Bear Tracks: Oct. 7th California Golden Bears men's roundup

Taking a break from everything Cal football, we again fill you in on all the happenings of the men's athletic program over the past week.  The Bears have been hard at work in all sports trying to continue the success of the university and improve the standings of their respective team.  Today, we update you on the water polo team, tennis action, and men's soccer action.  We couldn't completely get away from football though.  There is just too many good things happening for Cal football to overlook the latest awards.

The Bears got back on track against Pacific

Water Polo - After losing three matches straight, the men's water polo team needed something to break the downward skid.  There is no better way to end a losing streak, but to beat another ranked opponent.

The Bears didn't just beat the #11 Tigers of Pacific, they mauled them 16-4.  On defense, the Bears pressured opposing Tigers and forced mistakes at a furious rate, while on offense they set their shots up at a calculated pace.

We tried to come out in a pressure defense and wear them out a little bit.
- Head Coach Kirk Everist

The Bears definitely wore the Tigers down.  After taking a first period advantage, 5-2, Cal outscored Pacific 9-2 over the final three periods, including a run of 10 straight goals.  The beating could've been worse.  Pacific's goaltender, Brian Domecus, recorded 10 saves on the day.

Luka Saponjic and Spencer Warden each scored three goals, freshmen Ivan Rackov and Charlie Steffens added three steals and goalkeeper, Jacob McIntosh, had three saves.

Everyone was together on the same page, knew what we were doing and it worked out well. Guys are confident right now and we feel good about ourselves.
- Sophomore Zack White

The Bears will travel to Pepperdine where it will again face the top-ranked teams in the country in a tournament, but this time the tournament is the SoCal Open.  In the NorCal Open, the Bears began their three-match losing streak.  The losing streak was the first time since 2004 that Cal had lost that many in a row.

Cal has mixed results in
action this past week

Tennis - The Cal men's tennis team split up for two different events this week - the All-American Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Fresno State Bulldog Classic in Fresno, California.  The results thus far have been mixed.

Kallim Stewart, ranked #64 in the ITA preseason rankings, and #121 Eoin Heavey both made it out to the ITA's men's All-American Championships.  Unfortunately for the two Bears, they were unable to get out of the first round of competition with a victory.

Stewart was defeated by Boise State's Kean Feeder (4-6, 6-4, 4-6) while Heavey lost to Ionut Belelu of Oklahoma (6-7[8-6], 3-6).  Both will still compete in the consolation draw.

The rest of the Bears team took a trip down to Fresno to compete with nine other schools at the Fresno State Bulldog Classic.  Along with Fresno State and Cal, the other schools competing in the competition were Cal Poly, Fresno Pacific, Nevada, Pacific, San Francisco, UC Irvine, USC and Washington.  Final results can be found at www.gobulldogs.com.

 In singles play, sophomore Pedro Zerbini defeated teammate Thai Tu (6-3, 6-3) to advance to the final match of the A Draw where he went up against Rikus DeVilliers of Fresno State.  Zerbini and DeVilliers played a monumental match for the title with the Cal Bear unable to pull off the victory.  Zerbini was defeated (6-2, 3-6, 6-7[3-7]) in the singles match, but was a champion in doubles.

I was a bit tired and not really feeling that confident, and in the second set, I couldn't keep the advantage.
- Zerbini on his failed attempt at a singles title at the Bulldog classic

In doubles play, the Bears of Berkeley took both the A and B Draw titles.  In the A Draw, Zerbini teamed up with senior Geoff Chizever to defeat Fresno State's team of Devilliers and Remi Boutillier (8-4) and get his revenge from the singles title defeat.  In the B Draw finals, sophomores Andy Chirita and Zach Gilbert defeated Cal Irvine's team of Steven Henderson and Guatam Vaidyanthan (8-5).

The Bears will next play as host of the ITA West-North Regional Championship at Hellman Tennis Complex October 17-21.

Wiedeman gets some appreciation from teammate
Davis after a score

Soccer - The #4 Bears (6-1-3, 1-0-1 Pac-10) went 1-0-1 over the past week beginning Pac-10 play on the road last Friday with a victory over Oregon State (3-5-3, 0-1-1 Pac-10) 3-0 and a tie against Washington (6-3-1, 1-0-1 Pac-10) 2-2.

Against Oregon State, the Bears went on the offensive quickly when junior Jacob Wilson scored on a header at the three minute mark of the match.  The header came from a cross kick from Kyle Rice, who got his first assist and point of the season.  Senior Tyler Barry and  sophomore Demitrius Omphroy also scored goals to give Cal a decisive victory over the Beavers.  Junior goalkeeper Stefan Frei made three saves for his fourth shutout of the year.

The Washington Huskies proved to be a tougher opponent for the Bears, but not for sophomore Andrew Wiedeman.  Cal started quickly against the Huskies when sophomore Paul Davis fed Wiedeman with a header in the box for a score at the eight minute mark.  Hector Jimenez picked up his team-leading sixth assist on Wiedeman's second goal at the 53-minute mark, putting the Bears up 2-1.  Cal wasn't able to hold on for the victory though.  At the 73-minute mark, Washington tied up the game at 2-2 and that's where the scoring ended.

Cal returns to Edwards Stadium on Friday, October 10, at 4pm PST, when they'll face the UCLA Bruins.

Anger is averaging 45.1 yards per punt this season.

Football - Sophomore Cameron Jordan went from the bench to being selected as the Pac-10 player of the week.  Filling in for Rulon Davis, Jordan had a team-high eight tackles (five solo), three tackles for loss, two sacks, and a forced fumble as he helped Cal stop the high-flying offense of the Arizona State Sun Devils.

The Sun Devils quarterback, Rudy Carpenter, came into the game averaging 295.8 yards per game in passing.  Jordan played a major role in limiting the Sun Devils to only 236 yards of total offense in the victory.

Redshirt freshman punter, Bryan Anger, was named as the Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week following a weekend where he averaged 47.4 yards per punt.  Anger's best punt of the weekend, and possibly his entire life, was a 72-yard punt that was downed at Arizona State's four-yard line.  After years of seeing great punters such as Ray Guy and Shane Lechler in the NFL, I can honestly say that it was one of the more memorable punts that I've seen in the recent past.

The Bears won't be back in action until a week from Saturday, but we'll continue to keep you up to date with the team throughout the bye week.