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.

Alex Turney/Staff

The Buffaloes came into Haas on Wednesday night riding somewhat of a hot streak.

The Bears shut that down quick. And they made it look easy.

The Cal women’s volleyball team beat Colorado in three easy sets, earning their third Pac-12 win of the season. The Bears (10-4, 3-2 Pac-12) started the game somewhat flat, but any flatness was soon dissipated as Cal asserted their dominance over the Buffaloes (11-4, 3-2 Pac 12), both offensively and defensively.

Leading the defensive side for the Bears was freshman libero Maddy Kerr with 12 digs and sophomore Mary McKennon with 10. Sophomore middle blocker Lara Vukasovic also helped out with a total of four blocks, and Cal’s defense  was able to keep the Buffaloes to a .144 hitting percentage.

As always, on the offensive end senior outside hitter Adrienne Gehan led the team with 15 kills and a .361 hitting percentage. Vukasovic was dominant on all aspects of the court tonight, adding 8 kills of her own.

With the Buffaloes coming into Haas after upsetting the then-No. 1 Washington last week, Cal was looking to prove that they were able to compete with the best, especially after losing in a close match to No. 2 USC last weekend. But despite the win for the Bears, the team felt like it wasn’t their best game.

“It maybe looked (easy), but it didn’t feel that way,” said head coach Rich Feller. “We had a hard time getting comfortable tonight. Fortunately the ball bounced our way a few of times, and we played up to our level a few times which I guess was the right times to do it.”

With a couple days off until their next game, the Bears are looking to regroup and regain the fire they had when competing against UCLA and USC last weekend. With a win against the Buffaloes, Cal was able to prove that their success last weekend was not a fluke.

“Even though we weren’t playing our best volleyball, (we were) doing the best we could do with the kind of spastic volleyball we were playing,” McKennon said. “We just really wanted to prove to everyone that we are Cal.”

Alicia Fong covers volleyball. Contact her at afong@dailycal.org

The post Cal volleyball takes out Colorado to move above .500 in conference play appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Michael Tao/File

The Bears are back and looking for a fight.

After a thrilling road trip, the Cal women’s volleyball team is back at Haas Pavilion this Wednesday to take on Colorado at 7:30 p.m.

The Bears (9-4, 2-2 Pac 12) are coming off a thrilling win against No. 23 UCLA and a tough loss to No. 1 USC this past weekend. Cal proved it can hang with the best of teams when it forced USC to five sets on Sunday and is now looking to brush off the loss against Colorado this week.

“I think without that lapse in the third set (against USC), the match could have gone either way,” said junior Michelle Neumayr. “I think we have a lot of good momentum going in just because of our performance in both matches this weekend.”

Despite this being the first year of play for Neumayr due to injuries, she remains one of the Bears’ most consistent players, along with senior Adrienne Gehan.

As always, Gehan will be a key factor against the Buffaloes (11-3, 3-1 Pac 12), leading the team with an impressive .304 hitting percentage. She ended last weekend with a career-high 22 kills against USC. Gehan will be going head-to-head against Colorado’s Nikki Lindow, who ranks fourth in the Pac-12 for blocks with 1.30 blocks per set.

But the Bears have their own blocking threat on defense with sophomore middle blocker Lara Vukasovic, who had six blocks against UCLA. The successful blocking by Cal was a key factor in their win against the Bruins.

“I think (blocking) is the one factor that fluctuates throughout our play,” said Gehan. “Usually our hitting and passing are pretty consistent, and the games that we block well are the games that we win, versus the game were we don’t and lose.”

The Bears are looking to ride the momentum from their win against UCLA into this Wednesday and keep the energy they had against USC. Their game plan against Colorado will be similar to that of this past weekend: pass-and-serve aggressively.

“The key thing is slowing (Colorado) down and keeping the energy up on our side,” said Neumayr. “I thought we did a great job blocking this weekend, and I don’t see why we can’t continue that on Wednesday night.”

The Buffaloes are coming off of two Pac-12 wins against Washington and UCLA, and Cal is looking to slow down its momentum by utilizing the blocking they have been working on throughout the season. By blocking consistently, the Bears are able to slow down the Colorado offense and give themselves a chance to implement their own game plan.

“They are definitely a hot team that’s really capable of beating good teams, obviously,” Gehan said. “But I think we are too. If we just come out calm and the way we’ve been playing the past two games, then we’ll be good. I like our odds.”

Alicia Fong covers volleyball. Contact her at afong@dailycal.org

The post Cal volleyball ready to bounce back against Buffs 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.

Carli Baker/File

On paper, the Bears outrank the Bruins in every category.

According to Pac-12 statistics, the Bears (8-3, 1-1 Pac-12) are ahead of the No. 16 Bruins (9-3, 0-2 Pac-12) in hitting, serving, blocks and all other statistical aspects of the game.

But UCLA is still ranked while Cal is not, raising the stakes for the Bears, who are heading to SoCal this weekend for their first Pac-12 road trip. They’ll take on UCLA on Friday at 6 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion, followed by No. 2 USC on Sunday.

For Cal to be successful against the Bruins, they will have to focus on tightening up their communication in order to prevent errors. The Bears had a sloppy game last Friday against Arizona, but despite 11 errors in the third set alone, the Bears were able to bounce back and take the game in three sets. If Cal wants to keep up with UCLA this Friday, however, it has to get rid of its inconsistent play.

“(We need to) make sure we communicate,” said head coach Rich Feller. “We want to do the little things well and control the tempo of our match to our liking. If we can do all those things as we felt we did against Stanford, then we’re pretty happy.”

Cal will have to rely heavily on its blocking and serving game in order to compete against UCLA’s two-setter offense. This means that the Bruins will have three hitters in the front row at all times, because the setter will come from the back row and join the outside hitters at the net. Because of this, blocking will be critical for the Bears, who need to make efficient blocks in order to slow down the Bruins’ offense.

“We have three hitters to cover, and if you’re not reading (the system) right, then you’re guessing,” Feller said. “And if you’re guessing, you’re not in good shape.”

In order to minimize the guessing, Cal will also have to focus on its serving game. Serving aggressively will give the Bruins fewer options on offense and effectively disorient their system. It also ensures Cal will not have to cover all three hitters at the same time, and it will keep the Bruins more predictable.

The Bears will look to senior setter Joan Caloiaro, who has served 36 aces so far this season, for aggressive serving. Other key factors will be the Bears’ ability to not only block efficiently and serve tough but also to keep up the offensive rallies they were so successful with in the preseason.

Senior outside hitter Adrienne Gehan will lead these offensive strikes, with 161 kills so far this season and an average of 4.35 kills per set. Gehan will be joined by sophomore middle blocker Lara Vukasovic, who ranks seventh in the Pac-12 with a .407 hitting percentage.

If the Bears can focus on all of these little things and bring them together to create fluid play, it might serve as Cal’s chance to get back into the AVCA Top 25 poll after this weekend.

“We’re still learning,” Feller said. “We’re still growing as a team. Obviously, winning makes us happier, but consistently playing well is what we want to make sure we accomplish every night we go out there.”

Alicia Fong covers volleyball. Contact her at afong@dailycal.org.

The post Cal volleyball hits the road for contest against No. 16 UCLA appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Staff

Awkward. Clumsy. Uncoordinated.

These are not words usually associated with Division I athletes, especially one who ranks third in the Pac-12 for kills and leads the Cal volleyball team with a .327 hitting percentage.

And yet these exact words describe senior Adrienne Gehan’s childhood.

When she first tried to play sports at the age of 8, she couldn’t even bounce a tennis ball and catch it in her hand. Adrienne was the artistic child, the one who could sit for hours with paper and colored pencils and be perfectly fine. This love for art is something she attributes to her summers spent in Europe with her family. Even today, she doesn’t really care for sports.

“I love volleyball, but I couldn’t sit here and tell you I’m super into sports,” she said. “Both my siblings make fun of me — we’ll get tickets to a game, and they won’t let me go. They’re like, ‘You’re not getting the tickets. You just sit and watch the people in the stands.’”

Because of her artistic personality, Adrienne’s volleyball journey doesn’t start with natural athleticism or “answering the call.” Her story starts with her older sister.

Adrienne’s family is no stranger to the world of college sports. Adrienne’s older sister, Lindsay, played volleyball for the University of Georgia, and her dad was an All-American swimmer at USC. In addition, her younger brother plays varsity basketball, and her mom used to play field hockey.

“Adrienne was the one standing on the other side of the field staring at the flowers while everybody else was playing soccer,” said her mother, Caroline. “And then she started growing. She was at that point where she wanted to do everything her older sister did.”

When Adrienne joined her sister in middle school, her family essentially decided she was more of the artistic type than athletic type. Forced to pick a sport for PE, Adrienne’s sister pursued field hockey — that is, until the volleyball coach laid eyes on her height.

Episcopal School head coach Laura Gomez saw Adrienne’s sister in the hallway, tapped her on the shoulder and told her to report to the gym instead of the field. With no prior knowledge of the game, Lindsay’s natural athleticism took over, and she soon came to love the game. Naturally, Adrienne wanted to be just like her older sister and decided to give it a shot.

And thus began Adrienne’s journey to Cal volleyball.

Coming in at a staggering 6-foot-2 as a freshman in high school, Adrienne decided to try out for the volleyball team. She certainly had no plans of playing college volleyball — it wasn’t even on her radar until her sophomore year.

At that point, Adrienne decided she was tired of sitting on the bench. She began working every day after school with her coach, spending hours in the gym. She grew into her body and developed the hand-eye coordination she lacked as a child. Her calm demeanor remained, but she grew to become a fierce competitor as well.

“She is very laid back and calm, but when she steps on that court, she definitely goes to work,” Gomez said. “People love to play for her, which is a great quality to have as a captain and a leader on the court. Your teammates want to do well because you’re such a great person and leader.”

Adrienne improved at such a rapid rate that she quickly became the team leader and went on to break school records, eventually winning the all-area player of the year award. She was nominated and picked as a member of the 2009 AVCA Under Armour High School All-American Team.

“Slowly, she started getting more chances, and soon, she got a call to try out for USA volleyball,” Caroline said. “We said, ‘Wait, you’ve got the wrong child. This is our Adrienne.’”

Adrienne’s accomplishments eventually led to an invitation by Cal head coach Rich Feller to tour the school. After her first visit, she knew it was the school for her. True to her decisive nature, she committed to Cal at the age of 16.

As the only senior who has played on the team for four consecutive years, Adrienne is a natural leader of the team. Her personality on the court mirrors how she is off of it: someone who remains calm in any situation. This is a new type of captain for the Bears, who have had a fiery and confrontational style of leadership in past years — but that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. It helps the team to know their leader will not lose her head after a bad play or an error.

“People see this calm demeanor on the court — sometimes people mistake that as she doesn’t care,” Caroline said. “She cares a lot. She does not like losing. But her thing is, it’s done, it’s over — let’s learn from it.”

Adrienne’s personality not only allows her to keep her cool on the court, but it also makes her a natural-born leader. Her ability to think rationally in high-intensity game situations helps keep the team from dwelling on the negatives.

“She’s probably the best co-captain you could find just because of her calm and momlike personality traits,” said Michelle Neumayr, co-captain of the Bears. “People are always so surprised of how much of a beast she is on the court because of her really nice demeanor.”

But Adrienne admits that sometimes, she can be too calm, which affects her negatively. Once in a while, she will come out and play flat as a result, something she has been working on all four years at Cal.

“I’ve had to kind of work through that as a leader,” she said. “It’s a hard balance to maintain my natural demeanor of just letting things go but, at the same time, being able to perform at a peak zone. I feel like I’m my best player when I can stay calm.”

After graduation, Adrienne hopes to find an internship position at a museum. She is double majoring in art history and history and is looking to pursue business school so that one day she can achieve her ultimate dream, one she’s had since the age of 8: being a museum director.

“I love the peace and quiet of a museum,” Adrienne said. “It’s just so perfect. No mess, no clutter — just the walls and the art. I love it.”

But for now, Adrienne is looking forward to the rest of the season. With conference play in full swing, she has plenty of time to focus on her career after the season is over.

“I love volleyball, and I’m really going to miss the competitive atmosphere,” she said. “Even though I’m calm, I want to be good. I want the team to be good — I want to be good.”

Alicia Fong covers volleyball. Contact her at afong@dailycal.org.

The post The Bigger Picture: Adrienne Gehan’s dreams outside volleyball 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.