Cal Closes Regular Season At Stanford
BERKELEY – The No. 11 Cal beach volleyball team will conclude the regular season this weekend with four matches at the Stanford Beach Volleyball Courts. The Bears will open competition on Saturday at 11 a.m. with a matchup against No. 7 Grand Canyon. They will follow that with a 5 p.m. contest against No. 8 Stanford. On Sunday, the Bears will compete against Saint Mary's (CA) at 11 a.m. followed by a 3 p.m. contest against Washington.
Cal's match against Stanford will be live streamed on three different channels; one for each court.
CAL TAKES ON FOUR OPPONENTS AT STANFORD
- The Bears will play four matches this weekend including two against ranked opponents.
- Cal will open vs. No. 7 Grand Canyon and the Bears are seeking their first win in the matchup, losing a tight battle last year in a top-10 matchup.
- Cal takes on No. 8 Stanford for the second time this year, looking to even the all-time series after the Cardinal took the lead with a 3-2 win two weeks ago, although Cal lost two three-set battles, which could have swung the match the other way.
- The Bears are looking for their eighth consecutive win over Saint Mary's (CA).
- Cal will look to defeat Washington after losing in their only meeting this year, that was the first match after Mima Mirkovic's injury and saw a depleted Cal team lose, breaking a streak of seven straight wins over the Huskies.
CAL ENTERS WEEKEND RANKED 11TH
- The Bears are 11th in the most recent AVCA Coaches Poll.
- Cal was 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-13 ranking continues a streak of being ranked in the top 13 of every poll since April 23, 2018. Cal has now spent 1451 consecutive days ranked in the top 13 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 20-2 against teams outside the top 10 of the rankings, including 4-1 against ranked teams.
RACKING UP WINS
- Cal has recorded 21 wins this year, which is the third-most wins in a season for the Cal program, trailing 2018 (24) and 2019 (22).
- Mima Mirkovic has recorded 79 career victories and is second in program history for career wins, trailing only Grace Campbell's 83. Mirkovic has 73 wins at the top lineup spot, the most in Cal history.
- Lexi McKeown and Ella Dreibholz are 19-3 this year, they are tied for fifth in school history for wins as a pair in a season and two wins from cracking the top three. They've also won 86.4% of their matches this year, which ranks seventh-best by a pair in school history.
STARTING ANEW
- Cal has 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.
- Cal has used 25 different pairs this year, including one new one this past weekend vs. Santa Clara.
- Cal's lineup last weekend featured six players in their first season with the team.
- The only players on Cal's team who were on the team in 2020 are Mima Mirkovic (113 matches), Ainsley Radell (68), Kate Bierly (22) and Madison Sundholm (2).
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