VERMILLION, S.D. – California volleyball needed to distinguish itself early at the South Dakota Classic as the Golden Bears faced a Northern Colorado team that not only mirrored them in appearance, but in play.
 
UNC (3-1, 0-0 Big Sky), which also sports blue and gold Under Armour uniforms, touts the Bears moniker and Cal made it its goal to separate itself in the Battle of the Bears.
 
After giving up set 2, marking Cal's first dropped set of the season, the Golden Bears (4-0, 0-0 Pac-12) grizzled their way through two closely-contested sets to pick up a 3-1 (25-20, 25-27, 25-20, 25-22) win over a gritty UNC squad, which recently took 12th-ranked Illinois to five sets before falling.
 
"I really liked our resiliency," said head coach Jennifer Dorr. "Northern Colorado did what we expected them to do. It took a while for us to adjust to a new team and its system, but I think our backcourt defense stepped up. Hats off to our pin attackers Mima (Mirkovic) and Carmen (Annevelink) taking a bunch of swings and extending rallies for us."
 
Cal grabbed the first set, but was knotted statistically with its doppelganger, recording 14 kills each in the opening set. The Golden Bears gave up 55 kills over the span of the match, tallying just 45 as a group, but they capitalized on UNC's 30 errors to stay alive.
 
Mima Mirkovic tied with UNC's Kortney Lockey for a game-high 16 kills each, while Mirkovic also added three aces to top the chart.
 
"Those errors were huge," Dorr added. "There were a couple of sets that we felt they gave it to us, instead of us earning it. Set 1, I think we earned, but set 4 they started to err out quite a bit, which gave us the momentum."
 
Cal resumes play this evening against host-team South Dakota at 5 p.m. (PT) in their first-ever meeting. They Coyotes take on the Howlin' Huskies of Northeastern at noon today. 
 
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