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Rugby
Bears Start PAC at Arizona and ASU: Conference Play Underway
BERKELEY - Aiming to open its PAC Rugby schedule with positive performances in the hunt for a fourth straight conference championship, California visits Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. MT, followed by Arizona State on Monday, Feb. 15, at 3 p.m. MT.
Cal (5-1, 0-0 PAC) will take on the Wildcats (2-3, 0-1 PAC) Saturday at William David Sitton Field in Tucson, with a reserve-grade contest following the Starting XV. Monday, the Bears' varsity faces ASU (1-3, 0-2 PAC) in Tempe at the Sun Devil Soccer Stadium after the reserve-grade match, which kicks off at 1 p.m. at the Sun Devil Fitness Fields. Cal is likely to travel a large squad to the Grand Canyon State, where they could spread the varsity minutes among as many as 30 different players.
"We of course want to win, but we want more to build the depth in our team," said head coach Jack Clark. "The plan is to rest a few boys and mix up the lineups to spread the responsibility among more players."
Men's Swimming & Diving
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - In a conference that has few rivals when it comes to the amount of Olympic talent it has produced in the pool, the conversation for greatest male swimmer of the last 100 years starts and stops in Berkeley.
So said the Pac-12 on Monday when it announced Cal legend Matt Biondi has been named the conference's Male Swimmer of the Century. The 11-time Olympic medalist headlines a phenomenal group of swimming talent that makes up a Pac-12 All-Century Swimming and Diving team that includes 26 swimmers and six divers who were named by a panel of 20 coaches, swimmers, administrators and members of the media.
Biondi certainly isn't the only Golden Bear on the list. Nathan Adrian, Par Arvidsson, Peter Rocca and Tom Shields also earned recognition for their amazing careers and Cal swimming ranked third among conference schools with its five honorees.
One of the greatest freestyle swimmers in American history, Biondi won 12 NCAA and 14 Pac-10 titles during his Cal career and was a four-time All-American from 1984-87. He set 12 world records during his swimming career, including being the first man to swim a sub-49 second time in the 100 freestyle.
Men's Basketball
Women's Water Polo
No. 5 Bears Sweep Weekly MPSF Awards: Carrega Named Player Of The Week; Tagg Tabbed Top Newcomer
The No. 5 Cal women's water polo team swept the MPSF weekly awards this week, with sophomore driver Carla Carrega being named Player of the Week and freshman goalie Madison Tagg getting tabbed as Newcomer of the Week.
Carrega scored 10 goals last week as the Bears won the Stanford Invitational, including a victory over No. 1 Stanford in the championship game. Carrega netted five goals in a 7-2 win over No. 10 UC Irvine and three in a victory over No. 12 Pacific. She added eight steals and two assists during the tournament. Cal also defeated No. 8 UC Davis in bracket play.
Tagg helped anchor an incredible defensive effort as the Bears held three of their four opponents to three goals or less. In Cal's 7-2 win over Stanford in the title game, the Bears held the Cardinal to its lowest offensive output since 2005. Tagg split time in the cage, playing one half in all four games and averaging six saves per game.
Football
Marshawn Lynch Repped The Cal RB Fraternity
His retirement tweet, sent during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 50, captured the essence of Lynch's gridiron presence perfectly. Lynch grew into one of the NFL's biggest stars in recent years, despite playing a position of diminished prominence for the last decade-plus.
Those who followed Lynch's college days at Cal knew he had the potential for stardom, however, both in his physical rushing style and big personality.
Lynch didn't need to say much to stand out at Cal. His presence in the backfield helped power one of the most successful eras in program history, when the Golden Bears won 28 games from 2004 through 2006.
He celebrated Cal's success by taking trainer's carts for spins around Memorial Stadium, and performing interpretive dance with the Golden Bear cheerleaders.
Lynch's charisma blossomed further in the pros, making him the most famous of Cal's running backs since Chuck Muncie. But Lynch is the product of an impressive fraternity in Berkeley, the de facto valedictorian for one of the greatest lines of running backs in Pac-12 history.
— Shawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch) February 8, 2016
Women's Tennis
BERKELEY - California junior Denise Starr claimed her second Pac-12 Player of the Week accolade, the Conference office announced on Monday, for leading the sixth-ranked Golden Bears into the final of the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship. The Bears won their first national indoor championship later on Monday.
This is also Cal's 32nd weekly Pac-12 honor overall.
The Brooklyn, New York, native won three times in singles as Cal beat host Wisconsin, 4-0, in the round of 16, No. 7 Virginia, 4-1, in the quarterfinals and No. 16 Ohio State, 4-3, in the semifinals of national indoors.
Starr coasted to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Maria Avgerinos in Cal's win over the Badgers. She followed that performance with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win over Virginia's Victoria Olivarez to clinch the Bears' quarterfinal against the Cavaliers. Starr then captured a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 result against Ohio State's Miho Kowase to help Cal come from behind to beat the eighth-seeded Buckeyes in the semis.
Women's Soccer
Alex Morgan's goal is believed to be the fastest goal scored in U.S. history. #13in13seconds. #USAvCRC, 1-0, 7'
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@ussoccer_wnt) February 11, 2016
Alex Morgan scores fastest goal in U.S. history
Alex Morgan scored just 12 seconds into the U.S. women's national team's 5-0 win over Costa Rica in its first Olympic qualifier.
Off the opening kick, Ali Krieger sent a long pass in from the back toward Carli Lloyd, who flicked it on to a streaking Morgan in the penalty box. Morgan beat her defender and volleyed in traffic for the early 1-0 lead.
After another tally in the second half, the 26-year old Morgan now has 59 goals in 101 appearances for the United States, and continues to assume added duties up front after the retirement of Abby Wambach. Her goal is believed to be the fastest scored in U.S. history.