California volleyball looks to extend its winning streak this weekend in its first two home matches of ACC play, hosting No. 6 Louisville (Friday, 7 p.m. PT) and Notre Dame (Sunday, 1 p.m. PT) at Haas Pavilion. Both matches will be streamed on ACCNX.
 
Last weekend, the Golden Bears (5-7, 2-0 ACC) snapped a five-match losing streak with a sweep of Virginia Tech and a four-set victory over Virginia for Cal's first two road wins of the season, starting off conference play at 2-0 for the first time since 2011. Peyton DeJardin posted a career-best .533 hitting percentage with 17 kills in the sweep over the Hokies to help Cal hit a season-best .359, then led the team with 13 kills against the Cavaliers. Maria ?tirbu recorded her second double-double of the season with 37 assists and 11 digs against Virginia, while Mikayla Hayden and Sophia Johnson led the court with eight blocks and 21 digs, respectively, to help the Bears hold the Cavaliers to a season-low .016.
 
Vs. No. 6 Louisville (10-2, 2-0): Friday, Oct. 3 – 7 p.m. PT (Berkeley)
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Live Stream: ACCNX
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: Sept. 27, 2024 (at Louisville – Louisville won 3-0)
Last Home Meeting: Sept. 24, 1983 (Cal won 3-0)
Bears vs. Cardinals All-Time Record: 1-1
Current Streak: Louisville won last one
 
The Cardinals are picking up right where they left off after reaching the NCAA title match last season, jumping out to a 10-2 record under first-year head coach Dan Meske while losing only to No. 2 Texas and No. 6 Kentucky. Louisville leads the ACC with 13.15 blocks per set (fourth best in the nation) and an average opponent hitting percentage of .144 (seventh best in the nation) while also ranking second in the conference with 15.82 digs per set and fifth with 13.55 kills per set. Their lockdown defense is anchored by middle blockers Hannah Sherman (1.50 blocks per set – 13th NCAA) and Cara Cresse (1.43 blocks per set – 25th NCAA) as well as libero Kamden Schrand (4.41 digs per set), while the offense is captained by 2024 ACC Freshman of the Year Nayelis Cabello, who averages 10.17 assists per set.
 
Vs. Notre Dame (4-6, 1-1): Sunday, Oct. 5 – 1 p.m. PT (Berkeley)
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Live TV: ACC Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: Nov. 30, 2024 (at Cal – Cal won 3-1)
Bears vs. Fighting Irish All-Time record: 4-2
Current Streak: Cal won last one
 
The Fighting Irish opened ACC play against Syracuse and Boston College last weekend, falling to the Orange in four and sweeping the Eagles. Notre Dame's offense runs through All-ACC Preseason selection Morgan Gaerte, who ranks second in the ACC and is tied for 10th in the nation with 4.73 kills per set and has reached double digits in every match this season. Senior Lucy Trump is the primary serving threat for the Irish, averaging 0.41 aces per set with a six-ace performance against East Texas A&M earlier this year, while freshman Maya Evens ranks eighth in the conference with a 3.71 digs-per-set average.
 
 
FOREVER NO. 1
For the first time in program history, the Bears will be retiring the jersey of one of their legends, as 2010 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Player of the Year Carli Lloyd will have her No. 1 raised into the rafters before the Bears' ACC home opener against Louisville on Oct. 3. An outstanding setter, Lloyd finished her collegiate career (2007-10) with 5,697 assists – sixth-most in Pac-10 history – and 1,094 digs as well as three AVCA All-America honors, leading the Bears to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, two Final Fours (2007, 10) and an NCAA title match (2010). Lloyd was also a dominant attacker with the Bears and holds the program record for the three highest hitting percentages in a four-set match, including a .750 (nine kills, zero errors) outing against Washington State on Nov. 6, 2009. As a professional volleyball player, Lloyd won a bronze medal with Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and won a veritable slew of national titles with club teams all over the world before co-founding League One Volleyball (LOVB) Pro and winning the league championship with LOVB Austin in its inaugural season (2025). She was inducted into the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
 
BIG DIGS FOR JOHNSON
Cal libero Sophia Johnson was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 29 for her outstanding play in the Bears' ACC-opening weekend at Virginia Tech and Virginia, averaging 5.29 digs per set to bring her string of double-digit digs performances to five and helping her team to its best conference start (2-0) since 2011. It was the first weekly recognition of Johnson's career as well as the first defensive award by any Bear since Kat Brown in 2012.
 
INTO THE HALL
On Oct. 18, Cal Athletics will induct former Golden Bear Hana Cutura into its Hall of Fame as the eighth Cal volleyball player to receive the honor. Cutura, who played in Berkeley from 2006-09, is the only Cal player to surpass 2,000 career kills (2,004) and posted 628 kills as a senior, second only to fellow Cal Hall of Famer Mia Jerkov on the program's single-season list. She was thrice named an AVCA All-American (2007-09) and helped lead the Bears to four-straight NCAA Tournaments, including the team's first Final Four appearance in 2007 (a year in which she was also named the NCAA Tournament Gainesville Regional MVP). Cutura was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2009, becoming just the second Bear in history (Sylvie Monnet, 1983) to receive a conference player of the year award.
 
MIDDLES ON TOP
The Bears are fielding four formidable middle blockers in 2025. Senior Mikayla Hayden – one of Cal's top all-around players – will look to take another step forward this fall after posting the 12th-best hitting percentage in the ACC (.324) as a junior; through 10 matches, she is the Bears' leading scorer and is responsible for well over one-fifth of Cal's total points this season. Junior Sawyer Thomsen is coming off a career year in which she started all 31 matches and had the most total blocks (111) by a Cal player since 2013, including an 11-block outing in the season finale against Notre Dame. Redshirt junior Sophie Scott lost the entire 2024 season to injury but has been impressive for the Bears when healthy, including a 100-block season in 2022 for a top-eight Pac-12 ranking. Finally, newcomer Ashleigh Woodruff (a junior transfer from Stony Brook) had a promising start to her sophomore year with the Seawolves before an injury forced her to sit out the season after just one game, in which she posted 10 kills and four blocks.
 
SISTER, SISTER
Senior setter Natalie Lau, who started the 2024 season on the bench but became Cal's starting setter after five games due to her teammate's season-ending injury, is joined by her sister Elise Lau (a freshman defensive specialist) on the court as one of just two pairs of sisters on the same Power 4 team this season. The Brisbane natives, who played high school ball for St. Ignatius and club ball for Vision, grew up as Cal fans, attending as many volleyball, football and basketball games as they could and dreaming of one day representing the Blue & Gold. According to head coach Jen Malcom, the Laus are "two of the most competitive players on our team." This will be the first year that they have played on any team together, having grown up too far apart in age to be part of the same high school or club squads.

NEW BEARS ON THE BLOCK
Cal brings seven new players to its roster this season in the form of five freshmen and two transfers, making up nearly half of the Bears' squad.  The first-year players are composed of defensive specialists Francesca Popescu (Johns Creek, Georgia) and Elise Lau (Brisbane), outside hitter Arissa Carbonara (Cuero, Texas), opposite Annemarie O'Gara (Phoenix, Arizona) and setter Maria ?tirbu (Bucharest, Romania). Between them, they bring national team experience (?tirbu), two All-America honors (Popescu), a national title (O'Gara), three All-State honors (Carbonara, Popescu) and a tournament title (Lau). The transfers, sophomore outside hitter Dominique Phills (Iowa) and junior middle blocker Ashleigh Woodruff (Stony Brook), will each bring valuable experience to the young roster, bolstering positions that will have at least one player graduating at the end of this season.
 
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