Cal To Face No. 6 Seed Arizona State In First Round
BERKELEY – The field is set for the 2023 Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championship with third-seeded California (25-8) facing sixth-seeded Arizona State (11-11) in the first round Wednesday at 12 p.m. PT. The three-day, double-elimination tournament will take place at Stanford Beach Volleyball Stadium.
The Golden Bears’ seeding ties the highest in program history; Cal was also the No. 3 seed in both 2018 and 2019. Last season, the Bears placed third in the tournament as the No. 4 seed despite suffering a first-round loss to Arizona. A first-round victory in this year’s tournament would propel the Bears into the winner’s bracket for the first time since 2018 where they would face the winner of the Wednesday morning match between No. 2 USC and No. 7 Arizona.
The Sun Devils come into the weekend having won three of their last four matches, including an impressive 3-2 win over No. 19 Arizona on the Wildcats’ Senior Day. Cal swept ASU in the teams’ only meeting of the season in early March.
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Every match of the Pac-12 Championship will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks and live scoring will be available via CalBears.com.
Milestone Watch
Several Bears are nearing career milestones and program records as the 2023 season comes to a close. Sophomore Ella Dreibholz (49), junior Maya Gessner (48), senior Lexi McKeown (49), senior Ashley Delgado (44), and junior Ava Mann (45) are all approaching 50 career wins as individuals. Senior Ainsley Radell boasts 79 wins, which is just one away from ranking second all-time at Cal and five from breaking the all-time record. The pairs of Dreibholz and McKeown, and Radell and Delgado each have 27 victories, which is two short of ranking second all-time in program history.
As a team the Bears have tallied 25 wins on the season, one shy of tying the program record set last year. They currently hold the highest win percentage in program history as well at .757.
Cal Bookends Stanford Invite With Pair Of Wins
The Bears closed out the regular season last weekend by going 2-2 at the Stanford Invitational. They opened with a 4-1 win over Saint Mary’s but then ran into trouble, dropping back-to-back 4-1 losses to No. 10 Stanford and No. 7 Grand Canyon, respectively. It was the first loss of the season to the rival Cardinal and ended a four-match Big Spike win streak that…
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