Thanks to our separate posts for the Cal Rugby win, Cal women's soccer draw with Stanford, Cal men's soccer loss to Stanford, and Cal women's soccer's Arielle Ship being the first Golden Bears to win the Pac-12 women's soccer Player of the Year honor...not as much new stuff in the post this week. Still, it's nevertheless good to have all the results in one place...for posterity. I will also stress the postseason outlook of the various fall sports.
Schedule:
In case you missed it, exciting (well, hopefully not and it is an easy Cal victory) NCAA 1st round Women's Soccer match at Edwards Stadium tomorrow, when the Bears host LMU. Check out the rest of the Bears' draw here.
Don't forget to come Pac the House this Saturday at 12pm as your @CalWomensSoccer team hosts LMU in the 1st Round of NCAA's. #GoBears
— Tricia Breault (@triciabreault) November 12, 2015
Sadly, it does NOT appear that this match will be streamed. I (or another CGB writer(s) that is(are) attending the match in person) will try to update the match live via Twitter.
Another BIG event this weekend is the Big Splash between Cal and Stanford in men's water polo. That match will be played Sunday at 1pm and be shown live on Pac-12 Bay Area. We will have an open thread for that match for folks to discuss it. Bears are in particularly good shape, in my opinion, to finally win an official Big Splash. 3rd ranked Bears defeated 5th ranked Stanford in a tournament play earlier this year.
Fri,
Nov 13
|
W Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
M Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
W Swimming & Diving | Minnesota Arena Pro Swim Series |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
M Crew | USRowing Fall Speed Order - West Coast |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
W Tennis | ASU Thunderbird Invitational |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
Cross Country | NCAA West Regional |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
W Basketball | Austin Peay State |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
Volleyball | Washington State |
Fri,
Nov 13
|
M Basketball | Rice |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
W Crew | Stanford |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
W Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
M Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
W Swimming & Diving | Minnesota Arena Pro Swim Series |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
W Tennis | ASU Thunderbird Invitational |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
M Crew | USRowing Fall Speed Order - West Coast |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
W Soccer | NCAA First Round: LMU |
Sat,
Nov 14
|
Football | Oregon State |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
W Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
W Tennis | ASU Thunderbird Invitational |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
M Tennis | USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
W Basketball | Louisville |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
M Water Polo | Stanford |
Sun,
Nov 15
|
Volleyball | Washington |
Mon,
Nov 16
|
M Basketball | UC Santa Barbara |
Thu,
Nov 19
|
M Swimming & Diving | Texas Diving Invitational |
Thu,
Nov 19
|
W Swimming & Diving | Texas Diving Invitational |
Thu,
Nov 19
|
M Soccer | NCAA First Round |
Thu,
Nov 19
|
Volleyball | Utah |
Cal Women's Soccer - NCAA run starts on Saturday in Berkeley
Bears closed the regular season with a hard fought 1-1 draw at Stanford. After striking first to go up 1-0 late in the 1st half, Bears conceded an equalizer on a fluky corner play that saw the ball rolled through the 5 hole of Cal defender Indigo Gibson. Nevertheless, the draw against a NCAA 1-seed Stanford was enough to earn the Bears a home match this weekend and possibly more, depending on how things shake out.
For their great season thus far, a number of Golden Bears earned Pac-12 honors, including Arielle Ship as the Player of the Year.
The Pac-12 Player of the Year is California's Arielle Ship! pic.twitter.com/yTO1JDRpeM
— Cal Women's Soccer (@CalWomensSoccer) November 11, 2015
Check out her highlights:
In additional to Ship, 4 other Golden Bears were honored.
A total of five Golden Bears earned All-Pac-12 honors, incl. 1st Teamers Ship & Witteman: https://t.co/W0mlcO31Fd pic.twitter.com/5NJCxDTCtw
— Cal Women's Soccer (@CalWomensSoccer) November 11, 2015
Joining junior Ship as a 1st teamer is senior Samantha Witteman. Senior Celeste Boureille and sophomore goalie Emily Boyd are on the 2nd team. Transfer Emma Fletcher (from LSU) earned Honorable Mention honor in her first year of Pac-12 play. Congrats to these Golden Bears!
In addition to playing great soccer, don't miss this story of the good that senior Elliot Gentile is doing.
Why we love sports today: This @calwomenssoccer player who's organizing a bone marrow drive. https://t.co/TtSFEtO2CI pic.twitter.com/iTJ9x6E2Ck
— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) November 12, 2015
Cal Men's Soccer - awaits NCAA fate on Monday
Bears saw their 4 match win streak snapped in an 1-0 loss to Stanford last night. What was particularly frustrating was that the Bears had quite a few attacking opportunities - much more than a typical Stanford opponent would get, but just can't break through some invisible force field...a little reminiscent of the 2-1 loss in Berkeley earlier on the year against these same Furdies.
#Cal falls 1-0 at #Stanford despite holding a 13-5 advantage in shots https://t.co/LTH6O8KZWy #GoBears pic.twitter.com/r8bMIEHWP8
— Cal Men's Soccer (@CalMensSoccer) November 13, 2015
Since the NCAA men's soccer bracket includes only 32 teams, the Bears who were ranked 23rd before this loss (and a bit lower in the RPI) is on the bubble of making a return to the NCAA tournament. We will find out on Monday morning at 10 AM PT. The NCAA selection show will be streamed online on NCAA.com.
The #Bears finish the regular season at 9-6-2, with a 4-4-2 mark in conference play #GoBears
— Cal Men's Soccer (@CalMensSoccer) November 13, 2015
Chances are that the Bears will get in but have to play a first round match on Thursday.
Cal Rugby 4-peat as PAC Rugby 7s Champs
In case you missed it, Cal Rugby won the PAC Rugby 7s championship for the 4th straight year.
Over the weekend in Berkeley, the Bears rolled through group play by the following dominant scores:
Cal 45, Stanford 0
Cal 55, Colorado 0
Cal 41, Utah 5
Cal 61, OSU 0
Then on Sunday, Bears took care of business in the semifinal against Arizona State, winning by a 34-10 score.
In the final against UCLA, Bears won 17-5 thanks to a try right before the half that made it 12-0 at the intermission.
What did you do this weekend? @CalVarsityRugby claimed their 4th straight #Pac7s Title https://t.co/UAscCkzV9h pic.twitter.com/1QmeIGuJ6Q
— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) November 9, 2015
What is particularly unique for this fall 7s season is that the Bears went undefeated, despite the rise in the competition level as Rugby 7s, the format that will be played in the Rios Olympics in 2016, is gaining in popularity.
For leading the Bears to this victory, Anthony Battaglia is the Cal Athletics Student-Athlete of the Week.
Battaglia is @MuscleMilk @CalAthletics Student-Athlete of the Week #PAC7s https://t.co/cOjGiDcGeq
— Cal Varsity Rugby (@CalVarsityRugby) November 10, 2015
Cal Men's Water Polo - Big Splash on Sunday to close regular season
Now 3rd ranked Golden Bears couldn't defend their tie-for-second ranking last week when the visiting co-2nd ranked Pacific Tigers edged the Bears 11-10.
In their home finale, the Bears took out their anger on Pepperdine, winning 26-3, in some light rain.
Enduring the rain at @CalWaterPolo ! #GoBears pic.twitter.com/aiMbm7BX3k
— Beth Voetsch (@BethVoetsch) November 8, 2015
I will have more details on how the Cal Men's Water Polo squad has fared this year on the Sunday Big Splash preview/gamethread post.
After the Big Splash, the Bears will head south to LA for the MPSF tournament. Now that the NCAA postseason for men's water polo has finally been expanded, winning the MPSF is not as imperative. Nevertheless, the Bears would need to maintain that 3rd ranking (or improve it) to make it to the NCAA postseason.
Cal Volleyball - winless at the Oregon schools
After a stretch where they have won 3 of 4 matches, Cal Volleyball have dropped the last 3 matches. On the Oregon road trips, the Bears did not manage to win a set (despite coming close in 3 of the 6 sets)...that's just not going to get it done.
Bears are now 9-16, 3-11 in the Pac-12 for the season. With only 6 matches remaining, the Bears cannot get back to 0.50 even if they win out. Cal will miss the NCAA tournament again.
Bears are at the Washington schools this weekend, before returning home for their last homestand of the season (against the Mountain schools).
A family friend of Christine Alftin piloted us to Seattle today. Teeny and Lillian visited the cockpit. pic.twitter.com/67oCsMn8N9
— Cal Volleyball (@CalVolleyball) November 13, 2015
In case you missed it, The Daily Cal has this great feature on Cal libero and leader Maddy Kerr.
Great Daily Cal feature on our own Maddy Kerr! https://t.co/vajWRUs6Fm. #CalVolleyball
— Cal Volleyball (@CalVolleyball) November 10, 2015
It's too bad that the super competitive Maddy Kerr has to endure a tough couple year stretch (former top recruit Ashten Smith-Gooden not playing this year is just indicative of the Bears' bad luck) so far of Cal Volleyball when we can't find a reliable outside hitter to complement the great defense provided by Kerr.
Cal Swimming
There are plenty of signing day news from this week, but I'll just be lazy and focus on women's swimming since they made a video of it.
Not too surprising, the Cal swimming dynasty continues to bring in a strong class.
Bears also got a new strength coach this year. Learn more about Joel Smith in the following video.
In actual competition results from the pool, Bears are swimming in Minnesota this week at the Minnesota Arena Pro Swim Series. In the fly competition yesterday, current Golden Bears Noemie Thomas placed 3rd in 100 fly with Farida Osman and freshman Katie McLoughlin was 10th.
Many former Golden Bears are also competing in this as everyone is gearing up for the Olympics Trials.
Cal Cross Country
No major news out of Cross Country except to tell you to watch out for the results from the NCAA West Regional this weekend (Saturday) from Seattle as it will determine who qualifies for the NCAA championship.
The following athletes are competing for the Bears:
Competing for the men’s team this week are Chris Walden, Thomas Joyce, John Lawson,Leland Later, Robert Brandt, Garrett Corcoran and Trent Brendel. Traveling on the women’s team are Santisteban, Marissa Williams, Georgia Bell, Mariel Mendoza, Megan Bordes andNatalie Herberg.
Sadly, it appears that Bethan Knights, who qualified for the NCAA last year along with Chris Walden, is not available. Knights also missed the Pac-12 championships in her sophomore year.
Cal Field Hockey - Season Over
The first Cal fall sports to end their season was Cal Field Hockey. Needing to win the American East conference championship to earn the automatic NCAA berth and continue the season, the California Golden Bears fell to the Maine Black Bears in the first round of the conference tournament.
Our sturdy Golden Bears actually drew first blood and lead 1-0 for the most of the match despite the numerous corner penalty opportunities that the Maine Bears had. With mere minutes to go, Maine scored the equalizer and got the eventual OT golden goal to end the Bears' season.
Nevertheless, it was a remarkably strong year for the Cal Golden Bears in 2015 - for a program that does not have a home field and very limited practice space for the 2nd straight year. Despite breaking in a new goalkeeper and graduating their top scorer from past year, the Bears found a couple of stars in freshman forward Melina Moore, the American East Newcomer of the Year, and redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Kori Griswold. Several other freshmen like Marie Lanckneus and Janaye Sakkas (who scored the tournament goal) also played key roles on the year. The program is trending back up again, result-wise, which is great to see.
Bears close the year with a 9-10 record, but the key highlight of the season was clearly the 2-1 (OT) win over Stanford on September 18th.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT - @CalFieldHockey’s Sydney Earle nets the game-winner in OT vs. Stanford #AETopPlays http://t.co/uJ5f824vyh
— America East (@AmericaEast) September 19, 2015
This is what coach Shellie Onstead has to say about the season (from CalBears.com):
I have to acknowledge the seniors. They were awesome this year. We needed the seniros to be strong leaders, and they were fantastic. As a coach, when it ends those are the first people I look. The tale of two halves has been our struggle from the midseason when we had this combination of the season becoming more difficult and the succession of injuries we had. If I take the season as a whole, and focus on how we played the first half of the season, it’s pretty indicative of what this team should look like, and we’re going to take that and build on that. A second season of no home games and no full field would at some point toll, but we did a lot better than we did a year ago, but it was that combination that fatigued is. Staying committed as a group for all 12 weeks was remarkable. It’s pretty easy to get derailed, and I think we have a lot to build on.
GO BEARS!