California volleyball will hit the road once more this week, flying out east to start its third weekend of ACC play at Syracuse on Friday evening before heading to Boston College for a Sunday matinee showdown. Both matches will be streamed on ACCNX.
 
Last weekend, the Golden Bears fell to 5-9 on the year and 2-2 in ACC play after losing in three sets to both No. 6 Louisville and Notre Dame at Haas Pavilion. Freshman Maria Știrbu recorded her third double-double of the year (21 assists, 10 digs) against the Cardinal and led the team in assists, digs and aces (tied) against the Fighting Irish. Senior Peyton DeJardin posted eight kills on .400 hitting in the first set against Notre Dame, while redshirt freshman Grace Agolli had a career day with six kills (.556) coming off the bench.
 
 
At Syracuse (10-4, 2-2 ACC): Friday, Oct. 10 – 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET (Syracuse, N.Y.)
Live Stream: ACCNX
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: Nov. 27, 2024 (at Syracuse – Cal won 3-0)
Bears vs. Orange All-Time Record: 2-0
Current Streak: Cal won last two
 
This will be the first ACC contest at home for the Orange this season as they look to avenge a pair of losses to Cal in 2024 (a reverse sweep in Berkeley and a three-set defeat at Syracuse). The roster contains 10 new student-athletes, including seven transfers that have helped Syracuse to top-three conference rankings in service aces per set (1.81) and digs per set (15.15). Senior Gabby McLaughlin, who transferred from Nevada after earning All-Mountain West honors in 2024, started off the year with four-straight double-doubles and currently ranks fifth in the ACC with 3.96 kills per set (4.06 kills/set in ACC play), while fellow Nevada transfer Tehya Maeva averages 9.39 assists per set on the year. Syracuse's two ACC wins this season have come against Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, both in four sets.
 
 
At Boston College (12-4, 1-3 ACC): Sunday, Oct. 12 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
Live TV: ACCNX
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: Oct. 11, 2024 (at Cal – Boston College won 3-2)
Bears vs. Eagles All-Time record: 0-1
Current Streak: Boston College won last one
 
The Eagles will be hosting Cal for the first time in program history, having previously met Cal just once in a five-set thriller at Haas Pavilion last year. As a team, Boston College is averaging 1.76 service aces per set (fourth-best in the ACC), but they have struggled since the start of conference play, earning just one win (a sweep of Virginia) in four games and ranking among the ACC's bottom-three teams in opponent hitting percentage (.308), kills per set (11.23) and digs per set (10.77) over the past two weeks. The team's offensive leader is junior Audrey Ross, who averages 3.53 kills per set with 12 outings of 10-or-more kills, while freshman Bella Ehrlich leads the defense at the net with 1.24 blocks per set (including a 10-block performance at Virginia Tech this past Sunday).
 
 
 
INTO THE HALL
On Oct. 18, Cal Athletics will induct former Golden Bear Hana Čutura into its Hall of Fame as the eighth Cal volleyball player to receive the honor. Čutura, 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). Čutura 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.
 
FOREVER NO. 1
For the first time in program history, the Bears retired the jersey of one of their legends as 2010 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Player of the Year Carli Lloyd had 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.
 
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) and setter Maria Știrbu (Bucharest, Romania). Between them, they bring national team experience (Știrbu), 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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