There will be no byes in this season’s upcoming NorPac Tournament. A first round bye is usually awarded to the top-seeded team in the conference, but not this year.

With UC Davis entering the NorPac, the conference now has four teams in the East and four in the West. And rather than seeding overall, the teams will be ranked within each division.

This year’s tournament shakeup means that even the top seeds will play in the first round, but for the first time in four years, that has no bearing on the Cal field hockey team.

For the first time since 2005, the Bears were denied the No. 1 seed in the conference. Friday’s 4-2 loss to Stanford allowed the Cardinal to clinch the division, and placed Cal securely in the No. 2 position.

The second-seeded Bears will face the No. 3-seed in the East—either Davidson or Appalachian State—in the first round of the tournament.

So there will be no bye—except for this week. (Click here to read more…)

On Monday, the UC Davis field hockey team won its first game — in almost 30 years.

No, the Aggies weren’t riding an epic losing streak for the past three decades; they weren’t in existence.

Thirty years ago, UC Davis disbanded its program, and when field hockey joined the NCAA, most West Coast programs followed.

Only Cal, Stanford and Pacific withstood the regime-change.

This season, the Aggies graduated to Division I competition and joined the NorPac, allowing the conference to reinstate Eastern and Western divisional play.

It took three decades, but UC Davis is back, and this may — just may — be a sign that the times are changing. This, albeit small, resurgence could mean that West Coast field hockey is on the rise.

UC Davis is only the fourth Division I team in California and its almost entirely freshmen roster doesn’t pose much of a threat to the Maryland and Old Dominion powerhouses of the East Coast.

That will most likely be Cal’s job.

Since field hockey became an NCAA sport in 1981, no West Coast team has ever won the national title. But according to NFHCA preseason speculation, if any California team is poised to make a run in the tournament, it’s the Bears.

Cal is the only NorPac team — and the only West Coast team — to make the top-25 preseason poll. And the Bears are scheduled to play teams like top-ranked Maryland, No. 9 Iowa and No. 24 Kent State.

Those games can solidify Cal’s legitimacy among the NCAA leaders. But more importantly, wins could provide some much-needed “street cred” for the conference.

The Bears take on the Aggies on Oct. 10 in Berkeley.

If you’re a Cal student, welcome back! The joys (and pains) of school are again upon us, but the good news is that it also signals the beginning of fall sports. Yay!

There are lots of sports starting up again this week, and a few play in Berkeley in the next few days. For freshmen, it’s the perfect way to get introduced to Cal and school spirit, and for everyone else, it’s a nice warm-up to the Big Show — the first Game Day of the season against Maryland.

So until you can cast your gaze upon the football team on Sept. 5, keep your eyes on these other (equally enthralling) sports to whet your appetite:

Friday, Aug. 28

Field Hockey v. Towson at 4 p.m. at Maxwell Family Field

Volleyball v. UC Irvine at 4:30 p.m. in Reno, Nev. (three-day tournament)

Sunday, Aug. 30

Men’s Golf at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Riverside, Iowa (three-day tournament)

Thursday, Sept. 3

Volleyball v. Texas at 8 p.m. in Honolulu, Hawaii

Friday, Sept. 4

Men’s Soccer v. Georgetown at 1 p.m. in Georgetown, Maryland

Women’s Soccer v. Texas A&M at 4:30 p.m. at Edwards Stadium

I could have easily written three features with the information that Cal women’s field hockey coach Shellie Onstead gave me.

I wanted to keep a pretty tight focus on her Olympic quest, which unfortunately came at the expense of leaving out a truly fantastic story about her family’s Berkeley legacy. Thanks to this blog, however, I get the opportunity to share it with you. Ah, the miracle of the internet!

(Click here to read more…)