BERKELEY – California volleyball comes off an undefeated nonconference slate hoping to carry that momentum into Pac-12 play, but will face its toughest test yet on Tuesday night as it hosts No. 4 Stanford at 7 p.m. PT, followed by a Sunday match at 11 a.m. PT against Utah in Salt Lake City.
 
The Golden Bears (11-0) rank among the NCAA top-50 in opponent hitting percentage (.122 – third), assists per set (13.51 – fourth), service aces per set (2.05 – 24th), hitting percentage (.263 – 41st) and blocks per set (2.51 – 42nd). They stand alone at the top of the Pac-12 with 14.41 kills per set and 13.51 assists per set.
 
Cal is 13-83 against the Cardinal (7-2) and 10-18 against the Utes (5-5) all-time, having lost both of its last meetings with the two teams.
 
Stanford is once again a national powerhouse, having already defeated No. 7 Texas, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 10 Minnesota and No. 2 Louisville this season. Cardinal libero Elena Oglivie (defensive), opposite hitter Kendall Kipp (offensive) and setter Kami Miner (defensive) have a Pac-12 weekly award under their belts this year; Miner currently ranks sixth in the NCAA with 11.28 assists per set.
 
The Utes are .500 on the year with victories over Weber State, San Francisco, Tennessee State, UNLV and North Carolina State. Libero Vanessa Ramirez leads Utah's defensive efforts, ranking third in the Pac-12 with 151 digs and 4.08 digs per set.
 
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 week, she ranks first among all NCAA freshmen with 4.87 points per set (26th all NCAA), second with 190.0 total points and 162 kills (45th, T47th all NCAA) and fifth with 4.15 kills per set (30th NCAA).
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior Tara DeSa currently leads the Pac-12 with 4.69 digs per set and 183 digs, the former of which ranks 42nd among all NCAA players, and anchors a Cal defense that allows the third-lowest team hitting percentage in the nation (.122). She recorded her first career double-double (10 assists, 16 digs) in September against Montana State. DeSa had her best full year at libero in her third season with the Bears in 2022, 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 five of the 2023 season, DeSa is now just 137 digs away from earning a spot on the program's top-10 career digs list.
 
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 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 on 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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