DURHAM, N.C. – California volleyball ended its 2025 season Friday afternoon at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, overcoming a sluggish start against the Blue Devils (5-26, 2-18 ACC) to pull off the program's third reverse sweep of the year and first on the road, 14-25, 20-25, 25-19, 26-24, 15-12. The Golden Bears finished with a record of 9-21 (6-14), recording their first five-set road win since Sept. 10, 2024, when Cal took down Saint Mary's in Moraga.
 
The comeback effort required several standout performances across Cal's roster, including three from graduating seniors in their final match for the Blue & Gold. Peyton DeJardin (16 kills) and Mikayla Hayden (11 kills) led the way on offense, with DeJardin matching her season high in digs (12) for her fourth double-double of the year and Hayden leading the court with seven blocks. Sophie Scott also followed up her career day against Boston College on Wednesday with seven kills and a season-high six blocks, while junior Ashley Li contributed nine kills and four blocks of her own. Libero Sophia Johnson posted her fifth 20-dig performance of the year with 24 on the day to further bolster the Bears' defensive efforts.
 
Cal's younger players also played an important role in the victory. Freshman setter Maria Știrbu put up 43 assists, nine digs, two aces, and matched career bests in blocks (five) and kills (two) while classmate Elise Lau matched her own career high with two aces and recorded nine digs. Sophomore Dominique Phills, meanwhile, racked up seven kills on the day as well as a key block in the fifth set.
 
Duke had three players reach double digits in kills, led by freshman Ashby Zubchevich (18) and followed by Taylor Williams' 17 and Ngozi Iloh's career high of 16 (.609). Zubchevich also led the match with three service aces, while Iloh paced her team with six blocks and Williams added 16 digs for a double-double. Star Blue Devils libero Mailinh Godschall matched Cal's Johnson with 24 total digs.
 
The Bears never led in either of the first two sets and particularly struggled in the first, with only two Cal players (Li and DeJardin) recording more than one kill while Duke's Zubchevich racked up seven on .500 hitting. Three runs of four-plus points for the Blue Devils, including a seven-point streak in the middle of the set, put Cal in a hole that was too big to overcome as the Bears trailed by as many as 14 (22-8). A late 4-0 sequence from Cal that included three points from Li (two kills and a block) cut the gap to 10 at set point, but Duke responded with their 14^th kill of the set to take the 1-0 advantage.
 
DeJardin's arm came to life in the second set as she posted six kills to help the Bears hit .310, but Duke likewise kicked its offense into another gear to hit .406, including five kills from Williams. Cal only scored more than two in a row on one occasion, tying the score at 12-12 after a kill from Hayden and two from DeJardin, but the Blue Devils put down eight more kills to move back ahead, scoring the final three points of the set (capped off by an ace from Zubchevich) to put them up two sets to none.
 
The Bears hit .310 again in Set Three, this time holding Duke to .140 despite Iloh's strong five-kill, .571 outing. Hayden posted her best offensive set of the match with five kills of her own, two of which kicked off both of Cal's major scoring runs (a six-point sequence to bring the Bears up 10-6 and a five-point sequence to stretch the lead out to 19-11). Știrbu recorded three of her blocks across those two runs, pairing twice with Scott in the first scoring run and once with Hayden in the second. Duke made a pair of comeback attempts, each after going down by eight points (19-11 and 24-16), but DeJardin closed out the set with her 10th kill of the day to keep Cal alive and send the match to the fourth.
 
DeJardin stayed hot in Set Four with another five kills, including the first of the set, but the real story was the defense from both teams as neither squad could hit above .109. The Bears found themselves at another deficit early on after taking a 3-1 lead, with Duke forcing six ties and eventually going up by six (16-10). Eight points later, still down by five at 19-14, Cal put together its most outstanding sequence of the day, scoring the next eight to go up 22-19; the run was triggered by yet another block from Știrbu and Scott and included both of Știrbu's aces. Even that was not enough for the home team to lose motivation, as Duke fended off set point and tied the score at 24-24 before Li's eighth kill and DeJardin's fifteenth forced a fifth set.
 
It was Cal's block that made the difference in its last set of the season as the Bears put up three (a solo stuff from Hayden, a shared stop from the Hayden-Phills combo and another from the Știrbu-Scott pairing) to Duke's zero. Cal went on a 3-0 run after the Blue Devils scored the first point, then built its lead to 9-4 with another four-point streak shortly afterward and eventually stretched the advantage to six at 12-6. Williams then took charge for Duke, crushing three consecutive kills to shrink the gap and set an example for another 3-0 Blue Devils run at set point. With the score at 14-12, Cal took its final timeout and was successful in stopping Duke's momentum in its tracks, Zubchevich's final attack sailing long and wide left to hand the Bears the win.
 
"I'm so proud of the team today," Scott said. "We didn't play our best volleyball in the first two sets, but the resilience this team has is so incredible. We all looked at each other after the first two sets and said that we were going to pour our hearts on the court, that it was the last time that this group was going to all be together and we were going to get that win for each other by any means necessary. I couldn't be more grateful to end my career here on this note, and I'll forever be a Golden Bear."
 
 
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