Golden Nuggets: Cal Volleyball Honors Savannah Rennie

Football Press Conferences

Justin Wilcox

On his thoughts about the game…

“Really disappointing, thought we’d come in and play better than we did. You have to give Oregon credit, really talented team and they beat us in every phase tonight offense, defense, and special teams. We had some moments where we did some good things. The line of scrimmage and the run game on both sides of the ball was very telling. We can be better, and we’ve got to be better. It’ll take every individual, it starts with me making sure we are doing the right thing. Every coach and every player in our program. That starts now it’s unacceptable. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about our players, I love the guys, but we just didn’t play well tonight and Oregon beat us in every phase of the game.”

On injuries in the game…

“You don’t want anybody to go down on any team. Unfortunately injuries happen in football. We were focused on what we needed to do to play better.”

On Cal’s run defense…

“We were trying to put ourselves into position to play the run. The first down defense, when they are getting five, six, seven, eight yards, you’re playing behind the whole day and that’s when they are creating momentum. With nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter it’s third and four, they run an inside zone and we have the defense we want to be in and it goes for 70 yards. You can’t have that.”

On Oregon’s run game…

“You have to give Oregon credit, they’re really talented, and they have really good speed. We missed a lot more tackles tonight, whether it was leverage or technique, and they’re fast so it’s going to take us being better and understanding all those things. Even defensively they are very fast, maybe the fastest team we play. There’s going to be a lot to learn from and I fully expect everyone to come in Monday and own it. That’s how it has to be.”

Ross Bowers

Sorry for lack of quotes... At the moment, Cal doesn’t have a link to quotes from the below videos.

Vic Wharton III

Jordan Kunaszyk

Football

• Some notes from the Oregon game.

Ross Bowers connected with Kanawai Noa for a 75-yard TD pass in the third quarter – the longest completion and reception of their careers, as well as Noa's first touchdown. It was the longest pass play for the Bears since Jared Goff hit Bryce Treggs for 80 yards vs. Oregon on Nov. 7, 2015.

Noa finished with a career-high 7 catches for a career-high 126 yards, the second straight game he's had more than 100 yards receiving (110 vs. USC). Over his past three games, Noa has 19 receptions for 317 yards.

LB Jordan Kunaszyk picked off his first pass of the year – and 2nd of his career – returning it 53 yards late in the first half. Kunaszyk's first INT came in overtime vs. Oregon last year, a play that ended the game in the Bears' 52-49 victory. The 53-yard return was the longest by a Cal player since Mychal Kendricks' 68-yd return for a TD at UCLA in 2009.

QB Ross Bowers finished 23-for-41 for 255 yards, 3 touchdowns with 0 interceptions.

• Trace Travers’ takeaways from the game.
• Even before Noa’s huge game last night, he was making his name known as a high caliber WR. Cal’s official website has a feature on him published before the game.
• Golden Bear Report did a feature on Alex Funches, who has filled Cameron Saffle’s spot in the defensive rotation honorably.
• Finally, BearTerritory has a feature on Devante Downs.

Volleyball / #SavStrong

In a couple hours Cal Volleyball will host Arizona at Haas Pavilion. It will be televised on Pac-12 Networks if you cannot be there. Before the game the team will honor Savannah Rennie, who is undergoing chemotherapy after complications from her liver transplant. While the treatment will almost certainly force her to miss this season, she is working hard to return to the court next year. (Citation - the below article)

• Her hometown paper, the San Diego Union Tribune, did a great and informative feature on Rennie. You can read it here.

Less than five months after the transplant that took place in Indiana, Rennie played in 12 matches for the Cal Bears, making five starts and recording 39 kills and 10 blocks.

As a redshirt sophomore, she was on her way.

Then she had “the rug pulled out” from under her.

Rennie felt lightheaded, almost passing out several times. She was nauseous most of the time. And she had trouble staying awake.

In a visit to the emergency room, doctors found a mass in her abdomen. A surgical procedure removed the mass. A biopsy determined chemotherapy was necessary.

The diagnosis was non-Hodgkin post-transplant lymphoma.

...

To honor Rennie, Cal has designated Sunday’s home Pac-12 match with Arizona as #SavStrong Day.

The 11 a.m. match will be carried on the Pac-12 Networks.

The Bears will wear their gold jerseys and donations to the American Cancer Society are encouraged.

• Bailee Huizenga also wrote in her journal about the #SavStrong game, and other updates about the Volleyball team.
• Cal VB’s instagram has posted some video from various teammates, coaches, and her partner showing what Savannah means to them.

Misc.

• Men’s basketball are back in camp! Check out this report on them.
• Drake Callender has shown himself to be an outstanding goalie for the Men’s Soccer team this year.
• Daily Cal’s preview of the Women’s Tennis 2017-2018 campaign.

I’ll be at the Volleyball game, and hopefully the Women’s Soccer game as well. Come say hi! Go Bears.