BERKELEY – It wasn't that long ago that the Cal beach volleyball team struggled to put away a team like USF.

Now the Dons, like every other Northern California opponent, can't put away the Bears.

No. 14 Cal maintained its season-long trend of defeating all of its Northern California opponents Friday, breezing past USF 5-0 at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts. The Bears (14-3) are now 9-1 against teams from Northern California this season – the Bears fell to Saint Mary's on the first day of the season but came back to beat the Gaels earlier this month. The Bears' only other losses this season are to No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 USC.

"In years past, all of our local competition was big competition," Cal head coach Meagan Owusu said. "It's always good to step back and see how far we've come."

USF defeated Cal in the first two all-time meetings between the teams, in 2014 and 2015. After not playing each other in 2016, Cal has evened the series with the Dons by winning in each of the last two seasons.

The Bears didn't drop a set Friday and held USF to single-digit points in three different sets. Cal's No. 2 pair of senior Jessica Gaffney and sophomore Iya Lindahl were especially dominant, winning 21-13, 21-9.

"This week in practice, we focused a lot on diversifying our offense and we challenged them to push themselves into uncomfortable circumstances during these matches and to get a little better during competition," Owusu said. "That's always a challenge, and they did a great job."

The Bears are back in action next weekend at the Wildcat Invitational at Arizona. Cal will take on No. 15 Arizona, No. 17 Stetson, Arizona State and Colorado Mesa.


No. 14 Cal 5, USF 0
No. 1: Mima Mirkovic-Alexia Inman (Cal) def. Julia Topor-Anna Dalla Vecchia, 21-16, 21-16
No. 2: Jessica Gaffney-Iya Lindahl (Cal) def. Haley Howell-Carly Lowry, 21-13, 21-9
No. 3: Bryce Bark-Madison Dueck (Cal) def. Erica Ronda-Camille Araujo, 21-14, 21-17
No. 4: Mia Merino-Caroline Schafer (Cal) def. Sabrina Blackwell-Nora Buvarp-Lavik, 21-9, 21-15
No. 5: Grace Campbell-Maddie Micheletti (Cal) def. Pi'ikea Clemens-Shannon Levinson, 21-14, 21-9