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Women's Gymnastics
No. 16 Bears Look to Stay Hot at ASU
BERKELEY -- With two strong home-meet outings, including their second-highest score in school history, the Golden Bears look to heat things up in the desert when Cal women's gymnastics takes on Arizona State on Monday. Meet time is set for 6 p.m. PT and the action airs live on Pac-12 Network, Bay Area and Arizona. Jim Watson and Amanda Borden will provide analysis and commentary.
Cal's momentum has built with season-high totals for three consecutive weekends, culminating with a 196.825 for the win against Arizona, the program's second-highest score in school history. The Bears also turned in the program's fourth-highest all-time floor total.
Women's Water Polo
Softball
Bears Armed With Experience In Circle: Four Pitchers Return To Lead Veteran Cal Staff
BERKELEY - If the first week of a new season is about finding a rhythm and making sure a team is working in concert with one another, consider experience in the circle as a definite head start for the 2016 Cal softball team.
The Bears return all four pitchers that took the ball in 2015, and in Kristin Cullen, Nisa Ontiveros, Katie Sutherland-Finch and Stephanie Trzcinski, Cal has a good foundation from which to build as the new season gets started Friday at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. Add to that the arrival of freshman Kourtney Shaw and the fact that the Bears are entering year two under pitching coach Chuck D'Arcy and the potential for growth seems obvious for a Cal team with high aspirations.
Statistically speaking, the conversation begins with Cal's two returning workhorses from 2015. Sutherland-Finch led the team with a 19-11 record, 120 strikeouts and 18 complete games in 41 appearances. Trzcinski went 15-6 with 61 strikeouts and seven complete games in 33 appearances and then spent her summer as part of the Australian Junior National team.
But, that's not to say they'll be the only contributors in the circle in 2016. Ontiveros returns as one of only two active seniors on the roster, Cullen enters her sophomore season after appearing in six games as a freshman and Shaw brings a resume that includes 2015 CIF San Diego Player of the Year for Poway High School.
Add all that up and the result is a staff intent on making a difference each time it crosses the white lines.
"We're all competitive, so we push each other every day but in the same sense we all have qualities about ourselves that complement each other," Ontiveros said. "As a pitching staff, taking each quality from each pitcher and combining them will help us win a lot of ballgames."