Cal Women's Soccer and a number of Cal Tennis players earn spot in NCAA Championships
Cal Women's Soccer will take on Pepperdine on Saturday in Malibu, CA; Cal Tennis players will play in Singles and Doubles Championships in Waco, TX (Nov 19-24)
It is Fall NCAA Championships time!
Cal Women’s Soccer takes on Pepperdine on Saturday in NCAA First Round
Cal Women’s Soccer (12-5-2) overcame midseason hiccups to return to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship for the 28th time in program history.
Golden Bears will kick off their postseason run at No.22 Pepperdine (the 7th seed of the Region) on Saturday, November 16th at noon PT. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Under head coach Neil McGuire, Cal Women’s Soccer has not had long postseason runs despite consistently producing future NWSL pros. Cal’s last NCAA win was in 2014 at home and the most recent road NCAA first-round win was at Pepperdine in 2012.
The 2024 Cal Women’s Soccer team can certainly reverse that trend. In fact, Cal has shown that they can play with anyone this season, including some of the top teams in the country.
With senior forward Karlie Lema, the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, leading the offense with 16 goals (4th nationally) and junior goalkeeper Teagan Wy, Cal has the star power. Wy could be that difference maker in the penalty kick shootouts, which often decide many NCAA postseason matches every year. Wy was away for a bit at the beginning of the season to help USA’s U-20 WNT win Bronze at the U-20 Women’s World Cup as that team’s starting keeper.
Cal has a prolific offense that goes beyond just Lema. Golden Bears have tallied 43 goals this year to be ranked 14th nationally. 13 different Cal Bears have scored a goal so far this season. This is despite senior Ari Manrique, one of the top returning performers, being out since the end of September.
Pepperdine (12-3-5) got the WCC automatic bid due to goal differential over No.11 Santa Clara (who had ended Cal’s seasons in the NCAA first round a few times recently). The Waves had a notable 1-0 win over then-No.3 UCLA this season. They are led by WCC Offensive Player of the Year Tori Waldeck and WCC Midfielder of the Year Karina Gonzalez.
By RPI rather than the Coaches’ Poll, Cal and Pepperdine are much closer. Pepperdine is only ranked 39th by RPI while Cal sits at 49th. Then again, the ACC is the top women’s soccer conference with 7 of the 13th-best teams this year.
After a grueling season where the Cal Bears earned the 7th-best finish in the ACC regular season (they did not get to play everyone, of course), they are ready to take on anyone.
Cal Tennis sending a large contingent to NCAA Individual Championships
The NCAA is experimenting this and next year with moving the individual tennis NCAA championships (Singles and Doubles) from the spring (after the team championships) to the fall. Cal Men’s and Women’s Tennis will send a large contingent of Golden Bears to Waco, TX for those two tournaments next week. The full bracket of 64 players for singles and 32 pairs for doubles will be announced on Saturday.
The NCAA qualifying process is numerous and kind of confusing. For Cal Men’s Tennis, a number of them earned the qualification at Pepperdine in the ITA West Sectionals last weekend.
Four Cal Bears will be in the field of 64 for Men’s Singles Championships:
Carl Emil Overbeck
Theo Dean
Alex Chang
Timofey Stepanov
Two Cal Men’s pair will be in the NCAA Men’s Doubles Championship bracket.
Carl Emil Overbeck and Theo Dean
Alex Chang and Mikey Wright
After a couple of tough seasons since the pandemic and Peter Wright’s retirement, this is a promising development for Cal Men’s Tennis.
Three Cal Bears will be in the Women’s Singles Championship:
Katja Wiersholm
Mao Mushika
Lan Mi
One doubles pair will be in the Women’s Doubles Championship.
Jessica Alsola and Mao Mushika
Cal Women’s Tennis is coming off a season when they made the Super Regional (final 16) as a team. They have graduated two impact seniors but maintained the same number of three singles and one doubles pair as NCAA individual championship entrants.
Best of luck to all of the Cal Bears!
Cal Men’s Soccer sees their ACC Tournament run ends in semifinal
Clemson Tigers with their dangerous attack got a 2-0 lead on the Cal Bears despite Cal having more chances early. Yet the Bears will not quit, Cal battled back with two second-half goals to equalize. However, Clemson’s star freshman Gyan scored a brilliant goal from a tight angle to put the Tigers ahead 3-2.
Although Cal elevated their RPI to a level worthy of an at-large bid selection, their record against D1 opponents fell to 7-8-2 despite an overall record of 8-8-2. The sub-500 record will make them ineligible for an at-large invite, from what I have been told. Golden Bears saw their exciting and memorable (1-0 win at Pitt, Stanford, and this ACC tournament run) 2024 season coming to an end on Thursday night. The Cal road warriors will also finally get to go back to California after over two weeks in North Carolina.