BearTalk

BYU and Arkansas State will play Saturday night for the national collegiate rugby title that Cal has won 26 of the past 32 years.

Here’s why the Bears passed on the chance to pocket another title this season.

– Water polo: Two former Cal stars were named to the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team. Heather Petri, 33, a former All-America star at Cal and Miramonte HS grad, was named to her fourth Olympic team. And ex-Cal star Elsie Windes has earned a spot on her second Olympic roster.

– Track and field: Courtesy of “Bring Back the Mile,” here’s a 4-minute interview with former Cal middle-distance star David Torrence, a contender for the London Olympics.

Cal’s powerhouse rugby team lost 22-20 at Cal Poly, snapping the Bears’ 63-match win streak.

The Bears fell to 10-1 this season.

Meanwhile . . .

   — Swimming: Liv Jensen won the 100-yard freestyle (47.42 seconds) and Caitlin Leverenz won the 200 breakstroke in a school-record time (2:05.49) as the Cal women captured their second Pac-12 team title in four years at Federal Way, Wash.

   – Track and field: Deborah Maier set a meet record to win the 3,000 meters (9:02.35) at the MPSF indoor championships in Seattle. Teammate Chelsea Reilly set a school record in the mile (4:41.29) to finish third.

   – Softball:  Valerie Arioto pitched a four-hitter and hit her eighth home run of the season as the No. 1/3 Golden Bears (11-0) topped Cal Poly 4-1 at the Cathedral City Classic. The Bears face Cal State Northridge on Sunday. 

   – Baseball: Vince Bruno tripled to open the 10th inning and scored on Chad Bunting’s sacrifice fly and the Bears (4-1) beat Long Beach State 2-1.

Cal’s No. 22 baseball team beat Pacific 9-3 at Evans Diamond on Sunday, completing a three-game, season-opening series sweep of the Tigers.

A pretty good exclamation point on the weekend for Cal athletics:

   — The men’s basketball team beat Oregon and Oregon State to improve to 22-6 overall, 12-3 and still tied for first place in the Pac-12 standings. Expect the Bears to move into the top-30 on Monday when the official NCAA RPI ratings are released, and expect sophomore point guard Justin Cobbs to be named Pac-12 Player of the Week.

   — The women’s basketball team went on the road and swept the Oregons, reaching 20 victories for the fifth time in six seasons. The Bears are 10-4 in conference play and have a two-game cushion on third place.

   — The Cal rugby team, which hardly broke a sweat while outscoring its first nine opponents 650 to 23, claimed a 13-12 win over the British Columbia Thunderbirds, a Canadian powerhouse, in the first game of their long-time “World Cup” series. The Bears travel to B.C. on March 25 to complete the two-game set.

   — The Cal softball team, ranked No. 1 and No. 3 nationally by separate polls, improved to 8-0 on the season with four wins at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas. The Bears beat LSU 14-3 on Sunday to close out the event.  Pleasanton native Valerie Arioto is batting .625 with seven homers and 18 RBI through eight games. On Sunday, LSU wisely walked her three times.

   — The only notable defeats for the Bears came in men’s and women’s swimming. The No. 3 Stanford men beat the No. 6 Bears 146.5 to 96.5 and the the Cardinal women upended the top-ranked Bears 174-126, in dual meets Saturday at Stanford.

Cal’s rugby team, unbeaten and unchallenged through its first nine games, takes on the British Columbia Thunderbirds on Saturday in its “World Cup” series game at Treasure Island.

The teams will square off at 3 p.m. at Ray Sheeran Field at the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club.

The “World Cup” began in 1921 and continues as a home-and-home series that the Bears recently have ruled. Cal has won 12 of the past 15 series vs. UBC, including five years in a row.

The teams complete the two-game set March 25 at British Columbia.

Note: Fans planning to attend Saturday’s game should check to determine the status of a planned Bay Bridge westbound closure. Click here for more details on alternate routes to the game. 

Meanwhile . . .

   – BASEBALL: Cal opens its season Friday at home against Pacific, the first of a three-game weekend series at Evans Diamond. The Bears, no longer on the budget chopping block, are coming off a 38-23 campaign, punctuated by a trip to the 2011 College World Series. Check out our Bay Area college baseball preview.