Bear Tracks: Sep. 25th California Golden Bears men's roundup

September 25, 8:22 AMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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Defending champs are trying to get back to their
winning ways

All right, so we're back with Bear Tracks.  What we've chosen to do is break it up by men's, women's, and mixed sports.  Mixed sports?  Yes, we are going to consider the sports mixed if both men and women are on the same team, doing the same events, or have news relative to both men's and women's teams.  Starting next week, the men's will be published every Tuesday, the women's on Wednesday, and the mixed on Thursday.  As a special bonus, we're publishing all three today!  So we better get started.

Water Polo - Going into last weekend, the men's water polo team was ranked first and had been on a demolition path through every team they'd faced.  We'd like to tell you that nothing has changed, but unfortunately, the defending champions ran into some difficulties at the NorCal Open and are now ranked 4th in the country.

The Golden Bears stormed into the tournament at 4-0 and facing 20th-ranked Cal Baptist.  True freshman Ivan Rackov scored three goals leading the Bears to a dominating victory over the Lancers 11-4.  Redshirt freshman Cory Nasoff and junior All-American Spencer Warden chipped in with two goals apiece.  Sophomore goalie Jacob McIntosh had seven saves.  After taking care of the Lancers, the Bears went on to victory again, this time against #8 Long Beach State, beating them 8-4.  Rackov and Warden excelled on offense again as both scored two goals.  Senior captain, Trent Calder, and McIntosh provided defense.  Calder had 3 field blocks while McIntosh snagged eight saves.

That's where the 'good' of the story ends.  Facing #4 UCLA, their six-match winning streak would end and a losing streak would begin.  The Bears lost to the Bruins in a match they never led in, 6-4.  Four players scored goals and two goalies combined for seven saves.  To make matters worse, they lost in the third place match to Cal's most bitter rival, Stanford, 11-10 in sudden death overtime.  True Sophomore, Zach White, and true Freshman, Luka Saponjic, led the bears by both scoring three goals.  Rackov chipped in with two goals leading all Cal scorers for the tournament with 8 overall.  McIntosh had 12 saves, but it was the one that he didn't save that sealed Cal's fate.

The Bears will be itching to finish their current losing streak as they'll begin league play this Saturday, Sep. 27, at #6 Pepperdine.  The Waves enter the match on a losing streak of their own.  They also lost to UCLA at the NorCal Open, then had the same type of hangover the Bears had by losing to Long Beach State.  The match will be at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool Malibu, California at 12pm PST.  For more information, click here.

Bears are finishing up non-conference play against
the cross-bay Dons

Soccer - The Bears' soccer team has gone through a litle adversity since the last Bear Tracks.  After going 1-1 over the weekend at the Stanford Nike Classic, they fell from being ranked 3rd to being ranked 6th nationally.

The weekend started off fine as they were able to record their third shutout of the season Friday by defeating nationally ranked Drake 2-0.  The victory upped the Bears record to 4-0-2 on the season.  Sophomores Hector Jimenez and Servando Carrasco each scored a goal and Cal outshot the Bulldogs 19-11.

Cal went from shutting out a ranked opponent to being shut out by #8 Creighton on Sunday 2-0.  Although the Bears outshot the Blue Jays 15-12, they weren't able to get past the Creighton keeper and get on the scoreboard.  The loss dropped Cal to 4-1-2.

The USF Dons will be the last non-conference match for the Bears.  The Dons come into the match with a 1-4-1 record and will be visiting Cal on Friday September 26th.  The match will be held at Edwards Stadium and start at 4pm PST.

Murphy swings for the green at the Wolverine
Intercollegiate

Golf - The Bears may have found another great golpher this past weekend when they competed in the Wolverine Intercollegiate at the University of Michigan.  It was the second tournament for the men this year and they didn't disappoint.

Prior to the tournament, the Cal team was coming off a strong showing and a victory at the USF/Olympic Club Invitational in San Francisco, but the Bears were hungry for a better performance.

There's a little sour taste for our guys because we didn't play that well in final round last week. They all know if we're going to move in direction we want, we need to play a better final rounds.
-Head Coach Steve Desimone about the USF/Olympic Club Invitational

The 54-hole, two-day, three-round event started on Saturday with the first 36 holes and a field of 16 schools.  Scoring for the tournament consisted of the top 5 scores from each school for each round.  The field consisted of Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, and others.  Par for the course was 71.

After the first round, the Bears were sitting in eighth place and looking up to the leaders, but after a strong second round, they finished the day tied for fourth with Michigan State.  Going into day two, the leaderboard consisted of Michigan, UC Davis, and Colorado State in the top three spots with Cal 12 strokes behind the leader in fourth.

On the strength of Junior transfer, John Murphy's final round three-under par, the Bears were able to edge out Michigan State and Colorado State to take third for the tournament, only 5 strokes behind tournament champion Michigan.  Murphy (69-71-68) finished the tournament in second place individually, followed by Sophomore teammate Eric Mina (72-68-68) who tied for third.

Cal's next event will be the Husky Invitational in Bremerton, Washington on September 29-30.  For more of the standings from the Wolverine Intercollegiate click here.

2008-2009 players will take on
past players during Alumni
Weekend

Baseball - The Cal Baseball team will be holding their 2008 Cal Baseball Bullpen Club Golf Classic and Alumni Game the weekend during Alumni Weekend, October 25-27.  The weekend starts with a the UCLA at Cal football game Saturday October 25.  The time for the game has yet to be announced.  Sunday, the 26th, the Annual Cal Baseball Alumni game will be held at Evans Diamond at 12pm with the 2008-2009 team taking on former Cal Bears players.

The weekend events will conclude on Monday, October 27th with the Bullpen Club Golf Classic at the Contra Costa Country Club in Pleasant Hill, CA.  The event will begin at 10am PST(check in at 8:30am) and is open to men and women with a strict 144 player field.  The cost to play in the Bullpen Club Golf Classic is $300, followed by a dinner and a silent live auction.  For those not golfing, the dinner is only $25 and all proceeds benefit the 2009 Cal Baseball team.

For more information or for sponsorship, you can contact Dan Hubbs at (510) 642-9591.  The deadline for entering the golf tournament is October 1.  Here are the links to the signup forms for the tournament or the dinner.  For more information on sponsorship opportunities you can click here.

Bears back CFF cure

Rugby - The Cal Bears Rugby dynasty doesn't stop at the Rugby field.  Last Saturday, September 20, some of the players joined the fight against Cystic Fibrosis in the Climb for a Cure fundraiser at San Francisco's One Front Street building.  The event was sponsored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to aid in the cure for a disease that affects the lungs and digestive systems of children and young adults.

The Bears won the team climb of 72 flights of steps as the fastest team to the top.  Golden Bear Junior flanker, Tom Rooke, took the individual overall title.

Although their athletic accomplishment was outstanding, it was how well the Cal players carried themselves at the event that was truly impressive.
-Committee member Jim Rynne on the Cal contingent at the Climb for a Cure fundraiser