DURHAM, N.C. – California volleyball returned to the win column Sunday thanks to several standout performances from its players, leading the Golden Bears (13-17, 5-13 ACC) to victory over Duke, 25-21, 16-25, 25-17, 25-19, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
 
Cal's win was highlighted by sophomore Xuemeng (Maggie) Li's third-straight game with 20 or more kills; she was just one shy of her career high Sunday, notching a match-high 27 on .381 hitting with just three attack errors while also adding 13 digs (and two blocks) for her sixth double-double of the season. Peyton DeJardin recorded a double-double of her own – her seventh – with 11 kills and a team-high 18 digs, while Natalie Lau led all players with 51 assists to tie for the second-best performance in a four-set match by any ACC player this season.
 
Further adding to Cal's defensive efforts were defensive specialists Gianna Bartalo (16 digs) and Sophia Johnson (14 digs) as well as middle blocker Sawyer Thomsen, who led all players with six blocks and tied a match high with two service aces.
 
The Blue Devils (9-20, 5-13) kept their defense stout in the first set, out-blocking Cal four to one and forcing nine ties with six lead changes, but in the end it was not enough to overcome the red-hot Li, who posted eight kills at a .727 clip (including a six-for-six start). An early seven-point run for the home squad put Cal down by five, but the Bears responded with five-straight points of their own to tie up the score at nine apiece. From there, Duke could only string together consecutive scores three more times as a quartet of 3-0 runs for the Bears stymied the Blue Devils' comeback efforts; it was the eighth kill from Li that eventually gave Set One to Cal.
 
The Bears' offense quieted in the second period despite six more kills from Li, while Duke's own offense hit .359 to allow the Blue Devils to cruise to their only set win of the day. Cal responded with a vengeance in the third, leading from the get-go and hitting .390 with another six-kill outing from Li and five kills from DeJardin; both players also led the team with five digs apiece in the set. Thomsen had a hand in all four of Cal's third-set blocks and was responsible for four of the Bears' longest run of the set, a five-point sequence that put the Blue & Gold up 14-6; the Bears eventually stretched that lead to 10 points and fended off a Duke three-point surge at set point with DeJardin's ninth kill.
 
The Blue Devils scored three of the first four points in the fourth set, but Cal scored the next six in a run that included both of Thomsen's service aces. That lead would hold for the rest of the match thanks in no small part to Li, who notched another seven kills on zero errors – her third error-less set of the day – including the finisher on a minute-long rally that brought the score to 10-6; she also teamed up with Thomsen on Cal's two blocks. Ava Mehrten posted three of her six kills (a season high), the last of which gave Cal a 20-14 lead, while DeJardin once again stopped a Duke three-point run to swing the momentum back in favor of the Bears. Finally, Li ended the match with her 27th kill, which took a sharp angle to the left off Duke's block to give the Bears their fifth conference win.
 
UP NEXT
Cal will close out its 2024 road slate with a rematch at Syracuse (14-16, 2-16) on Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT before returning home to Berkeley for Senior Day against Notre Dame (11-16, 4-14) on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
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