Bears Set For Pac-12 South Invitational, Add Two Rescheduled Matches From Last Week
BERKELEY – After having half of its matches canceled during the season’s opening weekend, the No. 12 California beach volleyball team is set for three straight days of competition this weekend. The Golden Bears will face a quartet of conference opponents as part of the Pac-12 South Invitational on Saturday and Sunday before taking on No. 14 Long Beach State and No. 18 Pepperdine on Monday.
The Pac-12 South Invitational begins Saturday with an 8 a.m. matchup versus No. 4 USC at the Trojans’ Merle Norman Stadium in Los Angeles. Then it’s a quick turnaround for the Bears who will make their way to UCLA’s host site, Mapes Beach, to take on Utah at 2 p.m. Day two of the tournament features two more matches at Merle Norman Stadium with Cal facing Oregon at 8 a.m. and Arizona at noon.
Cal’s matches with Utah and USC will be broadcasted on Pac-12 Networks.
The Bears had their matches with The Beach and the Waves canceled due to weather last weekend, but managed to quickly reschedule those contests and will play them on Monday in Malibu. Their match with LBSU begins at 11 a.m. followed by a battle with Pepperdine at 1 p.m.
Bears Start with a Split
Cal split its pair of opening weekend matches in Los Angeles, sweeping Concordia Irvine 5-0 and falling in a heartbreaker to No. 7 Loyola Marymount 3-2. After trailing early to the Lions, the Bears fought back to tie the overall match at 2-2 with the tiebreaker coming down to junior Maya Gessner and sophomore Ella Dreibholz. The pair fought until the very final point but dropped the third set 15-13, granting LMU the win. The duos of junior Liz Waters-Leiga and sophomore Sierra Caffo, and sophomore Alex Young-Gomez and senior Lexi McKeown each went 2-0 on the day.
Cal Picked 11th in AVCA Preseason Poll
The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced its Preseason Coaches Poll on Feb. 14 and ranked California the No. 11 team in the country.
This is the second straight season the Bears began in that spot and the same spot they ended the last three seasons. They have been ranked in the top-13 in every AVCA poll since April 23, 2018.
On Feb. 20, the Bears were picked as the No. 8 team in the nation by College Beach Volleyball.
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