With the opportunity to watch several Cal teams in action live, I'm working on a more comprehensive post for next week on some insights (gleamed from an extremely small sample size of one game) of the teams that I did see (Baseball, Softball, Men's Soccer, and Women's Swimming). In the mean time, this is a quick recap of the results from this past week.
Weekend Schedule:
It's a doubleheader on the Pac-12 Networks on Sunday with both Women's Soccer and Volleyball in action. Women's Soccer take on Arizona at 1 pm, follow by Volleyball hosting UCLA at 3 pm.
For those in the Bay Area, Cal Rugby is playing in the 2nd of 3 7s tournament of the fall. This one is taking place on Treasure Island. Bears will host the PAC Sevens tournament later in the fall.
Sat,
Oct 25
|
Women's Crew | Head of the American |
Sat,
Oct 25
|
Men's Water Polo | Pepperdine |
Sat,
Oct 25
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: UC Santa Barbara |
Sat,
Oct 25
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: ASU |
Sat,
Oct 25
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: Utah |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Women's Tennis | St. Mary's Invitational |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Women's Tennis | St. Mary's Invitational |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Men's Crew | Princeton Chase |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: Opponent TBA |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: Opponent TBA |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Rugby | Battle in the Bay Sevens: Opponent TBA |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Men's Water Polo | UC Irvine |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Women's Soccer | Arizona |
Sun,
Oct 26
|
Volleyball | UCLA |
Thu,
Oct 30
|
Men's Soccer | San Diego State |
Cal Men's Soccer (8-3-1, 2-2-1 in the Pac-12)
The Golden Bears had one lone match and it was against Stanfurd. You can relive my live blogging here.
While Stanfurd looked to have control of the match in the first few minutes, the Bears quickly struck first with a goal in the 6th minute from Jose Carrera-Garcia (I had the chance to chat with Jose post match, so watch out for that in the longer post next week).
This was a crazy wide open match with both sides getting multiple matches' worth of chances with the Cal goalie Justin Taillole tallying a career high in saves with 12 (out of 35 shots taken by Furd). After some controversial possible handball that was not called, Furd found an equalizer in the 75th minute.
Again, plenty of more thoughts from this match coming up early next week. With this draw, the Bears' 3.0 goals per game average has dipped below the 3 mark (but probably is still the top in the country). We'll still keep on using the #drop3 slogan though.
This is the Pac-12 Men's Soccer Table at the halfway point.
men's soccer STANDINGS
Teams | Pts | Conf | Overall |
---|---|---|---|
UCLA | 13 | 4-1-1 | 9-3-3 |
WASHINGTON | 10 | 3-2-1 | 10-3-1 |
STANFORD | 8 | 2-1-2 | 9-2-2 |
CALIFORNIA | 7 | 2-2-1 | 8-3-1 |
OREGON STATE | 7 | 2-3-1 | 9-5-1 |
SAN DIEGO STATE | 3 | 1-5-0 | 7-8-0 |
Bears will start the 2nd half with a road trip to San Diego State on Thursday. SDSU just finally got their first win a week plus ago against a ranked Oregon State (SDSU is the only team in the Pac-"12" that is not ranked in the top 25). While the Bears are a perfect 6-0 at home on the year, their road record has been much spottier.
Conference outlook: with a home and home between every team, the Bears are still very much alive in the hunt for the conference title. Given that 5 of the 6 teams in the Pac-12 have been ranked this year in the top 25, it will be tough for any team to run away with this, even if they are ranked No.1 in the country like UW is currently (or the Bears were at this point last year). Bears do have 3 home matches in the second half
Cal Women's Soccer (11-4-1, 3-3-1 in Pac-12)
Bears got a home draw against Utah last Friday but followed that up with a big 1-0 road win at No.25 Arizona State last night (during the same time as the Cal Football game and the World Series, in case you missed it). Bears will next face Arizona on Sunday.
women's Soccer STANDINGS
Teams | Pts | Conf | Overall |
---|---|---|---|
UCLA | 19 | 6-0-1 | 14-0-2 |
STANFORD | 16 | 5-1-1 | 13-1-2 |
WASHINGTON | 15 | 5-2-0 | 12-4-0 |
WASHINGTON STATE | 13 | 4-2-1 | 9-2-3 |
CALIFORNIA | 10 | 3-3-1 | 11-4-1 |
ARIZONA STATE | 9 | 2-2-3 | 9-3-4 |
ARIZONA | 9 | 3-4-0 | 9-5-1 |
COLORADO | 9 | 3-4-0 | 10-6-0 |
USC | 9 | 3-4-0 | 9-5-2 |
OREGON | 7 | 2-4-1 | 6-7-2 |
UTAH | 5 | 1-4-2 | 8-4-4 |
OREGON STATE | 0 | 0-7-0 | 0-13-3 |
Bears had an one goal lead late (after coming back from an early one goal deficit), but conceded an equalizer with about 10 minutes left to end up with a draw.
HEAD COACH NEIL MCGUIRE’S TAKE
McGuire says: In terms of the overall play, we played as well as we have in the last three or four games, so there were some really good pluses in regards to our style of play, our possession and our penetration. As far as our execution in the final third in terms of goal-scoring chances, we created way more goal-scoring chances than we took advantage of. We have to do a better job in that area. We limited (Utah) to one or two legitimate goal-scoring chances and we let in two goals. That has to improve. While there are a lot of positives, there’s also a lot to improve on.
We have to give credit to Utah who came in with a great game plan in taking away some of our threats. Coach Manning and his team performed very well today.
GOLDEN BEAR GOALS
48’ – Celeste Boureille (assisted by Indigo Gibson) – Crossed from Gibson at right side of field, tapped in near right post
Boureille says: Indigo sent a great ball in and I took a touch and finished it into the right corner.
59’ – Grace Leer (assisted by Samantha Witteman) – Witteman, at midfield, played the ball to Leer in front of her. Leer took it all the way down the field and placed it into the left side of the goal
Leer says: I got a great ball from (Witteman) who played me through. Our coaches were really big on the forwards getting wide the whole game, so that finally worked to our advantage. I made a run and I took it inside and cut to the inside of the goal, and I just knew I had to get it into the side netting.
UTAH GOALS
29’ – Megan Trabert (assisted by Avery Jenkins) – Jenkins took the corner, placing the ball on frame before Cal GKEmily Boyd punched it sideways, headed out by Cal’s Sandra Ley and then trapped into goal by Trabert
72’ – Katie Rigby (assisted by Avery Jenkins) – Jenkins crossed from outside the box to Rigby, who nailed it into the far right post post
Bears got a goal from senior Einarsdottir, who missed all of 2013 with an injury, in the first half and had to work hard to make that stand.
HEAD COACH NEIL MCGUIRE’S TAKE
McGuire says: We are very pleased with this one on the road against a very motivated Arizona State team. Our players had to battle for everything. We must credit ASU as they were the aggressor for much of the match.
GOLDEN BEAR GOALS
13' -- Thelma Einarsdottir (assisted by Arielle Ship) -- Ship played slot ball, Einarsdottir shot it into corner
Einarsdottir says: We just came out really hard. In terms of the goal, I got a lucky pick into the corner and followed it in with a run to the box. Ari (Arielle Ship) played me the perfect ball – the slot ball – so I couldn’t do anything else but score.
Conference title outlook: It would be very tough for the Bears to catch No.1 UCLA, but with more solid play in the 2nd half, the Bears should be able to secure another return trip to the NCAA tournament.
Cal Volleyball (8-11, 0-9 in Pac-12)
Despite the negative results, the Bears are inching closer to get their first Pac-12 win on the season. In recent weeks, the Bears have finally string long enough of a stretch of solid volleyball to win a set here and there, but they have yet to truly break through with a match victory.
On Wednesday night, the Bears took on a ranked (No.19) USC squad. After dropping the 1st set, the Golden Bears fought back to take set 2. While set 3 went the Trojans way and set 4 started well for USC, the Bears showed plenty of fight to make set 4 very interesting before eventually falling. Bears were lead by Christina Higgins' 18 kill and Lillian Schonewise chipped in 14 (including the one below). Bears as a whole played very well defensively by collecting a team total of 77 digs on the match.
Prior to the USC match, the Bears travelled up to the Mountain schools. Against Utah, the Bears lost a tough 5 setter after going up 2 sets to none. Bears were so very close on the 3rd set but couldn't close things off and allowed the Utes to rally for the win.
Against Colorado, the Bears again took a set in that one but ultimately fall short.
Bears will face a really really tough UCLA squad on Sunday, which would mark the last match of the first half of conference play. Chances are that the Bears will fare much better (3 or more match victories would not be a huge surprise) in the 2nd half of conference play.
Cal Men's Water Polo (17-3)
After the highs of finishing 2nd in the SoCal tournament the weekend before, the Golden Bears fell flat at home against former No.1 UCLA who had slipped to 4th after the SoCal tourney.
UCLA scored early and often for a 13-8 win at Spiekers (Berkeley version).
Bears should be able to bounce back with a trip to Pepperdine and UC Irvine this weekend.
Cal Field Hockey (7-8, 2-2 in NorPac)
It's been a tough 3 match stretch for the Bears, facing the 7th, 17th, and 3rd ranked teams in the country. Bears went to Louisville last weekend but got beat 4-0 to No.7 Louisville and then 5-1 to No.17 Boston College. In the Big Stick? (Field Hockey's version of the Big Game) on Friday, the Bears were shutout 4-0 by No.3 Furd (who has somehow rise to being No.3 in the country).
Bears will look to even their record in the regular season finale at Pacific next Saturday, before the NorPac tournament also taking place in Stockton, CA the following week.
GO BEARS!