BERKELEY – California volleyball went toe-to-toe with another tough Pac-12 foe on Sunday, falling to No. 25 Arizona State in five sets at Haas Pavilion. The clash between the Sun Devils (15-1, 3-1 Pac-12) and the Golden Bears (12-3, 1-3) featured a pair of teams that went undefeated in nonconference play.
 
For Cal, junior Annalea Maeder (49 assists, 14 digs) and senior Sam Taumoepeau (18 kills, 12 digs) each recorded a double-double, while freshman Xuemeng (Maggie) Li led the squad with 19 kills and senior Tara DeSa added 21 digs. Arizona State was powered by the efficient play of opposite hitter Marta Levinska, who totaled 30 kills on .482 hitting, while setter Shannon Shields notched 54 assists and outside hitter Geli Cyr paced the court with 22 digs. Both teams encountered trouble at the service line, combining for 29 total service errors.
 
The Bears out-hit the Sun Devils, .303 to .242, in the first set. Cal scored first on an ASU service error followed by an ace from Li, but the visitors quickly surged back to tie up the score at 4-4. Both teams matched each other point-for-point throughout most of the set, forcing 13 total ties. It was a late 5-0 run – sparked by a kill from Li and continued with two service aces from Maeder – that put Cal ahead for good before Taumoepeau's next kill closed out the set, 25-23.
 
In a reversal of fortune, the Sun Devils subsequently out-hit the Bears, .472 to .237, in the second set. The two teams started off by exchanging points once again, but ASU eventually took a 10-8 lead with a 3-0 scoring run. Cal tied up the score at 14 apiece thanks to a service ace from DeSa, then at 15-15 after a Taumoepeau kill. The Sun Devils' offense, however, was too much for the Bears to overcome as ASU scored eight kills in its next 10 points to eventually claim the set, 25-21.
 
The third set was Cal's best defensively as it held the hard-hitting Sun Devils to just .094. Junior Ellie Hamm started off the scoring with a solo block, but ASU came back once again to tie up the score at 3-3 and eventually move ahead to a 10-7 lead. A powerful kill from Li tied the score at 12 each, the first of seven more ties in the set. Although the Sun Devils were the first team to reach 20 points, a kill from redshirt sophomore Ava Mehrten followed by a service ace from senior Kendall Jensen evened things up. Soon afterward, a 4-0 run for the Bears followed by a kill from Mikayla Hayden took set three for Cal, 25-22.
 
The Bears got off to a quick 5-2 lead in the fourth set thanks in part to two straight Li kills and a solo block from Hayden, keeping ASU at bay until the score reached 10-7, but the Sun Devils found their mojo and flipped the lead to their advantage with a five-point scoring run followed by another four-point run. A late 4-0 ASU run increased their lead to eight points (23-15), but Cal attempted to turn things around by taking advantage of a slew of Sun Devil errors for a 4-0 run of its own. Ultimately, the deficit proved to be too much for the Bears, who dropped the fourth set, 25-21. Arizona State maintained that momentum into the final set, jumping out to an early lead and holding off a mid-set 4-0 run from Cal to end the match with a fifth-set score of 15-8.
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will head north next weekend to visit No. 7 Washington State (14-1, 4-0 Pac-12) on Friday at 7 p.m. PT, followed by a match at Washington (10-5, 1-3 Pac-12) on Sunday at noon.
 
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