eMjae Frazier earns Cal's 1st perfect 10 on Floor Exercise
eMjae Frazier earns Cal's 1st perfect 10 on Floor Exercise
Cal Rugby defeats defending national champ Army
Cal Women’s Gymnastics (11-2-2, 4-1-2 in Pac-12) makes more history at LSU
Be sure to check out Cal freshman eMjae Frazier’s perfect floor exercise routine in the embedded Tweet below.
As the Cal Women’s Gymnastics program continues its ascend to hopefully be a national champion in the near future, the record book continues to be rewritten every meet. Two seasons after Emi Watterson earned a perfect 10 on the uneven bars, Cal has finally got another perfect 10. Frazier achieved this feat on the floor at LSU, and one would think this might just be the first of many for the talented freshman.
Competing without their head coaching duo, Golden Bears used a strong 3rd rotation on the floor, a program record of 49.700, to pull ahead of the field at this quad meet hosted by No.6 LSU. No.7 Cal might even have thought that they got a win, but a late scoring change in favor of the host LSU allowed the Tigers to edge the Bears by the slimmest margin 197.700 to 197.675.
Since the meet was not broadcast, one might question how Frazier’s final vault only earned a 9.750 despite a stick on the landing and a 10.0 starting value from following the meet via a grainy social media stream. But we will focus on the positives which were how Cal managed a great road score nonetheless to improve their National Qualifying Score and the histories that were made.
Depending on the results from Utah’s meet at Oregon State next weekend, Cal still got a chance to repeat as co-Pac-12 champions. Oregon State (3-1-2 in Pac-12), with Olympian Jade Carey, will need to beat the Utah Red Rocks (5-1-0 in Pac-12) to help Cal and UCLA (both 4-1-2 in the Pac-12 regular season) to form a four-way tie atop the Pac-12 standings.
Cal will next host two quad meets this weekend. Ohio State, Stanford, and Utah State will visit on Friday (Mach 10). UC Davis, Sacramento State, and Arizona will visit on Sunday (March 12). The Pac-12 Championships at Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah will be on Saturday, March 18th.
Cal Rugby (10-0) stays perfect after beating defending champ Army
Cal Rugby passed their biggest test thus far in Rugby 15s this past weekend. Playing their final home match before the postseason, Cal Bears defeated the defending D1A Rugby champion Army.
If you missed it, the full Cal vs Army match from Saturday is currently on YouTube (embedded below but it could always be taken down).
Army struck first in the 4th minute thanks to a try from Jonny Haley but Cal would answer in the 18th minute and go ahead via two more tries before the half for a 19-7 Cal lead. Army will score first in the second half to pull within 19-14, but Cal Bears finish the match with two more tries for the final 31-14 margin.
Freshman Oliver Newall scored two tries to lead the Bears. Max Threlkeld, Cal Liebowitz, and Caleb Tomasin all found the try zone for the home side. The difference in the match lies in the teams’ execution inside the 22-meter lines (the Rugby equivalent of the “Red Zone”).
Cal lost the national semifinal to St. Mary’s last year before St. Mary’s lost to Army, coached by Cal alum Matt Sherman, in the championship final. In 2023, St. Mary’s recently lost to Central Washington, who will host Army next. Cal will travel to Annapolis to play Navy next before two more tough road contests at St. Mary’s and at BYU to close the regular season.
Prior to this match, Cal clinched the PAC with a 36-17 home win over Arizona. Playing a slightly different lineup due to some injuries, Cal allowed Arizona to stay within a score until late. It was notable because that was the first contest in rugby 15s this year where the Bears allowed another team to be within 35 points.
The 31-14 result over Army is certainly more impressive, but these next three road matches are daunting even if you believe that this Cal team is the clear best team in the country. No one should be shocked if Cal can end its drought of 15s national championships (the last one dates back to 2017) this year, but one would hope that the tough road gauntlet will forge an even stronger squad by the end of the regular season in a month.
Cal Women’s Water Polo (13-3) beats all except for one
No.3 Cal Bears cruised to an MPSF opening 17-11 win over No.9 Arizona State on Saturday. Bears capitalized on some early power plays to lead 5-2 and never looked up in this wire-to-wire win.
What was perhaps even more impressive was the previous Sunday, when Cal won a wire-to-wire victory against UCLA at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational 3rd-place match. The win allowed Cal to leapfrog UCLA in the rankings.
Of course, Cal does have three losses on the season, all to No.1 Stanford. Stanford again defeated Cal last Saturday at the famed tournament in Irvine, California. Golden Bears will need to figure out Stanford at some point if they want to win their first NCAA championship in history. Cal Bears have won and mostly dominated against everyone they have played in 2023 so far.
Meanwhile, Cal will finally play No.2 USC next Saturday at 1 pm, from the friendly confines of Spieker Aquatics Complex.
Cal Beach Volleyball (4-2) has a near-perfect start
Coming off its first trip to the NCAA Championships in 2022, Cal Beach Volleyball looks to take another leap as a program to be a national championship contender. Judging from the results of the first two weekends (Cal is playing two more matches on Monday), maybe the Golden Bears are not too far from that.
No.12 Cal Bears finally got to experience the NCAA tournament in 2022, thanks largely to the expansion of that championship from 8-team to 16-teams. Cal saw their season end in a close match to LSU, but half that duo that ended Cal’s season is now at Cal. LSU-transfer Sierra Caffo has teamed up with FSU-transfer Liz Waters-Leiga to form the currently undefeated (5-0) pair that play as either the No.4 or No.3 pair in head coach Meagan Owusu’s lineup.
The new top pair for Cal this year consists of Maya Gessner and Ella Dreibholz. The two players both had a lot of success teaming up with other players in 2022, but will take on the best of other schools together. Cal’s top pair is 4-2 on the year. They pushed No.7 LMU’s top pair to a deciding 3rd set before losing 15-13 in a 3-2 loss by Cal.
Forming a strong tandem since the 2nd half of 2022, Ainsley Radell and Ashley Delgado are the No.2 pair. This pair is 4-1 on the season.
Another new pairing of two experienced Cal Bears is Alex Young-Gomez and Lexi McKeown at No.3/No.4. This pair is also 4-1 on the season, but nearly 5-0. Cal would have upset No.4 USC 3-2 had Young-Gomez/McKeown not dropped a heartbreaking 23-21 deciding 3rd set (normally to 15 points but this one went extended).
Rounding out the Cal lineup is the pair of Brooke Buchner and Natalie Martin as No.5 in this second weekend of action. Buchner paired with Ava Mann last weekend.
While more lineup fine-tuning is expected, Cal has won 4 matches via sweeps: Concordia Irvine, Utah, Oregon, and No.17 Arizona. Cal’s two losses, at No.7 LMU and at No.4 USC, were both by 3-2 results, coming down to one final 3rd set by the slimmest margin. In a sport with so many uncontrollable elements such as wind or reflex deflections of balls, two-point differences are basically just luck.
With how USC managed to upset No.1 UCLA at the Pac-12 South Invitational yesterday and how these two schools are the only two who have ever won the NCAA championship in its short history, maybe one can optimistically believe that Cal has closed the gap? There is plenty of beach volleyball to be played to let us know if Cal has become a top-5 team in 2023.
GO BEARS!
I went to a meet earlier this year (win over ASU). eMjae and the team overall is very talented (currently #7). Really recommend everyone to go to at least one meet this season. Special team.
I also go to at least one beach VB game a season. You think of beach VB being next to the ocean, but our current venue is in an interesting uniquely Berkeley venue in the trees. The new VB facility will be much nicer, but I think it will lose the uniqueness of the current venue. I actually would have preferred they upgrade the current venue and keep it among the trees (although it needs major work)
Thanks for your updates, some I already know about and follow others I don't ~ so it is good to get a status update from you.
Thank you.