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

TEENY COMES UP BIG
Junior outside hitter Christine Alftin has emerged as a reliable attacker for the Bears, having led the team in kills in six of their past seven matches. She had a career-high 22 kills at a .450 hitting percentage at UCLA on Oct. 23 and has registered double-digits in kills in nine of the past 11 outings. Afltin leads the Bears with 2.90 kills per set.

#SAVSTRONG
Redshirt freshman Savannah Rennie continues to insipire everyone around her with her remarkable recovery from a liver transplant in May. After being diagnosed with a rare liver disease known as Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis with Portal Hypertension, Rennie received a new liver at the Indiana University Transplant Center and was back on the court for the start of training camp in August. Shortly after the season began, Rennie received complete medical clearance and made her college debut on Oct. 7 against Utah. After gradually earning more playing time, Rennie made her first career start against No. 18 Washington State on Oct. 29 and helped the Bears pull off an upset of the Cougars, then started each of the next three matches after that. Rennie was the No. 20 Senior Ace by PrepVolleyball.com coming out of Torrey Pines High School in San Diego.

KERR MAKES MARK IN CLASSROOM
Senior Maddy Kerr continues to rake in academic honors. Earlier this month, she became the fifth Cal volleyball student-athlete in history to receive CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition, which also makes her eligible to earn CoSIDA Academic All-American honors. Cal is part of District 8, which is made up of institutions from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai'i, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Canada. Last year, 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.

KERR LEAVING LIBERO LEGACY
Senior libero Maddy Kerr has played in every set the Bears have played since setting foot on campus as a freshman, and has moved into second place on Cal's all-time digs list. She enters the week with 1,723 career digs, making her just the second Cal student-athlete ever to reach the 1,700 career digs mark. In each of her first three seasons in Berkeley, Kerr's dig total ranked among the top-10 in Cal history.Kerr is trying to catch Jillian Davis for the school's all-time record of 1,810.

JENSEN JOINS 3,000 CLUB
During the Bears' match against Arizona State on Oct. 14, senior setter Alyssa Jensen became the sixth student-athlete in Cal history to record 3,000 assists in a career. The three-year starter now has 3,320 as a Golden Bear, which ranks sixth on Cal's all-time list. Jensen, who has missed the past two matches with a foot injury,  currently ranks third in the Pac-12 with 10.47 assists per set . Her 64-assist effort in a five-set win over Northeastern on Sept. 3 is is the most in any match by a Pac-12 player this season. 

ABOUT ARIZONA
• Wildcats have victories over six ranked opponents this season
• Arizona features two of the top-4 Pac-12 players in kill average (Kendra Dahlke, Kalei Mau)
• Setter Penina Snuka leads the Pac-12 in total assists (1,119)
• LAST MEETING: Cal d. Arizona, 3-2 (10-16-16)    

ABOUT ARIZONA STATE
• ASU has lost five in a row since a win at Oregon State on Oct. 28
• JR Oluoma Okaro leads the Pac-12 in aces (0.35 aps)
• Libero Halle Harker ranks eighth in the Pac-12 with 3.78 digs per set
• LAST MEETING: ASU d. Cal 3-1 (10-14-16)