California volleyball hopes to maintain momentum from last Sunday's big win over USC into this weekend's road trip, which will feature a tough matchup with No. 8 Oregon on Friday in Eugene, Oregon, at 7 p.m. PT followed by a Sunday duel against Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon, at noon.
 
The Golden Bears (13-6, 2-6 Pac-12) have an all-time record of 55-33 against the Ducks (16-3, 6-2 Pac-12), but Oregon has won the last seven matches in the series. Cal has not defeated a top-10 Oregon team since 2012. This year's Oregon squad ranks among the nation's top teams in no fewer than seven categories spanning both sides of the ball, including ranking seventh with 2.88 blocks per set. Oregon sophomore OH Mimi Colyer is Oregon's top attacker, ranking in the NCAA's top 50 in five categories. She is aided by senior S Hannah Pukis, the nation's 10th-ranked setup woman with 10.82 assists per set. Meanwhile, senior MB Karson Bacon averages 1.39 blocks per set for the Ducks, a number that is outpaced by only 18 other players nationwide.
 
Cal holds a series advantage of 50-30 over the Beavers (7-11, 2-6 Pac-12), who are also on a significant winning streak of six games against the Bears. Although Oregon State is below .500, it is riding high off two straight Pac-12 wins, including a five-set thriller over then-No. 19 Arizona State. Senior OH Mychael Vernon is the reigning Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after recording two double-doubles for the Beavs last weekend, while junior L Ryan White earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors after combining for 43 digs against the Arizona schools.
 
LI LEADS
Freshman outside hitter Xuemeng (Maggie) Li has already cemented her name in the Cal record books as she is the first player in program history to win Pac-12 honors in consecutive weeks, as well as the Bears' first four-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. She earned Cal's first Pac-12 weekly honor since 2019 – and its first rookie honor since 2018 – after the Bears' first three matches of the season. Li totaled 34 kills and 27 digs with a .313 hitting percentage at the Army Invitational, earning her way onto the all-tournament team. The next week, Li added two stellar matches to her season with a 20-kill, nine-dig performance against Portland State and a 13-kill outing on .579 hitting against Southern Utah, earning her second Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honor – the first Golden Bear to earn the award twice since Christina Higgins in 2011. Li followed that up by posting 61 kills and 50 digs over the next four games, including three straight double-doubles with a 24-kill performance against Texas State, to earn her third consecutive nod and become the first freshman in conference history to start off the season with three straight weekly awards. In her most recent weekly award campaign, she totaled 21 kills and 13 digs on .340 hitting in the win over Arizona to help Cal break a 57-match Pac-12 losing streak, then posted another 19 kills against No. 25 Arizona State. Currently, she ranks second among all NCAA freshmen with 290 total kills (24th NCAA/3rd Pac-12), 4.14 kills per set (26th NCAA/4th Pac-12) and 327.5 points (30th NCAA/4th Pac-12). She also has 26 service aces, eighth-most in the conference, and leads the team with seven double-doubles on the year while ranking second on the roster in digs (177).
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior libero Tara DeSa currently leads the Pac-12 with 4.54 digs per set (0.56 ahead of second place) and 318 digs (57 ahead of second place) to anchor a Cal defense that is third-best in the Pac-12 with a .171 opponent hitting percentage. She recorded her first career double-double (10 assists, 16 digs) in September against Montana State and has two All-Tournament nods (including an Army Invitational MVP) to her name this season. DeSa had her best full year at libero in her third season with the Bears, ranking third in the Pac-12 with 448 total digs and fourth in the conference with 4.00 digs per set. A three-time all-tournament team member, she became just the 11th Golden Bear ever to record 30 or more digs in a single match with a 32-dig effort against Arizona (Nov. 17) – just one shy of the program record. DeSa also posted 118 assists, third most on the team. Entering Week Nine of the 2023 season, she is just two digs away from earning a spot on the program's all-time top-10 list.
 
MAEDER'S MARK
Junior setter Annalea Maeder crossed the 2,000 career assists mark against Utah (Sept. 24), entering this weekend with 2,206 to her name (10th-most at Cal all-time and needs 68 to move into ninth place). Having totaled 662 assists so far on the year, she is on pace to smash her 2022 season total of 846. On Sept. 8, she set a new career high of 53 assists against Southeastern Louisiana then posted 54 later that day against Texas State. As of Week Nine, Maeder leads the team in both assists and service aces (27), is third in digs (166) and is fourth in total blocks (28).
 
NEW COACH ON THE BLOCK
Twenty-six-year-old Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd stepped into the interim head coach role for the Golden Bears and powered them to an 11-0 start – undefeated in nonconference play – and also led Cal to its first win over USC since 2014 after being hired as an assistant in February 2023. She previously acted as assistant coach for Cal Poly beach volleyball in 2020 while finding success on the AVP and FIVB circuits as a player. In her collegiate career at Washington and later at Cal Poly, she became just the second player in NCAA history to earn All-American honors for both indoor and beach volleyball. Jones Schoonderwoerd is joined on the staff by two first-year assistant coaches in Cal alumna Savannah Rennie and AVP pro Billy Allen.
 
WELCOME TO BEAR TERRITORY
Five newcomers joined the Bears in 2023. Setter Paige Morningstar (Pittsburgh), a redshirt sophomore who spent her first two years with Louisville, came to Berkeley with NCAA Tournament experience under her belt and an impressive high school résumé that includes multiple National High School Female Athlete of the Year honors and four state championships. Outside hitter Xuemeng (Maggie) Li (Beijing) has experience as a member of the Chinese Women's National U20 and II Teams, while Ashley Li (Diamond Bar) was selected to the Division 2 All-CIF Southern Section Team. Sawyer Thomsen (Lawrence, Kansas) and Sophia Johnson (Wayzata, Minnesota) round out the group as highly ranked players in their respective states (Thomsen as the No. 1 middle blocker in Kansas and Johnson as Minnesota's No. 2 libero).
 
STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal volleyball, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalVolleyball), Instagram (@calvolleyball), Facebook (Cal Volleyball), and TikTok (@calbearsvb).