Bears Begin Four-Match Homestand

After playing five of the past six matches on the road, the Cal volleyball team is finally back in Berkeley for four matches in a row at Haas Pavilion. Each of the Bears' past four matches came against nationally ranked teams, and Utah is the first team listed among others receiving votes this week in the AVCA Top 25. The Utes were ranked No. 25 last week. The Buffs have been ranked in the top-25 for five straight weeks, peaking at No. 16 on Sept. 19.

BEAR NECESSITIES: CAL'S TOP STORYLINES, STREAKS & TRENDS

GOOD FOR GOODEN
Redshirt sophomore Ashten Smith-Gooden appears to be rounding into form after sitting out last season with a knee injury. Playing on both pins, Smith-Gooden led the Bears offensively during their road trip to the Washington schools last weekend. In two matches against nationally ranked opponents, Smith-Gooden averaged 3.57 kills per set and hit for a .444 percentage. Overall for the season, Smith-Gooden is now second on the team at 2.67 kills per set and has a .288 hitting percentage.

SAVANNAH'S STORY
Cal's Savannah Rennie has been medically cleared to play in a match just four months after undergoing a liver transplant at the Indiana University Transplant Center. Diagnosed last Septemer with Congential Hepatic Fibrosis with Portal Hypertension, Rennie received the transplant in May and returned to Berkeley by the start of training camp at the beginning of August. After initially practicing in just limited fashion, the redshirt freshman is now practicing in full capacity and could make her Cal debut in a match soon. Rennie was PrepVolleyball.com's No. 20 Senior Ace from Torrey Pines HIgh School in San Diego and graduated early to enroll at Cal in the spring semester of 2015. But she became ill that summer and was finally diagnosed with the ailment last September.

HOLY HUIZENGA
Freshman opposite hitter Bailee Huizenga has been Cal's steadiest hitter this season, and she was much more than that during the Bears' match against No. 11 Stanford on Sept. 20. Huizenga registered 19 kills at a whopping .567 hitting percentage, giving her the most kills by a Cal freshman in a single match since Tarah Murrey in 2008. Huizenga leads the Bears with 2.91 kills per set and has a .271 hitting percentage.

RISING UP
Earlier this season, senior libero Maddy Kerr became just the third player in Cal volleyball history to register 1,500 career digs. She is now in third place on Cal's all-time digs list with 1,576 and needs 27 more to move into second. .Jillian Davis is Cal's all-time leader in digs with 1,810 in her career. Kerr ranks fifth in the Pac-12 with 4.25 digs per set. She is the daughter of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

KERR MAKES MARK IN CLASSROOM
Senior Maddy Kerr became just the second Cal volleyball student-athlete ever to earn Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honors last season. Kerr has a cumulative GPA of 3.76 while double-majoring in Media Studies and Rhetoric. She was Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention as a sophomore.

ABOUT UTAH
• JR Adora Anae leads the Pac-12 with 4.73 kills per set
• The Utes were ranked No. 25 in the AVCA poll last week
• Anae had school record 31 kills in win over No. 9 BYU last month
• LAST MEETING: Utah d. Cal, 3-2 (11-19-15)

ABOUT NO. 19 COLORADO
• Buffs have wins over No. 12 UCLA, No. 13 Penn State and No. 17 Illinois
• Colorado was ranked as high as No. 16 nationally two weeks ago
• Purdue transfer Alexa Smith is a former National High School Player of the Year
• LAST MEETING: Colorado d. Cal 3-0 (11-21-15)