No. 19 Bears Hit Oregon Trail

Friday, October 4

Corvallis, OR

6:00 PM

California

Oregon State

10/2/2019 4:42 PM | Volleyball

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Cal Visits Oregon State Friday, No. 25 Oregon Sunday.

By: Cal Athletics

No. 19 CAL at OREGON STATE
Friday, Oct. 4 | 6 PM | Gill Coliseum | Corvallis, Ore.

No. 19 CAL at No. 25 OREGON
Sunday, Oct. 6 | 1 PM | Matthew Knight Arena | Eugene, Ore.

BERKELEY - The Bears travel to the Pacific Northwest for the second week of Pac-12 play after falling in a hard-fought battle to then-No. 1 Stanford (3-1) on Thursday at Haas Pavilion, followed by a bounce-back 3-2 win over Washington State at home on Saturday. California has opened the 2019 campaign by winning 11 of 12 matches to begin the season, its best record since winning the first 13 matches in 2011.

No. 19 California is set for its first conference double-dip away from Haas with a 6 p.m. first serve inside Gill Coliseum against Oregon State on Friday and a 1 p.m. match at Oregon in Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday. Both matches will be live streamed with links available on CalBears.com. The Bears swept both matches with the Beavers a year ago and hold a 48-25 all-time advantage in the series, while Oregon took both matches from Cal in 2018, but the Bears lead the all-time series 52-25.

LEADING BEAR
Junior middle blocker Preslie Anderson is making a name for herself so far in 2019. The Chandler, Ariz., native currently sits second in the country with a .497 hitting percentage clip and she tallied a season-high 13 kills in last week's win over Washington State and added 11 kills against then-No. 1 Stanford to give her 24 in the opening weekend of conference play. Anderson trails only Arizona's Devyn Cross, who currently leads the nation at .519.

KEEP CLIMBING
The Bears enter week five with a national ranking for the third consecutive week, checking in at No. 19 in the AVCA Coaches Poll after reeling off 11 wins in the first 12 matches to begin the season. California was No. 21 in last week's poll and week three marked the first time Cal was ranked in the poll since Nov. 18, 2013, when the Bears checked in at No. 23. After not receiving a single vote in the preseason version, California received votes in both the week one and week two rankings before breaking into the Top 25 in week three.

TEAM EFFORT
Led by Anderson (.497, second) and senior Savannah Rennie (.400, 29th) the Bears are fourth in the country in team hitting percentage through the first five weeks of the season. California is currently hitting .316 as a squad, trailing just Missouri (.327, third), Baylor (.332, second) and Texas (.334, first).

GETTING DEFENSIVE
Not only are the Bears getting it done on the offensive end, the Cal defense is making its presence known as well. Opponents are hitting just .138 so far this season in matches against California, currently the eighth-best mark in the country and second-best in the conference. Only three opponents have hit better than .200 in a match against the Bears this season, Buffalo (.209) on Sept. 13, North Dakota State on Sept. 13 (.201) and Stanford on Sept. 26 (.250). California has held four opponents below a .100 hitting percentage in matches so far in 2019.

MIMA MANIA
Mima Mirkovic, a junior outside hitter and 2018 All-Pac-12 honorable mention honoree opened her 2019 campaign strong at the Rams Volleyball Classic. Mirkovic was named to the All-Tournament Team after leading the Bears with 34 kills, to go along with seven blocks and three aces over the weekend. She leads the team with 146 kills on the season and is also second on the squad with 131 digs through the first 12 matches. Mirkovic has five double-doubles on the season and recorded the 24th of her career in the win over Colorado State, tallying 20 kills with 18 digs, the fourth time in her career she has notched at least 20 kills in a match.

RENNIE REIGNS
Redshirt senior Savannah Rennie opened the season with a bang, taking home Rams Volleyball Classic MVP and Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors in week one, followed by NDSU Classic All-Tournament Team recognition. Finally at full strength for the first time in her Cal career after overcoming a liver transplant, followed by post-transplant non-Hodgkin lymphoma during her first four years as a Bear, Rennie tallied 27 kills and 13 block assists, while recording a combined hitting percentage of .500 in Cal's three wins to open the season. She totaled 27 kills, 14 blocks and 10 digs in 27 sets a year ago.

MADDIE SHINES
Senior Maddie Haynes came on strong in Irvine, turning in the best three-match stretch of her career. Haynes recorded a team-high 14 kills in the win over North Carolina with a career-best .542 hitting percentage on 24 swings. She set her second personal best in as many days with four service aces against UNLV and finished with 27 kills over the three-match weekend tournament. Haynes came up on kill shy of tying her career-high with 17 kills in the win at Saint Mary's and has notched double-digit kills seven times already in 2019 after reaching double figures six times a year ago.

ALL-TOURNAMENT DUO
The Bears had two others named to the Rams Volleyball Classic All-Tournament Team in junior outside hitter Mima Mirkovic and senior opposite hitter Bailee Huizenga. Mirkovic led the Bears with 34 kills, to go along with seven blocks and three aces over the weekend. She is also second on the team with 42 digs through the first three matches. Huizenga racked up 31 kills while adding 10 block assists in three matches, and notched her first-career double-double in the 3-1 victory over Colorado State with 12 kills and 12 digs.

SETTING IT UP
Junior Isabel Potter and sophomore Jade Blevins both are back for the Bears this season after earning a lot of playing time at setter in 2018. Potter, a product of Moline, Ill., tallied a team-high 844 assists last season to average 7.21 per set. She also led the team with 32 aces, while recording 18 blocks. A Laguna Beach native, Blevins returns after a successful rookie campaign where she notched 413 assists (5.36 per set) and 14 aces.

FRESHMEN DEBUT
California's two freshmen made their Bear debuts in Colorado as Deniz Milli and Sydney Lilomaiava both earned time and got their names in the stat book against Chicago State. Milli recorded her first collegiate kill after coming on in the fourth set and Lilomaiava followed by coming onto the court and tallying her first-career block.

STAY POSTED
Keep up-to-date on the Golden Bears throughout the year by following the team on Twitter (@CalVolleyball), Instagram (@calvolleyball), and Facebook (Facebook.com/calvolleyball).