California volleyball will be back on the road this weekend to play a pair of highly talented teams, starting with the formidable No. 4 Washington State Cougars on Friday at 7 p.m. PT and following up with a match against the Washington Huskies on Sunday at noon.
 
The Golden Bears (12-3, 1-3 Pac-12) earned their first Pac-12 win in three years last week, defeating Arizona in four sets two days before taking now-No. 23 Arizona State to five in a close battle. Cal's defense is holding opponents to a combined .143 this season, fifth best in the nation, while also ranking 35th in the NCAA with 12.64 assists per set, 36th with 13.59 kills per set and 42nd with 1.82 service aces per set.
 
The Cougars (14-1, 4-0 Pac-12) have played lights-out this season with wins over four top-25 opponents and have yet to lose a conference match. They are currently hitting .301 as a team (seventh-best in the NCAA) with 13.63 kills per set (31st), 2.50 blocks per set (42nd) and 12.42 assists per set (48th). WSU's top all-around threat is three-time All-American Magda Jehlárová, who ranks seventh in the nation with a .477 hitting percentage, 11th with 1.44 blocks per set and 24th with 72 total blocks. The Bears are 46-32 against the Cougars all-time but have not come away with a win in that matchup since Sept. 28, 2019.
 
The Huskies (10-5, 1-3 Pac-12) have fared less well in conference play this year as they adjust to a new head coach and the loss of multiple key seniors but have historically proved to be a challenge for the Bears, who have a lifetime record of 29-47 against them. UW posts an average of 1.98 service aces per set, 18th best in the country, and has combined for 115 total aces this season (23rd NCAA). Junior libero Lauren Bays has been a defensive stalwart for the Huskies, ranking second in the Pac-12 with 231 total digs and 3.98 digs per set. Cal last defeated Washington in 2011, when the No. 5 Bears took down the No. 11 Huskies in four sets.
 
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 first among all NCAA freshmen with 4.18 kills per set (3rd all Pac-12/22nd NCAA) and 4.78 points per set (5th Pac-12/27th NCAA), as well as second among NCAA freshmen with 234 kills (2nd Pac-12/21st NCAA) and 267.5 points (3rd Pac-12/27th NCAA. She also has 23 service aces, fifth most in the conference, and leads the team with seven double-doubles on the year.
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior libero Tara DeSa currently leads the Pac-12 with 4.55 digs per set - 0.57 digs more than second place - and 255 digs, anchoring a Cal defense that allows the fifth-lowest opponent hitting percentage in the nation (.143). 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 year 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 all-time program record. DeSa also posted 118 assists, third most on the team. Entering week seven of the 2023 season, DeSa is now just 68 digs away from earning a spot on the program's top-10 career digs list.
 
MAEDER'S MARK
Junior setter Annalea Maeder crossed the 2,000 career assists mark against Utah (Sept. 24), entering this weekend with 2,096 to her name, and ranks 46th in the nation with 10.17 assists per set. Having totaled 549 assists (tied 49th NCAA) so far on the year, she is on pace to smash her 2022 season total of 846. Maeder is currently second on the team with five double-doubles this year; she has posted 30 or more assists in nine of Cal's 13 matches so far. She set a new career high of 53 assists on Sept. 8 against Southeastern Louisiana, then posted 54 later that day against Texas State. As of Week Seven, Maeder leads the team in assists and is third in both service aces (21) and digs (137), as well as fifth in total blocks (23).
 
NEW COACH ON THE BLOCK
Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd stepped into the interim head coach role for the Golden Bears and powered them to a 11-0 start - undefeated in nonconference play - 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, comes to Berkeley with NCAA Tournament experience under her belt and an impressive high school resume 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).
 
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