Cal Faces No. 19 Washington, Washington State
BERKELEY – California volleyball (7-13, 0-10 Pac-12) faces its first rematches of the season this weekend, flying to Seattle for a showdown against No. 19 Washington on Friday, Oct. 28 at 7:00 p.m. PT followed by a trip to Pullman, Wash., to meet Washington State on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 12:00 p.m. The former match will be broadcast on Pac-12 Washington.
The Bears are still looking for their first Pac-12 win of the season, despite taking a set from offensive powerhouse USC last weekend; however, they will find a difficult test against the Huskies and Cougars, who each swept Cal in their matchups earlier this year.
Cal is 29-46 all-time against Washington and 46-31 all-time versus Washington State.
This weekend marks the last time in their collegiate careers that junior Lydia Grote and her sister, Washington senior Marin Grote, will take to the court together, having faced each other five times already during the former’s career as a Golden Bear. The elder Grote is currently 17th in the nation with a hitting percentage of .405 on the season, while the younger leads the Bears in both kills (261) and points (310.0).
NEVER SAY DIE
Although the Bears have only won 3 Pac-12 sets out of 33 total played, it would be disingenuous to say that Cal lacks competitiveness – 16 of those 30 losing sets were decided by a margin of 5 points or fewer, including 6 of 10 final sets. An additional 4 sets were decided by 6 points.
START ‘EM YOUNG
After Week Eight, Cal boasts two of the country’s top-blocking freshmen in Sophie Scott and Mikayla Hayden. No other program boasts two members ranked in the NCAA’s Top 20 freshmen in blocks per set (Scott 1.11, Hayden 1.07), while Scott also ranks 7th overall in the Pac-12 with 78.0 total blocks. For her part, Hayden also proves a threat on offense, leading the Golden Bears with a hitting percentage of .282.
LYDIA LEADS
Junior Lydia Grote has posted a solid first half of her season, leading the Bears in both kills (261) and points (310.0). Currently, she is ranked 71st in the country with 4.37 points per set and 67th with 10.58 attacks per set. Her play in Week Two of the season earned her All-Utah Valley Tournament honors.
USA VOLLEYBALL TAKES NOTICE
Juniors Lydia Grote and Leah Schmidt participated in the 2022 USA Volleyball National Team Open Program on Feb. 25-27, scoring invitations after…
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