National team in the program's history. Now that she has graduated, Carli is working out with the U.S. Women's National Training Team in hopes of making the 2012 Olympic team.
Carli ended up making the team as an alternate and is well positioned to take a prominent position on the national team in the future.
Carli is currently playing professional volleyball overseas in Italy. Off the court, she has inspired fan videos like the following:
OR
(6) Caitlin Leverenz
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NorCalNick gives us some info:
Let’s start with the obvious achievement: Caitlin Leverenz is an Olympic medalist already, winning a bronze in the 200m Individual Medley. Cal athletes win plenty of medals, but it’s still pretty rare to win one when you’re still enrolled as a student. And to get a medal in an event that is essentially measuring how well-rounded you are as a swimmer? Even cooler!
But in a way, her collegiate accomplishments seem somehow more impressive. At the 2011 NCAA championships she swam in five events and placed 5th, 4th, 3rd, 1st (relay) and 1st(relay). In 2012, she again swam in five events (3 individual, 2 relays), and this time she recorded four wins and one 2nd place finish . . . and that 2nd place finish was an American record. And Cal won national titles both years.
2013 wasn’t quite as illustrious as 2012, but Leverenz again competed in five events and finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd and 6th. 15 NCAA championship races, and finishing 6th or higher every time. That’s a level of versatility and endurance rarely seen, and I have no doubt the Bears will miss her next year.
Here is Caitlin talking about her win in 200 IM at the 2013 NCAA championship.