BERKELEY – The Golden Bears pulled away in a closely-contested battle with the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers to close Day 1 of the Molten Classic undefeated on Friday at Haas Pavilion.
 
Led by an aggressive offensive effort from Mima Mirkovic, who recorded a game-high 13 kills and Carmen Annevelink who added 12 kills, California (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) outhit Rutgers 42-25 to clinch its second sweep (25-17, 25-20, 25-18) and give new head coach Jennifer Dorr her second career win.
 
Annevelink also tallied a game-high three aces, with the Bears recording a total eight aces and giving up just one to the Scarlet Knights.
 
Freshman Jade Blevins also impressed for the second match of her collegiate career topping the Bears' stat sheet with 21 assists.
 
"I was really proud of the way we executed the game plan in terms of taking care of our job and staying aggressive," said head coach Jennifer Dorr. "I felt we did a much better job this match of taking care of our responsibilities.
 
"We're still in a learning phase of course, but it's great to see all that hard work we've been working on come into play," Dorr continued. "We're playing with the intent to win and to sweep all of the teams."
 
The Bears contend for the tournament title on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (PT) against Colgate who went undefeated on Friday with a 3-1 win against Rutgers and 3-2 victory over Chicago State.