Nov. 23, 2012
Final Stats
BERKELEY - Senior middle hitter Shannon Hawari and junior outside hitter Adrienne Gehan had 10 kills apiece and senior middle hitter Kat Brown tied Ellen Orchard for first place on Cal's all-time blocks list, but the Bears fell to No. 2 Stanford 25-20, 25-22, 25-19 in The Big Spike on Friday night in their regular season finale.
Sophomore outside hitter Christina Higgins added nine kills and senior opposite hitter Correy Johnson had seven for Cal, which finished the regular season 15-15 and 9-11 in Pac-12 Conference play.
The Bears, which finished in a tie with Arizona State in the conference standings, will now wait and find out if they will be selected to the NCAA Tournament field. Teams with an overall record of .500 or better are eligible. Cal has a strong RPI of 39 and has notched wins over No. 6 Hawaii and No. 2 Oregon this season. The Bears have also had match points against No. 8 Washington and No. 6 USC before falling in five sets.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPNU.
Brown registered two blocks to give her 504 for her career, equaling Orchard's career total from 2004-07.
The Bears fell behind early in the first set, but after trailing 18-13, made a run to close to within 21-19. Gehan had two kills during the run. But Stanford then scored three points in a row to take control again.
Cal led for most of the second set. The Bears scored the first three points, and after a kill by Higgins had a 10-6 lead. But the Cardinal (27-3, 19-1), which clinched the Pac-12 championship last week, came back to go in front, 15-14. It looked as though Cal would take control again after a kill by Johnson and then a block by Johnson and Brown gave the Bears a 17-15 advantage, and they ultimate pushed the lead to 20-17. But once again the Cardinal made a run of its own, scoring four in success to assume a 21-20 lead.
A service error by Stanford setter Madi Bugg tied it up again, but the Cardinal scored four of the next five points to take command of the match.
Cal stayed close during the early stages of the third set, but after it was tied 9-9, the Cardinal scored six of the next seven points to take a 15-10 lead. The Bears scored three in a row on two kills by freshman outside hitter Lara Vukasovic and a kill by Hawari to cut it to 15-13, but Cal could not get any closer.
The match was played in front of a season-high 2,307 at Haas Pavilion.
