RENO, Nev. – California volleyball faces its final two nonconference foes of the regular season this weekend at the Wolf Pack Invitational, starting with a clash against Montana State on Friday at 11 a.m. PT and ending with a battle against host Nevada on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
With a victory over the Bobcats (7-1), the undefeated Golden Bears (9-0) would match the program's best start since 2019, when they kicked off the season with 10 straight wins. An additional victory against the Wolf Pack (3-6) would bring Cal to its best start since 2011's undefeated streak of 13 matches.
 
The Bears are 3-1 all-time against Montana State, with their last meeting resulting in a 3-0 sweep for Cal at the 2005 Circus Circus/Molten Invitational in Reno. Although Montana State has just one loss to its name – a 3-1 defeat against Milwaukee – the Bobcats were unable to win a match in straight sets until last weekend with a 3-0 sweep over Seattle U. The Bobcats are not afraid to take swings at the net, ranking 20th in the NCAA with 37.25 attacks per set. Their offense is led by senior Kira Thomsen, who has won two of her four career Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week awards just this year. Among all NCAA players, she ranks ninth with 387 total attacks, 11th with 12.09 attacks per set, 15th with 4.47 kills per set and 16th with 143 total kills.
 
Cal has defeated Nevada in 12 of the two teams' 17 matchups, although the Bears lost, 3-1, in their most recent meeting at the 2022 Cal Tournament. Despite their 3-6 record, the Wolf Pack light up the stats sheet, ranking 20th nationally as a team with 582 digs, 33rd with 84 blocks and 41st with 65 service aces. Outside hitters Sia LiiLii and Nicanora Clark each rank among the NCAA's top-50 players in both kills and points, while middle blocker Jordan Schwartz (40 total blocks, 38th NCAA) and libero Hikialani Kaohelaulii (190 digs, seventh NCAA) anchor the defense.
 
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 three-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. Entering the weekend, she ranks second among all NCAA freshmen with 128 kills and 150.0 points, fifth with 4.69 points per set, sixth with 17 service aces, seventh with 4.0 kills per set and ninth with 0.53 aces per set.
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior Tara DeSa currently leads the Pac-12 with 4.72 digs per set and 151 digs, the former of which ranks 40th among all NCAA players, and anchors a Cal defense that allows the second-lowest team hitting percentage in the nation (.151). She 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 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.
 
NEW COACH ON THE BLOCK
Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd stepped into the interim head coach role for the Golden Bears and has powered them to a 9-0 start 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 hitters Xuemeng (Maggie) Li (Beijing) and Ashley Li (Diamond Bar) have experience on the Chinese Women's National U20 and II Teams 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).
 
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