Carlos Caceres/Staff

The only thing the Cal volleyball team has been able to consistently count on this season has been its inconsistent play.

In this season alone, the Bears have lost in upsets to the likes of UC Davis and Kansas State. Yet, they’ve swept then-No. 16 UCLA and and then-No. 19 Creighton. It’s been the kind of year that has fans scratching their heads.

In Cal’s (10-5, 3-3 Pac-12) latest tilt, they will need to play as consistently as possible to top No. 6 Washington (13-1, 5-1) on Wednesday night in Seattle. It’s not an impossible order, as Cal recently pushed USC, the current top team in the country, to a fifth set in which the Bears were just two points away from victory.

Accomplishing the upset will just depend on which Cal squad shows up.

“It’s a mental thing,” said outside hitter Michelle Neumayr on the team’s inconsistency this season. “It’s obviously easier for us to get pumped up and play against a No. 2 team than it is for Davis. But we’re working on being consistent, and we have to take every team the same way.”

The Bears’ most recent battle with inconsistent play came when the team fell in four sets to Utah on Sunday night. In that match, the Utes’ blockers were able to push the Bears into a season-low hitting percentage of .192 off of 13 blocks.

The Huskies play a similar style of volleyball as the Utes, so if the Bears can learn from the mistakes they made Sunday, they should come into Seattle better prepared. Washington runs a 6-2 offense like that of the Utes, in which two setters are on the court at once. Washington is also a good blocking team, with an average of 2.69 blocks per set, just .13 fewer than Utah.

“We certainly saw the need for having our right-side and left-side blockers help out more when the ball is set to the middle area of the court,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “If we start going wide, then it’s one-on-one in the middle, and the result against Utah was that their middle blockers had a field day.”

The Bears will need their outside blockers, such as Christina Higgins, to step up in order to stop Washington’s attack. Higgins has recorded .78 blocks per set, the best number for a player who isn’t a middle blocker.

“Our X-factor is Christina and her huge block,” Neumayr said. “Her offense has been awesome as well, but we’ll definitely need her block against Washington.”

Higgins’ play could end up being the key factor as the Cal team tries to get its hitting back on track as well as stop outside hitters such as Krista Vansant, who is averaging 3.85 kills per set for the Huskies.

Doing that is obviously much easier said than done. Earlier this season, the Washington team was ranked No. 1 before a shocking loss to Colorado early in October. Since that loss, the Huskies have dropped only one set in three matches.

For the Bears, overcoming those odds begins in the mind as a mental struggle with their own inconsistency.

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Cal volleyball treks to Seattle to face No. 6 Washington appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Alex Turney/Staff

The Cal volleyball team — predicted to finish seventh in the Pac-12 — has established itself as a team that can upset anyone in the conference and the country.

The Bears swept Colorado on Wednesday night in a match that was never very close. The Buffaloes, although unranked themselves, previously toppled then-No. 1 Washington. Meanwhile, the Bears’ last two matches before Wednesday featured a convincing sweep of then-No. 16 UCLA and an excruciatingly close five-set loss to USC, which is now the No. 1 team in the country.

The Bears (10-4, 3-2 Pac-12) are looking to continue that run of impressive play when they take on Utah (13-3, 2-2) on Sunday night.

The challenge for the Bears will be dealing with Utah’s two-setter offense. Unlike most volleyball teams, which use only one setter, the Utes use both junior Kalee Kirby and sophomore Kendall Cygan to run their offense. This allows the team to attack with three front-row players while keeping the Cal defense on its toes.

This style of play forces defenses into commit blocking — where defensive blockers have to follow one player along the net as if they are playing man-to-man defense. In order to be successful against this attack, the Bears will have to effectively react to the setter who receives the ball.

“You have to be really good at reading the setter,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “Recognizing the pass, finding the setter and reading her body posture and reacting to to where she does set, as opposed to guessing.”

Leading the way for the Bears on defense is middle blocker Lara Vukasovic, who is averaging 1.28 blocks per set. Cal’s other middle blocker — Lillian Schonewise — also has .78 per set. Meanwhile opposite hitter Christina Higgins, who plays almost exclusively in the front row, is averaging .83. The pressure will be on those players to successfully read the Utes’ setters and react.

When a ball does get through the Bears’ blockers, freshman Maddy Kerr will be waiting. Cal’s libero is currently averaging a team-best 3.17 digs per set. The Bears also have four other players who are averaging more than two in a year in which Feller has emphasized the passing game.

“It always starts with a pass,” he said.

After a successful pass, the next step for the Bears will rely on setter Joan Caloiaro. Effective setting by the senior will open up the Cal offense.

“Joan has to really set an intelligent match,” Feller said. “That will allow our hitters to be freed up for really good swings.”

From there, hitters Adrienne Gehan and Christina Higgins, who are averaging 4.5 and 3.3 kills per set, respectively, will have a chance to finish the play and win a point for the Bears.

Based on Cal’s recent play, the team should be able to execute effectively and will be the favorite over the Utes. But every team in the Pac-12 provides a challenge, and the Bears always see room for improvement.

“We’ve got a long ways to go,” Feller said. “We’re a good team right now. But we have a long ways to go before we are a very, very good team.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Cal volleyball prepares for Utah’s two-setter offense appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Senior Staff

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 rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Cal volleyball sweeps No. 16 UCLA, falls short of upset over No. 2 USC appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/File

During a sloppy night of volleyball, all the Bears had to do was not beat themselves to claim a victory over Arizona.

The Wildcats (10-4, 0-2 Pac-12) came into Berkeley on Friday night looking for their first conference win, but they couldn’t correct their own mistakes and mental errors and instead handed Cal (8-3, 1-1 Pac-12) its own first victory in the conference in just three sets (25-23, 25-14, 25-23). The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Bears after the team began the season with seven straight victories.

“We played well at times and a little rocky at times,” said Cal coach Rich Feller after the match. “But it’s good to have the win.”

The first set could not have been more close.

Though the Bears outhit the Wildcats .333 to .244 in that opening set, the match continued to swing back and forth in a nearly synchronized fashion as the set was tied on 19 separate occasions.

Arizona committed eight errors in that opening set and were only able to keep pace with the Bears by hitting six more kills. Still, Cal was able to take the set 25-23.

In the second set, Arizona’s hitting percentage slipped to .026, and Cal dominated. The Wildcats committed another eight errors and this time was not able to cover up their mistakes. Cal had runs of six points and five points to eventually win the set by 11.

Many of Arizona’s errors during that stretch did not show up on the stat sheet. One memorable example occurred when Maddy Kerr, Cal’s freshman libero, served an ace in the second set. Kerr’s serves are not intimidating, as she hits the ball high over the net to the center of the court nearly every time. But on one play, two Arizona players looked dumbfounded at each other as the ball hit the court, giving Kerr her first ace of her career.

“It’s not a secret that she’s serving there,” said Feller. “Maddy played some pretty good defense, too. She got some pancakes and digs.”

Those kind of mental mistakes — such as letting uncontested balls hit the floor — defined the match. But it was Cal making those kind of miscues in the third set.

The hitting percentages in the final set — .061 for Cal and .070 for Arizona — express the sloppiness that defined both teams’ play. Arizona once again committed a high number of errors, with seven in that set. But the Bears were just as undisciplined, with 11 errors.

Cal was down 19-13 and it looked like the match would get pushed to a fourth set, when someone flipped a switch for the Bears. Cal went on a 10-1 run in which the team successfully blocked Arizona three times. The Bears now had a 23-20 advantage and eventually rode that comeback to a 25-23 victory, clinching the match.

“I liked how we came back with a lot of fire and didn’t give up on the set,” said senior setter Joan Caloiaro after the match.

“The blocking was perfect at the end — you couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Cal volleyball snaps losing streak in win over Arizona appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Carli Baker/File

When the Bears host Arizona at 8 p.m. on Friday, both teams will be competing for the same opportunity: to put a loss against a rival behind them and to jump to .500 in Pac-12 play.

Cal (7-3, 0-1 Pac-12) is coming off a loss to Stanford on Wednesday night and is in the midst of a three-match losing streak after starting the season 7-0. The Wildcats (10-3, 0-1), meanwhile, are coming off the losing end of a sweep against Arizona State.

Although the Bears have lost their last three, their most recent match, against rival No. 7 Stanford, was one of the best performances the team has put in all year. Cal kept the match close and did not lose any of the four sets by more than three points.

“It was a hard loss,” said middle blocker Lillian Schonewise. “But I think it motivated us to come out, play strong and prove ourselves again.”

Although the Wildcats lost in a sweep to the Sun Devils, that match was also much closer than the box score indicates, as nearly every set went down to the wire. But the result is still a loss, and both the Wildcats and the Bears find themselves in the same position: in an 0-1 conference hole. In a conference as tough as the Pac-12, which currently features six ranked teams, every win is crucial, and both teams will be desperate to take this contest.

For the Bears to have success, they will have to play much as they did in that game against Stanford. In that match, Cal was able to move the ball well, allowing the team to run its offense effectively.

“If we can come out with the same intensity and focus we had against Stanford, I think we’ll be good,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “We need to keep serving tough to take a team out of their system and let our blocks and our defense kind of carry the day a little bit.”

For Arizona, the strategy will be much the same. The Wildcats will need to serve effectively to try to rattle Cal’s offense, something the Cardinal, with 12 serving errors, failed to do Wednesday.

Arizona will also need clutch performances from its star players, such as Madi Kingdon, who leads her team with 4.45 kills per set. But Kingdon’s hitting percentage is at a relatively low .215, indicating that the Wildcats will need her to be more consistent if they want to win.

The Bears, meanwhile, will need to continue to get all of their talented players involved. Adrienne Gehan is the undisputed leader of the team and often finishes the night leading the team in both kills and digs. For Cal to win, the team needs to balance Gehan’s touches with those of other players, something the Bears did effectively against Stanford. They need players such as Lara Vukosovic, Christian Higgins and Lillian Schonewise, all of whom are averaging more than two kills per set and had double-digit kills against Stanford, to show up in force again.

If the team can once again play as it did against the Cardinal, the result this time should be a win instead of a close loss.

“It’s the little things in practice that we need to tweak,” Schonewise said. “But nothing major.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee.

The post Cal volleyball will play for first Pac-12 win against Arizona appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Carli Baker/Senior Staff

The Big Spike certainly did not feel like a match between the No. 8 team in the country and an unranked squad coming off two brutal, embarrassing losses.

Instead, it felt more like what a match between two historic rivals located just a handful of miles apart should feel like.

Cal (7-3) was not expected to give the Cardinal (8-2) much trouble. After all, No. 8 Stanford was picked to win the conference in the preseason and is widely regarded as one of the best teams in the country. The match had all the makings of a blowout in the Cardinal’s favor.

But that didn’t stop the Bears from putting up a fight. Although the Bears lost in four sets (25-20, 23-25, 22-25, 26-28), every single one of those sets gave the Cardinal a challenge.

The Bears found themselves facing a less-than-healthy Cardinal squad, which may have led to the back-and-forth nature of the match. Inky Ajanaku — who currently ranks ninth in the conference in hitting percentage — did not play for the Cardinal last night, and she did not appear to be on the bench, either. But that didn’t slow down the Cardinal too much, as Ajanaku’s replacement, Megan McGehee, hit a whopping .562.

After ugly losses to UC Davis and Kansas State in which the Bears got sloppy with passing and made communication errors, the team looked sharp Thursday. Cal moved the ball better and was able to keep each set close until the end, never losing a set by more than three points.

The Bears made vast improvements in the way they ran their offense. Whereas last week at UC Davis the match turned into Cal getting the ball to Adrienne Gehan at every possible opportunity, on Wednesday the squad spread it around. Gehan still got her touches — with 19 kills off .180 hitting — but other players were also able to shine and keep the offense from becoming one-dimensional. Lara Vukosovic led the Bears with .455 hitting and recorded 12 kills. Meanwhile, Lillian Schonewise and Christina Higgins each had 11 kills.

“We played a lot more consistently,” Gehan said after the match. “Our passing was good, and our defense played a lot better than it had in the last few games.”

Cal was able to mount comebacks in nearly every set off its impressive team play, but the Cardinal always had an answer for the Bears’ attacks. Stanford outhit the Bears, .314 to .216. Cal also had 25 attacking errors to Stanford’s 16.

“I’m pretty happy with the way we ran our offense most of the time,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “But we still need to find a couple more kills per game.”

In the fourth and ultimately final set, the Bears began their comeback, at one point setting themselves up with set point, 25-24. But as the two teams went blow for blow, the Cardinal was finally able to outpace Cal and took the set and the match, 28-26.

“That’s the best we’ve played in a while,” Feller said. “So I’m pretty pleased with that, except for the outcome.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org.

The post Despite vast improvements, Cal volleyball narrowly falls to Stanford appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Leya Andrews/File

For the first game of the regular season, the Cal volleyball team faces against No. 7 Stanford. Can the underdog Bears start their campaign on a bang with an upset over their nemesis? How will veteran leaders like Adrienne Gehan and Michelle Neumayr, who overcame injuries that would eventually keep her from volleyball for two years, fare against the Cardinal?

Beat writers Riley McAtee and Alicia Fong will be live blogging from Haas Pavilion. Game is set to start at Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

The post Live blog: Cal volleyball vs Stanford appeared first on The Daily Californian.

When the Bears play Stanford in the Big Spike on Wednesday, they will have as tough an opponent on their hands as they will all year.

Cal is playing a team that is ranked No. 7 and is returning all six of its starters and its libero from 2012. The Cardinal squad also currently ranks first in the Pac-12 in kills per set and blocks and second in hitting percentage. As if that weren’t enough for the Bears, Stanford’s Carly Wopat and Inky Ajanaku rank first and second in hitting percentage in the conference, respectively.

So the Bears will be massive underdogs. Cal will most likely lose, with the only uncertainty being how many sets it takes for the Cardinal to put down the Bears.

But this match is pivotal for a young Cal team that is attempting to show that it has improved from the team that notched a 15-16 record a year ago.

At the beginning of the year, it looked like the team really was ready to move past 2012’s mediocrity.

The Bears ripped through their first seven games with 22 straight sets won, including wins over tough-but-not-elite teams like then-No. 19 Creighton and Santa Clara. Cal soon took the No. 23 slot in the national rankings, and it looked like the program had turned a new leaf. Passing — which had been emphasized all offseason after a poor show in 2012 — looked to be one of the team’s strengths. The players were playing with legitimate chemistry, and though many of those first seven opponents weren’t top talent, it looked like Cal would have no problem taking its next two matches, posting a 9-0 record heading into the Big Spike.

Then the bottom fell out.

Cal lost to Kansas State in five tough sets in a game that Cal coach Rich Feller called “a little blip.” That blip turned into a full-blown alert when the Bears lost to UC Davis in a match where they shouldn’t have lost even one set. To give an idea of how monumentally unexpected that upset was, I heard one Davis fan remark after the match that it was the biggest win for the Aggies in five years. To be on the losing side of that must hurt.

So that brings us back to the Big Spike on Wednesday. Which Cal team will show up? The one that started 7-0 and looked near unbeatable? Or the one that’s looked lost and confused on the court the last two matches?

Even if the former shows up, the Bears will still have their hands full. Don’t let losses to Texas and Florida fool you — this Stanford squad is stacked. Even if the Bears play their best, our young team will most likely not be able to top the Cardinal, which looks poised for a deep playoff run come December.

But keep your eyes on the court. We already know that Adrienne Gehan is a beast both offensively and defensively — her 129 kills are nearly 60 more than the next player on the squad, and she’s second in digs. We know that Lillian Schonewise is filling in well at middle blocker, as her 1.17 blocks per set place her just outside the Pac-12’s top 10. We know that Maddy Kerr, a true freshman, has looked excellent at libero with a team-leading 3.43 digs per set. And a myriad other players have shown flashes of talent from Christina Higgins to Lara Vukasovic.

But can they function as a team? Can they pass and communicate well?

Watch for those details, because even if the result of the contest looks like a certainty, the way Cal will play is completely up in the air. Whichever Cal team shows up on Thursday will go a long way toward indicating whether the last two losses are a fluke or a trend.

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee.

The post Two is a coincidence, three is a trend appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/File

DAVIS — When Cal lost in five sets to Kansas State, fans were hoping it was just a fluke. After all, this was the team that started with a perfect 7-0 record and 21 straight sets won.

But that loss was not a fluke.

The Bears (7-2) fell to UC Davis (7-5) in 4 sets Thursday night (12-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-20). The loss was not exactly what one would expect when a Pac-12 program — one that was ranked just days ago — takes on a team that took fourth place in the Big West conference last year.

“We definitely played way below our standards,” said Cal coach Rich Feller after the match. “And the Davis team wanted it really bad.”

After an easy first-set victory, the Bears started to let up in the second. In that set, the Bears were rotating players who don’t often see playing time, pulling their starters to give time to some of the backups and freshmen. As a result, the Aggies jumped to an 8-4 lead and never gave up en route to a 25-20 win, tying the match at 1-1.

But the Bears put an end to the backup experiment in the next set, when they came out with all of their starters. Gone were freshmen Alyssa Jensen and Jenelle Jordan, in favor of usual starters Joan Caloiaro and Lara Vukasovic.

But the Aggies didn’t let up.

UC Davis soon led 13-8. Cal’s passing during this period was erratic, and as a result, the attack attempts by the Bears were often poorly set up. When many of Cal’s passes shot up in the air, they allowed the Aggies time to set up blocks. Sometimes, the Bears were simply attacking out of the backcourt — a low-percentage shot.

The only Bear showing much offensive potency was Adrienne Gehan. The Aggies couldn’t stop her. As a result, Cal started funneling the ball her way. She went from 12 attack attempts in the first two sets combined to 18 in the third set alone, bringing her total to 30. She had nine kills in just the third set.

But the Bears were still outhit .357 to .350. And although they started to claw their way back in at the end, they still fell, 26-24.

Suddenly, the Bears were in a place they never expected to be: down 1-2.

The players’ faces said it all. The Bears — usually full of smiles — looked lost on the court. Meanwhile, the Aggies were filled with excitement to be in the game this late.

The fourth set was much the same, except the strategy of giving the ball to Gehan — which looked like it was beginning to be effective in the third set — no longer was working. Davis began setting up blocks in anticipation of the ball going in Gehan’s direction. As a result, she had to force more and more attempts, leading to six errors in the fourth set when she had just two in the three sets prior.

The Aggies took the fourth set, 25-20, clinching the match.

“It might be an anomaly,” Feller said. “Hopefully, it’s not a trend.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post UC Davis stuns Cal volleyball, 3-1 appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kelly Fang/Senior Staff

Michelle Neumayr knew something was wrong, but she didn’t want to admit it.

In July 2012, Neumayr was ready to get back on the court. During her entire freshman year, she was forced to sit out with a torn ACL, and after a season spent rehabbing her knee, she was hungry for volleyball.

But something wasn’t right.

In practices, Neumayr’s knee would often buckle. She would fall to the floor, and the team would hold its collective breath.

But she would always pop back up ready to go. With a brace on her knee giving her support, there didn’t seem to be a major problem.

“At the time, we weren’t sure of the significance of her knee buckling,” says Cal coach Rich Feller.

And then one day her knee collapsed under her, and she didn’t immediately get up.

Neumayr tore her meniscus, an injury that usually has a recovery of about six weeks. Though frustrated, she was determined to return to the court by the start of Pac-12 play.

However, an MRI later that day revealed a situation that was even worse: Neumayr had been practicing on a torn ACL. She would need another surgery. And she would miss her second-straight season of volleyball.

Though Neumayr was devastated at the time, she spent that year on the bench much as she had the year prior: studying the game of volleyball and hitting the weight room. Soon, she found those years away from the sport benefited her as an athlete, player and teammate.

A year prior to that injury, Neumayr was playing in the 2011 Junior Olympics in Atlanta. It was her last big tournament before she would begin her college career.

On the second day of the tournament, Neumayr jumped for what should have been a routine kill for the outside hitter, but when she landed, she pivoted awkwardly on her knee. She crumpled to the floor as her knee gave out under her, clutching her leg as she fell. It all happened in a blur. Neumayr expected to have rolled her ankle, but her father knew immediately that the injury was much more devastating.

“The way she fell to the floor, everyone knew,” says Neumayr’s father, Preston. “It was clear she tore her ACL from the way she fell.”

Coaches and players darted toward her, fearing the worst. It wasn’t long before she was whisked away to a medical tent amid a flurry of activity. Her teammates held their breath — no one could be completely sure of the extent of her injury just yet.

An MRI later that day confirmed what trainers already suspected: Neumayr had torn her ACL. She started summer school at Cal just three days later and was walking around Berkeley before she even had surgery on her injured knee. Although she easily could have opted out of summer classes to focus on her recovery, she wanted to get on campus as soon as possible.

“I knew she would be back,” Feller says. He was right, but it would take two years instead of just one.

Fast forward a year from that injury — to July 2012 — and Neumayr was faced with a task nearly as difficult as recovering from her first ACL tear: telling her team she’d torn it again.

When she first heard the result of the MRI, she broke down crying in her mother’s car.

“I didn’t even know how to comfort her,” Lynne, her mother, says. “She couldn’t believe it.”

But by the time Neumayr met her team in the training room, she held herself together to give the players the news that she would have to sit out for another year.

“I just felt sick to my stomach,” says Adrienne Gehan, Neumayr’s teammate and roommate. “You didn’t even have words to say to her, because out of everybody, she was the last person you would want to be hurt.”

Neumayr spent that night at her parents’ house in San Mateo. She returned to Berkeley with a cleared head and a new goal: Put volleyball out of her mind, and focus on getting in the best shape of her life.

That day, she sent her parents this text message: “I’m doing it again. If there’s a chance I can play I’m going to get my knee fixed again.”

Her frustration turned to determination, and she began the long road of recovery for the second time. She was soon one of the strongest and best-conditioned players on the team, a result of showing up to the weight room seven days a week for two hours at a time.

For Neumayr, that wasn’t even the hard part.

“I can handle the whole surgery and rehab process — that wasn’t a doubt in my mind,” she says. “It was not being able to be out there again with players I really like and doing what I love.”

By the time the 2013 season rolled around, she was more than ready to return.

Two years on the bench have made Neumayr a leader.

Neumayr built relationships with players in a way she couldn’t have had she been playing. She was able to give advice as if she were a coach, because she couldn’t take anyone’s starting position.

“No one can ever doubt Michelle if she says you have to work harder,” Feller says. “No one can doubt that that is sincere, and that Michelle knows what that means.”

Those two years also made Neumayr one of the team’s smartest players. Often, new players are amazed by the speed of the game in college compared to high school. But Neumayr watched the game for so long that she was ready to slip right into a starting role in August with no adjustment period needed.

“She’s just sat and watched this level of game for two years from a completely outside perspective,” says Gehan, who also has been held out with injuries at various times in her career. “That can really help a lot. Which is one of the reasons she’s such a smart, all-around player.”

It was no surprise when Feller named Neumayr a team captain before she had even played for Cal. Her discipline through the rehab process won her the respect of her teammates, and her knowledge of the game made her a natural leader.

Before the team’s first match of the season, against Nevada, everyone in the locker room was excited for the freshmen to experience their first college match.

Neumayr’s comment from the back of the room? “Hey guys, it’s my first game, too!”

Everyone laughed. She had made it easy for them to forget she was playing for the first time.

She admits she was nervous during the first serve of that first game. Although her recovery is still not over — coming back from two years off is a long process — she is enjoying being what she calls a “normal” volleyball player again.

“I need to stay patient,” Neumayr says. “But I’m having so much fun just being out there. And I’m definitely cherishing every moment.”

Riley McAtee covers volleyball. Contact him at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

The post Brace Yourself: How Michelle Neumayr’s injuries made her a team leader appeared first on The Daily Californian.