In the 2023-24 school year, California Athletics has already won one team (men's water polo) and four individual (all men's swimming) national championships. This is a 50-year California national championship winning streak of winning at least an individual, relay, rowing, or team national championship, skipping the recent COVID-19 pandemic with just the fall championships (this is no coincidence) ) This streak coincides with Title IX being signed into law in 1972).
In the coming weeks, several California programs will compete in national championships (primarily the NCAA).
The postseason begins today (Friday, May 3) with No. 7 California Beach Volleyball as one of 17 teams at the NCAA Championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Similarly, No. 10 California women's tennis will host her first two rounds and aim to advance to the super regional round as her one of four Berkeley Region teams in the NCAA Tournament Field of 64. I am. We will discuss these two teams in more detail below.
California women's golf, which will be the final season for long-time head coach Nancy McDaniel, who was elected to the 2024 California Athletics Hall of Fame class, will be held from May 6th to 8th. Play in the Las Vegas Regional. Cal, the No. 5 seed in the regional, will be one of five teams out of 12 to advance. The NCAA Championships will be held May 17-22 in Carlsbad, California, and will consist of a total of 30 teams and six individuals (top finishers from six regions (not affiliated with advancing teams)).
The NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship will be held next weekend (May 10-12) in Berkeley. No. 3 seed Cal may be the best challenger to ruin No. 1 UCLA's perfect season thus far. Although Cal lost to the Bruins in the MPSF Championship Finals, she nearly upset the Bruins in a regular season contest in Berkeley just a few weeks ago. California women's water polo is looking to win the program's first national championship.
Although it fell just short of host Arizona State for the Pac-12 title, No. 22 Cal State Men's Golf will play May 13-15 at the Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) Regional outside San Diego. do. Cal is the No. 4 seed in the 14-team field, with the top five teams advancing to the NCAA Championships, which will also be held May 24-29 in Carlsbad, California. The men's championship will feature a total of 30 teams and six individuals (top finishers who are not on top teams) from six regional competitions.
Finally, although Cal Rugby has not participated in a Rugby Sevens tournament in recent years or this fall, Cal Rugby will host the 2024 USA Collegiate Rugby tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina on June 1st and 2nd. Participated in the CRAA Men's Sevens National Championship. The full field for that tournament has not yet been announced, but St. Mary's College, which concludes the University of California's 15-man season and will play Navy in the 15-man national championship this weekend, will send a team.
Friday, May 3, noon PT ESPNU (WatchESPN)
When the NCAA added beach volleyball as a new sport about a decade ago, they did everything in their power to avoid it becoming a West Coast regional sport (like water polo, for example). The original NCAA field was eight teams, including at least three teams from the East. They also chose to host the NCAA Championships each year in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The sport was also briefly rebranded to “Sand Volleyball” before returning to the beach.
But to date, only UCLA and USC have won the NCAA Championship, both in the days of double-elimination that favored the better team and in today's single-elimination format, where upsets are more likely. It was both.
The recent expansion of the NCAA Championship to 16 teams and this year to 17 teams allows more West Coast teams to participate in the NCAA Tournament, including Cal. Due to the current situation regarding student-athlete transfers, we could also see a number of California players return to California after spending a year or two at Florida State, Louisiana, and other East Coast schools.
The California Golden Bears (20-11) will play in their third consecutive NCAA Championship this weekend. The University of California defeated Long Beach State 3-2 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year before losing to rival UCLA. They will be on a very similar path in 2024, with a rematch with Long Beach State in the first round and a possible rematch with UCLA in the second round looming.
The entire bracket is shown below.
The process for determining beach volleyball duals is simple. Five matches are played simultaneously, of which the first team to win three wins the dual. Each match is decided by the pair that wins two sets first. The first and second sets are played with the winner scoring his 20 points if the difference is 2 or more. The decisive third set has a maximum difference of 15 points, with a tie rule for a difference of 2 points or more. In some ways it's surprising how many duals are decided by just two points in an extended third set, given that external factors such as wind often decide points here and there. is.
In recent years, parity has increased across college beach volleyball. Cal picked up the program's first win against USC last year and is still looking for his first win against UCLA. His USC, which has won five of his seven NCAA titles, including the last three, is the No. 1 seed. UCLA, which won back-to-back championships in 2018-19, is the second seed.
https://twitter.com/NCAAVolleyball/status/1786021276974297143
Cal was upset by host Arizona State in the Pac-12 Tournament and was eliminated a little earlier than expected. Despite being seeded higher than Long Beach State, the AVCA Coaches Poll placed Long Beach State (25-7) seventh and California State eighth.
Cal State's lineup has been in constant flux throughout the season due to its deep program and internal competition, but head coach Megan Owusu would be expected to field the same lineup as the Pac-12 Tournament.
https://twitter.com/CalBeachVB/status/1786115272698482765
The Bears' top pairing is senior Sierra Cuffo and junior Alexandria Young-Gomez. Cuffo was on the other side of the net when LSU ended Cal's season in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Since moving to California, Sierra Cuffo has developed into a mainstay on the Golden Bears' top pairing. Alex Young-Gomez moved up to top pair around mid-season. The pair has a record of 6 wins and 3 losses in 2024. Perhaps due to his workload with the national team in the offseason, Cuffo was load-managed most weekends and rested against weaker competition. Therefore, the record of Young Gomez and freshman Emma Donley as the No. 1 pair at 6-0 is rather deceptive.
Cafo and Young-Gomez earned AVCA Second Team All-American honors this season. Cafo was also named to the All-Pac-12 First Team, and Young Gomez was named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team.
On court two are freshman Emma Donley and graduate student Kendall Peters. Peters is a graduate transfer from Tulane. The pair only have a 2-1 record this year, including their most recent win. Emma Donley earned All-Pac-12 Second Team and Pac-12 All-Freshman honors.
Gia Fisher and Marilu Parry are the second most experienced pair of the year. The pair of sophomores are 11-5 on the year and second in the standings at 6-0 (again, perhaps deceiving as they could only have moved up when Caffo missed an easy game) ), is in 3rd place with 5 wins and 5 losses. pair.
The most experienced pairing, Portia Sherman and Ella Dreibholz, went 18-4 while playing as a No. 4 or No. 5 pair, but recently split up for the Pac-12 Tournament. Junior Ella Dreibholz was paired with graduate student Lara Booth in the Pac-12 tournament. Booth is a transfer from LSU. This new pair is 2-1 this season. Sophomore Portia Sherman was paired with fellow sophomore Jenna Corrigan in the Pac-12 tournament. The Sherman-Corrigan partnership is 3-0 on the year, all from the fifth spot in the lineup.
The super fun video below features Portia Sherman on the mic. She essentially confirmed that she would be paired with Jenna Corrigan again.
Of course, given the less-than-optimal results of the Pac-12 tournament, the lineup and pairings will likely be changed again before the first-round game against Long Beach State. Cal has yet to play at Long Beach State this season.
Cal reached as high as No. 6 in the U.S. rankings, but a few losses late in the season dropped them to the 7/8 range.
In an ESPN broadcast last year, Dr. Greig Chow of the Cameron Institute praised the team effort. I think Cal State Women's Gymnastics also credited Dr. Chow with improving their toughness in interviews.
A surprising 3-2 loss to ASU in the Pac-12 Tournament tempered my expectations a bit. You can imagine Cal getting an upset win over UCLA in the second round and going one round better than last year, but they also need to get past Long Beach State first. Once again, California Beach Volleyball is just four wins away from winning the national championship.
NCAA Round 1: Friday, May 3, 2:00 PM PT live stream
Cal (18-6), ranked No. 10 and seeded, will play Sacramento State (20-7), No. 17 Auburn (16-10) and No. 42 BYU this weekend to determine who will play in NCAA women's tennis. Decide whether to advance. Sweet Sixteen (recently rebranded as Super Regional). The Super Regional will be played against the winner of the Athens Regional, hosted by No. 7 seed Georgia. The Super Regional winner advances to the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The Golden Bears lost the title to rival Stanford University (No. 2 seed in the US) in the Pac-12 Championship, but achieved an upset victory over UCLA (No. 8 seed in the US) in the semifinals.
Four members of the Bears qualified for the NCAA Individual Championships. Hanna Villar-Moeller and Mao Mushka earned spots in the 32-pairs spot for the NCAA Doubles Championship, while Villar-Moeller, Valentina Ivanov and Katja Wiersholm earned spots in the 64-person spot for the NCAA Singles Championship. Two individual championships will also be held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on May 20th and 25th after the team championships.
Similar to beach volleyball, tennis duals are determined primarily by the results of six singles matches. They all account for 1 point each. Before the start of the singles, there are three doubles matches for him, each of only one set. The team that wins two of the doubles wins doubles points. The team that first scores 4 points will win the dual.
https://twitter.com/CalWomensTennis/status/1784328393447948737
Looking back at recent matches (Pac-12 Championship Finals), Cal's doubles lineup consists of No. 18 Hannah Villar-Moeller and Mao Musica (25 wins, 11 losses) and No. 56 Jessica Arcola and Valen. Tina Ivanov (16-5), Berta Passola Forch and Katja Wiersholm.
https://twitter.com/CalWomensTennis/status/1784340633928585516
In singles, Hanna Villar Moller rightly earned the top spot after starting her college career as a fifth or sixth place player in singles. The senior from Denmark has a record of 22 wins and 21 losses this year, ranking 41st in the country.
2nd place in singles is No. 52 Valentina Ivanov. The Australian senior, who represents New Zealand internationally in the Federal Billie Jean King Cup, is a former No. 1 singles player for the Bears. Ivanov ranks 52nd with 16 wins and 9 losses on the year.
Junior Jessica Arcola is currently playing No. 3 singles. She said Arsola has played as the No. 1 singles player in the past. She is ranked 82nd with a record of 24 wins and 17 losses.
Mao Musika has earned a place in the singles lineup in recent months. The Japanese freshman has a record of 27 wins and 8 losses on the year.
Lang Mi, who transferred from Cornell University, holds the No. 5 spot in singles. She is tied for sixth place in singles with sophomore Berta Passola Forch of Spain.
Surprisingly, junior Katja Wiersholm is missing from the singles lineup. Wiersholm (25-6) is ranked No. 44 in the nation and has been invited to play in NCAA singles, but will not be in the singles lineup at the Pac-12 Championship.
Some wonder if the Cal Bears can upset a top-ranked team after suffering two recent losses that could be described as lopsided losses to rival Stanford in the Big Slam and the Pac-12 title game. Maybe. Before that can be answered, the Bears need to defend their home court and earn a spot in the Final 16.
I like the experience and depth of this team and believe they can make another long run in the postseason. All three of the top-ranked Cal Bears have the potential to upset the rest of the college roster in any given game. It wouldn't be a surprise if Cal narrowly edged out the seed and made it to the final eight.
Go, bears!