After a weekend on the island of Oahu, participating in the Hawaii Invitational, the Bears head home with four grand wins and one close loss.

Friday afternoon, No. 11 Cal kicked off its weekend with a whopping 5-0 sweep over Nebraska and a 4-1 win against Washington to add its sixth and seventh-straight wins.

During the Nebraska match, all but one Cal pair was able to win their respective matches in straight sets, displaying gold and blue dominance over the Huskers.

Blue and gold pair No. 4 Sierra Caffo and Brooke Buchner seemed to struggle during the first set of their match, as it resulted in a 16-21 loss to Nebraska pair Laney Choboy and Lindsay Krause. Despite the first-set loss, the Bears were able to come back and completely turn the game around. The second set was snatched by the blue and gold with 21-7, bringing the game into a tie-breaking set resulting in Cal’s big win over Nebraska with a 15-9 third-set score.

No. 14 Washington came next that same Friday and told a similar, but not identical, story as the previous game. Cal’s No. 1 pair for this match, Maya Gessner and Ella Dreibholz, might have underestimated the Huskies’ abilities. With final set scores being 22-20 and 21-16, this was a close match and both pairs were up to par.

Despite the No. 1 pair’s loss, the overall 4-1 score secured yet another win for the Bears.

The following day, Cal faced off against Texas and Oregon, adding its sixth and seventh 5-0 sweeps of 2023. With the conclusion of the Oregon game, Cal also gained its 10th win of the season and ninth-straight win.

The Texas pairs fought, but Cal proved to be the stronger team — the game was won in straight sets. The closest set score was on court four between Cal’s Buchner and Natalie Martin and Texas’ Jordyn Byrd and Jenna Wenaas, with a second set that ended 21-18.

After a longhorn supper, the Bears had duck for dessert. Similarly to Texas, Oregon lost in straight sets without a single tiebreak. This time around, though, the closest Oregon came to taking a set was on court two during the match between Cal’s Gia Fisher and Ainsley Radell and Oregon’s Ella Tyus and Bea Wetton, with a 21-17 score.

By the end of Saturday, Cal seemed to be an unstoppable force, but Hawaii proved to be too strong for the Bears.

No. 11 Cal finally buckled against No. 9 Hawaii after a nine-game win streak. It was a close game though, with consistently tight sets. The Rainbow Wahine just proved too strong for the Bears, beating Cal 3-2.

The Bears are set to face off against Saint Mary’s and Stanford next weekend, defending their home turf on Clark Kerr Campus’ courts.