LOS ANGELES – California volleyball played in its second five-set match in four days on Saturday afternoon, starting off the weekend against a strong LSU squad that received multiple votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll. The Golden Bears (3-6) won the first set and the fourth, but it was the Tigers (7-4) who earned the victory, 25-27, 25-21, 25-19, 19-25, 15-13, at USC's Galen Center.
 
Senior Peyton DeJardin totaled a match-high and career-best 21 kills (.264) as well as 10 digs on the day, while freshman setter Maria ?tirbu recorded her first collegiate double-double with 48 assists and 15 digs. Junior Sophia Johnson and freshman Francesca Popescu each led the court in a statistical category, with Johnson posting 18 digs and Popescu five service aces. Both of Cal's starting middle blockers shined, as senior Mikayla Hayden collected 11 kills and a team-high five blocks while junior Sawyer Thomsen posted 11 kills on .435 hitting with just one error. Redshirt senior Cherlin Antonio made her debut as a Golden Bear after redshirting the 2024 season, adding four kills to Cal's season-high total of 60.
 
The Bears hit .262 or better in both of their set wins and held LSU's high-powered offense to just .195 on the day. The Tigers out-blocked Cal by a 17-9 margin, while a pair of LSU players – Jurnee Robinson (20 kills, 14 digs) and Nia Washington (14 kills, 12 digs) – earned double-doubles. Both teams reached double digits in service errors, with Cal recording 15 to LSU's 10.
 
Both DeJardin and freshman Annemarie O'Gara posted five kills in the first set, with the latter hitting at a .625 clip, while Johnson posted overr half of her total digs and ?tirbu was just four digs shy of her double-double (14 assists, six digs). Cal broke the first set open off a three-point run to make the score 12-8, a lead that they would not relinquish until the set had already gone to extra points thanks to a four-point run from the Tigers; it was Popescu who finally clinched it for the Bears with her second service ace to cap off three-straight Cal scores.
 
The Bears found themselves in an early hole in both the second and third sets and never led in the latter, nevertheless keeping LSU on its toes by stringing together four-consecutive points twice in the second and posting a trio of three-point sequences in the third. Cal's best set of the night was the fourth, when the Bears hit .289 to the Tigers' .059; they were boosted by DeJardin's seven kills (.417) and a three-for-three outing from Antonio. The Bears took the lead for good on a mid-set 6-1 run, as Hayden posted a kill and a block to force an LSU timeout. One last three-point run for Cal – the fourth of the set – eventually tied up the match at two sets apiece. Thomen's 10th kill gave the Bears the first point of Set Five, but the Tigers clawed back to start off a furious battle in which neither team led by more than two points at any given time, forcing 12 total ties before LSU eventually claimed the match.
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will return to Galen Center on Sunday to finish off their nonconference slate against No. 19 USC (8-1) at 2 p.m. PT.
 
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