Cal Beach Volleyball, Women's Water Polo, Women's Tennis in NCAA Tourney action
Cal makes the NCAA Beach Volleyball postseason field for the first time after that championship was expanded from 8 to 16 teams
No.11 Cal Beach Volleyball season ends after a narrow loss to No.6 LSU
UPDATE:
The Bears nearly pulled it off in their NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship debut, but they fell just short to No.6 LSU. Golden Bears won the first sets in three of the five courts but were only able to secure the victories on No.1 pair (in straight sets) and No.2 pair (in a decisive 3rd set). LSU’s come-from-behind win at the No.5 pair allowed the Tigers to advance to the double-elimination stage of this tournament starting on Friday.
No.1: Costa/Gessner - W 21-18, 21-15
No2: Delgado/Radell - W 21-18, 15-21, 15-13
No.3: McKeown/Dreibholz - L 19-21, 18-21
No.4: Buchner/Mann - L 12-21, 14-21
No.5: Young-Gomez/Martin - L 24-22, 17-21, 6-15
Preview:
By the time you read this, Cal (26-12) may have already played their first match in the 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball tournament. Cal will play No.6 LSU at 8 AM PT on Wednesday morning. ESPNU (and ESPN2 for the final two days) will have all of the beach volleyball action from Gulf Shores, Alabama with ESPN3 providing live looks of all the courts. The 16-team tournament will use a double-elimination format. The opening round is single-elimination with the advancing 8 teams put into a double-elimination bracket.
The NCAA decided to expand the Beach Volleyball field from 8 to 16 teams starting in 2022. Cal’s best ranking was No.9 back in 2020 when they even defeated then No.5 USC, but that season was cut short by COVID.
No.11 Cal is coming off a 3rd-place finish in the Pac-12 Tournament. Cal was eliminated by Pac-12 runner-up UCLA in the Elimination Bracket final. USC won the conference tournament and will be the top seed in the NCAA tournament. UCLA is the 3rd seed. Stanford also made the field as the 9th seed.
The NCAA Championships begin May 4 at Gulf Shores Public Beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The first round of the tournament will feature all 16 teams on May 4 with a double elimination tournament with the NCAA Champion being crowned on May 8.
The Bears finished the season 26-12, and set a school record for total wins at 26. The 2018 squad had the previous best with 24 victories. Cal was ranked No. 12 in the most recent AVCA Coaches Poll and have been in the top 13 of the poll every week this season and every week since April 23, 2018. Cal has six wins over ranked teams year, including a 4-2 record against teams ranked 11-20 in the AVCA poll.
This past week at the Pac-12 Championship, Cal finished in third place as they made a run to the semifinals of the tournament. Cal defeated Oregon, No. 8 Stanford and Arizona State by a combined 9-1 margin to advance deep into the tournament. This is the fourth top-four finish in the past four Pac-12 Tournaments for the Bears.
Coming into the 2022 season, Cal had to find a new partner for star Mima Mirkovic. Mirkovic’s former partner Caroline Schafer has joined the USC team as a graduate student. No.1 USC is so deep that Schafer has only played as the exhibition No.6 pair this year.
Ana Costa, a senior transfer from Stetson, paired with Mirkovic to start the year. Unfortunately for the Bears, Mirkovic suffered an injury in late March to force a reshuffling of the Cal lineup. Costa is now paired with Maya Gessner. The Costa/Gessner pairing has defeated pairs from No.3 UCLA, No.9 Stanford twice, and No.7 Grand Canyon.
Ainsley Radell and Ashley Delgado were named to the Pac-12 All-Tournament team for leading Cal to a 3rd place finish by going 3-0 with two unfinished matches as the No.2 pair for the Bears.
Cal’s No.3 pair will likely be Ella Dreibholz/Lexi McKeown. Dreibholz is a freshman while McKeown is a redshirt junior transfer from Florida State. This pair has gone 23-6 on the year.
The No.4 pair is Ava Mann/Brooke Buchner. The two were recently reteamed together for the first time in 2022, but they have also played together in 2021.
The No.5 pair over the weekend was Natalie Martin/Alex Young-Gomez. Sophomore Natalie Martin is a transfer from LSU. Young-Gomez is another freshman on the team.
While it will be hard to see how Cal could win the NCAA title, the Bears have done well against ranked opponents this year. Against teams that made the tournament, Cal is 0-1 against No.4 LMU, 0-2 against No.2 TCU, 1-2 against No.9 Stanford, 0-1 against No.1 USC, 0-2 against No.2 UCLA, 1-1 against No.11 Hawaii, 0-1 against No.7 Grand Canyon, and 1-0 against No.12 Cal Poly.
That 1st win over Stanford on their 3rd try has got to give the Bears confidence. Cal was able to eliminate Stanford from the Pac-12 tournament with a 3-1 victory. I would love to see the Bears pull off an upset or two and get some valuable experiences playing 3-4 matches in their first trip to the NCAA Championships. But this would require an upset win on Wednesday morning over LSU.
No.3 Cal Women’s Water Polo opens against host Michigan on May 6th
ICYMI, last week I wrote about how Cal Women’s Water Polo got a pivotal MPSF 3rd place win over UCLA to secure their spot in the NCAA Championship.
In this single-elimination tournament, Cal will likely face No.2 USC in the NCAA semifinals if the Golden Bears can beat the Wolverines on Friday.
Cal Bears are led by Canadian “Calympian” Emma Wright offensively and junior goalkeeper Isabel Williams defensively. The pair were named to the MPSF All-Tournament team.
No.11 Cal Women’s Tennis will host NCAA first and second rounds this weekend
As expected, Cal (16-7) was named as one of the top-16 seeds in the 64-team NCAA tournament. Cal will face Northern Arizona first. Texas Tech and LMU will play in the other first-round match in Berkeley.
No.11 Cal is seeking a return trip to the NCAA Sweet 16. Champaign, Illinois will host the final 16 teams as well as the singles and doubles championships.
Cal won the Pac-12 regular season conference title by beating Stanford in the Big Slam, but they were eliminated in the Pac-12 tournament in the semifinal by Arizona State. Stanford eventually won the Pac-12 title.
In addition to the team being ranked 11th in the country, Cal’s got three ranked doubles pairs. Haley Giavara is ranked No.63 in singles with freshman Jessica Alsola ranked 75th.
GO BEARS!
Emma Wright scored two goals late in the first half, Cal Women's Water Polo take a 5-2 lead at the half. Isabel Williams has 5 saves, including a save on a Michigan penalty shot. The winner will face USC tomorrow in the NCAA semifinal. As expected, Stanford and UCLA (one goal win over UC Irvine) will play in the other semifinal.
Cal Women's Tennis defeats Northern Arizona 4-0 in NCAA 1st round. The Bears will host Texas Tech at noon on Saturday in the 2nd round.