Bear Tracks: Sep. 4th California Golden Bears roundup

The Bears athletics program is busy winning

The California Golden Bears have been hard at work off of the football field.  In fact, many of them are playing on soccer fields, volleyball courts, golf courses, and even in swimming pools.  Here's a brief roundup of the Cal sports programs. 

Men's Water Polo - Cal begins the season September 6-7 at the Navy open in Annapolis Maryland.  According to the press release, The Bears will play Bucknell at 2 p.m. and host Navy at 7 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 6 at LeJeune Hall Pool on the Navel Academy campus. Cal then plays St. Francis at 9:50 a.m., and Johns Hopkins at 2:30 p.m., on Sun, Sept. 7.

Cal is ranked number one nationally and is coming off of two consecutive NCAA championships.  Cal holds the NCAA record for 13 championships all time and is looking to extending that record to 14.  Two-time All-American Junior Spencer Warden, along with Trent Calder and Frank Reynolds will captain and lead the team this season.

Obviously, or at least it should be on the tail end of two straight titles, the Bears are ranked number one going into the season.  The season looks bright for the Bears in 2008.

Men's Soccer - Cal hosts the 12th annual Cal Legacy Classic this weekend at Edwards Stadium.  #7 SMU (winners of the Virginia Classic), Cornell, and Stanford will be coming to Berkeley to compete.  Cal faces Cornell Friday, Sept. 5, at 4 p.m. and SMU Sunday, Sept. 7, at 2:30 p.m.  Unfortunately, Bears Backers will have to wait for Stanford to be one of the latest Cal victims.

The team is 2-0 and thanks in large part to their victory over then third ranked Maryland, Cal has skyrocketed up the polls.  They are ranked 11th in the NSCAA, 8th in the College Soccer News poll, and 9th in the Soccer America poll.  Beating SMU would solidify them in the polls and in the minds of many who follow NCAA soccer as one of the top teams in the country.

Andrew Wiedeman can't stop being picked for some sort of award after the great performances he put on last weekend.  After recording 5 points in the previous two games, he has been was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week, Soccer America Player of the Week, named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week, and even the Muscle Milk California Student-Athlete of the Week.  Talk about getting the love!

Women's Soccer - The 21st ranked Bears (2-1) will host the Missouri Tigers (1-1) at Edwards Stadium Saturday, Sep. 6, at 11am PST.  Missouri leads the all-time series with Cal, 2-1-1.  The polls weren't so kind to the lady Bears as they either dropped or dropped out of them this week.  The Soccer America and Soccer Buzz polls dropped Cal from their lists after the Bears lost to Cal State Fullerton in overtime last weekend, 3-2, in the 14th annual Cal Invitational.  They dropped, but remained in the NSCAA and Soccer Times polls ranked at 21.

Field Hockey - Cal lost their home opener on Monday, bringing their record to 1-1 on the season.  It was a close loss, as they lost in overtime to Drexel 2-1.  The game lasted one overtime and was lost on a two on one breakaway shot.  The Bears didn't record a shot in overtime, but recorded 12 on the game to Drexel's 9.  Erin Magill scored Cal's only goal on an assist by Andrea Lo.

Sisters Katie and Kelly Knoche grabbed NorPac Conference offensive and defensive Player's of the Week awards respectively.  Kelly's shutout of Pacific with Katies two goals propelled them both to the awards.

The Bears open NorPac Conference play on a three game road trip where they play Longwood at 1 p.m. PT today.  The Lancers' field then serves as a neutral site for Cal's following two games, vs. Radford at 1 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 5, and vs. Appalachian State at 7 a.m. PT on Sunday, Sept. 7.

Volleyball - The #5 ranked Bears take on DePaul Friday at Haas Pavilion to open the Golden Bear Invitational at 7pm PST.  On Saturday at noon PST, they'll face James Madison and then on Sunday to finish off the tournament, they'll meet up with UC Riverside at 7pm PST.  Freshman outside hitter Tarah Murrey will face her sister, junior setter Brittney Murrey when Cal faces off with Riverside.

After receiving the Outstanding Setter and Cal Molten Classic MVP last weekend, Sophomore Cari Lloyd received another honor, Pac-10 Volleyball Player of the Week for Aug. 23-Aug. 31.  This is the first time that a Bear has been honored for the award since Angie Pressey was honored back in August of 2006.

Women's Golf - Cal Sophomore Pia Halbig has been selected to Germany's World Ameteur Team.  She will be representing her home country at the 2008 World Amateur Team Championship Oct. 8-10 at Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, Australia.  She will be competing against teammate Roseanne Niven, who is representing Scotland.

"I am extremely happy to represent my country," Halbig said. "It's always been my dream to compete at the World Amateur Team Championship. It happens every two years, and only three people get to compete from each country. It is a great honor."

Men's Tennis - Tyler Browne has been elevated from his duties as an undergraduate student assistant in 2007-08, to assistant coach.  Browne is a former player and captain for the Bears.  In his collegiate career, Browne built a 72-59 overall singles record and a 46-53 overall doubles record in four years on the court. He was selected to the 2006 All-Pac-10 Team and received honorable mention in 2007 while he also served as the team captain during the 2006-07 season. 

Tennis Press Release - The California men's and women's tennis programs will join forces to kick off the 2008 season with exhibition play, dinner and a program honoring former women's head coach Jan Brogan at the Berkeley Tennis Club (One Tunnel Road, Berkeley, Calif. 94705) on Friday, Sept. 26, 2008. Both teams, on behalf of the Team Cal Tennis Committee invite you to join in welcoming new players and kicking off the new season. For more information and to reserve your spot today, please contact Henrriette Mena in Cal Athletics at (510) 642-2710.

Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for youth (17 and under) if ordered by Sept. 6. After Sept. 6 and at the door, ticket prices will be $60 for adults and $35 for youth. The evening's program will include exhibition by both Cal teams with a no-host bar from 4 p.m. through 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. followed by a program honoring Jan Brogan, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Rugby - Cal's top ranked Rugby squad is welcoming in one of their largest classes ever as they will have 18 new incoming players.  Details can be found here.