Cal Faces Two Top-10 Teams This Weekend

Saturday, March 6

Los Angeles, CA

1:30 PM

California

UCLA

Photo by: Al Sermeno/KLC fotos

3/5/2021 1:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

Cal Notes

Cal Beach Volleyball Heads To Southern California For Challenging Weekend

By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – No. 8 California beach volleyball will take their 11-match winning streak to Southern California as they will take on No. 4 UCLA, Concordia (CA) and No. 7 Loyola Marymount. Cal will face off with the Bruins on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Mapes Beach. On Saturday, Cal will play Concordia (CA) at 11 a.m. and LMU at 1 p.m. at Great Park in Irvine, California.

CAL HEADS TO LOS ANGELES AND IRVINE FOR CHALLENGING WEEKEND
- Cal will hit the road for the first time this year as they take on UCLA, Concordia (CA) and Loyola Marymount.
- Cal has now won 11 straight matches, tied for the longest winning streak in school history with the 11-match winning from Feb. 24-March 17, 2018.
- Cal has won 20 straight matches at home, dating back to April 7, 2017.
- All-time, Cal is 0-7 against UCLA, but Cal has two wins over top five teams in program history, including a 3-2 win over no. 5 USC in the final match of the 2020 season before the season was canceled due to COVID-19.
- Cal is 3-0 in school history against LMU, but the two teams haven't played since 2017.
- Iya Lindahl, a four-year Cal player who won 65 individual matches and played on Cal's top pair with Mima Mirkovic last year, is now a member of the LMU team.

BEARS MOVE UP TO EIGHTH
- After one week of action, the Bears moved up to eighth in the AVCA rankings, the highest ranking in program history.
- Cal opened the 2021 season where they ended 2020, ranked ninth in the AVCA Coaches Poll.
- This is the third straight year that Cal has been selected amongst the top 12 in the nation to start the year.
- Ninth is the top preseason ranking in school history.
- The Bears were ranked No. 12 prior to the 2019 season and 11th heading into the 2020 campaign.

RETURNING EXPERIENCE
- Cal returns six of the 10 players that were in the 2020 lineup for all 10 matches, including three of the four members of the Bears' top two pairs: Mima Mirkovic, Caroline Schafer and Jordan Polo.
- Mirkovic was named an honorable mention All-America in 2019, while Polo was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
- The Bears are also led by four seniors who have a combined 291 matches of experience: Mirkovic (71), Schafer (73), Alexia Inman (75) and Maddie Micheletti (72).