No. 7 Dawgs Head To Berkeley To Take On No. 2 Cal

SEATTLE – One of the most intense collegiate rowing rivalries on the west coast will see the No. 2 California Golden Bears host the No. 7 University of Washington Huskies this weekend in Redwood Shores, Calif. for a varsity 8+ rivalry that dates back to 1977. Races are scheduled to being at 9 a.m. PT.

To follow along with the races live, go to twitter.com/UWHuskyCrew for the most up to the minute updates about the match-ups. Full coverage and recaps will be available after the races on gohuskies.com.

The women's varsity eight victor receives the Simpson Cup. The trophy was donated in 2003 by longtime Husky Crew supporters Hunter and Dottie Simpson, whose daughter Anne rowed at Cal. The Simpson Cup replaces the Big Oar trophy that was retired in 2002 after 22 years. Over the total 37-year history between the two women’s programs, UW holds the advantage leading the series 23-14 in the V8+ battles.

Out of those 14 Bear victories, nine of them came between 2003-2012. The Huskies snapped that almost decade-long streak last year on the Montlake Cut with an extremely competitive race, featuring three lead changes. The 2V8+ and V4+ didn’t have quite as much luck and would finish just behind the Bears. The N8+ saw an extremely dominant victory over Cal as part of their undefeated 2013 campaign.

Head Coach Bob Ernst could not be more excited to head down to Redwood Shores this weekend.

“This is the blockbuster of the year, versus Cal in Berkeley on their home course,” he said. “It’s huge. Cal is the first team that Washington ever raced, and we race them every year. It will be a gruesome showdown.”

The Women’s V8+ has only lost one race so far this year. A stacked field of competitors saw USC barely take down the Huskies in the Grand Final of the San Diego Crew Classic. Other than that narrow loss, the boat has been unbeaten.

The UW 2V8+ has already taken on the rival crew in the San Diego Crew Classic early this season where they dropped a tight Grand Final title to the Bears, finishing just two seconds behind.

Those two silver-medals have so far been the only races to not see the Huskies on top and they will look to keep it that way this weekend.

The Golden Bears have also seen great success this season. They took home the team title at the Lake Natoma Invitational two weeks ago and had a strong showing at the San Diego Crew Classic, which included the 2V8+ win and two silver-medals for the V4+ and the N8+.

That N8+ loss came at the hands of the talented UW freshman that are looking to repeat the success of last year’s novice crew.

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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

9:00 a.m. WN8+
9:10 a.m. MF8+
9:20 a.m. WV4+
9:30 a.m. MV4+
9:40 a.m. W2V8+
9:50 a.m. M2V8+
10:05 a.m. WV8+
10:20 a.m. MV8+ 
11:15 a.m. Trophy Presentations