SALT LAKE CITY – No. 24 California came up short in a hard-fought battle between ranked teams with a 16-25, 26-24, 16-25, 20-25 loss to No. 16 Utah Sunday afternoon at the Huntsman Center.

Playing tough defense all match long, the Bears won the dig battle 56-48 behind a match-high 18 from senior libero Emma Smith. Fellow senior Bailee Huizenga led the short-handed Cal offense with 10 kills, while fellow senior Maddie Haynes tallied nine and redshirt sophomore Lauren Forte added eight.

Redshirt senior Savannah Rennie put away six kills as the Bears played a third straight match without junior outside hitter Mima Mirkovic as she recovers from an injury.    

The teams traded points early in the first and the score was tied at seven before Utah went on a run. The Utes scored six of the next seven points to take a 13-8 lead and force Cal to use its first timeout. California closed the gap to five at 17-12 on a kill and block from Forte before the Utes forced the Bears' second timeout at 19-12. The Utes closed out the set as Cal couldn't climb closer down the stretch.

Cal (20-8, 10-8 Pac-12) scored four of five points, including back-to-back Huizenga kills and a Forte block, tying the score at nine in the second. Utah scored three straight from there to lead 12-9 and force a Bear timeout. Cal fought back and took a 15-14 lead on a service ace from Haynes, and tied the score at 20 with a 4-0 run to force a Utah timeout. The Bears took a 24-22 lead on a Forte kill and Utah error, and closed out the frame with back-to-back kills from Haynes.

Down one in the third, Utah (20-9, 12-6 Pac-12) used a 4-0 run to build a 16-11 lead and force Cal to call its second timeout of the set. Anderson answered with a kill out of the break, but another streak of five straight for the home team made it 21-13 and the Utes took a 2-1 lead in the match.

Cal built a 9-7 lead in the fourth on three kills from Rennie, but Utah fought back with a run of six straight to take a 13-9 advantage and led 15-10 at the media timeout. The Bears answered again with a 4-0 run to cut the lead to 16-15 on another Forte kill, however Utah returned the 4-0 run of their own to go up 20-15 and force Cal's second timeout.

Up Next: Cal travels to Seattle for the third match of four straight on the road to end the regular season. First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27 against Washington inside Alaska Airlines Arena.

STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal volleyball, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalVolleyball), Instagram (@calvolleyball) and Facebook (Cal Volleyball).