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.

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Kore Chan/File

Historically, collegiate water polo has been dominated by four teams. Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC have captured all but five national championships. The last time one of the four did not win a national title was in 1997, when Pepperdine University defeated USC.

This season, the University of the Pacific looks to be the team that could join, and possibly surpass, the four teams at the top of the sport. The Tigers were picked to finish third in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s preseason coaches’ poll, ahead of UCLA and Cal, and they validated that high ranking with a win over Stanford last Sunday.

In the most recent Collegiate Water Polo Association rankings, released Wednesday, Pacific moved to No. 3 nationally. The third-overall ranking is tied for the highest ever in program history, with the first coming earlier this season.

So when the Tigers (9-1, 1-0 in the MPSF) take on No. 4 Cal (8-2, 0-0 MPSF) at Spieker Aquatic Complex at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, they will have another chance to validate their rise in the collegiate water polo ranks.

But according to Bears’ senior Collin Smith, the Tigers are already there.

“We have to treat them just as we have to treat any other team like USC, Stanford and UCLA,” Smith said. “They’ve earned that right.”

Saturday’s match will be another test for the Tigers to prove they deserve to be considered a legitimate title contender.

“That, to me, is very interesting,” said Greg Mescall, who will be the analyst for the Pac-12 Network’s broadcast of the match. “To see how this team can line up and if Cal can respond to that challenge.”

And the Bears will be challenged. The Tigers have a number of high-level players on their roster, which means the team has the skill to beat anyone.

Last year, Pacific finished the season sixth overall at the MPSF conference tournament. In the regular season, the Bears and the Tigers split their two meetings, with both matches decided by two goals or fewer.

But Croatian two-meter player Goran Tomasevic redshirted last season, and the three-time All-American’s strong presence inside is a welcomed readdition to the Tigers’ team.

Tomasevic is joined by senior attacker Balazs Erdelyi, who was the 2012 winner of the Peter J. Cutino Award. The award, named after a former Cal coach, is given each year to the best male and female collegiate water polo player in the country. The Hungarian scored 83 goals last season.

Tomasevic and Erdelyi are joined offensively by junior Alex Obert and sophomore Aleksandar Petrovic, who both earned All-American honors last season.

With all of the potential scorers for the Tigers, Cal’s team defense will be key. UOP scored 14 times in their win over Stanford, a total the Bears will want to limit.

“If (Cal) can force them to rush their shots and fluster them on offense, I think that will go a long way,” Mescall said.

But whether or not the Tigers win Saturday, the potential of having a nontraditional team join the competition for a national title is refreshing for fans.

“Any time you have more teams playing at a higher level, it is better for the sport,” Mescall said.

Stephen Hobbs covers men’s water polo. Contact him at shobbs@dailycal.org.

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After losing two close matches last Sunday in the final day of the NorCal Invitational, the Bears (8-2) outscored their nonconference opponents by a combined 22 goals in the wins. Senior Collin Smith led Cal with nine goals on the day.

In the Bears’ opening match against No.13 UC Davis, Smith scored four times in the 14-4 win.

Sophomore Colin Mulcahy added three goals in the match, and sophomore Thomas Agramonte and freshman Thomas Carroll each scored twice. Junior goalkeeper Jon Sibley made 15 saves.

Immediately after its match against the Aggies, Cal then took on the No. 18 University of Redlands. And after a first quarter in which the Bears only led by one goal, Cal outscored the Bulldogs 14-3 in the final three quarters to secure the 20-8 win.

Smith scored five times for the Bears. Agramonte and freshman Chandler Jarrels-Stickney each scored three goals.

Both meetings were rematches of games played earlier in the season at the Triton Invitational held at UC San Diego. On Sept. 7, the Bears defeated Redlands 21-3, in Cal’s opening match of the season. Smith led the Bears with four goals in the win.

The following day, Cal defeated UC Davis 15-4. In that match, Jarrels-Stickney led the Bears with four goals.

Stephen Hobbs covers men’s water polo. Contact him at shobbs@dailycal.org.

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Tony Zhou/File

If their performance at the Triton Invitational was any indication of how well they will execute this weekend, the Cal men’s water polo team should completely demolish its competition.

At the Aggie Shootout on Saturday, the squad will take on both UC Davis and the University of Redlands for the second time in three weeks in Davis, Calif. The No. 4 Bears will go head to head against host UC Davis at 10 a.m. and will face the University of Redlands in an 11:30 a.m. matchup.

Just a few weeks earlier, from Sept. 7 to 8, the Bears massacred the Bulldogs at the Triton Invitational in their season-opening match at UC San Diego. Led by senior team captain Collin Smith’s four goals, the squad easily defeated its Redlands counterpart, 21-3, in its most lopsided victory this season. The next day, Cal finished off the tournament with a 15-4 domination of the No. 17 Aggies.

By the numbers, this weekend should not prove to be much of a challenge for the top-seeded Cal squad.

However, it will provide the Bears with the perfect platform to adjust to new team rotations without the presence of utility Ayal Keren. The team lost the senior leader to a herniated disc injury just two days prior to the NorCal Invitational last weekend and had no chance to practice without the veteran player leading the second squad rotation.

“We’re looking at using those two games to understand our rotations a little better without Ayal and to fine-tune and get some growth in our younger players,” said Cal coach Kirk Everist. “After UCLA, it became apparent that our younger group didn’t have a rudder — they were young and trying to figure it out on their own — and Ayal gave them that stability.”

According to Everist, the Bears will be looking at sophomore attacker Colin Mulcahy to fill the void Keren’s absence has created. Mulcahy tallied 25 goals in 25 matches played last season and was the leading second on the team, with 29 ejections garnered as a redshirt freshman.

“From a production standpoint dynamic, (Mulcahy) has a lot of energy, and he can definitely fill that role,” Everist said. “He had great production over the weekend and, quite frankly, not enough play time — he really is a No. 6 or 7 player on the team.”

Along with adjusting to Keren’s absence, the Bears will look to improve on defensive positioning issues that prevented them from finishing out their fourth quarters, especially in the UCLA and Stanford matches at the NorCal Invitational.

Cal will continue to make ejection draws one of its main focuses as it moves further along this season, but the team also hopes to gradually improve on gaining advantageous positions on the frontcourt.

“There were kick-outs because we were giving up our position, and we have to see why we were doing that, because it was consistent,” Everist said. “We have to reinforce where we need our defenders to be in order for our help to actually help out.”

The Bears will look to develop their court positioning throughout the season, but for now, the team is just hoping to get through a less challenging weekend after having a chance to train with a reorganized squad.

“(Losing Ayal) was definitely a huge hit for our team, but it gives us something to rally around — it gives us a little more inspiration,” Smith said.

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

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Tony Zhou/File

In collegiate men’s water polo, it does not get much better than this.

Sixteen of the nation’s top teams are converging on the UC Berkeley campus this weekend for the sport’s annual NorCal Invitational. And the No. 4 ranked Bears will see their toughest matches so far in the nascent 2013 season.

“It is an exciting first test to see where we are as a group against teams that will be around in December,” said Cal senior Collin Smith, referring to the conference and national championship tournaments that take place during that month. “There is a certain pride to the fact that it is our pool, and we don’t want another team to beat us in front of our home crowd.”

On Saturday, Cal (4-0) will open up at the Spieker Aquatic Complex against No. 20 Air Force Academy at 10:50 a.m. in the first of four matches on the weekend. The Bears secured the third overall seed by moving up to No. 3 in the Sept. 11 Collegiate Water Polo Association’s national rankings. With a win over Air Force, the Bears would play the winner of Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount University Saturday afternoon.

Barring an upset in either of its first two matches on Saturday, Cal would likely face UCLA Sunday morning in a rematch of the semifinals of last season’s NorCal Invitational. In that match, held at Stanford University, the Bears fell to the Bruins in overtime by one goal. Cal finished fourth overall.

A third overall seed in this year’s tournament also means that the Bears will not have to face the University of Southern California until the finals — if both teams advance that far. The Trojans have won five consecutive NCAA Championships and are a favorite to win a national championship once again. USC returns national player of the year Nikola Vavic and four of its top-five goal scorers from last season’s 29-0 squad.

But potential matches against UCLA and USC will not make or break the tournament for the Bears. How Cal fares against whichever teams it faces will provide an early indicator of its performance.

Like in previous years, all nine teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which Cal is a part of, are ranked in the top 10 nationally. Overall, 15 of the 16 teams taking part in the tournament are ranked in the top 20.

In matches against even opponents, where a win or loss is often decided by one goal, stamina is crucial.

“One thing we were not satisfied with two weeks ago was our fitness,” said junior Aleksa Saponjic.

With last weekend off, he said the team focused on improving its conditioning, which will help the Bears’ defense. “We have good offensive players, but when we play defense, we can beat everyone,” Saponjic said.

Beating everyone is a possibility. Cal returned all but two of its major goal scorers from last season’s squad and has the experience. And with strong play so far from true freshmen Thomas Carroll and Chandler Jarrels-Stickney, who have combined for 13 goals, three assists and three steals in four matches, the Bears look to have two more players who can fit into head coach Kirk Everist’s rotation.

How much Cal’s youngest players can contribute, the players’ levels of conditioning and how the Bears match up nationally will be clearer after this weekend.

“The way we are looking at it right now is it is really our first big tournament,” Smith said. “And our start of the season.”

Stephen Hobbs covers men’s water polo. Contact him at shobbs@dailycal.org

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Tony Zhou/File

The Cal men’s water polo team did exactly what it was expected to do.

The Bears, ranked No. 4 nationally, opened the season with four wins at the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego this weekend.

And while the wins over the four non-conference opponents were expected, they gave Cal a reason to be happy. The Bears came away without any major injuries, saw balanced scoring and good goalie play, and gave Cal head coach Kirk Everist a number of things he can work on.

“It was a good start,” Everist said. “All in all they had a good weekend and played well at times.”

On Saturday morning, the Bears had their most lopsided win. Cal was led by senior attacker Collin Smith’s four goals in the team’s 21-3 win over the University of Redlands. In total, twelve players scored for the Bears.

The match later that evening against the No. 11 UCSD Tritons proved to be the team’s toughest test of the weekend.

Cal fell behind 2-1 after the first quarter, but outscored the Tritons 5-1 in the second quarter to take the lead, which they held the rest of the match. The Bears won 13-10.

Cal got four goals from senior attacker Hunter Gettelfinger and two each from Smith and sophomore attacker Mitchell Hamilton. Junior goalkeeper Jon Sibley finished the match with 14 saves.

“It was definitely a good test for us as a team,” Gettelfinger said. “San Diego played really hard and made some good shots.”

Sunday’s matches were less of a challenge.

Five players each scored two goals for the Bears in the team’s 17-7 win over No. 13 Loyola Marymount University. Goalkeepers Sibley and senior Michael Boggan combined for 15 saves.

In the afternoon, Cal completed the tournament with a 15-4 win over No. 17 UC Davis. Chandler Jarrels-Stickney led the Bears with four goals and Boggan and Sibley combined for 12 saves.

Everist singled out the play of his team’s youngest players, true freshmen Thomas Carroll and Jarrels-Stickney, who were playing in their first collegiate matches.

“I was pretty impressed with how they did,” said Everist, of the true freshmen. “They were able to find the goal in most every game and play good defense.”

He was also happy with the team’s balanced attack.

On the weekend, Smith led the Bears with eight total goals. Gettelfinger and Jarrels-Stickney each tallied seven.

“We have a lot of players who have the ability to put in a couple goals here or there and take advantage of what we are given,” Everist said. “I don’t anticipate that being different as the season goes on.”

Gettelfinger agreed that the team is off to a strong start offensively.

“I’m feeling pretty good, with just the changes we’ve made this summer and how we are attacking the offensive end of the pool,” he said. “Everyone is initiating and making things happen on their own.”

The Bears now have almost two full weeks to prepare for the team’s first major test of the season when they host the annual NorCal Tournament Sept. 21-22. The 16-team tournament is the first opportunity for the Bears to match-up against the country’s top-ranked teams.

“I think the counter attack and the offensive game allowed us to dictate the tempo in every game we played,” Gettelfinger said. “We are definitely going to want to keep that going for NorCals.”

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Triton Invitational was held at the University of San Diego. In fact, it was held at UC San Diego.

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Derek Remsburg/Staff

Last season, the Cal men’s water polo team lost one of its major offensive contributors in senior attacker Marin Balarin.

After losing the star center who played at the two-meter mark, the squad needed to find a different alternative to be able to play to its strengths.

After a few weeks of preseason training, the Bears now know exactly how to do just that: focus on their defense and transition to the counterattack.

“That’s one of our biggest strengths as a group,” said senior team captain Collin Smith. “We’re a team based on our defense that leads into that counterattack — it’s something we’ve always known about ourselves.”

This weekend, Cal will have the perfect platform to test where they are as a group to jumpstart the squad’s 2013 season. At the Triton Invitational beginning this Saturday, the Bears will go head-to-head against Redlands at 12:30 p.m. and later host No. 11 UC San Diego at 4:30 p.m. at Triton Pool.

On Sunday morning, the team will take on No. 13 Loyola Marymount at 9:30 a.m., and later No. 17 UC Davis in the afternoon.

Despite facing three of the nation’s top-20 squads, the Bears — who are ranked fourth in both the CWPA and MPSF Preseason Polls — do not seem to be worried.

“I think they’re in a pretty good place,” said Cal coach Kirk Everist. “They’re going to be a little broken down and tired this weekend because of school starting, but we’re looking to go deep into the bench to make sure we’ll get a lot of looks from different players in a competitive environment that’s not us.”

With 17 Bears making the trip down to San Diego, Everist anticipates being able to frequently swap out players on the travel team to find the best seven-player rotations. Among those competing this weekend are senior attacker Smith, who led the Bears with 61 goals and 31 steals last season, and junior Aleksa Saponjic — a bronze medalist who played for the Serbian National Team in the 2012 London Olympics.

Cal’s top two scorers will be joined by senior utility Ayal Keren, as well as a pair of freshman recruits in Chandler Jarrels-Stickney and Thomas Carroll.

For the past week, the Bears have specifically focused on running defensive plays that follow six-on-six and five-on-six match situations. After incorporating several of the defenses they plan on running on game days, the squad practices scoring early in transition.

Heading into their first weekend matches, the Bears are not so much looking at their competition as they are focusing on building a strong defense in front of experienced returning goalies Michael Boggan and Jon Sibley. Once Cal can establish a formidable team defense to push the squad into the offensive counterattack, the Bears are confident that they will find consistent success throughout the season.

“We’re still looking for those two meter men — and they’ll be there, but definitely most of our goals are going to come off of our transition in the counterattack,” Smith said. “This weekend will be a good experience for the newcomers and for us as a whole — we’re looking to start ourselves out on a good note and prepare ourselves for the rest of the season.”

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

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Derek Remsburg/File

Best Male Athlete: Keenan Allen

While Cal football continued to be Cal football in 2012, Keenan Allen continued to be Keenan Allen.

Not even shoddy quarterback plays and a porous offensive line could hold back the junior wide receiver. Despite drawing double coverage on almost every play that he was on the field — and not playing in the final three games of the season — Allen racked up 737 receiving yards on the season, including six touchdowns. His 61 catches led the team by a margin of 20.
While Allen’s speed isn’t too impressive, his size and route-running ability made him nearly unguardable on underneath routes over the middle. For the second year in a row, he proved to be Cal’s safety valve, utilized heavily on quick slants and screens.

Against Washington State, Allen drew mostly single coverage, and the result was an 11-catch day for 166 yards and a score.
Allen also served as Cal’s punt return man, putting up 14.1 yards per return despite most teams punting away from him. Allen even showed off some deceptive speed in a 69-yarder against Southern Utah that went for a touchdown.

A surprise to no one, Allen declared for the NFL draft recently and will likely hear his name called in the mid- to late first round. He leaves Cal as the all-time leader in receptions with 205 over his three-year career and ranks third with 2,570 career receiving yards.

And all those statistics are even more impressive given who was throwing him the ball. It will be fun to watch Allen in the NFL with a serviceable quarterback and offensive line. Then we might get to really see how good he actually is.

— Connor Byrne

Honorable mention: Collin Smith

After the removal of five players for code of conduct violations this fall, the Cal men’s water polo team was broken down and torn apart. It badly needed someone to step up and help carry the team. Soon, Collin Smith took the team’s reins.

The junior led the Bears with 61 goals in 23 matches, recording a 2.65 gpg average that ranked fifth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Smith also led the team with 31 assists while adding 31 steals, 10 field blocks and 11 ejections drawn.

Smith had six goals in the Bears’ Big Splash victory over Stanford on Oct. 20 and 19 goals in five games at the Princeton Invitational. In Cal’s win over Pepperdine to open the MPSF tournament, Smith had three goals before being removed for a flagrant foul. His absence during the following two-game suspension especially showed his importance to the Bears, as Cal struggled to score in a 9-5 loss to USC in the MPSF Championship game.

Even from the sidelines, Smith supported his team through the final two games.

“We just have to be their biggest fans now and cheer them on until the last possible second,” Smith said after the Bears defeated No. 2 UCLA in the MPSF semifinal.

Smith joined senior Marin Balarin and sophomore Aleksa Saponjic in winning All-MPSF honors. He will be the foundation that coach Kirk Everist builds on for next season.

— Warren Laufer

Best Female Athlete: Ifeoma Onumonu

Two years ago, Ifeoma Onumonu committed to join the Cal women’s soccer team despite not visiting the campus or meeting her coach, Neil McGuire. But she steadfastedly believed that Cal was the place for her to shine.
Very few people expected her to explode into the limelight as a freshman this year.

In her 19 starts, the striker led her team in both goals and assists with 11 and six, respectively. She was second in the Pac-12 in goals scored. By the end of the season, Onumonu had established herself as the heart of the lineup.

Onumonu has come through in the clutch several times in the season. She is fourth in the Pac-12 with four game-winning goals, two of which came against USC and Washington.

Onumonu provided the firepower to lead Cal to a 16-6 record — the best in McGuire’s six years at Berkeley. In the second round of the NCAAs against No. 2 seed San Diego State, Onumonu scored Cal’s lone goal in the 2-1 loss.

Naturally, Onumonu draws the comparison of former Cal striker Alex Morgan. Since Morgan’s graduation in 2011, the question of who will fill her shoes has been constantly raised. This year, the freshman from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., silenced all questions, perhaps for the next three years.

By the numbers, Onumonu tallied far better than Morgan in her freshman year. In 2007, Morgan chalked eight goals and two assists.

Is it far-fetched to compare Onumonu to arguably the best player in women’s soccer today? Absolutely.
But at the rate that Onumonu’s been progressing, it’s not crazy to speculate that Onumonu will have a better collegiate career than Morgan. In a couple of years, Onumonu might start alongside Morgan for the United States national women’s soccer team.

— Seung Y. Lee

Honorable Mention: Shannon Hawari

In a year of uncertainty and disappointment for the Cal women’s volleyball team, senior middle blocker Shannon Hawari was the rock that held the team together.

Hawari and the Bears began the season with high expectations. However, setback after setback quickly dropped the Bears out of the rankings.

Injuries to stars like outside hitters Correy Johnson and Adrienne Gehan as well as libero Robin Rostratter created huge holes to fill for the team. While teammates flopped around her, Hawari shouldered more leadership, often becoming the most vocal member during games.

As Hawari’s leadership helped the Bears through the tough times, the numbers the senior put up were some of the best in the country. Hawari led the team with 326 kills on the season, posting a  stellar .374 hitting percentage that was good enough for third in the Pac-12.

She also made major contributions on the defensive side. Her 1.20 blocks per set ranked her seventh in the conference.
Hawari was rewarded for her strong season, earning all-Pac 12 team honors and thus joining the ranks of some of the best players in the nation.

Hawari’s illustrious career may have ended on a sour note with a first round exit in the NCAA tournament, but Hawari’s season was one of the best in Cal history.

— Austin Crochetiere

Best Coach: Steve Desimone

After the the winningest season in Cal men’s golf history last year, head coach Steve Desimone seemed to have reached his peak. And yet, in his 34th year leading the team, he has surpassed expectations once again.

After winning a program-record six tournaments in the 2011-12 season, Desimone’s team began its 2012-13 campaign by winning its first five competitions.

Cal finished just short of its second-ever national championship last May, falling in the NCAA semifinals and ending the season ranked No. 3 in the nation. With Desimone at the helm, the Bears have taken the No. 1 spot this season. The players credit Desimone’s passion to the program and dedication to winning for much of their success so far.

“Sometimes I think he likes the No. 1 ranking more than we do,” said sophomore Michael Kim.

In November, the California Golf Writers and Broadcasters Association awarded Desimone with the 2012 Jack Lemmon Ambassador of Golf Award, making him the first coach from Cal to win the award.

Desimone has worked his finest magic in player development, turning recruits neglected by other programs into some of the top golfers in the country. Most notably, Desimone recruited Kim when many other golf powerhouses overlooked the 5-foot-11, 135-pound sophomore as too small and too weak to compete at the collegiate level.

With Desimone’s help, Kim has added weight and strength, increasing his drive off the tee. Now the No. 2-ranked individual in the country, Kim is a shining example of how Desimone’s success spreads beyond the golf course.

As the top golf team in the country, the Bears will head to spring season with one goal: bringing the NCAA Championships to Berkeley after narrowly missing out last year.

— Warren Laufer

Honorable Mention: Kirk Everist

In his 11 years as the head coach of the Cal men’s water polo team, Kirk Everist has won two national championships, led the Bears to two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships and coached more than 50 All-Americans. He has turned the Bears into one of the elite collegiate water polo squads in the country.

But this year, Everist coached Cal to a 17-8 season, the worst record of his tenure and the worst since the 2000 season. Still, considering the obstacles he overcame, this year may have been his best work so far.

Coaches normally can only go so far and do so much for their teams. They cannot control what choices their players make outside of the game, and this year, Everist was forced to face the consequences of his players’ actions.

Everist began the season by removing five players from the team for code of conduct violations. All the while, Everist was in the midst of losing his mother. But even without some of the most talented players on the preseason roster, Everist led the Bears through the ups and downs.

Despite the obstacles, he took them closer to an NCAA title chase than last season, losing in the MPSF final to No. 1 USC — just one win from entering the NCAA tournament.

— Warren Laufer

Best Newcomer: Chris Harper

Chris Harper was almost an afterthought when he committed to Cal. Now, he will be the Bears’ go-to receiver next year after putting together one of the greatest freshman receiving seasons of all time at Cal.

In 2012, he was the squad’s second-leading receiver, catching 41 passes for 544 yards. Both numbers rank second for a freshman receiver at Cal, alongside the rookie stats of presumptive first-round draft pick Keenan Allen and NFL Pro Bowl-er DeSean Jackson.

“It means a lot,” Harper said, “because DeSean Jackson, he’s who I look up to in the NFL — he’s who I try to take after.”
Unlike his five-star predecessors, Harper was not a big-time recruit. In fact, the wideout from Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, Calif., originally committed to Southern Methodist.

But after an unofficial visit to Berkeley, Harper was given an offer to attend his dream school. During the summer, Harper zoomed up the wide receiver depth chart, beginning the fall season behind only Allen, the Bears’ All Pac-12 junior, and Bryce Treggs, a top-25 receiver prospect and Harper’s roommate. In his first two games, Harper accounted for 12 receptions, 151 receiving yards and a touchdown.

With Treggs usually lined up as the deep receiver and Allen often double-teamed, the sure-handed Harper took advantage of Cal’s short game as a primarily slot receiver. He had a few too many fumbles but was as reliable as anyone on the team in catching the ball, making one-handed catches left and right.

Harper’s coming-out party came on Nov. 2 at home against Washington. With Allen and Treggs sidelined by injuries, Harper was called on to be the Bears’ primary playmaker, and he responded with a seven-reception, 101-yard performance that also included a 14-yard run for Cal’s only touchdown.

There will surely be more of that to come for Harper in the coming seasons as the Bears’ top target in new head coach Sonny Dyke’s “air raid” spread offense.  

— Jonathan Kuperberg

Best Game:  Cal football vs. UCLA

For one game, the Cal football team got to pretend it was a force in the Pac-12.

No. 25 UCLA, the eventual Pac-12 South champion, came into Memorial expecting to blow out a reeling 1-4 Cal squad. And yet, it played 60 minutes of horrid football, and players were sent home with their tails between their legs, getting blown out 43-17.

The Bruins got off to a quick start after Cal quarterback Zach Maynard threw a pick on his first pass of the game. Six plays later, UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley connected with his tight end in the end zone for an early 7-0 lead.

Then UCLA fell apart and committed six turnovers — including four picks and a fumble by Hundley — while playing some truly atrocious football. All Cal had to do was sit back and watch the Bruins beat themselves.

Yet while UCLA played what was unequivocally its worst game of the season, the Bears did see some impressive individual performances. Maynard played what was probably the best game of his career, shaking off the early interception to complete 25 of his 30 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns — two to wide receiver Keenan Allen.

Sophomore cornerback Kameron Jackson also turned in the best performance of his young career, picking off Hundley three times while filling in for an injured Marc Anthony. Jackson was then named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week.

Yet the game proved to be an anomaly, not a harbinger, and the Bears would finish out the season by winning just one of their next six games. But at least it was fun to go into a time machine and pretend that it was 2006 again, even if for just one game.

— Connor Byrne

Honorable Mention: Cal volleyball vs. Oregon

Cal women’s volleyball began its Oregon road trip in the midst of 2-4 slide and in serious danger of dropping out of relevance in the Pac-12. First up was No. 2 Oregon, a daunting task with a bleak outlook for the Bears.

Five thrilling, emotional, stunning sets later, Cal had shocked the volleyball world, upsetting the Ducks, 3-2 (25-17, 25-21, 22-25, 19-25, 15-13).

The Bears dominated the first two sets of the match behind their blocks, registering 10 total team blocks during the time period. The stunned Eugene crowd watched as the Ducks fell behind slumping Cal 2-0 going into the break.

However, the sleeping giant that was the Oregon offense finally awoke. Behind outside hitters Liz Brenner and All-American Alaina Bergsma, the Ducks mounted a furious comeback to which the Bears had no answer.
After four sets, the game was tied at two sets apiece. A fifth set would be needed.

Oregon’s momentum continued in the final set, as the team jumped out to a 9-5 lead. Cal would need to mount a comeback of its own. That’s just what the Bears did.

The Bears finished on a 10-4 run to pull off the momentous victory. Senior Shannon Hawari registered eight blocks while sophomore Christina Higgins led the offense with 17 kills.

— Austin Crochetiere

Worst Game(s): All nine cal football losses

If there is some solace in Cal football’s nine losses this season, if you can call it that, it’s that each was unique and colorful in its own way. Each of the nine losses broke Cal fans’ hearts in nine different ways. They all equally deserved this accolade.
Some losses gave us hope — some gave us hopelessness. It was the best and definitely the worst of Cal football.

The season opener to Nevada was a disaster from the start. From starting quarterback Zach Maynard’s first-quarter benching, Cal was lost and sloppy. Lady Luck seemed to shower Cal with every chance to prevent it from losing its first game at new Memorial Stadium, but the Bears still pulled off the 31-24 loss.

Then two weeks later, the Ohio State game gave Cal false hope. The eye-opening performances of Maynard and running back Brendan Bigelow kept the Bears tied with the Buckeyes until the last few minutes.

The 35-28 loss planted cautious optimism, only to be trampled to dust by the 27-9 loss to USC and 27-17 loss to Arizona State the following weekends.

Cal teased with a two-game winning streak afterward, but the 21-3 loss to Stanford left no doubts. The Bears’ anemic offensive performance lost the Axe for the third-straight year.

The Big Game loss was the beginning of a five-game skid. The Bears surrendered 49 points to a mediocre Utah offense. The next week, both Cal and Washington embarrassed themselves on ESPN, but the Huskies came out the less mortified team with the W.

Then one last time, against No. 4 Oregon, Cal, like a mercurial siren, tempted fans to believe in an upset until the Ducks blew it open in the second half, 59-17.

Then the 62-14 loss to No. 13 Oregon State put Cal’s season out of its misery. The score really said it all.
It was the perfect exclamation point to a team riddled with question marks.

— Seung Y. Lee

Contact the sports desk at sports@dailycal.org.

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Matthew Lee/File

The Cal men’s water polo team could have been playing next weekend in the NCAA Championships.

As it is, the Bears’ season ended Sunday after a 9-5 loss to No. 1 USC in the finals of the MPSF tournament. With the conference crown, the Trojans nabbed an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and No.2 UCLA took the at-large bid.

But the fact that Bears (17-8, 5-3 MPSF) came so close to the national championship speaks to the dedication of the team.

From the start of the season, little went the Bears’ way. After six seniors graduated last season, experience and depth were already concerns for Cal.

Then two weeks into the season, head coach Kirk Everist was forced to remove five players — including starting goalkeeper Justin Parsons — from the team for code of conduct violations.

The Bears struggled with ups and downs that eventually saw them with the No. 3 ranking in the MPSF  — and the No. 4 ranking in the nation — heading into this weekend’s MPSF tournament.

First up in the conference championship was  a first-round matchup Friday evening with No. 7 Pepperdine at USC’s McDonald’s Swim Stadium.

But after Collin Smith scored in the fourth quarter, emotions took over.

A scrum resulted in Smith and Hunter Gettelfinger being removed from the game for flagrant fouls.

The Waves protested the game because they believed Cal’s second-leading scorer, Aleksa Saponjic, should have been ejected instead of Gettelfinger. Two hours after the final whistle, the teams replayed the last 50 seconds of the game.

Yet Cal held the 11-9 lead and won its first game.

Even without their top scorers, the Bears cruised past No. 2 UCLA, 12-9, in the semifinal on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins defeated the Bears in two prior meetings, including a conference match on Oct. 6 that ended in sudden-death double overtime.

“Its about the team,” Smith said after Saturday’s win. “It’s not about two players. They have just as much chemistry with us in or out of the pool. We just have to be their biggest fans now and cheer them on until the last possible second.”

That last second ticked down on Sunday afternoon, as the Bears were unable to ruin the Trojans’ perfect season.

After USC jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, senior captain Marin Balarin scored with 53 seconds left in the first quarter to cut the lead in half. The Trojans added one more in the second quarter while the Bears’ attackers were silent.

The biggest blow came in the third quarter, when the Trojans scored twice to make the score 6-1.

The Bears went on a scoring run of their own to bring the score to 7-5 after the third quarter, but USC’s offensive onslaught gave the Trojans the victory, the MPSF title and an automatic bid for next week’s NCAA tournament.

The Bears had little to be ashamed of after battling through problem after problem this season.

“It’s been a challenging year on a number of fronts,” Everist said. “They’re young kids, but they’ve handled everything well.

“Their support of me and what they fought through and battling through everything — I’m proud of this team. They’re resilient, and they never quit.”

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The No. 6 Bears did not play like a team that has struggled more in the past two months than they had in past five years.

Instead, the Bears took down No. 9 UC Irvine, 12-10, Thursday night at Anteater Pool and No. 4 Pepperdine, 12-9, the following day in Malibu.

The Bears (12-7, 3-3) beat the Anteaters, 12-10, in an MPSF match for their second win in three meetings this season. Cal was led by junior Hunter Gettelfinger’s team-leading four goals and four steals in the Bears’ second conference win of the season.

Sophomore Aleksa Saponjic added three goals and senior team captain Marin Balarin and junior Collin Smith each scored two goals.

Cal also relied heavily on its six-on-five man down defense throughout the game. Sophomore goalie Jon Sibley secured the defense with 11 saves.

“This match was not pretty, but the guys played strong and got a win,” Cal coach Kirk Everist said in a postgame interview. “We had to play a lot of five-man defense tonight and made the plays down the stretch that we need to.”

The Bears did not have much time to celebrate Thursday’s victory as they were back in the pool less than 24 hours later to face Pepperdine.

The Bears’ second MPSF match in as many days was also the team’s second matchup with Pepperdine this season. The Bears rolled over the Waves 12-9 on Sept. 30 at the SoCal Invitational in Santa Barbara.

The Bears once again defeated the Waves by the same score on Friday afternoon. Smith led Cal with five goals to bring his team-leading season total to 53 goals in 19 games.

Sophomore Blake Kelly also got into the scoring action with two goals of his own. Saponjic contributed three assists and junior Giacomo Cupido had three steals.

Sibley was without a save for the entire first half, but the standout goalie came alive in the second half with six saves to bolster the Bears’ defense. Sibley’s highlight of the match was a five-meter penalty shot block to maintain the Bears’ lead in the fourth quarter.

The Bears opened the final quarter with back to back goals to take an 11-7 lead. But, the Waves returned the favor with two consecutive power play goals to bring the score to 11-9. But after Sibley blocked Marco Madaras’ penalty to deny him his fourth goal of the game, the Bears secured one last late goal to finish the game 12-9.

The win marked the Bears’ eighth consecutive win over the Waves, and the Bears’ third MPSF win of the season brought life back to the struggling team.

“Our team came out strong in the first period and set the tempo of the match,” said Everist. “Our man up offense and our man down defense was solid again today, which we will need to continue as we move toward the conference tournament.”

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