BERKELEY – Freshman Mima Mirkovic has won a pair of bronze medals as an international beach volleyball player, so she wasn't about to let an adverse environment at Tudor Fieldhouse cause her any stress on Friday night.

Mirkovic made a handful of clutch plays down the stretch to help the Cal volleyball team outlast Rice 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 29-27 at the Rice Invitational. That capped off a terrific day for Mirkovic, who also had 10 kills earlier in the day as the Bears defeated Incarnate Word 25-15, 25-17, 25-23.

"Mima is fearless," Cal head coach Matt McShane said. "Not only is she fearless, but she is a great human being. All the players like her. She makes us better on the court and off the court. She's a fun person to be around."

Mirkovic, who also plays for the Bears' beach volleyball team, won the bronze medal at the FIVB U21 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Nanjing, China last summer. The previous year, she took the bronze at the FIVB U19 World Championships.

"I've played in stadiums with thousands of screaming fans and a bunch of hecklers," Mirkovic said. "There's so much pressure, so I'm probably not as nervous as a typical freshman. And I think playing with the older girls on our team helps me so much because they put so much confidence in me and believe in me."

The Bears, who have won seven in a row for their longest winning streak since winning the first seven matches of the 2013 season, led 20-17 in the fourth set only to watch the Owls come back for a 23-21 lead. After a Cal timeout, Mirkovic put down a kill to cut the deficit to one. She then came up with the play of the match, lunging into the Bears' bench to keep a ball alive, and it ended as a Cal point when Rice made a hitting error. That tied the fourth set at 23-23.

"I wasn't going to let that point end even if I had to break my legs," Mirkovic said.

The Owls then had two set points that were staved off by Mirkovic kills. The Bears followed with two set points of their own that Rice had answers for, but Cal closed it out on a kill by senior Christine Alftin.

"That was a huge win over a home team in their tournament," McShane said. "They wanted to win badly and fought really hard. To be down 23-21 in the fourth and come back and win is a huge confidence boost for us."

Confidence is certainly growing for the Bears, who are already just two wins shy of equaling their win total from last season. Cal hasn't lost since dropping its season-opener to UC Irvine, and the Bears are exhibiting an ability to win matches in different ways.

"Winning matches like this will make us so much better because it gets us used to being down a few points and still coming back to win," Mirkovic said. "In our previous games this season, we never really were exposed to the kind of adversity we had tonight. We were in Rice's gym and a hostile environment. It's good to be exposed to that."

Mirkovic finished with 16 kills and 17 digs against the Owls while senior libero Jessica Gaffney had a career-high 23 digs. Alftin had 13 kills and nine digs.

Alftin also had 10 kills against Incarnate Word while senior Antzela Dempi added nine kills and two aces.

After winning the first two sets comfortably against the Cardinals, the Bears were forced to mount a comeback in the third. Incarnate Word established a 13-7 lead but Cal whittled away at the deficit and finally went in front when freshman middle blocker Preslie Anderson crushed an overpass to give the Bears a 23-22 advantage. After the Cardinals briefly tied it back up, Cal scored the final two points to close out the match.

The Bears close out play at the Rice Invitational on Saturday morning against Louisiana at 9 a.m. PT.