BERKELEY – California volleyball (7-12, 0-9 Pac-12) returned to Haas Pavilion on Friday night after two weeks on the road, hosting the surging USC Trojans (16-4, 8-1), who entered the weekend as one of the nation’s leading offensive teams. In one of the Bears’ most memorable outings of the season to date, they kept things competitive and clinched their first Pac-12 set in nearly a month – despite the 3-1 final score in favor of the Trojans, it was a good indication that Cal’s gritty team identity was beginning to pay dividends.
As part of Cal’s Pride Night, the Bears donated a portion of each ticket sold to Friday night’s match to the LGBTQ Center in Oakland.
Freshman Peyton DeJardin posted a career-high 10 kills on the match. Junior Leah Schmidt led the Bears with 15 kills on a .483 hitting percentage, also posting 6 digs and 2 service aces.
USC scored first to start off the match and quickly put together an early pair of 3-0 runs to draw ahead of the Bears, never allowing Cal to score more than two points in a row until late in the set, when Schmidt and DeJardin posted a 3-0 run of their own prior to a 25-15 Trojan set victory. The next set was much closer from the get-go, following the Bears’ usual pattern of keeping the second set close after a tough first set; this time, however, Cal diverged from that pattern in a manner that set the home crowd ablaze.
Five different Bears were responsible for Cal’s first 10 points of the set, the last coming off a kill from junior Lydia Grote to tie up the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at California Golden Bears Athletics…