https://calbears.com/news/2019/5/8/womens-water-polo-no-4-bears-ready-for-another-ncaa-run.aspx

Go Bears!

I'll be surprised if Cal can finish higher than 4th. The defense has been disappointing against the top three rated teams. The Bears fell behind Stanford 10-3 early but rallied to make it competitive (11-9 loss). It's the exact same thing that happened against the Cardinal previously.

Cal moves on to semi-final against USC tomorrow at 3 pm with the win over Hawaii today, 17-13.

https://thefosh.net/livestats.php?gameid=7222

Troy survives Bears in 2 OTs, 10-8. USC has a great defense and blocked a multitude of Cal's shots but won on two penalty shots. SC also scored with 1 second left in the third period . Cal had to score from the outside and actually only had one inside shot by its center, soph Kitty Lynn Joustra, that she got off & scored.

The Bears cannot play much tougher than that against the nation's #1 team, the Trojans. Every time Cal fell behind by two goals, I figured the outcome of the game was decided... Great fortitude and effort exerted by this young team. "The Bear will not quit, the Bear will not die." Even a red card given to HC Coralie Simmons w/ 8 seconds remaining in the second overtime. GO BEARS!

It was a helluva game from the Bears. The red card was for arguing after the push off just ahead of the final goal...pretty much everyone in the stadium saw the push off for what it was including an SC parent I was standing next to. It would have been nice to see if they could do anything with the last 8 seconds as they had numbers at the other end after pressing against the spread.

Also, there was a very questionable 5m call against Cal on the opening possession of the first OT...questionable because of how the game had been called to that point.

Shout out to the senior goalie, Madison Tagg who has 18+ saves, including some spectacular saves down the stretch to match, if not outplay, the goalie manning the cage for U$C, widely considered to be the top goalie in the game.

Note: at the first quarter break, an official NCAA video was run on the big screen with the theme of the NCAA being all about "integrity" and there were many laughs from the Cal, UCLA and Stanford fans/parents in the immediate vicinity given the goings on of the last year at U$C...the one U$C parent in our midst just shook his head and looked at his feet.