Golden Medals: Rolling Cal Volleyball to play home match at Stanford; 3rd M. Water Polo player named MPSF newcomer of week

While Cal Football has a bye week, the rest of Cal Athletics are still busy competing in this atypical week in the Bay Area due to the blackouts. I for once is rather glad that I don’t live in the Bay Area this week.

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No.16 Cal Volleyball sweeps Oregon schools in straight sets

Cal Volleyball (13-1, 3-1 in Pac-12) is playing so well right now that I am confident that they can overcome the latest curveball (sorry for the mixed sports metaphor) thrown to them by the campus power outage. Instead of a return to Haas Pavilion, Cal will host ASU on Friday from Maples Pavilion at Stanford (Insert your own joke about The Farm being a Bear Territory).

Golden Bears are playing their best (most confident) volleyball of the season. Cal is coming off a pair of straight set wins on the road at the Oregon schools; particularly impressive was how the Bears dispatched then No.25 ranked Oregon Ducks with next to no issue on Sunday.

Cal 3, Oregon State 0 - 25-20, 25-22, 25-14

Holding the Beavers to a hitting percentage of 0.058, Golden Bears had a block party to the tune of 14 blocks at Corvallis last Friday. Bears turned things around for good in the first set while trailing 14-17, thanks to a few key blocks. Preslie Anderson and Lauren Forte each recorded 5 block assists. Mima Mirkovic has a team high 10 kills, along with 3 block assists.

Cal 3, Oregon 0 - 25-14, 25-18, 25-21

No.25 Oregon was no challenge for the No.19 Cal as the Bears dominated this match. Bailee Huizenga led the way with 13 kills from hitting 0.440. In arguably the best effort of the season, Golden Bears had great performances all over the lineup.

Thanks to these two straight set victories, Cal Volleyball is now ranked No.16 in the country in the coaches’ poll.

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Keeper Adrian Weinberg is the 3rd MPSF Newcomer of the Week for No.6 Cal Men’s Water Polo

One can still be optimistic about Cal Men’s Water Polo making a late challenge for the 2019 National Championship thanks to its youth all over the lineup gaining more experiences. For the 3rd straight week, another newcomer to the program is named the Newcomer of the Week by the conference.

Keeper Adrian Weinberg is a true freshman who has seized the starting goalkeeper role this season. He is also the 3rd straight and more importantly different MPSF Newcomer of the Week on the Cal Men’s Water Polo squad. Junior transfer and scoring machine Jasmin Kolasinac won this award two weeks ago. Greek freshman Nikolaos Papanikolaou got the honor last week for his all around game. Keeper Adrian Weinberg is the latest Bear to earn this distinction.

Cal 10, San Jose State 8 (OT)

In the pool, No.6 Bears (10-5) needed OT to beat San Jose State on the road. Bears never trailed but did allow the Spartans to equalize with 18 seconds left in regulation. Weinberg had a 12 save match, including 3 in OT when the Bears kept the Spartans scoreless.

No.6 Cal will next host No.7 Pepperdine this weekend from Berkeley on Saturday. Bears defeated Pepperdine 9-8 at the SoCal tournament two weekends ago.

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Cal Men’s Soccer bounces back from loss to UW with a 4-0 rout at San Diego State

Coming off a 2-1 win over Oregon State, Cal Bears (6-3-1, 2-2-0 in Pac-12) was unable to make it a perfect week at home.

Cal 0, Washington 1

On Sunday, Bears conceded a first half goal to the Huskies but was unable to equalize despite outshooting the visiting Washington 12 to 11. Bears had 8 corners to just 2 for Washington, but to no avail. Washington (10-1) improved to 4-0-0 in Pac-12 play.

Cal 4, San Diego State 0

Bears had their most dominant win of the year last night from San Diego.

Tommy Williamson scored the first goal of the match. It was his 5th goal of the season, a team high.

Simon Lekressner then added his 3rd goal of the year.

Bears made it 3-0 before the half with Jonathan Estrada scoring his 3rd goal of the season.

Just before the end, Fahmi Ibrahim scored his first goal of the season for the final margin.

Golden Bears will next tackle UCLA Bruins on Sunday afternoon from Westwood.

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Cal Women’s Soccer drops a heartbreaker to No.14 Washington State; fought to earn a draw against Oregon

Cal Women’s Soccer (9-3-1, 1-2-1 in Pac-12) love their game so much that they have put in the overtime in both of their latest matches.

Cal 0, Washington State 1 (OT)

Against the 14th ranked Washington State, Golden Bears drop 2nd straight 1-0 loss after the big win down at UCLA. It was a scoreless match until the Cougars found the back of the net in OT to score the Golden Goal.

Cal 1, Oregon 1 (OT)

Senior Mia Corbin saved the Bears from a 3rd straight 1-0 loss by scoring the equalizer in the 88th minute. Bears hold on for the tough draw on the road. Bears improves to 4-0-1 on the road this season.

Bears will next face Oregon State on Sunday while continuing their Oregon Trail.

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Cal Field Hockey routs Central Michigan University before another tough road loss at Brown

Back in Berkeley for two matches last weekend, Cal Field Hockey (4-8, 0-1 in American East) split their two matches.

Cal 3, No.14 Syracuse 4 (2OT)

Golden Bears opened the home stand hot and took a 2-0 lead but could not hold on. After the Orange scored 3 straight goals to take the lead, Bears were able to equalize before falling in OT.

Megan Rodgers and Katrina Carter both scored their 4th goal of the season.

Cal 8, Central Michigan 1

Finally facing an unranked opponent, it was all Cal Bears in this one. Rodgers and Carter both scored a pair of goals each.

Cal 2, Brown 3

Golden Bears fought hard to equalize at 2 before the Brown Bears score the winning goal in the 53rd minute.

Cal will conclude their New England trip with matches against Sacred Heart and Cornell (both from Connecticut) before returning home to conclude the conference play (matches agains Stanford and a home and home vs UC Davis).

GO BEARS!