Hall Call – California Golden Bears Athletics

Carli Lloyd is one of eight new members of the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame who will be officially enshrined later this month.

BERKELEY – Of all the stages of Carli Lloyd’s volleyball career, “Collegiate Carli” is as memorable as the rest.

Lloyd, the only National Player of the Year in California volleyball history who led the Golden Bears to a pair of NCAA Final Fours, will be enshrined into the Cal Athletics Hall Of Fame at the end of the month. It will be her first time back on campus since the program honored her before a match in 2016 after she returned home following the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Lloyd followed up her decorated college career with a long professional career – and she’s still playing. Lloyd also helped Team USA win the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“When I think back to ‘Collegiate Carli,’ the first thing that comes to mind is just intensity – whether we were in the weight room, on the court, in our apartment – everything involving the pursuit of excellence was just met with a fire and intensity that I had never seen before, and potentially I could say I haven’t seen since,” said Cal beach volleyball head coach Meagan Owusu, who was Lloyd’s teammate and roommate as an indoor player for the Bears. “I feel really fortunate because my peer and my friend and my teammate was someone who was fully invested in our program being the best it can be.”

Lloyd arrived at Cal in the fall of 2007 and immediately became the team’s starting setter. Taking over a team that had secured five straight NCAA Tournament appearances, she guided the Bears to the next level – leading the team to its first Final Four in program history as a freshman.

“Carli walked into a gym and you wanted to have her on the court,” Owusu said. “I would say maybe there was a two-day adjustment period, but your age isn’t the end-all, be-all. She stepped into the gym and was leading from day one.”

Lloyd led the Bears to the NCAA Elite Eight as a sophomore and junior – earning AVCA Second-team All-American accolades each season. Her college career reached a crescendo as a senior in 2010, guiding Cal to the NCAA championship match and earning AVCA National Player of the Year honors.

“I really felt like she could have been named national player of the year a year or two before that, but the…