California volleyball will hit the road for the penultimate week of its 2024 season, first visiting North Carolina at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Friday at 4 p.m. PT before traveling to Duke on Sunday for an 11 a.m. showdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. Friday's match will be broadcast on ACCNX, while Sunday's will be shown on ACC Network.
 
Last weekend, the Golden Bears (12-16, 4-12 ACC). posted a sweep of Virginia Tech in its first-ever meeting with the Hokies, tying a season best with seven total service aces, before falling to the Virginia Cavaliers in four sets the next day. Three Bears – Xuemeng (Maggie) Li, Natalie Lau and Peyton DeJardin – posted triple-doubles in the latter match; Li (18), Lau (19) and Sophia Johnson (21) also set career highs in digs while the team recorded a season-high 105 digs (the most by any ACC team in a four-set contest this year), led by Gianna Bartalo's 27.
 
Vs. North Carolina (19-6, 11-5)
Last Meeting: Sept. 6, 2019 (at Irvine, Calif. – UC Irvine Tournament; Cal won 3-0)
All-Time Record: 4-2
Current Streak: Cal won last two
 
The Tar Heels are a strong offensive team that rank third in the conference in assists per set (12.89), aces per set (1.78) and kills per set (13.77), the latter of which also ranks 31st among all Division I squads; they are also incredibly battle-tested with five five-set matches under their belts this year, including a marquee late-October win over No. 19 Florida State. Preseason All-ACC selection Mabrey Shaffmaster leads North Carolina with 306 kills and 43 service aces on the year, with her average of 0.52 aces per set ranking 19th best in the country; she also has 233 digs this season for the second-highest total on the team.
 
Vs. Duke (9-18, 5-11)
Last Meeting: Dec. 1, 2007 (at Duke – NCAA Second Round; Cal won 3-1)
All-Time Record: 1-1
Current Streak: Cal won last one
 
The Blue Devils rank last in the ACC in both opponent hitting percentage (.243) and blocks per set (1.62) but are not without their weapons – four players rank within the ACC's top-10 women in at least one category. Top offensive threat Kerry Keefe has posted 367 kills on the year at a clip of 3.60 per set; she is even more efficient in conference play with the ACC's fourth-best average of 3.93 per set. She is aided by middle blocker Rylie Kadel, who has 137 kills this year on .363 hitting, and Grace Penn, whose 8.84 assists per set in ACC play places fifth among all conference setters. On the defensive side of the ball, rookie libero Mailinh Godschall paces the squad with 412 digs on the year (4.20 per set); similarly, she has increased her conference-play output to 4.26 per set to rank fourth in the ACC.
 
 
LI LEADS
After 12 weeks of play this season, sophomore outside hitter Xuemeng (Maggie) Li ranks second in the ACC with 380 kills (3.84 per set) and is third in the conference with 421.0 points. She has led the team in kills in all but four of 28 matches this season and has reached double-digits in 21 of those; she also ranks among the Bears' top-five players in service aces, digs and blocks. Li is coming off a sensational rookie season in which she was named a VolleyballMag All-America Honorable Mention, the AVCA Pacific West Region Freshman of the Year and All-Pacific West Region Honorable Mention, an All-Pac-12 team member and the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. Her six Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards also tied a conference record. During her freshman year, she posted 441 kills - third most among all Pac-12 players - with 4.35 points per set (4th Pac-12). She was also second on the team with 34 aces and third with 265 digs. 

BREAKOUT YEAR FOR LAU
Junior setter Natalie Lau has started each of the past 23 matches for the Bears, after they lost senior Annalea Maeder to injury, and is currently fourth in the ACC with an average of 9.27 assists per set. She also leads the team with 769 assists on the year and 11 double-doubles. Her first collegiate start came Sept. 6 against Utah State, where she recorded 40 assists and 10 digs as well as three kills, two aces and two blocks. In the next match against Saint Mary's, she posted a career-high 64 assists (and 18 digs) for the best such outing of any ACC player in a five-set contest this year. She followed that up with another career performance three days later, recording four blocks against Wyoming in addition to 45 assists and 13 digs. Lau has also notched three service aces in consecutive games this year (vs. Boston College & Syracuse), matching a career single-match best.
 
GLORY FOR GIANNA
Graduate transfer Gianna Bartalo, who spent her undergraduate career at Denver, has become one of the Bears' top defensive players this season. She has recorded double-digit digs in 20 of Cal's 28 matches so far and is sixth in the ACC with 407 on the year, averaging 4.11 per set to power a Cal defense that ranks third in the conference in both total digs and digs per set. Bartalo posted one of her best weekends of the year came against Boston College and Syracuse, averaging 5.7 digs across 10 sets and posting the 14th 30-dig performance in program history in the latter game; she bettered that two-game performance during the Bears' last home weekend against Virginia and Virginia Tech, recording 6.00 digs per set (43 total) across seven sets, including a 27-dig outing in the four-set contest against the Cavaliers. As a Pioneer, Bartalo was named All-Summit League Honorable Mention in her senior year and ranks seventh on Denver's all-time career list with an average of 3.73 digs per set. She crossed 100 career service aces in this year's match against No. 12 SMU.
 
WELCOME TO THE ACC
The Bears wasted no time making their presence felt as new members of the ACC. For their performances in going 3-0 at the season-opening Rose City Showdown in Portland, sophomore Maggie Li and senior Annalea Maeder were named ACC Offensive Player of the Week and ACC Setter of the Week, respectively. Li averaged 4.45 kills per set - tops in the conference through the initial week - while hitting for a .281 percentage. Her 24 kills in a five-set win over San Francisco tied a career high. Maeder dished out a conference-high 122 assists in Portland, including 60 in the victory over the Dons.
 
NEW CONFERENCE, NEW STAFF
Head coach Jen Malcom joined the Bears in January 2024 from UCLA, where she was the associate head coach in 2023; previously, she spent seven years at Iowa State as an assistant coach (2016-18) and associate head coach (2019-22), helping lead the Cyclones to five NCAA Tournament appearances. Also on staff are new assistant coaches Andrew Sato (Long Beach State), Cole Murray (Loyola Marymount) and Alyssa Andreno (Tennessee); Sato was previously a volunteer assistant coach at Cal (2017) and was most recently an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton (2021-23), while Murray acted as an assistant coach at Campbell (2023) and Andreno at Winthrop (2022-23).
 
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