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Golden Medals: Cal Men's Water Polo won Big Splash ahead of MPSF Tournament, Soccer seasons over

It's post season action for Cal Men's Water Polo and Men's Cross country this weekend. This week's Golden Medal also features a tabulation of Cal vs. Stanford so far this year.

By Ruey Yen
Cal Men's Water Polo were able to rescue the Steve Heaston trophy. Can Cal Football rescue the Axe on Saturday?
Cal Men's Water Polo were able to rescue the Steve Heaston trophy. Can Cal Football rescue the Axe on Saturday?
Cal Men's Water Polo Facebook page

Schedule:

The Big Game is not the only event this weekend for Cal Athletics.

Live stream is available for this match, which is the home finale for the Bears before they wrap up the season in another Big Spike on Wednesday night down at The Farm.

The other big event this weekend is the MPSF Men's Water Polo tournament. More on that in the next section.

Cal Men's Water Polo (MPSF Tourney this weekend)

The Bears claimed the Big Splash and brought home the Steve Heaston trophy after a 13-8 victory down at The Farm. It was a solid all around effort by the team, led by senior Colin Mulcahy and his 5 goals. Luca Cupido was all over the place and contributed 4 goals on top of every possible defensive category. The Bears win secured a 3rd seed in the MPSF tournament which starts today. Bears would need to win the MPSF tournament or stay ranked in the top 3 in the country (probably means a 3rd place finish or a runner-up finish if there is an upset) to make the NCAA tournament. The expanded NCAA men's water polo field few years back has somewhat lowered the necessity to win the MPSFT tournament although it would be a great confidence boost should the Bears be able to knock out top seed UCLA Bruins.

The path to a MPSF championship starts with a match against UCSB today.

Pac-12 Networks will have the 3rd place and championship matches on Sunday. We will have an open thread for that should the Bears be involved (knock on wood...preferably one that's made of the remnant of the Stanford tree). Live videos should be available for every match up to that point (check @CalWaterPolo for links).

Cal Volleyball - last home match on Sat., Big Spike on Wed. ends season

Tomorrow.

A photo posted by CalVolleyball (@calvolleyball) on

Bears will be wrapping up their home slate on Saturday night (sadly the time conflicted somewhat with the Big Game) on Senior Night.

Last night, the Bears suffered a heartbreaking 5 set loss to Utah where they blew a 2 set lead.

Here were the Cal stats from that match.

Bears will honor their 4 seniors on Saturday night: Lillian Schonewise, Lara Vukasovic, Mary McKennon, and Nikki Gombar. All 4 players have been long time contributors for the Bears.

We will have an open thread on Wednesday night for the second Big Spike that also marks the season finale for the Bears.

Cal Rugby

In case you missed it, here is a video recap of the Bears' win of the PAC Rugby 7s championship.

Seasons Over - both Cal Men's and Women's Soccer

Cal Men's Soccer was not selected for the NCAA tournament on Monday, effectively ending the season for this young rebuilding team that was playing very well as of late. A regular season finale win over Stanford probably would have given the Bears the necessary resume boost, but the 1-0 loss ended up being the final match of the year.

Cal Women's Soccer also saw their very promising season came to an end last week. Bears were upset at home by Loyola Marymount University by a 1-0 score in the NCAA first round. While the Bears have fought hard against a pair of top 5 teams in Stanford and North Carolina this season, they also have suffered these kinds of upset losses all year. Nevertheless, Arielle Ship and Emily Boyd will be return along with a very good and deep core. I expect some great impacts from the incoming freshmen class as well. Yes, Stanford remains good and young as well but the Bears are closing that gap, in my opinion.

I will write more on the Cal Soccer seasons in an upcoming fall sports recap post.

Cal Cross Country

The Cal men's cross country qualified for the NCAA Championship as a team, thanks to a good enough finish at the NCAA West Regional to earn an at-large bid.

The 21st ranked Cal men was paced by Chris Walden (who made the NCAA championship as an individual last year) and his 10th place finish. Josh Lawson also earned All Regional honor for finishing 21st.

For the Cal women, freshman Marissa Williams was the top finisher at 13th. The team really missed Bethan Knights for the later part of the season. Knights was running so well to start the year that I would not have been surprised if she won the regional.

The NCAA Championships will take place tomorrow at 9 AM PT from Louisville, Kentucky.

Cal vs. Stanford

Ahead of the Big Game, here are a list of other results from this fall between Cal and Stanford. Things are fairly even.

Cal Victories!!!

Cal Men's Water Polo

Cal 14, Stanford 11 - Oct 11, 2015 (SoCal Tournament)

Cal 13, Stanford 8 - Nov 15, 2015 (Big Splash)

Cal Rugby 7s

Cal 45, Stanford 0 - Nov 7, 2015 (PAC Rugby 7s group play)

Cal Men's Swimming

Cal win 5 of 6 disciplines in triple distance meet vs. Stanford - Nov 4, 2015

Cal Women's Crew

Head of American

Cal Field Hockey

Cal 2, Stanford 1 (OT) - Sep 18, 2015

(I know they are just a club team) Cal Ice Hockey

Cal 16, Stanford 0 - Nov. 19, 2015 (Big Freeze)

Draw

Cal Women's Soccer

Cal 1, Stanford 1 - Nov 6, 2015 (Stanford had a perfect conference record before this match)

Losses

Cal Womens' Golf

Stanford - 1st, Cal - 7th - Oct 20, 2015 Stanford Intercollegiate hosted by Condoleeza Rice

Cal Field Hockey

Stanford 4, Cal 0 - Oct 18, 2015

Cal Men's Soccer

Stanford 2, Cal 1 - Oct 4, 2015 (match took place in Berkeley)

Stanford 1, Cal 0 - Nov 12, 2015 (match took place in Palo Alto)

Cal Volleyball

Stanford 3, Cal 1 - Sept 22, 2015 (match took place in Berkeley)

Cal Men's Cross Country

Stanford - 2nd, Cal - 7th (Pac-12 Cross Country Championship)

Cal Women's Cross Country

Stanford - 3rd, Cal - 7th (Pac-12 Cross Country Championship)

?????

Cal Women's Crew - Little Big Row (Nov. 15th)

GO BEARS!

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