Cal Bears in Postseason: Rugby hosts SMC in national semifinals; Women's Water Polo begins NCAA tourney
Beach Volleyball awaits NCAA announcement Sunday; 9 Men's Gymnasts made NCAA Final
It is the exciting postseason time for several Cal programs right now! While Cal Rugby’s quest for another national title remains the top story, several other Cal programs are capable of making a run in their respective playoffs.
Cal Rugby routed BYU 96-12; Will host St. Mary’s in national semifinals on Saturday at 1 pm PT
Nine different Cal Bears tallied 14 tries in the quarterfinal match against BYU. Bears scored fast and often. After BYU got an early try and conversion to knot the match at 7-7 in the 8th minutes, Golden Bears answered with 5 consecutive tries and conversions.
The 49-12 halftime lead became a complete Cal domination in the second half with the Bears outscoring the Cougars 50-0 in the second half.
Sophomore Filip Edstrom returned from injury and notably went 13 for 13 on conversions while adding two tries of his own.
Cal (15-0) stayed perfect on the season, but will now face a dangerous SMC Gaels (14-1) side, coming off their 48-19 quarterfinals win over Arizona. Of course, St. Mary’s lone blemish this season came from the Bears in the regular season finale in Moraga. The eventual 66-35 Cal victory was rather close at the half.
Saturday’s national semifinal match at 1 PM PT will be streamed on ESPN+.
From the Goff Rugby Report, St. Mary’s coach Tim O’Brien said, “Cal probably has the finest 9-10 combo since the days of the brilliant Ken Meyersieck and Don Hooper. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to play the best this Saturday.” Meyersieck and Hooper were Cal’s halfback combination from 1980 and 1981.
For this season, Cal has the halfback combination of seniors Solomon Williams and Rand Santos, who are skilled and creative in igniting a Cal offensive attack at any moment. The duo has also steadily improved during their time in Berkeley, and their rise has coincided with the program’s return to the top of the collegiate rugby 15s world.
Cal’s scrumhalf Solomon Williams has made the short-list of four as the finalist for the Rudy Scholz Award, given each year to the top collegiate rugby player in America. Also on the finalist list are St. Mary’s Dom Besag, as well as a representative each on the other side of the bracket: Navy’s Roanin Krieger and Life’s Logan Ballinger.
Should the Golden Bears take care of business this Saturday in their home finale, they will travel to Indianapolis for the D1A National Collegiate Championship Final on May 2nd against the winner between Navy and Life. Navy’s lone loss this season came against Cal, while Life has two losses despite not facing Cal in the regular season.
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
Cal Women’s Water Polo in NCAA Championships at San Diego: Quarterfinal match vs. Hawaii is 2 pm PT today (Friday)
Cal (14-7) earned the 4th seed in the 2026 NCAA Womens’ Water Polo Championships thanks to a perfect 14-0 record (including 3-0 against their opponent later today, Hawaii) against teams that have never won the NCAA title.
Unfortunately, Cal’s quest for the program’s first NCAA title would almost surely require the Golden Bears to beat two of No.1 Stanford, No.2 UCLA, and No.3 USC. Bears are 0-7 against that trio in 2026’s regular season.
Should the Bears avoid an upset loss to Hawaii, they will likely face No.1 Stanford on Saturday in the NCAA national semifinals at 4 pm PT. The LA schools lurk on the other side of the bracket. NCAA.com has the streams of all of the matches before ESPNU got Sunday’s championship final.
Cal’s latest and best shot at the title came in 2024 when the top teams, including Cal to a lesser degree, were impacted by top players taking an Olympic sabbatical. Cal made the national championship final behind the Cutino Award-winning goalkeeper Isabel Williams, but fell just short to UCLA.
Talia Fonseca has since taken over as Cal’s top goalkeeper. Fonseca is both talented, but probably faced too many shots to have risen to No.9 on Cal’s all-time list for saves after just two seasons as the primary keeper.
Bears do have the MPSF Newcomer of the Year in Despoina Drakotou, who hails from Greece. Drakotou has a team-high 43 goals so far on the year. Julia Bonaguidi, a junior who is easily Cal’s top American offensive player in recent history, earned 1st-team All-MPSF honor with a team second-best 42 goals. Feline Voordouw earned an honorable mention for her all-around game, including 35 goals.
For what it’s worth, one of the losses to Stanford and two of the losses to UCLA were by just one goal.
No.8 Cal Beach Volleyball awaits NCAA Championship placement on Sunday
Since I am located down in Los Angeles, the one Cal team that I got to watch twice this year was Cal Beach Volleyball, who are again having a brilliant season in a slow but steady ascent to the top.
For the season, Cal has two really great pairs at the top of their lineup. Cal’s No.1 pair of Emma Donley and Portia Sherman has already set a new program’s single-season win total with 29 after their MPSF championship win over UW.
The taller Emma Donley is agile with a deadly serve but quiet. The shorter partner, Portia Sherman, is wily and fiery. This duo is capable of beating just about anyone in the country in a sport that often comes down to the whim of the wind at key points. Donley (a junior) and Sherman (a senior) has been Cal’s clear top pair since last year, when they posted then-record 28 wins.
At No.2 pair for the Bears is the duo of Grace Hong (a transfer from USC) and Marilu Pally. Pally and Hong are also good enough to challenge anyone’s No.2 pair. I watched them push 3rd-ranked Texas’ No.2 pair to an extended and thrilling 3rd set before falling 20-18.
The issue for head coach Meagan Owusu’s lineup is at the bottom, where there has been a season-long shuffle. The MPSF championship lineup has the duo of Mila Vugrincic and Jenna Colligan at No.3 (they were playing as No.4 earlier in the year). I should note that the postseason has all of the matchups playing simultaneously as opposed to the two flights. There may have been some strategy to have a duo as No.2 and No.4 since those pairings play earlier in the duals that had two flights.
Gia Fisher and Ava Haughy are the new No.4 pair now. The 5th pair this past week was Elle Evers playing alongside Bella Adishian (whose sister Alex is also on the team). Evers had played with one of the Lau twins earlier in the season. The Lau twins have also been used as the No.5 pair in recent weeks. Evers is apparently the honorable sister to a pair of actual sisters on the Cal Beach Volleyball roster.
Since the original geographical restriction on NCAA tournament selection had expired, Cal Beach Volleyball has been an annual participant. Bears might just be good enough to have their longest NCAA run yet this year - winning two matches there, depending on the draw.
Cal Men’s Gymnastics had 9 individuals in the National Championship Final session
Overshadowed by the Women’s Gymnastics championship final that was elsewhere on the same weekend, Cal Men’s Gymnastics finished 4th in the qualifier to fall just short of qualifying the entire squad for the championship final session. Instead, 9 individuals competed for individual national titles across 11 events in the final session.
Jasper Smith-Gordon, who entered the NCAA championships ranked second nationally on vault, finished 10th on both the vault and pommel horse. Tenth place nationally was the top Cal finish, with Khalen Curry also achieving that feat for his floor exercise.
Floor
Khalen Curry – 13.855 (S) - 10th nationally
Matteo Bardana – 13.366
Theodor Roald Gadderud – 12.233
Pommel Horse
Jasper Smith-Gordon – 13.566 - 10th nationally
Harry Kim – 13.333
Rings
Matteo Bardana – 13.266 - 16th nationally
Nathan Underhill – 13.033
Vault
Jasper Smith-Gordon – 14.066 - 10th nationally
Parallel Bars
Kaien Orion – 11.933
High Bar
Jaxon Mitchell – 12.900
Tucker Yasunaga – 11.700 (S)
GO BEARS!
Cal Women's Water Polo defeats Hawaii 15-10 on Friday. No.4 Bears will face No.1 Stanford on Saturday for a spot in the national championship final.
Enjoyed seeing you on Jeopardy!