Cal seniors leave a winning legacy.

“Whatever we do in 10 years, this is the team that started it,” said their coach, Joanne Boyle, who arrived at the same time as the two seniors and their red-shirt junior compatriot, Alexis Gray-Lawson. “When we win a national championship, this is the team that started it.”http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/07/SP9P16B4FG.DTL&feed=rss.sports

Cal’s pain runs deeper than Gray-Lawson’s injury.

In one breath, Boyle has every reason to be thrilled and relieved that a nasty spill didn’t cost the Cal women’s basketball team its starting guard for the remainder of the season. Yet in another, she also knows what was potentially lost after that fall, giving her cause to be somewhat resigned. When junior guard [...]

Questions for: Joanne Boyle.

When Joanne Boyle arrived in Berkeley four years ago, the University of California women’s basketball team had finished its 12th-straight losing season. Its previous coach was fired after going 52-91 in five years. The team was a local-media footnote compared to cross-bay rival Stanford. But the Golden Bears have found themselves since then, reaching the [...]

Whose Pac-10 crown will it be?

The Bears may have a top-five ranking, reside in first place in the Pac-10 with one win over Stanford already under their belts, but there is an undeniable feeling they still have something to prove. And tonight’s clash with No. 6 Stanford is the perfect platform to do just that. In a game laden with [...]

Inside game starts to click for Cal women.

This season, a post rotation has been wishful thinking for Cal women’s basketball coach Joanne Boyle, something she knew the Bears needed but something she knew wasn’t in the cards right away. With Devanei Hampton slowly returning to form from knee issues and Rama N’diaye shackled to the bench with her set of difficulties, Boyle’s [...]

Cal’s Gray-Lawson Excelling With Overall Game.

With Bears forward Ashley Walker consistently drawing the attention of the defense, Alexis Gray-Lawson has taken advantage by going on an offensive frenzy for the Cal women’s basketball team.It all started with her career-high 37 points against Stanford at Haas Pavilion on Jan. 18. Since then, it seems, the guard has found her rhythm. In [...]

Cal women reign supreme after defeating Stanford.

A year ago, Alexis Gray-Lawson was devastated. In a postgame press conference, she sobbed, her jersey pulled over her face, heartbroken over her team’s last-second defeat to Stanford and her missed shot at the end of the game. “I was crying about this time last year,” the Cal guard said. “I didn’t want to be [...]

Cal-Stanford women: More than bragging rights for Bears.

“We still want what they have,” Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. “They’ve still got it. We still want it.” The ‘it,’ of course, is the Pac-10 title. Stanford has won the last eight in a row. Cal came up one game short a year ago almost entirely because the Bears couldn’t beat the Cardinal.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/17/SPOM15BT66.DTL

The 4 Musketeers: Cal’s special group of women have forged a bond and remade a program into a power.

All four players – Oakland’s Devanei Hampton and Alexis Gray-Lawson, Modesto’s Ashley Walker and Fairfield’s Shantrell Sneed – stayed close to home, a major part of the grand plan. Play in front of family and friends, make them proud. Take the local team and make it relevant again. They came because then-coach Caren Horstmeyer convinced [...]

Cal women defeat Rutgers.

Alexis Gray-Lawson transformed one of the biggest non-conference games in the history of the Cal women’s basketball program into one of its biggest wins. The seventh-ranked Bears pulled off an upset Friday night over No. 3 Rutgers, winning 66-52 at Haas Pavilion, but it didn’t look like much of an upset at all. Cal (3-0) [...]