ESPN Events announced Thursday that the California volleyball team will be one of 16 ACC squads participating in the inaugural "Showdown at the Net," which will consist of a series of matches between ACC and SEC teams on Sept. 9-10. The nonprofit hospital network Shriners Children's will also sponsor a pair of neutral-site marquee matchups in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 10, with tickets set to go on sale early this summer. Teams were selected for the event and subsequently seeded based on the RPI released in December 2024.
 
Cal's matchup will be against Vanderbilt at Haas Pavilion (time TBD). This will be the first clash in history between the Golden Bears and the Commodores, who will compete as a varsity program this season for the first time in 45 years. All "Showdown at the Net" matches will be featured on ESPN2, SEC Network, ACC Network, SEC Network+ and ACCNX, with most times to be announced at a later date.
 
Day one action features matchups of Stanford at Missouri (ESPN2), Texas A&M at SMU (ESPN2), Georgia Tech at Tennessee (SECN) and Florida at North Carolina (ACCN). Additional matches streamed on digital networks that day include Georgia at Clemson (ACCNX), Virginia at Auburn (SECN+), LSU at Notre Dame (ACCNX) and Boston College at Arkansas (SECN+).
 
Cal and Vanderbilt will square off the next day on ACCNX. The day's other matches to be aired include the top-billed clashes of Louisville/Texas (ESPN, 6 p.m. PT) and Pitt/Kentucky (ESPN, 4 p.m. PT) in Fort Worth, as well as Florida State at Oklahoma (SECN), South Carolina at NC State (ACCN), Ole Miss at Miami (ACCNX), Wake Forest at Alabama (SECN+) and Duke at Mississippi State (SECN+).
 
The Bears will release their full 2025 schedule in June.
 
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