MORAGA, Calif. -- No. 24 California finished the non-conference season unbeaten with a 25-12, 25-18, 19-25, 25-21 victory over Bay Area rival Saint Mary's on Saturday afternoon at McKeon Pavilion.

Senior Maddie Haynes led the Bears (10-0) with a season-high 17 kills and Cal got a third double-double of the season from junior Mima Mirkovic with 17 kills and 13 digs on the way to the win.

"I think coming in here, staying together as a team, our character and culture really showed through," Haynes said. "It's always fun to play here at Saint Mary's. It's a fun gym and the crowd is always into it. We battled when things weren't going our way at times today and that will help us going forward."

The Bears breezed through the first set, scoring 11 of 12 points in the middle of the opening frame to put the Gaels away. Saint Mary's (4-6) answered in the second set, taking a 16-14 lead that forced Cal to use a timeout. The Bears answered with a run of their own, taking five straight points to regain the lead and they wouldn't give it back.

Saint Mary's answered in the third set with the backing of the home court crowd. The Gaels scored four of the first five points to put Cal in a hole and the Bears couldn't recover, only getting as close as four points as SMC made it 2-1. Both teams used scoring runs in the fourth frame as Cal tallied seven straight points to take a 15-12 lead. Saint Mary's answered with four of five points to retake a one-point lead, but Cal answered out of the timeout and finished down the stretch.

California out-hit the Gaels .315-.170 and recorded 60 kills while holding Saint Mary's to 45. The Bears tallied 70 digs, compared to 47 for the Gaels. Senior Bailee Huizenga recorded seven kills to go along with 14 digs and redshirt junior libero Kat Knop added 16 digs. Senior Savannah Rennie put away nine kills, including three service aces.  

"Being a senior and sitting at 10-0 knowing the journey Cal volleyball has had in my four years here, this is huge," Haynes said. "Coming into conference there's nothing but to keep going up and stay with the underdog mentality. All the other teams don't expect this from us. With Stanford coming up we will play them like we have every other team. Sam has really engraved in our mind that we play the team, not the name. Even though they've won a national championship and have a lot of great players, we're just girls who play volleyball and they're just girls who play volleyball. It will come down to who plays better and stronger that day."

Up Next: California opens Pac-12 play with defending national champion and No. 2 ranked Stanford coming to Haas Pavilion on Thursday. First serve is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the match will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.