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Golden Medals: Steve Birnbaum is the first Cal alum to earn a USMNT start since '93

Birnbaum made his USMNT debut in a start. Cal swimming and rugby posted wins as expected. W. Gymnastics is 10-0 for the 1st time in program history. W. Water Polo will finally be tested this weekend.

By Ruey Yen
Steve Birnbaum earned his first USMNT start on Wednesday against Chile. He's the first Bears to do so since 1993 (Pete Woodring).
Steve Birnbaum earned his first USMNT start on Wednesday against Chile. He's the first Bears to do so since 1993 (Pete Woodring).
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Schedule:

Time is running out on your chance to see Missy Franklin swim for the Golden Bears. Today and tomorrow are the next to last weekend of home meets for the Cal Women's Swimming. The final home meet will be on Valentine's Day against Stanford (be sure to NOT wear red).

For this weekend, Pac-12 Networks will have coverage of today's Women's Swim meet vs. USC at 2 pm.

On Sunday morning at 10 AM, Pac-12 Networks will have the Cal Women's Gymnastics meet at UCLA.

Fri,
Jan 30
 Men's Tennis UNLV Berkeley, CA 1:30 p.m.
Fri,
Jan 30
 Women's Swimming & Diving USC Berkeley, CA 2:00 p.m.
Pac-12 Networks
▪ Live Stats
Fri,
Jan 30
 Gymnastics Arizona State Tempe, AZ 6:15 p.m.
Sat,
Jan 31
 Track/Field New Mexico Team Challenge at Albuquerque, NM All Day
Sat,
Jan 31
 Women's Water Polo Stanford Invitational: Indiana Stanford, CA 11:30 a.m.
Sat,
Jan 31
 Women's Swimming & Diving UCLA Berkeley, CA 12:00 p.m. Live Stats
Sat,
Jan 31
 Rugby vs. Arizona (Reserve-grade match follows) Berkeley, CA 1:00 p.m.
Sat,
Jan 31
 Women's Basketball Washington * Berkeley, CA 2:30 p.m.
Pac-12 Networks
Sat,
Jan 31
 Women's Water Polo Stanford Invitational: UCLA Stanford, CA 5:00 p.m.
Sun,
Feb 1
 Women's Water Polo Stanford Invitational: Hawaii Stanford, CA 9:10 a.m.
Sun,
Feb 1
 Women's Gymnastics UCLA at Los Angeles, CA 10:00 a.m. Pac-12 Network ▪ Live Stats ▪Tickets ▪ Twitter
Sun,
Feb 1
 Men's Basketball Washington at Seattle, WA 12:00 p.m. Pac-12 Network ▪ Live Audio
Sun,
Feb 1
 Women's Water Polo Stanford Invitational: TBD Stanford, CA TBA

As you can see, there are plenty of action in Berkeley this weekend. Rugby is in week 2 of a 5 game homestand. Men's Tennis will host UNLV today.

Cal Men's Soccer Alum Steve Birnbaum made his USMNT debut

In an International Friendly at Chile on Wednesday, recent Cal alum Steve Birnbaum made his USMNT debut, becoming the first Cal Bears to make the men's US national team since Pete Woodring in 1993 (Woodring only had 3 caps in his USMNT playing career). Birnbaum got the start in his USMNT debut, playing right center back.

Although US eventually lost this match at Chile by a final score of 3-2, Birnbaum's play was one of the bright spot for the new look US team.

The ESPN FC recap of the game gave him the highest mark out of all the US defender, even though it was mostly critical of the entire US backline.

DF Steve Birnbaum, 5.5 -- Aside from an own-goal scare in the second half, it was a promising debut from the D.C. United center-back, who was deployed on the right side of Jurgen Klinsmann's experimental three-man defensive line.

Given the USMNT getting younger, fellow Cal Bears Christian Dean, who made the USMNT training camp, may soon get the chance to join Birnbaum to rep the U.S.A.

Cal Swimming took down Arizona schools

On the Pac-12 Networks, No.1 (actually tied with Georgia for the top spot) Cal Women's Swimming took a close dual meet over Arizona.

The meet came down to the final race, the 200 free relay that was won by the Bears.

One day prior to the meet with Arizona, Bears had a much easier time against ASU.

The men competed in the meets as the women in the state of Arizona, but had a much easier time beating their counterparts.

Cal defeated ASU by a final score of 163-130 and Arizona 205-93.

Like I mentioned above, the women are competing against the LA schools today and tomorrow. The men have this week off but will entertain the Trojans next Friday afternoon.

Cal Women's Gymnastics is 10-0 through 4 meets for 1st time in program history

Competing at home, the Bears pulled off a small upset by beating the slightly higher ranked Denver (15th to Cal's 17th ranking going into this meet).

Freshman Toni-Ann Williams earned her second consecutive Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honor. She recorded the 5th highest all-around score in program history with a 39.475.

While I don't think I'm the target demographic for this video, here is the 2015 team intro played at Haas before every home meet.


Cal Rugby wins home opener 76-3 over Cal Poly

Bears took care of business against the Cal Poly in their home opener last week by dropping 76 points on the Mustangs. Bears are now 5-0 on the still young 15s season. Harry Adolphus led the way with 4 tries while the team as a whole scored 12 tries.

The Scoring Timeline vs. Cal Poly

05:00 Harry Adolphus 5, Jake Anderson 2

14:00 Jesse Milne 5

17:00 Harry Adolphus 5, Jake Anderson 2

27:00 Alec Gletzer 5

Halftime Score: California 24, Cal Poly 0

43:00 Harry Adolphus 5, Jake Anderson 2

47:00 Cal Poly (Alex Wormer) 3

48:00 Connor Sweet 5, Jake Anderson 2

57:00 Billy Maggs 5, Jake Anderson 2

67:00 Jesse Milne 5, Jake Anderson 2

69:00 Alec Gletzer 5

71:00 Edward Tandy 5, Jake Anderson 2

78:00 Miles Honens 5

80:00 Harry Adolphus 5, Jake Anderson 2

Final Score: California 76, Cal Poly 3

The Team vs. Cal Poly

15. Anderson, 14. Milne, 13. A. Salaber(Maggs @ 40:00), 12. Okusi (Barrientes @ 60:00), 11. Honens, 10. Adolphus 9. Bosco (Boyer @ 56:00), 1. Walsh, 2. Bush, 3. Vrame, 4. Kondrat, 5. Sina (Hendrickson @ 48:00), 6. N. Salaber (Tandy @ 51:00), 7. Gletzer, 8. Sweet

Bears will stay at home this week and host the conference opener against the visiting 18th ranked Arizona Wildcats. The match is on Saturday at 1 pm. Coming up next weekend is the home leg of the "World Cup" series with University of British Columbia. Pac-12 Networks will have live coverage of that match, although Cal fans should really go support the Bears in person. I suspect members of the CGB team will be present for that match.

Cal Women's Water Polo to play in Stanford Invitational this weekend

4th ranked Cal Women's Water Polo team will put their perfect 6-0 record to the test when they play some top competition, including No.2 UCLA and possibly a meeting with the top ranked Stanford Cardinal.

The Bears had an easy time at the UCSB Invitational last week, easily beating two ranked teams in No.12 Long Beach State (14-4 Cal victory) and No.17 Michigan (14-8 Cal victory). Bears' super group of sophomores led the way with Roser Tarrago scoring a hat trick in both of those matches, while Dora Antal and Anna Illes added 6 and 4 goals in both of those matches.

Given the high upside of this team, anchor by those trio of sophomores and sophomore goalie in Madeline Trabucco. I for one is really interested in seeing how the Bears will fare against the better competition this weekend.

No.7 Cal Men's Gymnastics to matchup with someone other than Stanford this weekend (ASU)

Also in action last weekend was Cal Men's Gymnastics at Stanford where they competed against No.1 Oklahoma and No.2 Stanford, and No.10 Nebraska. Not too surprisingly, the Bears finished 3rd in that quad meet.

Kevin Wolting was the top all around gymnast for the Bears, finishing 4th overall with a score of 87.750.

After 3 meets against 'Furd, the Bears will finally face someone else this weekend. They will take on 17th ranked ASU tonight in Tempe.

GO BEARS!

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