BERKELEY – The No. 7 California beach volleyball team heads to Tempe, Arizona this weekend to face more top competition in the Pac-12 South Tournament. The Golden Bears (6-2) are coming off a 2-2 showing at last weekend's Battle For L.A. where they defeated Concordia University Irvine 5-0 and No. 6 Loyola Marymount 4-1 a day after falling to their first ranked opponents of the year, No. 1 UCLA 4-1 and No. 18 Cal Poly 3-2.
Cal will have a rare Saturday-Sunday slate of matches this weekend, with all four to be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Bears open Saturday against Utah at 7 a.m. PT and No. 2 Stanford at 3 p.m. before closing the weekend on Sunday with Oregon at 8 a.m. and No. 10 Arizona State at 10 a.m.
BATTLE FOR L.A. RECAP
In its first match last weekend against UCLA, Cal took the nation's top-ranked team to three sets in four out of five matchups and graduate student Lara Boos and Brooke Buchner came away with a 21-19, 15-21, 19-17 win on court four. Despite falling behind 2-0 in their next match against Cal Poly, the Bears nearly pulled off the comeback, starting with a court-five win from junior Ella Dreibholz and Portia Sherman. After missing the first week of the season, senior Sierra Caffo earned her first win of the year on court one alongside graduate student Kendall Peters, but sophomores Marilu Pally and Gia Fisher came up just short in a 15-13 set-three defeat to end the day.
The Bears responded the following day with their fifth 5-0 win in their first seven matches over Concordia Irvine and dropped just three sets in a 4-1 victory over tournament co-host LMU, its first of the year over a ranked opponent.
THE SQUAD
The Bears 2024 roster includes 11 returners, three transfers and four true freshmen.
In her first year as a Bear, Sierra Caffo established herself as one of the team's top players. The San Diego native earned AVCA All-America honors after leading the team with 10 wins on court one and a 24-12 overall record. This past summer, she played for Team USA and won silver at the Norceca Beach Championship with her former LSU teammate Ella Larkin.
Brooke Buchner returns for her senior season after posting a .694 win percentage and 25 overall wins in 2023, both the second-highest marks among Cal's returners only to Alexandria Young-Gomez's .750 win percentage and 27 total victories. Boos owns the most accomplished resume among the team's three transfers, having gone 29-6 last year with seven wins against top-20 teams.
PAIRED UP
Buchner earned her 69th win as a Bear last weekend, good for most on the team. She and Boos have gone a team-best 7-1 to begin their partnership, as have Sherman and Dreibholz. The duos of freshman Emma Donley and Young-Gomez and Pally and Fisher are both out to 6-2 start, going 5-0 on court one. Caffo and Peters debuted together last weekend for three matches on court one, going 1-2.
*2024 Cal Beach Volleyball Records
GOLDEN DEBUTS
Cal began its season in Berkeley for just the third time in its 11-year history, claiming four 5-0 wins that were highlighted by the program debuts of seven different Bears. All three of the team's new transfers – sophomore Finley Rollins (UC Davis) and graduate students Lara Boos (LSU) and Kendall Peters (Tulane) – earned their first wins with the program, as did sophomores Amelia Vugrincic and Jenna Colligan and freshmen Emma Donley and Audrey Liddle. Sophomore Portia Sherman – who saw limited action during her freshman campaign – also had a standout performance with four match wins in her first official action at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts. Cal has now won 18 straight matches during its home-opening weeks since 2018.
2023 REWIND
In its 10th season ever, Cal won nine straight matches from March 4-12 – including four over ranked opponents – with six sweeps. The Bears later broke the program wins record with their 27th on April 27 with a 3-2 win over then-No. 3 USC and went on to enter the NCAA Championship with their highest seeding ever at No. 8. Their final win came in a 3-2 victory over ninth-seeded Long Beach State in the opening round of the NCAA Championship. One day later, they fell 3-1 to No. 1 seed and eventual NCAA runner-up UCLA.
BEARS IN THE RANKINGS
After ending 2023 ranked seventh in the final AVCA poll, Cal entered this year with a No. 8 national ranking, three spots higher than its starting spot prior to the 2023 season. Following two weeks of action, the Bears are currently ranked No. 6 by TruVolley and No. 7 by CollegeBeachVB.com and the AVCA Coaches Poll.
THE SCHEDULE
This season, Cal will face the entire top 10 from the final 2023 AVCA poll as well as 13 of the 16 teams that qualified for last year's NCAA Championship. The Bears won't be back in Berkeley until a March 26 doubleheader against Feather River and Cal Poly. Senior Day will take place on April 12 against Sacramento State.
CAL TO JOIN MPSF IN 2025
It was announced last November that California beach volleyball will be one of seven programs moving to the MPSF for its inaugural season in 2025. Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Grand Canyon will make up the other six teams in the conference. Cal beach volleyball joins the Golden Bear men's and women's water polo and gymnastics teams in the MPSF.
THE STAFF
Meagan Owusu is in her eighth season in charge of the program in 2024. Under her leadership, the Bears have moved into the national conversation of NCAA beach volleyball, finishing 2023 with a program-record 29 wins and ranked in the top 12 for the sixth consecutive year.
Joseph Mayer is in his third season overall with the team. He became the program's first associate head coach last July, while Dancer Styles was promoted to assistant coach. The coaching trio helped bring Cal to new heights with its first NCAA Championship win in its second straight appearance last year.
STAY POSTED
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