Dukes Suffer Royal Drubbing in Opening Game of Golden Bear Invitational

You know you're having a good night when you hold your opponents to a hitting percentage of .000 over the first two sets-which is exactly what the No. 5 Cal volleyball team did in Friday's match against James Madison.

The Bears were competing against no one but themselves in the opening match of the Golden Bear Invitational at Haas Pavilion, reducing the Dukes to the hapless victims of their efficient and hard-hitting attacking game as they cruised to a 3-0 victory.

"We are our biggest competition, especially during the preseason," junior middle blocker Mindi Wiley said. "If we just take control and play our game, no one's going to stop us."

No one from James Madison came close to stopping Cal, as the squad racked up 38 kills-six from Wiley-and only seven attacking errors.

Perhaps the biggest part of the Bears' success came in the area in which they had expressed the desire to improve last week-the service game.

Led by three early aces from senior outside hitter Morgan Beck, Cal drilled the baselines for ten aces on the night.

"Our serving was really just out of this world and kept them on their heels," coach Rich Feller said. "We got a lot of opportunities to stop them at the net or dig easy balls, so I think really the serving set it up in games one and two both."

The only chink in Cal's armor began to show in the third and final set.

After posting wins of 25-12 and 25-11 in the first two sets, Feller felt comfortable with a measure of experimentation and the ensuing shifting of lineups-which included moving true freshman Shannon Hawari to Wiley's usual spot up front and removing star outside hitter Hana Cutura for the duration of the set-that resulted in some slippage.

The Dukes capitalized on five errors by the Bears to go up 11-6 before Cal regrouped behind the kill-machines that are Tarah Murrey and Am'ra Solomon.

"We got into a bit of a lull," sophomore setter Carli Lloyd said. "The start of the third set is a good thing to look at. We shanked three, missed a serve, and (the Dukes) were up like 5-1, and I was like, 'No way.' We beat ourselves, but we pulled it together so that was good."

Although most Cal fans likely walked away from Haas Pavilion with no complaints, the team still found room for improvement after its lopsided win.

"We made a lot of errors," Feller said. "We had only two hitting errors in the first two games combined, and we had five in game three. We had three service errors in games one and two and five in game three … But I was really glad the way they continued to fight, and the better team eventually won the game."

The Bears complete the Golden Bear Invitational with a Saturday doubleheader. They play first at noon against DePaul and end with the nightcap against UC Riverside at 7 pm.

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