WEST POINT, N.Y. – California volleyball officially opens its season this week at the Army Invitational following a successful exhibition last Saturday against San Francisco. The Golden Bears hope to take the momentum from the sweep into the weekend as they match up against host Army (Aug. 25, 4:30 p.m. PT), Fairfield (9 a.m.) and Central Connecticut State (4 p.m.)
 
"The environment at the match against San Francisco was great," interim head coach Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd said. "We loved having the band and everybody back in Haas. I thought the team did a pretty good job of executing in transition and behind the service line – it was good to see what we'd been working on in practice show up on the court."
 
The Bears have never lost against any of the other teams in the tournament, boasting a 2-0 record against Army and 1-0 records against Fairfield and Central Connecticut State. By far the most recent matchup of the three was Cal's season-opener bout with the Black Knights in 2022, which the Bears won, 3-1. They last played Fairfield and CCSU in 2011 and 2008, respectively.
 
Cal is prepared to take advantage of the fact that they just met Army last fall, but the team knows that the hosts will not go down without a fight. "I feel excited going into this weekend," Jones Schoonderwoerd said. "This is going to be a good test for us to have some assignments and execute more of a gameplan this week. Army has a lot of seniors and is a very talented team."
 
The match against Army will be live streamed on ESPN+. All three matches will have live stats available.
 
NEW COACH ON THE BLOCK
Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd steps into the interim head coach role for the Golden Bears after being hired as an assistant in February 2023. Previously, she 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-America 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 join 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 hitters Xuemeng (Maggie) Li (Beijing) and Ashley Li (Diamond Bar) have experience on the Chinese Women's National U20 Team and as a member of the Division 2 All-CIF Southern Section Team, respectively. 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).
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior Tara DeSa had her best year at libero yet 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 two-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. Another campaign like her 2022 season would notch her an entry on Cal's top-10 career digs list; she needs at least 320 on the year to earn a spot.
 
DEADLY DUO
Cal returns both of its young standout middle blockers from last season. Mikayla Hayden and Sophie Scott, now sophomores, consistently remained among the conference's top-blocking freshmen in 2022 - Hayden was tied for the top spot among all first years with a team-leading 109 stops (sixth most in the Pac-12), while Scott ranked second on the squad and eighth in the conference with 100 total blocks. Both players also earned spots on the All-Cal Tournament Team and played in a combined 217 sets. Hayden is also a threat on the offensive side of the ball: in her rookie year, she posted 158 kills, third most on the team. For her part, Scott posted the highest single-game blocks total of any Bear last season with a nine-stop effort against Oregon State (Sept. 23).
 
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