BERKELEY – The 2024 California volleyball team avenged its September loss to Notre Dame with a four-set thriller against the Fighting Irish at Haas Pavilion Saturday, dropping the first set 15-25 before taking the next three with scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-22 to cap off the year with three-straight wins. The Golden Bears finished the season at 15-17 (7-13 ACC) – their most conference wins in five years – as Notre Dame's year ended with a 12-17 (5-15) record. Following the match, Cal celebrated the careers of Gianna Bartalo, Annalea Maeder, Ava Mehrten, Ellie Hamm and Paige Morningstar for Senior Day.
 
"I'm super proud of the team," head coach Jen Malcom said. "Our words this year were 'adapt and adjust'. It took every one of us to push through this season, and we made it our own."
 
Bartalo and Sawyer Thomsen anchored a Cal defense that held the Fighting Irish to .133 hitting, each recording program milestones. Bartalo's 17 digs – a match high – brought her to 468 on the year, crushing her previous career best for the eighth-highest total in a single season by any Cal volleyball player. Thomsen's 11 blocks (also a match high) made her just the 14th Bear in history to cross the 10-block mark and the first to do so since 2012, helping the team match a season-high 14 stops on the day.
 
Xuemeng (Maggie) Li led both teams with 21 kills and notched four service aces, a career high; as a team, Cal knocked down a season-high eight aces. A trio of Cal players – Bartalo, Peyton DeJardin (13) and Natalie Lau (10) – recorded double-digit digs, while Lau also added 44 kills for her 12th double-double of the season and a career-high five blocks. Ava Mehrten posted a career high of her own in her final collegiate match with seven digs as well as a season-high six blocks.
 
Notre Dame's offense hit .375 in the first set while only allowing Cal to score consecutive points thrice, finally ending on a 6-0 run to take the 1-0 set advantage. The Fighting Irish scored first in the second period, but the Bears gave them a run for their money, forcing eight tie scores – the last at 23-23 – and five lead changes; it took a come-from behind four-point run capped off by a block from Lau and Mikayla Hayden to seal the set in favor of Cal.
 
Although Notre Dame scored first once again to start off the third, the Bears responded with a 7-point run – including three aces from Li – to take a lead that held for the rest of the set. Cal scored five-straight points in the middle of the set, followed shortly by a powerful kill from Lau, to stretch that advantage to nine points (18-9), but a Notre Dame surge soon cut the gap to two; once again, a Lau block (aided this time by Thomsen) finally clinched the set for the Bears. The final set belonged to Li, who slammed down nine of her kills on .500 hitting to overcome another tightly-contested period with seven ties; after a 3-7 start, Cal scored 16 of the next 22 points before the Fighting Irish scored five straight and eventually forced the match's final draw at 21-21. The last point for the Bears finally came off the swing of DeJardin, whose ninth kill sealed the match.
 
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