BERKELEY – California volleyball continued its season-opening unbeaten streak on Saturday afternoon, putting together an impressive offense and stingy defense to sweep Southern Utah at Haas Pavilion.
 
Cal (5-0) hit .427 on the day with an astonishing .692 in the final set. The latter percentage was the best by any Cal volleyball team in a single set since Sept. 8, 2017, when the Golden Bears hit .692 in the first set in a sweep over Incarnate Word.
 
Senior Sam Taumoepeau put together the best performance of her career, slamming down 15 kills on a .333 hitting percentage while adding seven digs to Cal's defensive efforts; freshman Xuemeng (Maggie) Li, who posted 20 kills on Friday night, notched another 13 on .579 hitting. Fellow rookie Ashley Li also reached the double-digit kill mark, with 10 on a .444 hitting percentage, while junior Annalea Maeder had an impressive outing of her own as she posted 39 assists while matching her career-high of six kills. Junior Ellie Hamm nearly matched Southern Utah's entire blocks total with five of her own.
 
The Thunderbirds (2-4) started off with two quick points in the first set, keeping just ahead of Cal as the visitors marched out to a 7-5 lead, but a Taumoepeau kill subsequently sparked the Bears' big first scoring run of the match as they scored five straight points to force a Thunderbirds timeout. From there, the Blue & Gold maintained their lead for the rest of the set, with an ace from Taumoepeau forcing another timeout at 16-10. Southern Utah went on a late 3-0 run, but Maeder shut the door on them with her third kill of the day to clinch the first set for Cal, 25-17.
 
Despite the Thunderbirds scoring first again in the second set, the Bears rapidly wrested control of the game into their own hands and never relinquished it, hitting .500 in their next 25 points. Southern Utah took a very early timeout with Cal up 3-1 after a stout block from Hamm and Maggie Li; although they took a few points to fully reset, the visitors threatened to surge back as they came within one point at 9-8, Bears. One 4-1 run later – with three kills from Taumoepeau – and Cal had distanced itself once more, eventually cruising out to a 25-16 set win that was clinched by a service ace from Maeder.
 
Contrary to the previous two sets, it was the home team who scored first in the third as Maeder slammed down her second straight ace, followed shortly thereafter by Taumoepeau's ninth and 10th kills, as well as Maggie Li's 10th and Ashley Li's eighth and ninth to make the score 7-3. Southern Utah took a desperate timeout after a 3-0 Cal run raised the score to 10-4, but the Bears had no intention of slowing down, increasing their lead to nine points (helped by three more kills from Taumoepeau) by the Thunderbirds' second timeout at 18-9, Cal. The Bears kept rolling to finish the match as Hamm contributed two blocks in Cal's final five points; one last kill from Maggie Li completed the sweep and sent Southern Utah packing, 25-14.
 
UP NEXT
Cal will host one more nonconference match on Wednesday, when it welcomes a surging Saint Mary's (5-0) squad to Haas Pavilion at 7 p.m. PT.
 
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