California Olympic Sports Roundup - Women's Tennis goes for Pac perfection at 'Furd, Rugby to start postseason, Big Splash for Women's Water Polo, No.1 Women's Crew shows why they are top ranked

Cal Women's Tennis (17-4, 9-0)

Despite being perfect last week, the Bears saw their ranking slips from 6th to 10th. Nevertheless, the Bears have won 3 more meets: 4-1 at Washington, 4-0 at Oregon, and then 7-0 at home yesterday against Sacramento State (a non-conference meet to celebrate the Seniors).

pac-12 Women's tennis STANDINGS

Stakes are high for the Bears' last regular season meet on Saturday at noon with live stream. Bears will go for the program's first Pac-12 title and the NCAA automatic bid (okay, the Bears are a lock for the NCAA tournament regardless but this would be nice) when they visit Bay Area rival Stanfurd (16-1, 8-1) who also have an outside shot at the Pac-12 title (they would need UCLA to lose though).

This would actually be the second meeting between Cal and 'Furd this season. 'Furd won the non-conference matchup (in Berkeley) back in early March by a score of 5-2. There is no doubt that the Golden Bears would love to get revenge for that result as well as clinching the Pac-12 title down at the Farm.

Likely Cal Lineup:

Doubles

1: No. 70 Lynn Chi/Anett Schutting

2: No. 35 Maegan Manasse/Denise Starr

3: Kelly Chui/Klara Fabikova

Singles

1: No. 32 Denise Starr

2: No. 21 Zsofi Susanyi

3: No. 23 Anett Schutting

4: No. 28 Lynn Chi

5: Klara Fabikova

6: No. 67 Maegan Manasse

Of course, No.5 'Furd boasts impressive rankings. Every member of Stanford’s singles lineup is ranked in the top-45: Krisitie Ahn (4), Carol Zhao (19), Taylor Davidson(34), Caroline Doyle (39), Ellen Tsay (41) and Krista Hardebeck (44). Two of the ranked 'Furd doubles are Ahn/Zhao at No. 9 and Davidson/Tsay at No. 37.

You can throw all those rankings out when it comes to a rivalry match, however.

Cal Track and Field

Speaking of Cal and 'Furd, Cal Track and Field swept the Big Meet for the first time in 2000. For the men, this most recent dual meet win of 113-48 vaulted the Bears to No.1 in the country (in dual meet, up from No.2).

While the score made it looks like that Stanfurd did not show up for the meet. They literally did not show up for quite a few events (which in some way is pretty inexplicable for a program with such deep pockets as 'Furd). From the SF Chronicle coverage of the Big Meet:

A startling lack of competitors in the sprints and hurdles for Stanford made Saturday's 120th Big Meet feel more like an inter-squad scrimmage for Cal than an intense battle for points among keen rivals.

One of the Cal sprinter that you probably know (since he is also a running back on Cal Football) Khalani Muhammad had this to say.

"To come out here and see they didn't have anybody in those events is shocking," Cal sprinter Khalfani Muhammad said. "We were running against our teammates, pushing each other. Under the circumstances, it is what it is. It's an inter-squad track meet, racing against people we train with every day."

And here is how ridiculous it looks on video:

(There are actually plenty of other videos and interview on Youtube from one "Jane Doe". Check it out.)

For the women, they won by a score of 97-66. Sophomore Khala Taylor competed in 5 events: 200 meter, 400 meter, 4x100, 4x400, and javelin. If that name sounds like of familiar to you, it is because Khala Taylor was on the Cal Softball team last year and came to Cal originally only with the goal of playing softball.

The Daily Cal had a nice story on Khala this week. It is quite an interesting read.

After committing to play softball at Cal at age 14, Taylor told herself she would just try to enjoy the three years of track she had left. But she didn’t expect to grow so attached to track. It was too late now, though — she made a commitment, and there was no turning back.

At the softball team’s end-of-the-year meeting, Taylor entered the room with her phone clenched in her hand. She began to read off a prewritten message from her phone announcing her departure from the softball team, but she was only able to get through a few words before she collapsed into tears.

"It was one of the worst moments of my life," Taylor says.

After an impressive freshman season on the diamond — she was selected to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team, and her batting average of .335 led the team — her decision came as a shock to everyone.

Cal Women's Water Polo (17-6, 2-3 MPSF)

No.4 Cal will also close out their regular season against (you guess it) Stanfurd in the women's Big Splash on Saturday at 5 pm (match will be shown on the Pac-12 Networks). 'Furd are ranked No.1 in the country with a19-1 record and 5-0 in MPSF.

While the Bears are already guaranteed a spot in the 4-5 game of the MPSF tournament to start, a win over 'Furd is not only always very nice (and one of the goal of the season) but will also offer the Bears some much needed confidence boost since the Bears have yet to beat a team ranked higher than themselves this season...yet.

Most recently, the Bears were edged 6-5 by No.6 ASU. More help are on the way though, as the Bears inked two standouts for next year. They are Italian National team member Carla Carrega and Canadian junior national team member Kindred Paul. This is on the heel of this season where the top 3 scorers for the Bears are all freshmen (Dora Antal - top in conference, Roser Tarrago - 6th in conference, and Anna Illes - 12th in conference).

Cal Rugby (16-2)

Postseason play starts this week for No.1 Cal Rugby. Coming off back-to-back losses to lose the World's Cup to UBC (but without captain Seamus Kelly) and then to East Bay rival St. Mary's (where the Bears are more or less in full strength), the Bears need to be at their best when they travel down to UCLA to play UCLA in the Varsity Cup "Super Regional".

In the single elimination tournament that is the Varsity Cup, the Bears can host the next round if they can beat UCLA. Earlier this season on the Pac-12 Networks, the Bears had some first half trouble against UCLA before pulling away in the second half. Cal probably does not want to give the upstarting UCLA rugby program any hope on Saturday.

No.1 ranked Cal Crew

Back in the good old day of the CGB, we had brilliant posts like this about the grand tradition that is Cal Crew. Check out the history of Cal Crew from valued contributor CalBear81 if you never got the chance. It is a splendid article on why Cal Crew is the "The Oldest and Grandest of Golden Bear Sports".

No.1 Cal Women's Crew had an impressive outing at the Lake Natoma Invitational last week (Pac-12 Networks will have the tape delayed coverage of this at some point). The Varsity 8 boat with the lineup listed below was the winner.

Cal Line-up: Lindsay Meltz (cox), Kendall Chase (stroke), Aggie Nowinski, Kara Kohler, Paparangi Hipango, Charlotte Siering, Rosie Popa, Inger Kavlie, Ingvild Roenningen (bow)

Second Varsity and Varsity 4 both finished 2nd while the two Novice 8 boats were winners as well.

The No.1 Men will compete in the Stanford Invitational this weekend against a field that includes nationally-ranked crews No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 13 Stanfurd, No. 16 Oregon State, along with Santa Clara, University of San Diego, UC San Diego and UC Davis.

Cal Sand Volleyball (3-5)

The inaugural Sand Volleyball season is coming to an end this weekend in Sacramento. While the record this year is rather mediocre, the Bears will likely be much stronger next season as the players got more experiences.

The two volleyball players on the Cal roster who are NOT on the indoor team are featured in this week's "Inside the Lair".

A question of "Can I play?" asked by Caroline Olson is literally how she ends up on the team. You can read more about that here.

Cal Volleyball also announced the addition of 5 new players for Cal Volleyball, one of whom, setter Sammy Furlan, has already some sand volleyball experiences as well.

GO BEARS!