Cal Women's Gymnastics and Rugby hosting postseason openers this weekend

Both programs are national championship contenders this season

The journeys to a potential 2024 national championships begin this weekend in Berkeley for a pair of Cal Athletics programs.

A pair of programs at the opposite spectrum in historic team national championship success will begin their long postseason journeys. Cal Women’s Gymnastics (0 national titles) and Cal Rugby (33 national championships, including 28 in rugby XVs) are both capable of winning their national championship trophies but face historic pressure and tough postseason draws, respectively. Cal Women’s Gymnastics, ranked 2nd or 3rd nationally all season long, has never faced the pressure of being the favorites like they have this postseason. Cal Rugby, due to regular losses to some good teams, is unlikely to have any more home matches beyond this weekend, should they advance. Should they persevere in the end, both would make great stories.

And those potential great stories start this weekend from Haas Pavilion and Witter Rugby Field.

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Cal Women’s Gymnastics to compete on Friday and almost surely Sunday

No.3 Cal Women’s Gymnastics is the host to the announced way-in-advance NCAA Berkeley Regional. The Berkeley Regional will start with a play-in dual meet today (Thursday) at 2 PM PT between San Jose State and Southern Utah. The winner will advance to Friday’s session 2.

The two quad meets start on Friday. Session 1 will begin at 1 PM PT and consists of No.6 Denver, No.11 UCLA, Arizona State, and Washington. Session 2, scheduled for 7 PM PT, includes No.3 Cal, No.14 Auburn, Stanford, and the San Jose State/Southern Utah winner. The top two teams from each session will advance to the Regional Final on Sunday at 5 PM PT, where the top two teams will advance to the NCAA Championships at Fort Worth, Texas. Every session of the Berkeley Regional will be streamed on ESPN+ but Cal fans in the area should pack the Haas Pavilion to enjoy this meet in person.

In addition to the teams, 17 individuals will compete at the Berkeley Regional. The top individuals in each event not on an advancing team will also earn NCAA Championships berths.

But it is the home squad, California Golden Bears, that is expected to put on two great shows on Friday and Sunday and earn their second straight Regional Championship title after last year’s surprise breakthrough in Pittsburgh, PA.

https://twitter.com/CalWGym/status/1773035896914190438

Golden Bears are coming off their first major wobble of the season which was the final Pac-12 Championships. Cal, the sole Pac-12 regular season champ for the first time in program history, did not perform up to their very high standard set this year and finished 3rd behind Utah and UCLA.

The extra judges for the postseasons are no excuse for the Golden Bears posting their 3rd lowest team score of the year with just a 197.325 at the Pac-12 Championships. Even before the major mistakes, the entire squad could not get the visually physics-defying landing which they had achieved all season long prior. Despite that atypical meet, you can be sure that the Cal Bears will be more prepared both physically and mentally for a couple of big bounce-back performances this weekend.

In recent weeks, Cal Women's Gymnastics has received numerous awards for their historic season thus far. Co-head coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell were named the Pac-12 Coaches of the Year and WCGA West Head Coaches of the Year. 

Superstar sophomore eMjae Frazier was named WCGA West Region Gymnast of the Year to go with three 1st-team All-American honors in all-around, bars, and beam. She also earned 2nd-team All-American honors on floor. Frazier also was one of two gymnasts to be named All-Pac-12 First Team in all five categories: vault, bars, beam, floor, and all-around.

Junior Mya Lauzon also earned three 1st-team All-Amercan honors in all-around, vault, and beam. Like Frazier, Lauzon also earned a 2nd-team All-American honor on floor. 

Additionally, junior Maddie Williams earned 1st-team All-American honor for bars and senior Gabby Perea earned 2nd-team All-American honor also for bars. The ten All-American honors tota is a program high.

The uneven bars success also earned assistant coach John Carney the WCGA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year award.

After coming achingly close to advancing to the final session of the year AKA Four on the Floor at the NCAA Championship Finals last year, Cal is in an even better position to accomplish that this year. Bears are seeded to not have a rematch against powerhouse and defending champion No.1 Oklahoma until that final session. Golden Bears, with a team and program-best score of 198.550 earlier this year, are arguably the only team in the nation capable of putting some serious scoreboard pressure on the Oklahoma Sooners.

Before we can dream about such a historic breakthrough win on April 20th (NCAA Championships Finals), the Cal Golden Bears will need to first finish in the top 2 in the next three meets, including two this weekend from Berkeley. The NCAA postseason is all about “survive and advance”. Cal Women’s Gymnastics has earned their potentially smooth road to the end.

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Cal Rugby hosts Cal Poly on Saturday to open D1A College Rugby National Championship playoff

There is a lot of parity in collegiate rugby this year.

Cal Rugby (10-3) is arguably one of about seven teams that can realistically win the 2024 D1A National Championship. Golden Bears earned the 4th seed in the West and a first-round home match against Cal Poly this Saturday from Witter Rugby Field.

The full bracket is below.

After being blown out at home by BYU (26-53) and a tough road loss under bad weather at Army (14-27), Cal closed their regular season home schedule by beating previously undefeated defending champs in Navy on Homecoming by a convincing 47-24. In their last match, Cal dropped a heartbreaking loss to Saint Mary’s College by a 31-38 score despite leading at the half. The loss allowed SMC to earn the top seed in the West.

Nonetheless, any one of Cal, SMC, BYU, Central Washington, Navy, Life, and Lindenwood could come out on top of the D1A national championship final on May 4th from Houston, TX. 

https://twitter.com/CalVarsityRugby/status/1774855250983444953

Bears followed a similar path last year of dropping the late regular season matches before winning the rematch in the postseason en route to a close 22-28 championship final loss to Navy. Cal also started the long postseason run last year with a home match against Cal Poly. Earlier this year, Cal defeated Cal Poly 33-7 in a shortened match before a 66-12 road victory in a regular length match.

Barring a dramatic upset, Cal should advance to the next round on April 13th against the winner between SMC and Grand Canyon. Golden Bears will likely get the chance to avenge their close road loss to SMC then.

"What is at stake in the regular season by way of results is whether a team plays at home or away in the postseason," Clark said. "If we advance through the April 6 match, it is hard to see a scenario where we'll play at home again this season. We will for sure relish another opportunity to play at Witter Rugby Field in Strawberry Canyon on April 6."

Cal Rugby honored associate head coach Tom Billups’ 25th season with the Bears earlier this year. The video below is worth a watch.

For the second straight season, it is fair to say that Cal has a good but somewhat flawed team. In their win over Navy, it was mostly the backs who scored the tries (all but one) but the progressions leading to the scores did involve the entire team. It does depend on the matchups, but perhaps Cal might try different tactics in these potential postseason rematches to get different results against SMC and BYU.

Cal does not quite have the physical advantage of some years past that would allow them to overcome too many ball-handling mistakes. One would expect every postseason match after this round to be decided by a possession or two. You know this Golden Bears side is hungry for another national title. The tough postseason road, likely requiring a lot of traveling on the road, may just focus the Bears more.

It will not be easy, but the Bears will not use that as an excuse. Just know that the Bears are in the field of 16 and they can beat anyone on any given day.

GO BEARS!