April 16, 2009

This Week in Cal Women's Water Polo
The No. 5 Golden Bears (29-6 overall and 3-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) plays host to No. 14 Cal State Bakersfield (19-12, 9-3 in the WWPA) on Saturday, April 18 at 5 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The nonconference match-up will be Cal's last regular-season game of the 2009 campaign.

Recently in Golden Bear Water Polo
Last Saturday, the Bears were edged out by No. 1 Stanford in the Big Splash, 9-8. The upset bid was hotly contested, but the Cardinal's fourth quarter defense stifled the Golden Bear attack. Cal jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first quarter and went into the halftime break tied, 5-5, but Stanford's four goals in the third period proved to be too much for the Bears to overcome. Junior drivers Meghan Corso and Erin Scully both scored two goals and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Stephanie Peckham made 10 saves for the Bears in the effort.

The Bears bounced back to form with a 19-5 nonconference win over visiting Pacific at home on Monday evening. After the Tigers got out to a 2-1 lead, California went on a 4-0 scoring drive and never relinquished the lead. Junior utility Camille Hewko led California with four goals while freshman driver Emily Csikos scored three of her own. In all, nine Bears found the back of the net. Senior goalkeeper Lauren Burke and Peckham combined for 12 saves.

Q&A With the Golden Bears
CalBears.com will be running question and answers with the Cal women's water polo team all season. At the Big Splash on April 11, the California women's water polo team honored its two seniors, one of which is this week's Q&A feature: goalkeeper Lauren Burke. Burke is an art major from Huntington Beach, Calif., and has 102 saves in 23 games of work for the Bears this season, to bring her career total to 171 saves. This season, she is only allowing 2.7 goals per game. CalBears.com sat down with the 5-10 keeper to learn about life inside and outside of the cage.

To see an archive of Q&As, click here or click on the Q&A With the Golden Bears on the Cal women's water polo sidebar.

Scouting the Roadrunners
A late goal by Shannon McKenzie lifted the No. 16 CSUB water polo team to the biggest upset victory in program history, defeating No. 6 San Jose State, 12-11, last Sunday at the Bronco Invitational. The team's 19 victories ties last season's win total. Senior Amanda Ortiz was named the Western Water Polo Association Player of the Week after she tallied 13 goals in four games over the weekend.

Next Up for Cal
The Bears will travel to the state of Hawaii for the second time this season next weekend, but this time for the MPSF Tournament. Cal will play No. 7 San Jose State on Friday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. PST in Honolulu.