California volleyball kicks off its 2025 road slate this weekend at the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Nebraska, facing Wright State on Saturday at 9 a.m. PT/11 a.m. CT before taking on No. 1 Nebraska on Sunday at 11 a.m. PT/1 p.m. CT. Both matches will be held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, with Sunday's match set to be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
 
Last weekend, the Golden Bears (2-0) won their first two matches of the season at Haas Pavilion, taking down San Diego State, 3-1, and San Francisco, 3-0, to win the California Tournament. For her performance in helping hold the two visiting teams to a combined .094 hitting percentage, junior libero Sophia Johnson was named tournament MVP, while senior setter Natalie Lau earned all-tournament honors after reaching her 1,000th career assist.
 
 
Vs. Wright State (2-1)
Live Stream: None
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: None
Bears Vs. Raiders All-Time Record: 0-0
Current Streak: None
 
The Raiders have made the NCAA Tournament four times in the past six seasons and have also won the Horizon League regular season title five times in that time frame. This year, they return American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Midwest All-Region setter Lauren Yacobucci, who averaged 11.92 assists per set in 2024 to lead Division I, as well as fellow Horizon League First-Team middle blocker Reilly Zegunis and Horizon League All-Freshmen Team selections Haley Robinson (middle blocker) and Katie Sowko (outside hitter). Both Sowko and junior outside hitter Mya Ayro started off the 2025 season with WKU Invitational All-Tournament nods, helping the Raiders to a pair of five-set wins in their opening weekend over Drake and Loyola Chicago.
 
Wright State is led by fourth-year head coach Travers Green, who won Horizon League Coach of the Year honors in each of his first three seasons with the Raiders and was recognized as an AVCA Co-Northeast Region Coach of the Year in 2023.
 
 
Vs. No. 1 Nebraska (4-0)
Live Stream: Big Ten Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Last Meeting: Dec. 8, 2007 (Madison, Wisc. NCAA Regional – Cal won 3-0)
Bears Vs. Huskers All-Time Record: 1-2
Current Streak: Cal won last one
 
The Huskers were selected as the top-ranked team in the 2025 AVCA Preseason Poll and have more than lived up to their billing under first-year head coach Dani Busboom Kelly, with three top-10 wins (versus No. 3 Pitt, No. 6 Stanford and No. 7 Kentucky) already under their belts. In 2024, they finished with an overall record of 33-3, reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament and earning their secondstraight Big Ten title.
 
Nebraska returns AVCA First-Team All-American middle blocker Andi Jackson, who ranked sixth in the nation with a .439 hitting percentage in 2024, as well as two-time All-Americans Harper Murray (outside hitter) and two-time All-American setter Bergen Reilly (who is coming off her second-straight Big Ten Setter of the Year campaign). Middle blocker Rebekah Allick was named the AVCA Player of the Week and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Aug. 27, posting 2.86 kills per set (.406) and 1.71 blocks per set in the wins over Pitt and Stanford.
 
This will be the second time in two years that Cal will play a No. 1 team on the road, having traveled to Pitt and losing in three in 2024.
 

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 and leading the Bears in blocks in each of her first two seasons. 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 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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