Golden Medals: Cal Women’s Water Polo hosting MPSF Championship; Gymnastics at NCAA national championship recaps

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Cal Women’s Water Polo hosting MPSF Tournament

Having never won the MPSF Tournament in its history, Cal Women’s Water Polo (18-4) is in a great position to do that this year. Bears are hosting the tournament and hope that the home pool advantage will be enough to push them over the equally talented USC, Stanford, and UCLA squads.

Bears as the 2nd seed behind USC (the only conference team to beat the Bears in the regularly scheduled match in 2018), will get a first round bye. They will play the San Jose State/Stanford winner (pretty much Stanford) on Saturday in another Big Splash meeting. Cal and Stanford split the two decisions in the regular season.

2018 MPSF CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE

Friday, April 27

No. 6 San Jose State (9-17) vs. No. 3 Stanford (16-2), 11 a.m.

No. 5 Arizona State (15-8) vs. No. 4 UCLA (21-5), 12:45 p.m.

Saturday, April 28

San Jose State/Stanford loser vs. Arizona State/UCLA loser, 11 a.m.

Arizona State/UCLA winner vs. No. 1 USC (21-1), 12:45 p.m.

San Jose State/Stanford winner vs. No. 2 Cal (18-4), 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 29

Third Place Game, 11 a.m.

Championship, 12:45 p.m.

Golden Bears are led by senior Calympian Dora Antal, the all-time leading scorer in the program. Antal was just All-Conference First team for the 4th time in her career. She is joined on the first team with fellow Hungarian Calympian teammate Anna Illes. Italian national team member Carla Carrag was named to the 2nd team. Canadian national team member Emma Wright and Dutch national team newcomer Kitty Lynn Joustra are named as honorable mentions.

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Cal Gymnastics at NCAA recaps

Competing at the NCAA national championships in St. Louis last Saturday, Cal women hit on all their routines to place 9th overall (they needed to finish in the top 3 in their semifinal to advance to Sunday), with Toni-Ann Williams earning all-around All-American honor.

Check out the highlights below:

Toni-Ann Williams is coming back from missing the bulk of the 2017 season with a torn achilles. She was granted another year of eligibility and will be back to lead the program to hopefully even better things.

As for the men, they competed at the NCAA qualifier from Chicago last weekend. 7 gymnastics advanced as individuals to day 2 of the action. When it was all over, two men earned All-American (top 8) honors in individual events. Congrats to senior Yordan Aleksandrov who finished his Cal career with a 4th place in the high bar and sophomre Kyte Crigger who finished 5th in floor exercise.

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Cal Beach Volleyball advancing to Pac-12 Championship 2nd round

Sadly, the lone good news from Thursday came from Stanford, where Cal Beach Volleyball defeated Washington 4-1 to advance to the winner’s bracket 2nd round against USC.

Despite losing in court 4, the other pairs of Bears rallied to win their matches.

Bears changed up their line up a bit with Gaffney and Mirkovic pairing as the new No.1 pair. They clinched this win with this point.

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Cal Lacrosse (season over), Men’s Tennis, Women’s Tennis loses in Pac-12 Championships

While it was a winnable match (Bears beat them 15-13 in Berkeley two weeks ago), Cal Women’s Lacrosse closes the 2018 campaign with a first round Pac-12 tournament loss to Oregon. Golden Bears conclude the year with a 6-12 record, 2-8 in the first year of the Pac-12 conference action for women’s lacrosse.

The young Cal Men’s Tennis squad also lost in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament to Oregon. Ranked in the 40’s, Golden Bears should make the NCAA postseason field of 64.

In another close one, the young Cal Women’s Tennis squad also got edged by Washington State.

A tough postseason draw should also be in the future for the Cal women’s tennis team.

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Golf at Pac-12 Championships recaps

Earlier this week, both Cal men’s and women’s golf played in the Pac-12 Championships. Cal women finished 10th in the Pac-12 championship with senior Marthe Wold and junior Marianne Li finishing in the top 25 as individuals.

Cal women’s golf will next play in a Pac-12 heavy San Francisco Regional.

Somewhat shockingly, Cal men’s golf was not that competitive at the Pac-12 championship either. They finished 5th as a team with Collin Morikawa taking 7th.

Golden Bears will hear about their NCAA postseason fate later. I still have quite high hope for this year’s team to challenge for the program’s 2nd NCAA team title (they won one in 2004).

GO BEARS!