Golden Nuggets: Alex Morgan, USWNT File EEOC Charge Against US Soccer

Women's Soccer

Cal To Play Four Spring Games In April

BERKELEY - California women's socccer will continue its offseason training by taking part in four spring exhibition games during the month of April.

The Golden Bears will play a pair of contests against at the University of San Francisco's Negoesco Stadium on Saturday, April 9. Cal will take on USF at 9 a.m. and Pacific at 1:30 p.m.

On Thursday, April 14, Cal will travel to Santa Clara's Stevens Stadium for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Broncos.

Cal's final matchup will pit the Bears against UC Davis at Golden Bear Field in Berkeley on Saturday, April 16 at 10:30 a.m.

Men's Tennis

No. 16 Cal Dispatches SDSU, 4-0, At Hellman

BERKELEY - Amidst a stretch of several road matches this spring, No. 16 California made a brief appearance at the Hellman Tennis Complex on Tuesday afternoon when it defeated San Diego State, 4-0, in slightly less than two hours. Sophomore J.T. Nishimura clinched the nonconference victory with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Sanders Gjoels-Andersen on court four.

Cal improved its record to 11-3, while SDSU fell to 6-10.

Tuesday's match marked just the fourth of the season at Hellman for the Bears. Thanks in part to bad weather, the last time Cal played at Hellman was on Feb. 27, when it beat Pepperdine, 4-0. With rain expected on March 13, the Golden Bears moved their home match that day to indoor courts in Burlingame, California.

"It's been definitely nice to get back home," Cal sophomore Billy Griffith said. "It was nice to not have to travel for the first time in a while."

Beach Volleyball

Softball

Bears Take Sting Out Of Hornets

BERKELEY - Taurie Pogue's three-run home run in the first inning got the Cal softball team started, Katie Sutherland-Finch tossed a complete game to earn the win and the Bears added on in the middle innings to start their eight-game homestand with a 6-1 win over Sacramento State at Levine-Fricke Field.

Sunshine greeted the Bears as they returned to their home ballpark for the beginning of the longest home stretch of 2016. And, the day got even brighter in the bottom of the first inning when, with Kylie Reed and Lindsay Rood each on base with two outs, Pogue sent an 0-1 offering from Hornets pitcher Celina Matthias over the left field fence to give Cal (14-12-1) the early lead.

"I've been seeing the ball really well. After last weekend, I was feeling really good," Pogue said. "I've really been hitting the gaps, which is something I wanted to work on this year. I've been letting myself swing and not doing too much."

Men's Swimming and Diving

Vice Sports Q&A: Olympic Gold Medalist Anthony Ervin on Life In and Out of the Pool

VICE Sports: There's a quote in the book that, I think, summarizes the entire idea. You said "I've always felt the story of my life has been about being normal but on the fringes of abnormality and it's the fringes that separate my life from the rest." What makes you say that?

Anthony Ervin: I suppose we can take it to the idea of the resistance to homogeny within how one personally identifies. That I, or we, or anybody is not an absolute anything. That we're always mixed with some intersection or overlapping of sense of self and identity. But at the same time in our star-studded culture, growing up in L.A. - there's fame, rock stars and now there are internet celebrities, whatever that means - which it's almost, as I think about it, kind of funny because Andy Warhol kind of predicted that, right? Seven minutes of fame, or whatever; that's basically the internet now. But this tension between being ordinary and how disappointing that can be, but then you also kind of covet that if you're on the bad side of not being normal.

Right, because not doing that leads to isolation.

Isolation, for sure. If you don't feel like you're normal, you feel isolated from the rest. The tension between being ordinary and being extraordinary. And extraordinary can be a good thing, like you have some kind of gift or talent. Or it can mean aw, you're special. [laughs]. Like with the air quotes. You don't want to be special in air quotes. But you want to be special. And there is that tension between the normal and being on the fringes of it. Being not quite there but not quite completely weird and out there. You're not completely sociopathic and psychotic but nor are you baseline completely blending in.

Alex Morgan, USWNT Files EEOC Charge Against US Soccer Federation

Five members of the U.S. women's national soccer team -- including Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan -- have filed on behalf of the entire team a wage-discrimination action against the U.S. Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The filing, citing figures from the USSF's 2015 financial report, says that despite the women's team generating nearly $20 million more revenue last year than the U.S. men's team, the women are paid almost four times less.

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Among the numbers cited in the EEOC filing are that the women would earn $99,000 each if they won 20 friendlies, the minimum number they are required to play in a year. But the men would likely earn $263,320 each for the same feat, and would get $100,000 even if they lost all 20 games. Additionally, the women get paid nothing for playing more than 20 games, while the men get between $5,000 and $17,625 for each game played beyond 20.

"Every single day we sacrifice just as much as the men. We work just as much," Morgan told "Today." "We endure just as much physically and emotionally. Our fans really do appreciate us every day for that. We saw that with the high of last summer. We're really asking, and demanding now, that our federation, and our employer really, step up and appreciate us as well."

Also greatly disparate, according to the figures, is the pay for playing in the World Cup. The U.S. women received a team total of $2 million when it won the World Cup last year in Canada. Yet when the U.S. men played in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the team earned a total of $9 million despite going just 1-2-1 and being knocked out in the round of 16.

"We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the [men] get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships," Solo said.

Morgan added that the players are seeking more than just fair compensation.

"We want to play in top-notch, grass-only facilities like the U.S. men's national team," Morgan said. "We want to have equitable and comfortable travel accommodations and we simply want equal treatment."

The EEOC will conduct an investigation and determine if its findings warrant compensation to the U.S. women's team.