During the Cal volleyball team’s road trip to Southern California over the weekend, the Bears proved they have the talent to compete with any of the top foes in college volleyball’s toughest conference.
The weekend began when Cal (9-4, 2-2 Pac-12) swept No. 16 UCLA (9-5, 0-4) on Friday for the first time ever in Pauley Pavilion. The Bears’ surprising high level of play continued Sunday, when the team pushed the No. 2 Trojans (14-1, 4-0) to an excruciatingly close fifth set before falling.
The Bears — who now may crack the top-25 rankings for the second time this season — entered the weekend as massive underdogs in both games.
Even though the Bruins entered the match on a three-game losing streak, no one could have expected the Bears to win in just three sets.
“I think they came out a little too overconfident,” said outside hitter Adrienne Gehan.
That match featured an extraordinary 42 ties, almost all of which came in the first two sets. Both went down the wire. In the third set, however, the Bears held the Bruin offense to just .054 hitting and ran away with the match (28-26, 31-29, 25-24).
“It’s typical if one team goes down, the other team smells the blood in the water, and they go after it,” said Cal coach Rich Feller.
Cal was led by junior opposite hitter Christina Higgins, who had 18 kills off astronomical .500 hitting. Karsta Lowe led UCLA as expected, with 13 kills, but the Bruins’ 21 errors to the Bears’ 14 ultimately sunk them in the end.
Coming off the upset, the Bears took on a USC team Sunday that, other than a stunning loss to San Diego in September, hadn’t shown any cracks all year. That loss excluded, the No. 2 Trojans had beaten all of their opponents in four sets or fewer, including a sweep of Stanford on Friday.
So it came as a surprise when the Bears were able to keep the first set close before falling, 28-26. And it came as an even greater surprise when Cal took the second set, 25-22, behind Lara Vukasovic’s four kills and three blocks.
When the Bears struggled in an 11-25 loss in the third set, it appeared the Trojans were taking control. But then the Bears won the fourth, pushing the match to a fifth and final set.
The Bears were immediately down and trailed 13-9 with the Trojans just two points away from taking the set and match. From there, an error by the Trojans’ Ebony Nwanebu and three straight kills from Higgins tied the match at 13. USC took a timeout with the crowd at the Galen Center on its feet.
When the teams came out of timeout, the Trojans quickly scored two points to finish off the Bears (28-26, 22-25, 25-11, 18-25, 15-13).
Cal was led in that match by Gehan, who set a personal record with 22 kills in one match.
“She was a warrior,” Feller said. “She was taking full-on swings and getting a lot of kills for us.”
Ultimately, the record-breaking performance was not enough. But the Bears see no shame in losing to the only undefeated team in the conference.
“We could have come out stronger in the fifth,” Gehan said. “But it’s a testament to the team that we fought back.”
Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee