TUCSON – Mima Mirkovic nabbed her third consecutive double-double and 15th of the season, with a 21 kill, 15 dig showing to push a point-by-point thriller with the No. 23 Arizona Wildcats to five sets.
 
Despite Mirkovic adding another three kills in the fifth set in a game-high performance, the Bears last-ditch effort to overcome Arizona's 8-1 run to open the final set, fell short. The Bears gave up a painful 3-2 (17-25, 25-18, 19-25, 25-23, 15-10) decision that will likely hinder any playoff hopes. 

Cal (15-15, 7-11 Pac-12) forced the tie breaker despite being outhit 17-14 in a hard-fought set 4. Capitalizing on a nine-error performance from the Wildcats (21-10, 10-9 Pac-12), who also hit just .178, the Bears produced its most efficient game of the night with a .227 clip.
 
Juniors Bailee Huizenga and Maddie Haynes contributed nine kills each, often becoming momentum shifters throughout the match to keep the Bears in the contest. Arizona natives Preslie Anderson and Lauren Forte combined for 13 kills, with Forte recording 4.0 blocks to pace the Bears.
 
"I'm proud of the way we pushed this match to five, while not playing our best style of volleyball," said head coach Jennifer Dorr. "We are learning as a group how important and difficult it is to be consistently good match after match, especially from the serve and pass stat line. We must continue to improve our skill so we can have the confidence to be mentally strong and physically aggressive each time we face an opponent."
 
Cal was outhit 15-12, committing five attacking errors and a pair of errors on the serve to give Arizona a comfortable cushion in the opening set. The Bears also were unable to stave off efficient hitting from the Wildcats who recorded a .364 clip in set 1.
 
The Bears found their rhythm in set 2 with Mima Mirkovic, Bailee Huizenga and Maddie Haynes each contributing three kills apiece as Cal outhit Arizona 12-9. Relentless defense also thwarted much of the Wildcats efforts, as the Bears limited their rivals to a .026 attacking clip, succumbing to eight errors. Cal erred just three time is the game-tying set, combining for three aces.
 
Things remained close midway through set 3, as the Bears and Wildcats were point-for-point midway through the set. After a 15-15 timeout, Cal went on a 2-0 run and looked like it was ready to pull away, but Arizona responded with a 3-0 run and took over from there. With a 16-11 kill advantage, Arizona posted another efficient showing with a .343 attacking percentage, while Cal's efficiency dropped to .167.
 
Cal closes the regular season with the Big Spike on Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. (PT) at Stanford. The second-ranked Cardinal are undefeated in conference and have lost just one game to top-ranked BYU earlier in the season.
 
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