Bears Battle Hard, Lose In Three

STANFORD – California volleyball entered Maples Pavilion Friday night with a hunger to prove itself after a tough three-set loss to No. 5 Stanford in Berkeley two days prior, bringing a renewed energy to the court and giving its hosts a hard time early in this year’s Big Spike rematch. Although the Golden Bears (10-12, 2-8 ACC) improved greatly in almost every regard, the Cardinal (16-3, 8-2) triumphed in three sets once again as Cal fell, 23-25, 19-25, 19-25.
 
Junior Peyton DeJardin led the Bears with 11 kills, followed by sophomore Xuemeng (Maggie) Li (nine) and senior Ellie Hamm (six, .500).
 
Both teams hit over .300 in the first set, with Li posting five kills (.444) – including the first point of the match – for the Bears. Cal never trailed by more than four throughout the set and forced a total of seven tie scores, with the last of those coming at 13-13 off a four-point Cal run. The Bears came within one point six times following that tie, including once at set point after two-straight Stanford errors.
 

The Cardinal struck first in Set Two but allowed Cal to hang around due to a slew of mistakes; by the time the Bears tied the score up at 10-10, only two of Cal’s points had not come off a Stanford service error or attack error. The Blue & Gold soon took a two-point lead at 16-14 off a Li kill and yet another error, but Stanford quickly responded with a three-point run of its own to regain the advantage. A pair of kills from Hamm triggered ties at 17-17 and 18-18; the latter of these ended up being the last tie of the set, as the Cardinal then went on a 7-1 streak to go up two sets…