Bear Tracks: Sep. 30th California Golden Bears men's roundup

September 30, 8:53 AMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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The California Golden Bears' athletic programs are all having good seasons so far.  Whatever your taste in sports, chances are that the Bears have a team making waves nationally this season.  We have broken up the Bear Tracks update to serve these sports in a manner more fitting of their performances.  Today, the focus of Bear Tracks are the Cal men's athletics.  Tomorrow will be dedicated to the Women and the next day will be for sports that both men and women share news or teams.

The wheels are falling off the H2O train

Water Polo - The 4th ranked Cal men's water polo team continues to struggle. Over their past three games, they've come up winless in each one.  After losing to the Pepperdine Waves 7-5, it was time for a meeting to air out what ails them.  The team met after the game to communicate what they had to do to get back on track.

They didn't really come out strong, most of it was our fault.  Of their seven goals, I think we gave them four. It wasn't really them playing better than us, it was definitely us having a bad defensive day or getting beat by stupid things.
- senior captain Trent Calder on the loss

The Waves jumped out to a 2-0 advantage at the 6:23 mark of the first quarter, but the Bears edged back with scores by redshirt freshman Brian Roach and senior Frank Reynolds to go to the second quarter tied at two.  In the second quarter, Pepperdine put some distance between themselves and the Bears by scoring three goals and taking a 5-2 advantage.  It wasn't until only 2:28 left in the quarter that Calder scored for the Bears.  After that, it wouldn't be close again.  The Waves continued to strike first in each of the next two quarters and the Bears could only muster a score from Charlie Steffens and a game-ending score by Roach.

Pepperdine came out strong and played very well defensively.  We have a lot of work to do on the offensive end. We are not executing as well as I would like. Defensively we played solid again but we had some key breakdowns that led to goals that were not contested. The good news is we are early in the season and improvement will come. - Head coach Kirk Everist

The Bears return home on Saturday, October 4 at 9:30am PST to face Pacific at Spieker Aquatics Complex.  Following the Pacific match, Cal will be hosting an Alumni match, beginning at 11:15am PST.

The #6 Bears are coming together as a team

Soccer - Stefan Frei recorded his third shutout of the season when the #6 Bears beat the San Francisco Dons on Friday 2-0.  Normally, a shutout would merit Frei more of the story, but on that day the story became how Cal overcame adversity to get the win.  At the 66-minute mark and the score tied at zero, A.J. Soares received a red card for cursing forcing the Bears to play one man short the rest of the way.

I think it kind of woke us up.  We came out here and realized that we needed to get a result and it didn't need to be pretty. We started playing a lot harder, and it ended up working out.
- sophomore Andrew Wiedeman on the red card

It did something.  Only five minutes later,  the Bears came out of hibernation when Wiedeman scored the first goal of the match.  Nearly five minutes later, Chris Deal made his second scoring throw-in of the game, but this time it was a deflection by the Dons that put the ball in the net for an own-goal.

The Bears are finished with non-conference play and will now begin Pac-10 play.  They go on the road this weekend starting with Oregon State on Friday, October 3 at 7:30pm PST and then move on to Washington Sunday, October 5 at 1pm.

Jensen is tied for 2nd going into the final round of
the Husky Invitational

Golf - The men's golf team is on pace for their third straight top three finish on the season.  They finished the second round in second place in the Husky Invitational hosted by Washington in Bremerton, Washington.  The Huskies are currently seven strokes ahead of Cal, but the lead is not completely insurmountable.  This morning, the third round is under way with Cal holding a 13-stroke advantage over third place San Diego State.

Michael Jensen has been the Bears' top golfer, entering today in second place at four under par.  Teammates Eric Mina and John Murphy are tied for fifth at one under.

Cal's men's golfing program is currently ranked #20 in the nation.  The top five scores from each team is calculated in the team score.  Being at a seven-stroke disadvantage can easily be made up if the Cal team can have a strong finish to the tournament.  The Bears best finish in the Husky Invitational has been fourth-place, which Cal took in 2006.

Thompson finally gets recognized for being special

Football - The Cal Bears didn't sniff the polls for the second straight week.  USC's loss to Oregon State along with the inferior competition that the Bears faced on Saturday probably had something to do with that.  More than likely, it will take at least two more wins without a loss before Cal re-enters the top-25.

Syd'Quan Thompson is finally getting some overdue hype this week after his performance against the Colorado State Rams.  Thompson led all Bears defeneders with nine tackles, had a sack, and was a big part of the reason that the Bears broke their school record for most return-yards in a game with 187.  He returned one punt for 73 yards and a touchdown and another for 35 yards giving him 131 total return yards on the day.  For all of his efforts, he was named Muscle Milk California Student-Athlete of the Week and Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week.

Senior center, Alex Mack, has been chosen as a candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.  To be eligible for the football award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior (in the Football Bowl Subdivision only) and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: Classroom, Character, Community, and Competition.  Mack, who was projected to be a 1st or 2nd round pick in the 2008 draft, is expected to be a high first-round selection after this season.  Since Mack has started for the Bears in 2006, they've only allowed 30 sacks, best in the nation.

The Bears are preparing to play at home again this weekend.  The nationally televised game will be against Arizona State at Memorial Stadium.  Game time is 12:30pm PST.

Former Cal quarterback, Craig Morton, has been elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.  The Class of 2009 also includes women's tennis legend Billie Jean King, football star Dave Casper and pitching great Gaylord Perry. They will be honored at BASHOF's 30th Annual Enshrinement Banquet on March 9, 2009, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, joining 129 previous enshrinees. The dollars raised by the banquet and other BASHOF activities support "Help Kids Play Sports."

While quarterbacking Cal in the early 60's, Morton set nearly all school passing records.  Morton later went on to the NFL where he started Super Bowls for the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos.  For reservations and further information on BASHOF's Enshrinement Banquet, please contact the BASHOF office at 415-296-5607 or visit www.bashof.org.