Bears Top Saint Mary’s 4-1, Fall To No. 10 Stanford 4-1
STANFORD – The No. 9 California beach volleyball team split a pair of matches Friday to open the Stanford Invitational. The Golden Bears (24-7) topped Saint Mary’s (13-7) 4-1 before falling to No. 10 Stanford (24-10) 4-1.
No. 9 Cal 4, Saint Mary’s 1
The weekend began with Cal’s sixth-straight win giving the Bears a 12-1 record in their last baker’s dozen.
Senior Lexi McKeown and sophomore Ella Dreibholz were off the sand first improving to 3-0 on the season with a 21-12, 21-11 win on court four. Then seniors Ashley Delgado and Ainsley Radell gave the Bears a 2-0 lead with a 21-10, 21-15 victory on court two. Radell now has 78 career wins, which is just two short of ranking second all-time in Cal history.
The dual was clinched on court five where junior Brooke Buchner and sophomore Alex Young-Gomez were playing like they were double-parked. After winning the first set 21-11, they imposed the biggest deficit of the afternoon taking the second set 21-6.
1 Hawley Harrer/Danielle Kensinger (SMC) def. Sierra Caffo/Liz Waters-Leiga (CAL) 21-17 26-24
2 Ashley Delgado/Ainsley Radell (CAL) def. Cameron Martinez/Genevieve Bane (SMC) 21-10 21-15
3 Maya Gessner/Gia Fisher (CAL) def. Karmin Brown/Sadie Shipman (SMC) 22-20 21-10
4 Lexi McKeown/Ella Dreibholz (CAL) def. Allie Cataldo/Paola Peralta (SMC) 21-12 21-11
5 Brooke Buchner/Alex Young-Gomez (CAL) def. Hannah Glick/Angie Bour (SMC) 21-11 21-6
Order of finish: 4, 2, 5, 3, 1
No. 10 Stanford 4, No. 9 Cal 1
The loss to the rival Cardinal breaks a three-match Big Spike win streak that dated back to last season’s Pac-12 Championship. Stanford took full advantage of the Bears having to play back-to-back matches with wins on the top four courts.
In the first flight, both the court two and four pairs suffered narrow first-set losses and looked to bounce back, but unfortunately only Radell and Delgado would manage to force a tiebreaker. The captain duo fought to the end but fell 21-19, 15-21, 15-13, giving Stanford a 2-0 lead.
The Cardinal clinched the dual at 3-0 with a win on court three, but Buchner and Young-Gomez helped Cal avoid its second sweep of the season with a gritty 17-21, 21-17, 15-3 victory on court five. They now boast a 9-2 on that court with 10 wins on the season.
1 Xolani Hodel/Maddi Kriz (STAN ) def. Sierra Caffo/Liz Waters-Leiga (CAL) 15-21…
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