John Todd/GoldenBearSports.com/Courtesy

Winning is not foreign to the Cal men’s golf team. Coming off of one of the most successful seasons in college golf history allowed the team to have tremendous confidence coming into the new year. Add the top player this year receiving a tremendous accolade last week and a huge victory in the team’s most recent tournament. There is clearly no denying that the Bears have it in themselves to win. The team will try to use this to its advantage when it hosts the Alister Mackenzie Invitational on Monday and Tuesday.

Cal will be hosting its only tournament of the season in Sonoma, Calif., at the Sonoma Golf Club. The tournament consists of 16 teams on a 7,103-yard course that is par-72. Teams taking part in the tournament include Pac-12 foes No. 23 Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon and Oregon State. Also competing in the event are local rivals USF, Fresno State and San Jose State.

Hosting the tournament adds a level of ease that makes it unique from any other.

“(Having) friendly faces at the tournament just makes you that more comfortable,” said senior Brandon Hagy.

The Bears are ranked No. 4 in the country, despite a dominant win a couple of weeks ago at the Jack Nicklaus Invitational in Ohio (281-280-281 – 842, -10). Cal finished the event 19 strokes ahead of second-place Oklahoma (No. 12).

Individually, Hagy (71-67-69 -207-6) ended the event in first place. His performance from that tournament and other tournaments this season led to him being named the Pac-12 Men’s Golfer of the Month for September. Hagy is the sixth Cal player in a row to receive this honor. He has a 69.4-stroke average and has medaled in each of the tournaments he has played in this season.

“The Pac-12 is the best golf conference in the country, so any time you win an award like that in a conference that is so competitive, it shows that a lot of the hard work I am putting in is paying off,” Hagy said.

Despite the confidence Cal feels coming into the event, the team will have some obstacles to overcome. Hagy is coming into the tournament at less than 100 percent after injuring his foot Wednesday night. Michael Kim was ill coming into the weekend and is unable to play in the tournament. Not having these top players in optimal health hurts the team.

“We have a lot of really good players on this team, but to lose last year’s National Player of the Year, the reigning Pac-12 player of the year and arguably the No. 1 player in the country, you got both of those guys out of your lineup — those are big holes to fill,” said head coach Steve Desimone.

Additionally, the Bears are hosting the event at the Sonoma Golf Club, as opposed to hosting it at the Meadow Club in Fairfax, Calif., where the tournament was held from 2002 to 2007 and 2009 to 2012. The team is not as familiar with this course, which may reduce the advantage of hosting the event.

Despite all of this, Desimone still has high expectations.

“I have a great deal of confidence they will be ready to go come Monday morning,” he said.

No matter what conditions the team plays in, confidence will be the key to victory.

Alaina Getzenberg covers golf. Contact her at agetzenberg@dailycal.org

The post Cal men’s golf hosts only home tournament of fall season at Sonoma Golf Club appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Carlos Caceres/Staff

The only thing the Cal volleyball team has been able to consistently count on this season has been its inconsistent play.

In this season alone, the Bears have lost in upsets to the likes of UC Davis and Kansas State. Yet, they’ve swept then-No. 16 UCLA and and then-No. 19 Creighton. It’s been the kind of year that has fans scratching their heads.

In Cal’s (10-5, 3-3 Pac-12) latest tilt, they will need to play as consistently as possible to top No. 6 Washington (13-1, 5-1) on Wednesday night in Seattle. It’s not an impossible order, as Cal recently pushed USC, the current top team in the country, to a fifth set in which the Bears were just two points away from victory.

Accomplishing the upset will just depend on which Cal squad shows up.

“It’s a mental thing,” said outside hitter Michelle Neumayr on the team’s inconsistency this season. “It’s obviously easier for us to get pumped up and play against a No. 2 team than it is for Davis. But we’re working on being consistent, and we have to take every team the same way.”

The Bears’ most recent battle with inconsistent play came when the team fell in four sets to Utah on Sunday night. In that match, the Utes’ blockers were able to push the Bears into a season-low hitting percentage of .192 off of 13 blocks.

The Huskies play a similar style of volleyball as the Utes, so if the Bears can learn from the mistakes they made Sunday, they should come into Seattle better prepared. Washington runs a 6-2 offense like that of the Utes, in which two setters are on the court at once. Washington is also a good blocking team, with an average of 2.69 blocks per set, just .13 fewer than Utah.

“We certainly saw the need for having our right-side and left-side blockers help out more when the ball is set to the middle area of the court,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “If we start going wide, then it’s one-on-one in the middle, and the result against Utah was that their middle blockers had a field day.”

The Bears will need their outside blockers, such as Christina Higgins, to step up in order to stop Washington’s attack. Higgins has recorded .78 blocks per set, the best number for a player who isn’t a middle blocker.

“Our X-factor is Christina and her huge block,” Neumayr said. “Her offense has been awesome as well, but we’ll definitely need her block against Washington.”

Higgins’ play could end up being the key factor as the Cal team tries to get its hitting back on track as well as stop outside hitters such as Krista Vansant, who is averaging 3.85 kills per set for the Huskies.

Doing that is obviously much easier said than done. Earlier this season, the Washington team was ranked No. 1 before a shocking loss to Colorado early in October. Since that loss, the Huskies have dropped only one set in three matches.

For the Bears, overcoming those odds begins in the mind as a mental struggle with their own inconsistency.

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Cal volleyball treks to Seattle to face No. 6 Washington appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Senior Staff

When men’s water polo captain Collin Smith was just 13 years old, he had already figured out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

And it wasn’t just water polo.

In the winter of his eighth-grade year, Smith was selected to attend a holiday training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs, Colo. For several days, the young native of San Diego joined other junior athletes from all over the country to learn under some of the nation’s top water polo coaches.

But during that week, Smith wasn’t solely focused on developing his water polo game. Another aspect of the winter camp caught his attention while he was in the pool training.

Despite the many U.S. National Team coaches and past Olympians Smith had the chance to learn from, the young teenager was more so drawn to the people who were working with the athletes and Olympians on the sidelines — people who Smith would later find out were called “biomechanists.” Biomechanists who work specifically in the field of sports analyze athletic movement and performance through the laws of mechanics.

His newfound curiosity sparked a possible career interest at the age of 13 — and since then, he has been set on working in the field of applied biomechanics, a branch of kinesiology focused on the study of body movement, to stay in touch with his love of athletics.

“It just kind of intrigued me,” Smith said. “When I was on that trip, I got to see firsthand how these people were able to work with athletes and stay around the sports world for so long — and that’s what I decided I always wanted to pursue.”

Juggling his passion for water polo and holding down an academically rigorous schedule was no easy task for Smith.

From the get-go, Smith had to rapidly adjust to handling a jam-packed schedule. As a talented freshman recruit, Smith made the men’s water polo travel team straightaway — a feat normally attained by more experienced veteran players. And as a regular sub off the bench, the freshman standout played in all 28 matches that season. Last year, the 6-foot-1 senior attacker led the team in scoring with a high of 61 goals and 31 assists — all the while keeping on track to graduate with a degree in integrative biology.

For Smith, competing in the pool against some of the top squads in the nation is in many ways similar to competing in the classroom. He likens exams to competitive tournaments, grades to trophies — and in developing a similar mentality to handle both major aspects of his life, he is able to succeed in a pool against six other opponents as well as in a lecture hall among a sea of 500 Berkeley students.

“Competing in the pool, you learn on a daily basis how you work best to build off each day,” Smith said. “Especially thinking about taking your undergraduate science classes where everyone’s just competing to get the best grade they can — you just have to focus on yourself, figure out what strategy fits you.”

According to Smith, if there’s one thing he’s learned throughout his past four years at Cal, it’s how to effectively manage his time so that he spends his day doing the things he values. His strategy? Find the sparse half-hour time slots he has in between his classes, weight training, video or pool practice and not squander them.

“Finding that time is hard, but you find these times, because they’re there,” Smith said. “And if something’s important to me, I’ll make time.”

In order to step back from his hectic schedule, Smith has found a home in the Christian community to give himself a breather. About 8 p.m. every Wednesday night, Smith joins about 30 members of the Christian organization Athletes in Action for worship and fellowship at First Presbyterian. For Smith, who comes from a strongly faith-based family, his Wednesday nights provide a sort of solace for him to slow down in the midst of weeks replete with nonstop activity.

“Those Wednesday nights — even though it’s not much — it keeps you there, it keeps you grounded,” Smith said. “It’s nice to have that time to spend with other athletes who share things beyond just being here at the same place.”

Smith knows exactly what he wants to strive for this year and the years following. After he graduates in May, hopefully with a national title under his belt, he will try for a spot on the U.S. national team — perhaps to play in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Whether he establishes a position for himself on the national team, Smith plans to obtain a master’s degree in biomechanics or kinesiology to continue working in the world of athletic sports for as long as he can.

But whatever happens for the ambitious senior in the near future, Smith believes that he has made all the right choices and sacrifices in his four years at Cal — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“When I came in, I had a goal to graduate in four years while competing for four years collegiately, and now that I’m looking back, I realize that all the sacrifices I made were all worth it,” Smith said. “Now that I’m here towards the end, having all the pieces come together — the fact that I’ve been able to do everything that I love doing and still feel like I’ve been part of enough, feel like I haven’t missed out — that’s the true reward.

“No matter what happens with our season, I’m absolutely happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish and what I’ve been able to be a part of here.”

Janice Chua covers men’s water polo. Contact her at jchua@dailycal.org.

The post Two-Headed Boy: Collin Smith and his two passions appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Carlos Caceres/Staff

It was a sloppy night at Haas Pavilion on Sunday.

The Cal women’s volleyball team fell to Utah in four sets as the Bears (10-5, 3-3 Pac 12) never really found a groove and the Utes quickly found theirs.

The first set started with Utah (14-4, 3-3) taking a quick 6-0 lead as Cal struggled to keep up, eventually falling to the Utes 25-23. The second set went better for the Bears when they reduced their errors to just two, as opposed to the 8 they had in the first set. Cal took the second set 25-17, but then the Utes dominated the court.

“Winning set two the way we did, hitting over 300, it seemed like that was Cal volleyball again,” said head coach Rich Feller. “And then that just disappeared.”

The Bears went on to commit 15 combined errors in the final two sets as opposed to the Utes six. Cal’s hitting percentage also hit a season-low .192.

While the Bears weren’t at their best, Utah was, beating Cal’s hitting percentage for three of the four sets. Utah ran an efficient 3-hitter offense, which made it harder for the Bears’ defense to set up. The Utes had four players in double figures in kills, and ended with an average of .264.

The Bears were not completely helpless on offense; senior outside hitter Adrienne Gehan had 20 kills and senior Christina Higgins compiled 13 of her own. But Utah came into Haas ranked 13th in the nation with 2.38 blocks per set, and proved their defensive dominance over the four sets.

“We weren’t hitting great. But that was kind of compounded with their amazing defense,” Gehan said. “They just frustrated us and we let those touches and those plays frustrate us, and we weren’t getting them back.”

Ultimately, the Bears could just not find a groove, and Utah was able to capitalize on Cal’s weaknesses.

“We hit balls that gave them a lot of opportunities to block,” said Feller. “I think that took a little wind out of our sails right away, and made us questions and then we starting hitting errors.”

Alicia Fong covers volleyball. Contact her at afong@dailycal.org

The post Erratic Cal volleyball drops match to Pac-12 rival Utah in four sets appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Yale’s midfielders tore up Cal’s defense throughout the game as Georgia Holland provided two assists for fellow midfielders Emily Schuckert and Nicole Wells. The Bulldogs exposed a frail Bears’ defense, one that has allowed 13 goals and 78 shots in their current four-game losing streak.

Shots coming from the Yale side were few, but well-placed. The Bulldogs’ offense took only 13 and beat Cal’s star goalie Courtney Hendrickson a total of three times. Two goals came off penalty corners caused by what can best be described as foolish mistakes by an overly aggressive defense. Forward Erica Borgos’ early second-half goal proved to be the nail in the coffin for a Cal team that came out flat.

“Our defense is hurting right now — that’s definitely something we need to work on,” said coach Shellie Onstead.

Momentum favored the Bulldogs, who seemed to have clinched the win early on in the match and never looked back. The Bears, however, would not go down quietly in the second half.

The Bulldogs defense seemed unprepared for the impending firestorm that would be midfielder Lara Kruggel in the second half. In the 60th minute of play, one of Kruggel’s shots — she had six throughout the game — shook the back of the net and lifted the spirits of what had appeared to be a beaten Bears unit. It took only six more minutes for Kruggel to find the goal again and cut the deficit to only one goal.

“Lara has been playing injured, so for her to push through and get back to what she’s good at was awesome,” Onstead said.

There finally seemed to be some life in the Cal offense, which hasn’t been relevant since the Bears’ near upset of Duke several weeks ago.

With only five minutes left in the game, Onstead took Hendrickson out of the cage and put her on the attack, desperately trying to give her squad a chance with the extra man and a shot at their fifth bout of overtime this season. The Yale defense, however, did not falter, fending off the pressing Bears offense in the closing minutes of the second half and earning the team’s fourth victory of the season.

“A lot of this game was just about having faith in your team. That you can come back and win. I was really pleased that the girls didn’t give up out there and fought until the end,” Onstead said.

The Bears have now dropped four in a row, which has been unheard of under coach Onstead’s leadership. “We have a very good program here. We need to start playing strong fundamental field hockey,” Onstead said.

Cal will look to do just that against a strong UC Davis team on the road this Sunday.

Christian Legg covers field hockey. Contact him at clegg@dailycal.org.

The post Cal field hockey’s rally falls short against Yale appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Of the 14 swimming events Friday afternoon, Cal participated in the 200-yard IM and 400-yard IM as exhibitions and captured 11 of the remaining 12 events. Friday’s meet also included a couple of diving events, with Cal junior Tommy Selby placing third in the one-meter board and second in the three-meter board. Selby also set a school record of 391.50 in the latter event, edging out Sam Helvie’s mark from 2007.

Just as in last week’s meet against Pacific, sophomore Tyler Messerschmidt and senior Jeremy Bagshaw led the Cal squad with two victories apiece. Freshman swimmer Ryan Murphy also won two events Friday, the 100 and 200 backstroke. Other wins for Cal came from freshman Long Gutierrez in the 200 fly, sophomore Trent Williams in the 200 free and senior Marcin Tarczynski in the 100 fly.

Some of the loudest cheers of the afternoon were in support of sophomore Josh Prenot, who won the 200 breaststroke, then seemed to find another gear for the exhibition 200 IM. After the meet, Cal coach David Durden highlighted some of the best performances of the afternoon.

“Jeremy’s just keeping up the good work he started from last summer,” Durden said. “It’s a nice continuation of what he’s been doing, so that’s exciting to see. Ryan had a great meet as well.”

Though he may not have won any individual events, Cal junior Seth Stubblefield was Friday’s standout on sheer workload alone. Stubblefield authored one of the most taxing schedules of the afternoon, swimming the 200 free, the 100 fly and the 100 free, in addition to the final exhibition relay.

“Seth raced hard today, and he didn’t have an easy schedule,” Durden said. “That was a pretty good load for that young man, and he did a good job with that.”

As experienced swimmers such as Stubblefield adjust to more difficult schedules, freshmen are still adjusting to the competitive dual-meet setting. Durden spoke extensively about his freshman swimmers, who have their second dual-meet competition under their belts. For some, it was the first time this season swimming in their primary races.

It is all part of the transition to swimming at Cal. Prior to the Indiana meet, senior Shayne Fleming had noted the importance of teammates helping one another, especially the freshmen — a sentiment Durden echoed Friday afternoon.

“I think our guys are doing a better job of helping each other,” Durden said. “As long as we continue to do that and improve upon that idea, we’re going to be in a better spot three weeks from now.”

Three weeks means the arrival of Wisconsin, against which the Bears will try to continue their streak of dual-meet prowess. Despite Cal’s dominant victory, the Hoosiers brought good performances and had a swimmer finish in the top three in every event except the 50- and 100-yard free. Cal will hope for even better showings come November, when the Badgers come to town.

Michelle Lee covers men’s swim. Contact her at mlee@dailycal.org.

The post Cal men’s swim dominates Hoosiers for ninth straight duel meet win appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Originally, the Bears intended to send five players to last weekend’s tournament, but a series of injuries and an NCAA clearance issue with freshman Maegan Manasse left only Kelly Chui and Cecilia Estlander eligible to represent Cal in Moraga.

Despite hoping to defend Bears’ tournament titles, the two fell short of last year’s sweeping success.

On Friday, Chui was defeated in the first round of the Red Flight singles tournament by Fresno State’s Aishwarya Agrawal in straight sets 6-4, 6-2. Estlander only advanced one round further than her teammate before falling to Saint Mary’s Catherine Leduc 7-6 (5), 6-2.

The Red Flight doubles draw did not yield much more success for Cal. Chui and Estlander paired up for a decisive 8-2 win over USF but were subsequently halted by another impressive performance by Fresno State — this time by the doubles tandem of Agrawal and Claire Yang. The doubles team defeated the Bears in a close 8-5 victory.

“I had goals in the beginning of the tournament, and I really wish I had stuck to them,” said Chui, “When times were tough, I sometimes doubted myself, and I feel like if I had just stuck to my goals, I would have won more matches.”

Chui’s early defeat slated her in the consolation draw of the Red Flight tournament, where she saw considerably more success than she did in the main draw.

On Saturday, she defeated LMU’s Elanor Grossman in a three-set thriller 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (6) before facing Stanford’s Amelia Herring in another gripping battle. Chui eventually came out on top 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (2), a victory that advanced her to the semifinal match against Saint Mary’s Audrey Leitz on Sunday.

Two sets against the local player eventually sent Chui packing, but not before the best comeback of Chui’s tournament performance.

After a 6-3 loss in the first set, Chui was faced with a formidable 1-5 deficit in the second. Leitz just had to keep her serve to advance to the finals. But at 30-40, Chui executed a perfect lob to catapult Leitz into a run that brought the match to 4-5. In the end, it was a blazing down-the-line forehand that won the match for Leitz.

“It felt good,” said Leitz. “I remember I played Kelly last spring and lost like 6-2, 6-2, and it felt great to win this match. I played good today, so I’m happy about that.”

Chui’s match against Leitz underscores the value of this weekend for the two Cal players despite their lackluster results. Tough match play against some of the top players in the region gave these two the chance to develop their individual games before the team — hopefully united and healthy — advances in the season.

“Of course we would have wanted to play in the finals,” said coach Amanda Augustus. “But given our current health situation, we’ll definitely take it.”

Dani Coony covers women’s tennis. Contact her at dcoony@dailycal.org.

The post Chui and Estlander of Cal women’s tennis fall short at Saint Mary’s Invitational appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Katherine Chen/File

The Cal women’s swim team sent a 10-member squad to the Fresno State Bulldog Invitational over the weekend to get some early season racing practice, and coaches were pleased with the results, even though the Bears finished last out of four teams.

The No.3 Bears, with 591 points, finished behind Boise State (1,232 points), Fresno State (765.5 points) and San Jose State (751.5 points).

The Bears, coming off of victories against Oregon State (161-95) and Washington State (164-89) in the past two weekends, decided not to send the entire team to this weekend’s invitational. According to assistant coach Kristen Cunnane, coaches decided to send part of the team to Washington last weekend for a “conference-mandated” meet and decided to send the other part of the team to the Bulldog Invitational.

“A lot of thought went into thinking about what the athletes would get out of (each meet),” Cunnane said.

Cunnane also said that while she wasn’t actually at the meet over the weekend, she thought the results looked good on paper.

“It’s not about looking at times but about getting good racing under our belts and working on turns and technique,” Cunnane said. “For what we wanted to accomplish, I think it was a successful meet.”

Cal came away with two individual victories: freshman Sophia Batchelor in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:02.72 and junior Camille Cheng in the 200-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:51.10, two-hundredths of a second ahead of a swimmer from Boise State.

Cheng said she got good feedback about the race.

“I’m pretty happy about where I am,” Cheng said. “There’s always room for improvement, but I’m not that far off from where I want to be.”

A number of swimmers placed third in their respective races: freshman Farida Osman in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 56.59, senior Melissa Bates in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:05.61 and Batchelor in the 100-yard backstroke in 58.64. Cal’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Osman, Bates, junior Mikkel-Ane Stipe and Cheng placed third, as did the 400-yard free relay team of Bates, Stipe, freshman Taylor Young and Cheng.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Osman finished third with a time of 23.75. In the same race, Cheng finished eighth in 24.26, and freshman Abi Speers finished 12th in 24.89.

Cheng also finished second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.00, which beat the previous pool record. In the 200-yard individual medley, Bates finished fourth and Young finished fifth, about a second apart.

In the 200-yard medley relay, the Cal A team of Stipe, Bates, Osman and Cheng finished second behind the Boise State A team. The Bears’ B team — Greene, Young, Batchelor and Speers — finished sixth in the relay.

Cheng said it was nice to be in a smaller group and to “change it up a little bit.” She said the meet was not so much a tactical-type meet as it was about preparing mentally for the rest of the season.

“We’re not expected to be in top shape,” Cheng said. “People were swimming events that they don’t usually swim and swam more than they were used to.”

The full Cal team will be back competing next weekend, when Cal takes on No. 1 Florida at home.

Contact Shannon Carroll at scarroll@dailycal.org

The post No. 3 Cal women’s swim rests key contributors, finishes last at Fresno State Bulldog Invitational appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/File

By the numbers, the Cal men’s water polo team performed as expected this weekend.

At the SoCal Invitational held in Irvine, Calif., the Bears (11-4) stayed true to their national ranking as the No. 5 squad in the nation — topping all the teams with lower national rankings, but losing out to No. 4 Stanford for the second time this season.

The Cal squad opened up the tournament with a match against No. 13 UC San Diego on Saturday. After dominating the Tritons in the first quarter, the Bears took a 5-1 lead into the second period with a four-point margin that UC San Diego would not be able to recover from. Junior goalie Jon Sibley finished the match with 13 saves, while freshman Thomas Carroll led the Bears in scoring with three goals in the first half.

With a victory in the first bracket of the tournament, Cal went head-to-head against its rivals from across the Bay on Saturday evening for a chance to reach the semifinals of the Invitational. Earlier in the season at the NorCal Invitational on Sept. 22, Cal dropped a 12-10 decision to the Cardinal in the final third-place match of the tournament.

Although Cal led Stanford 9-8 moving into the fourth quarter, three minutes into the period Stanford’s Alex Bowen scored to knot the game at 9-9. Sophomore Colin Mulcahy struck back with a five-meter penalty shot conversion to give the Bears a 10-9 advantage with four minutes left in the game. But then the Cardinal managed to shutout the Bears defensively and score three times in the last few minutes of the game to garner a 12-10 win.

On Saturday, the Bears just could not find their rhythm until the third quarter, but by then it was too late for the Bears to bounce back from Stanford’s strong offensive plays. Despite junior Aleksa Saponjic’s three goals, the Cal squad could not keep up offensively with the Cardinal, falling 14-8 to end play on Saturday.

The next morning, the Bears rebounded from a sluggish start against No. 9 UC Irvine by outscoring the Anteaters 6-3 in the second half of the match. Senior Hunter Gettelfinger contributed two goals during the third period when the Cal team defensively shutout UC Irvine, holding them goalless for the entire eight minutes. The Anteaters eventually fell to the Bears by two points, 11-9.

“I was happy with the team fighting back from a slow start,” said Cal coach Kirk Everist in an interview with calbears.com. “We got great offense from (Farrel) South and (Colin) Mulcahy and the team defense held UC Irvine to just two goals in the final 20 minutes.”

In the fifth-place match up against UC Santa Barbara, the Bears demolished the No. 6 Gauchos, 11-3, to end the weekend tournament with a 3-1 tournament record. The Cal squad kept UCSB’s offensive production to a bare minimum, only allowing the Gauchos at most one goal per quarter.

The Bears finished the SoCal Invitational in fifth place — and still lack a win from a top-five opponent. The squad will next take on UC Santa Barbara for the second time in a row in an MPSF conference match next Saturday.

Janice Chua covers men’s water polo. Contact her at jchua@dailycal.org.

The post No. 5 Cal men’s water polo falls to No. 4 Stanford, but handles lower ranked opponents appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/File

Senior captain Steve Birnbaum stepped up to the penalty mark with the Cal men’s soccer team’s No. 1 ranking hanging in the balance. His Bears were down 2-1 with only 14 minutes remaining on the road against No. 6 UCLA.

Earlier in the game, Birnbaum and his fellow center defender Christian Dean had made costly mistakes that resulted in two Bruin goals. He needed to make up for his mistake — he wanted this shot.

“We have several guys who can take penalties, but Steve was dialed in,” said coach Kevin Grimes.

The captain calmly stepped up to the ball and struck it hard and true, center right and past the UCLA keeper. Just like that, the game was tied 2-2.

The Bruins were shocked, having dominated possession throughout the game. The Bears took the momentum and ran with it, scoring 32 seconds into the golden-goal overtime off the foot of forward Stefano Bonomo, escaping Westwood with the huge 3-2 win.

“Our players showed their heart today,” Grimes said. “They have the ability to overcome odds which don’t look so great in the moment.”

The scoring began in the 13th minute when UCLA (7-3-1, 2-1-0) exploited the first big mistake by the Cal defense. Birnbaum and Dean lost their marks on a UCLA cross, allowing Bruin Victor Chavez to slip right in front of the six-yard box. Chavez flicked the ball past the outstretched arms of keeper Justin Taillole, and for the second time in two games, the Bears (9-0-2, 3-0-1) found themselves behind first.

“We had yet to realize what they were doing,” Grimes said. “We had to keep tighter on our men.”

A mere five minutes later, Dean stepped up to a free kick outside the 18-yard box and scored off a deflection.

Despite being tied at 1-1, UCLA controlled the pace of play in the first frame and delivered a huge blow three minutes before halftime. Another miscommunication on the back line left a wide-open Bruin a mere two yards away from the goal, putting UCLA back up by one.

The start of the second half looked identical to the end of the first, with UCLA dominating possession and forcing the Bears to chase more than attack.

In the 75th minute, Christian Dean made the game-changing play to set up the Birnbaum penalty. Singlehandedly, Dean ran from the left back position, beat multiple defenders one on one and powered a shot on net. Although it was blocked, it created a corner kick during which the Bruins were penalized for a handball, awarding Cal a penalty kick.

Birnbaum executed under pressure, and the score was tied.

The overtime period ended just as quickly as it began. Midfielder Connor Hallisey, who had been subbed out early in the game, took a ball wide and saw Bonomo streaking toward the net. Hallisey delivered a low cross, and Bonomo pushed the golden goal past the UCLA keeper, giving Cal its third overtime win this season.

On the verge of a huge upset, the Bruins were suddenly watching the Bears mob Bonomo, thinking back to the handball penalty that flipped the game upside down. In a game in which UCLA took advantage of Cal’s massive defensive breakdowns, Cal’s two impact players, Dean and Birnbaum, put the Bears on their back.

“(Dean and Birnbaum) were not happy with the two goals, but they came back in a big way today,” Grimes said.

Austin Crochetiere covers men’s soccer. Contact him at acrochetiere@dailycal.org.

The post No. 1 Cal men’s soccer registers miraculous comeback victory at No. 6 UCLA appeared first on The Daily Californian.