Cal To Honor Seniors In Final Home Weekend
BERKELEY – No. 13 Cal beach volleyball will play its only three home matches of the season on Friday and Saturday this weekend. The Bears will play USF at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and No. 17 Long Beach State at 2:30 p.m. On Saturday, Cal will have its senior day celebration at 2:20 p.m. followed immediately by a match against UC Davis.
CAL TAKES ON LOCAL OPPONENTS
- Cal will honor six student-athletes at senior day before Saturday's match: Francesca Gettings and Katie Smoot (who are now team manager), Kate Bierly (graduating in three years), Ashley Delgado and Ana Costa (graduate transfers) and Mima Mirkovic (who is playing her fifth year this season).
- Cal is 3-2 all-time vs. USF and has won three straight, but the two teams haven't met since 2019.
- Cal is 2-2 vs. Long Beach State, but Cal has won two straight including a match that came down to the wire on the opening weekend of this year that the Bears won 3-2.
- Cal is 7-0 all-time vs. UC Davis, including two wins earlier this year, one at Davis and one in Hawaii, both by identical 4-1 scorelines.
CAL ENTERS WEEKEND RANKED 13TH
- Cal has won nine of the past 10 matches, including six straight with three ranked wins during that stretch, but the Bears dropped on spot to 11th in the most recent AVCA Coaches Poll.
-The Bears were picked 11th in the Preseason AVCA Preseason Poll, but moved up one spot to No. 10 after the first week of action and were 10th for three weeks.
- The top-12 ranking continues a streak of being ranked in the top 12 of every poll since April 23, 2018. Cal has now spent 1423 consecutive days ranked in the top 12 of the AVCA Coaches Poll.
- The Bears have finished each of the past four seasons ranked in the top 12 of the final poll, including an 11th-place finish in the final poll of the 2021 season.
- The Bears are currently 10th in the Collegiate Beach Volleyball Preseason Committee Rankings.
- Cal is 14-1 against teams outside the top five of the AVCA Rankings, including 4-1 against ranked teams. Cal's lone loss was to No. 9 Hawaii, who they also defeated.
STARTING ANEW
- Cal will have a new look this year as Meagan Owusu returns to coach the team after spending the 2020 season on maternity leave and leaving the team for the 2021 season.
- Cal welcomes eight newcomers to the team for this year including four transfers: All-American Ana Costa (Stetson), Ashley Delgado (Tulane), Natalie Martin (LSU) and Lexi McKeown (FSU).
- Cal pairs that incoming experience with a talented group of freshmen: Ella Dreibholz, Alena Korobko, Ella Sears and Alex Young-Gomez.
- The only players on Cal's team who were on the team in 2020 are Mima Mirkovic (113 matches), Ainsley Radell (60), Kate Bierly (19), Francesca Gettings (3) and Madison Sundholm (2).
STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal beach volleyball, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalBeachVB), Instagram (@CalBeachVB) and Facebook (/CalBeachVolleyball/).