Sports Shorts

What’s up with UC-Davis this year? First there was football, where the Aggies scored in the last 8 seconds to defeat the Cardinal in its home opener 20-17. (“I’ve been here 39 years and nothing compares,” said Davis defensive line coach Fred Arp.) Then, the Aggies handed the men’s basketball team an early-season 64-58 loss, helping to take the wind out of a highly touted team’s sails. Most recently, Davis played the spoiler in baseball. Stanford’s sluggers dropped their final two regular-season games to Davis in May, 3-0 and 8-3, for the first—and second—losses to the Aggies in 15 years. The Cardinal entered the postseason with a 30-25 record and promptly upset defending champion Texas and North Carolina State to advance to the Super Regional for the first time since 2003. . . . Competing against the country’s top 18 teams in the Intercollegiate Nationals in May, the equestrian team finished second as the Reserve National Champions, just one point behind winner Mt. Holyoke. Master’s student Sarah Willeman, ’04, took home the Cacchione Cup for best collegiate rider in the country. . . . The softball team (42-18) notched its ninth straight 40-win season, defeating CSU-Fullerton and Fresno State in the NCAA regional before falling to Alabama, 4-1 and 8-7, in the Super Regional in late May. . . . Also in May, the women’s crew team finished 11th at the NCAAs, held on New Jersey’s Lake Mercer. The team’s first varsity eight finished 13th; the second varsity eight and the varsity four both finished a best-ever ninth. . . . The then-No. 2 Cardinal men’s crew team and the No. 3 Golden Bears swapped rankings after Cal’s victory in April 29’s Big Row. It was the first time in 105 years that the meet had national implications. Stanford had defeated Cal earlier in the year, but lost a second time at the Pac-10 championships. . . . In spring tournament action, the field hockey team finished second to the Monarcas in the 2006 Cal Cup championship. It was the Cardinal’s best performance in six years in the tournament, which consists mostly of postcollegiate and international athletes. “To see all the freshwomen contributing the way they have [in] this tournament bodes very well for the future,” says head coach Lesley Irvine.