Golden Medals: Women’s Soccer and Cross Country in NCAA postseason action

Fall sport seasons are quickly coming to an end.

Cal Field Hockey (5-13, 1-5 in America East regular season) ended their season last Saturday in the America East tournament semifinal with a 2-0 loss to Stanford.

Cal Men’s Soccer (5-9-2, 1-7-1 in Pac-12) will close their season with the home leg of “the Bay Area Derby” against rival Stanford today at 1 pm PT on the Pac-12 Network.

For Cal Women’s Soccer (13-5-2, 6-3-2 in Pac-12) and Cross Country, they will attempt to prolong their seasons beyond this weekend when NCAA First Round and Regional, respectively, will take place.

Regular seasons continue to both Cal Men’s Water Polo (Big Splash is this Saturday) and Cal Volleyball (9-16, 3-12 in Pac-12).

---

Cal Women’s Soccer

vs. Pepperdine - NCAA 1st Round (Saturday, 1 pm PT)

Online Stream: LINK

Golden Bears are back in the NCAA tournament for the 13th straight year. Just like in 2012, the Golden Bears will have to travel down to Malibu, CA to face Pepperdine in the NCAA First Round.

Pepperdine is the winner of the West Coast Conference this year. They were ranked as high as 15th in the country this year. Cal peaked at No.10 in the ranking at around the midpoint of the seasons before a couple of poor results in the conference 2nd half.

Capable of beating any team in the country, Cal Women’s Soccer is also susceptible to being beaten by lesser teams. I hope to write a more in depth preview for their future round matches in later weeks.

The last time when the Bears played at Pepperdine for the NCAA first round in 2012, Cal alum Alex Morgan showed up at the game. With the USWNT playing in the Bay Area this week, Alex Morgan and Sam Witteman (teammates on the Orlando Pride of the NWSL) stopped by Edwards Stadium.

Several Golden Bears earned All-Conference honors for another successful Cal Women’s Soccer campaign. Redshirt senior Ifeoma Onumonu is named to the Pac-12 First team for the 2nd time in her career and the first time since 2012, showing that she is finally back to full strength after injuries. Last year’s Pac-12 Player of the Year, Arielle Ship earned a 2nd team all-conference honor. So did Cal goalkeeper Emily Boyd, who will try to break the Cal program record for shutouts in a season in the NCAA tournament. Midfielder Emma Fletcher is also named to the 2nd team.

Freshmen Abigail Kim and Mia Corbin are both named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.

---

Cal Cross Country in NCAA West Regional

Golden Bears will race in the NCAA West Regional from Sacramento (Haggin Oaks Golf Complex) today to seek berths in the NCAA Championship at Terre Haute, Indiana on Saturday, November 19th.

The 6 km women’s race starts at 10 AM PT while the 10 km men’s race is scheduled for 11 AM PT.

Results for the race can be found in this LINK.

Here are the projected lineups:

Men: Robert Brandt, Trent Brendel, Kai Benedict, Garrett Corcoran, Steve Correa, John Lawson, Paul Zeiss

Women: Megan Bordes, Marissa Dobry, Skyler Flora, Natalie Herberg, Bethan Knights, Xochitl Navarrete, Marissa Williams

For the men, Trent Brendel is the one to watch. For the women, Bethan Knights and Marissa Williams should be the top Cal finishers.

---

Bay Area Derby Part 2: Cal Men’s Soccer vs. Stanford

Edwards Stadium, 1 pm PT, Pac-12 Networks

Golden Bears (5-9-2, 1-7-1 in Pac-12) will host No.8 Stanford on Senior Day. Golden Bears will look to salvage a disappointing Pac-12 season with a big upset win.

After a successful out-of-conference season, the Bears just can’t find the magic touch in conference plays to earn the victories. Consistently in matches until late or OT, Bears have been the hard luck loser for far too many times this year.

Sadly, that’s the way that the collegiate careers of several highly productive Cal Bears will end.

Golden Bears will honor Christian Thierjung, Trevor Haberkorn and Nick Lima, as well as redshirt juniors Trevor Long, Tommy Padia and Chris Argueta before this match.

---

Cal Field Hockey ended season at America East tournament semifinals

Cal Field Hockey will remember 2016 as the year when they got a new home in Berkeley, the Underhill Field, after two seasons of being nomads. While the Bears’ success on their new field was kind of a mixed bag, they were able to record one more exciting victory last weekend when they upset Maine Black Bears 3-2 in a thrilling come-from-behind fashion in the America East quarterfinals match last Friday.

Unfortunately, the Bears were not able to advance to the final after losing to rival Stanford for the 3rd time this year. Bears fought hard in a close 2-0 loss.

---

• Cal Men’s Water Polo (17-3) will host Stanford in the Big Splash tomorrow at 11 AM PT to conclude their regular season schedule. Be on the look out for the preview/gamethread post tomorrow morning. The match will be on Pac-12 Bay Area.
• Cal Volleyball (9-16) has lost 3 straight matches after being swept in straight sets by UCLA on Thursday night. The latest loss mathematically ensured that the Bears will again have a losing record (only 5 matches left) and will miss out on the NCAA tournament yet again.

GO BEARS!