BERKELEY – California volleyball will look to earn its first Pac-12 win this weekend at Haas Pavilion, hosting Arizona on Friday night at 7 p.m. PT and No. 25 Arizona State on Sunday at noon.
 
The Golden Bears (11-2, 0-2 Pac-12) rank fifth in the country in opponent hitting percentage, having held foes to just .136 through their first 13 matches. They also stand at 24th nationally with 13.81 kills per set and 25th with 12.83 assists per set.

"We're feeling pretty good in the gym right now, and we see these upcoming matches as a great test for how well we can bounce back after dropping our first two Pac-12 matches," said interim head coach Crissy Jones Schoonderwoerd. 
 
Cal is 27-47 against the Wildcats (5-8, 0-2 Pac-12) and 34-40 against the Sun Devils (14-0, 2-0 Pac-12) all-time. Both Arizona and Arizona State are led by new head coaches this year in Charita Stubbs and JJ Van Niel, respectively.
 
The Wildcats took No. 7 Washington State to five sets this past Sunday. Outside hitter Sofia Maldonado Diaz is one of Arizona's top all-around players – she is first on the team with 173 kills and 15 aces, second with 110 digs and third with 26 total blocks. Setter Ana Heath joins her in the all-around category with a team-leading 460 assists (4th Pac-12) and 130 digs while also ranking second with 14 aces and fourth with 19 blocks.
 
The Sun Devils remain undefeated at 14-0 on the season, including conference wins over Arizona (3-0) and Washington (3-1). Arizona State has the top team hitting percentage in the nation (.343) and also ranks among the top 10 in service aces per set (2.41), total aces (111) and opponent hitting percentage (.143). Senior Marta Levinska is the Sun Devils' top offensive threat, having earned consecutive Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards and ranking in the NCAA's top 50 in points per set, kills per set, service aces per set and total kills.
 
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 winner. 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. Currently, she ranks second among all NCAA freshmen with 4.77 points per set (30th all NCAA), 194 kills (T38th NCAA) and 224.0 points (41st NCAA), as well as third with 4.13 kills per set (31st NCAA), and leads the team with six double-doubles on the year.
 
DESA DOMINATES
Senior libero Tara DeSa currently leads the Pac-12 with 4.62 digs per set - 0.71 digs more than second place – and 197 digs, the former of which ranks 50th among all NCAA players, anchoring a Cal defense that allows the fifth-lowest team hitting percentage in the nation (.136). 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, 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 last season - just one shy of the all-time program record. DeSa also posted 118 assists last year, third-most on the team. Entering week six of the 2023 season, DeSa is now just 102 digs away from earning a spot on the program's top-10 career digs list and earned All-Tournament honors in each of the Bears' first three weeks, including an MVP nod at the Army Invitational.
 
MAEDER'S MARK
Junior setter Annalea Maeder crossed the 2,000 career assists mark against Utah (Sept. 24) and enters this weekend with 2,006 to her name. She also ranked 41^st nationally this season with 10.20 assists per set. Having totaled 459 assists 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 Six, Maeder leads the team in assists and is third in both service aces (17) and digs (118), as well as fourth in total blocks (19).
 
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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