BERKELEY –The Golden Bears fell to the Arizona State Sun Devils in five sets on Sunday afternoon and dropped to 0-2 to begin Pac-12 play. Cal was able to battle back throughout the day and rallied to force a fifth set, but was unable to finish off the final set with the game-winning point coming on a Bears' error at the net.
 
Sophomore Preslie Anderson provided the Bears with a steady dose of offense and defense in Sunday's nail-biter. Anderson finished with 12 kills and seven total blocks against the Sun Devils.
 
Adding to the effort were sophomore Mima Mirkovic and junior Bailee Huizenga who combined for 19 total kills over the course of the five sets (20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 25-21, 16-18). For Mirkovic, her showing marked her sixth double-double (11 kills, 12 digs) of the season, which ties her for second in the Pac-12. The end of the week thriller was the Bears fourth match of the year to go five sets and brings their five-set record to 2-2.
 
Redshirt freshman Lauren Forte continued her stellar play early on in the season, as she registered nine kills and seven total blocks during the contest. Setters Isabel Potter and Jade Blevins combined for 33 total assists for Cal (8-5, 0-2 Pac-12).
 
With the loss, ASU (10-4, 1-1 Pac-12) clips Cal's streak of 12 consecutive wins in the series.
 
"I'm proud that when our backs were against the wall, we were able to force it to a fifth set and we were able to find a way," said head coach Jennifer Dorr. "The fifth set is a short set and things didn't go our way and we will learn from it moving forward.
 
"We are going to have a bitter taste in our mouths after this one, but we look forward to the challenges of playing two tough teams each week," Dorr continued. "There are no easy games in this conference, as seen today, but we are looking towards this coming week's matches."
 
The Bears will look to build off things going into next weekend's home matches against 17th-ranked UCLA and the third-ranked Trojans of USC. The first match will be on Friday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. (PT) and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.