Hopefully St. Mary’s is a strong WCC team. They beat Fresno 4-0, doubling our score. Realistically, it’s going to take a few years to rebuild after Joiner stripped the cupboard when she left for Oregon.

0-1 30 minutes in. Being outshot 6-1; 7 corners for Gaels 0 for Aggies. We’re not possessing the ball.

Glad you're spending your retirement the way you want. We summer (late May - mid September) at our cabin in MT on Flathead Lake, about an hour south of Glacier, and the rest of the year in Davis. Works well for us...get the best of both areas...and soon hope to be able to throw some shade on our MT friends & neighbors - all Griz or Wildcat fans (maniacs). LOL

Rota is on the SW coast, correct? N of Gibraltar? Our granddaughter, 7th grade at the time was in Salou (Near Barcelona) last Thanksgiving with a travel team for a soccer tournament. She really enjoyed the little she was able to experience - grueling game schedule. But she loved it, as your family seems to.

Glad you're still keeping in touch via AST - I'm looking forward to revisiting our debate over your CA Conference idea at some point. :>)

Keep us informed about your jazz bar. Our youngest is a jazz pianist in the Sacramento area - making a good living at it. Has played the evening entertainment at the Legends Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach. Did you ever visit Twin Lotus Thai in Sacramento before you moved? Started and owned by Joe Gilman, Sac State piano professor and his wife (she's Thai) as a music venue. In a strip mall on Folsom not to far from Hornet Hive. Has been very successful for local talent as well as touring artists.

Best wishes

Agree with your take. It's frustrating, because we all know it's something that Dobbins probably could've / should've been on top of. However, it's part of the growing up that takes place - hopefully - during college.

Hoping we get our grove going sooner this season. Starting 0 - 6 - 5 last season was a killer.

Good road win, but definitely some things to work on. Fresno did a better job in the 2nd half and created some dangerous chances. Aggies also wasted several opportunities due to offside calls. Gotta clean that up.

Thanks!! May watch a little bit, but we're at our cabin, and it'll start at 9PM Montana time.

Great interviews! Looking forward to more of these featuring other sports. Also hope there's some in-season interviews for various sports.

After a tough 1st season, in which graduations and and Traciy Joiner taking several starters and recruits with her to Oregon, I'm looking forward to Mertz rebuilding the WSOC program. I get the feeling she'd like to be here long term, as opposed to UCD just being a stepping stone. Hope she makes it work!!

In one of the threads, someone recently posted that Sports Information once had 3 full-time employees, but as a result of budget cuts is now manned by interns and students. If that's accurate, that's why inaccurate rosters and poorly written articles will continue to be SOP.

IF athletics and campus admin truly believe that athletics are the front porch of the university, they should realize that a competent Sports Information Department is like the welcome mat.

GREAT!

Congratulations! Well-deserved! If it’s now truly the official podcast of UC Davis Athletics, I hope it will expand to include other sports. Seems only right to do so. Otherwise, it’s not as advertised. Would definitely be willing to subscribe.

Regardless of Middlesborough's status, a move to the Championship league is huge for Max and his development. He'll consistently be playing with and against better players than he was in MLS.

Also, hopefully, a recruiting boost for UCD.

The TOP MLS clubs are considered comparable to the mid to upper levels of the Championship League. Middlesbrough is squarely in the middle of this year’s L
league standings. Columbus Crew isn’t currently a TOP MLS club, so it’s definitely a step up for Max.

Middlesbrough isn’t in line for automatic promotion tp the Premier League, and they’d need to out-perform in the playoffs to be considered.

Middlesbrough probably a small step up from Columbus.

I get your points about the legal issues, and agree with those. I also think the personal attacks on Rocko, his family, and other ICA and university officials are heinous.

I disagree with some of the tactics employed by the equestrian parents in their effort to reverse the decision to end the ICA-level program at UCD.

But with all due respect, let's also be honest. There's been several comments on AST similar to your characterization of "...these poor daughters of the very wealthy..." While equestrian is probably one of the most elitist sports around, many sports have become/are becoming increasingly difficult to play unless your family has money. The following is from an article today on ESPN regarding the play for pay system in US youth soccer:

"...the predominant way kids get started [in soccer] is through the increasingly capitalistic travel soccer system.

"It's a business, and one that caters to kids from the suburbs (where potential customers are) over rural areas or city centers. It all but requires parents to pay what can exceed $20,000 a year in travel, fees and training [including private coaches], in addition to investing lots of free time to drive three states away for some "elite showcase" (often to play a team from across town).

"And travel sports of all kinds are only getting bigger -- a $40 billion-plus industry, increasingly making it the playground of the upper middle class to the wealthy.

"When young players (and their ever-present parents) are paying customers, exactly how hard can you coach them? Break them down before building them up? Offer real adversity, especially the mental sort? Players can just flee to another club at season's end, if not sooner."

If you have family or neighbors (we do) whose kids are involved in youth sports - not just soccer, but baseball, basketball, swimming, volleyball, football - you know this. We've watched it within our family and within our neighborhood. And we've seen the sense of entitlement that it can produce. We've watched Little League All-Star team cater to travel ball players, even when those players are doing poorly, or haven't performed as well during the season as other players.

So I, personally would like to see an end to the comments about the elitist nature of equestrian participants. While it may be further along the spectrum, it's not really unique, and it's becoming less so all the time. Those comments also disparage UCD student athletes in equestrian who have put it the time for their sport, just as much as other UCD student athletes. They've also represented UCD pretty well in their short time as an ICA sport - 3 conference championships in its 7 seasons, 1 trip to the post season.

Emmy Ersdala is playing for the Swedish U@) team in the 2026 Eurobasket, averaging about 13 minutes a game. Not scoring much - only taking @ 3 shots a game. But hitting the boards hard...the leading rebounder on aper minute basis..

Definitely a bit of a project.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJeADQPtcGa/?img_index=2

Another big body is definitely welcome news. Though after seeing how long it took Meghan Jones to develop, I'm not sure how well UK basketball prepares players for D1.

in 2022-23, Jones and Megan Norris formed a reasonably effective post combination in the Big West. Jones was a redshirt junior and Norriss a redshirt freshman. It will be interesting to see how this freshman tandem fares in the Mountain West. I think we'll still see Tegan Young or Tsami in the post on occasion.

Nothing was wrong with it, but it wasn't working. Everyone was looking for a way around it, usually via litigation. I think the hope is that a more specifically defined set of criteria, with fewer grey areas, will avoid most of the issues. We'll see.

Plus, the majority of all students (53%) do not finish a degree within 4 years. The average is 5 years, 10 months to finish a degree. D1 athletes seem to do slightly better than the general student, mostly due to the amount of academic support provided. That statistic is slightly skewed because it doesn't track all athletes, only retained athletes who enter as freshmen. The proposed 5/5 may better align with reality.