When senior outside hitter Am'ra Solomon got her first tip of the night-a dump into the front row of Arizona State-she immediately turned around to point at coach Rich Feller.

"She knew that was the one," Feller said.

The No. 5 Cal volleyball team's 3-0 rout of Arizona State (10-7, 1-3 in the Pac-10) on Friday night was standard protocol for the Bears on the stat sheet but, as evidenced by Solomon's response to her unorthodox kill, the victory brought out a different side of the Cal squad.

"We just have to start mixing things up," Feller said. "As you go through the Pac-10, because of all the video we get to watch, every Pac-10 team knows everyone else really, really well … So we have to change things up a little bit."

The Bears (15-1, 5-0) changed things up by working their finesse game, something that has often been overshadowed by the hard-hitting styles of players like Solomon and junior outside hitter Hana Cutura.

In particular, sophomore setter Carli Lloyd showed off her propensity for the dump, notching six kills on six attempts with no errors on the night.

"With how high I am, it's hard to react really fast, so (the dump) is an easy kill actually," Lloyd said. "But it has to be the right pass. Tonight we did a very good job of that. Kristen (Kathan) was passing perfect balls, and it was the perfect time to dump. I hit 1.000 tonight, but it was because of how good our passes were."

Cal's service game, which has at times been spotty, also shone in the effort against the Sun Devils. Junior Mindi Wiley and Cutura combined for five aces and generally placed the ball well, forcing Arizona State out of system and bringing its hitting percentage down to a meager .058 for the match.

"We thought (Arizona State) was going to be a very fast-paced team and we wanted to make sure we played at our pace, but our serving took them out of stuff so fast and for such long stretches, we sort of got lulled a bit," Feller said. "The pace of the game got really slow, and then we sort of went slow."

The straight-sets victory makes it 26 consecutive sets won for the Bears, one shy of the school record. A large part of that success has been due to their ability to shut down the big-name hitters.

Against then-No. 11 Oregon two weeks ago, Cal limited second-team

All-American Gorana Maricic to a -.030 hitting percentage. The story was no different against the Sun Devils' big name, Sarah Reaves. Reaves, who was an all Pac-10 Freshman Team selection last year, hit just .034 against the Bears.

"We just kind of focus on their best hitters, the hitters who get the most sets," Cutura said. "We did a great job tonight blocking … We watch the tape and see who they set the most, and our coaches give us blocking calls."

The biggest challenge of the weekend awaits Cal on Saturday night in the form of Arizona, a team whose stout defense has it on the brink of being ranked.

In preparation for the Wildcats, the Bears have been trying to maintain their focus on the little things on the court.

"We're trying to clean up a lot of things," Lloyd said. "Serving, the pin attacks, and blocking as well. I think we did a good job hitting those key things, but we can still clean it up a bit more."

Tags: RICH FELLER, CAL VOLLEYBALL, CARLI LLOYD, AM'RA SOLOMON