Volleyball Hosts Pride Night Friday Against USC

VB10/20/2022 2:49 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Cal Faces UCLA Sunday Afternoon

BERKELEY – California volleyball (7-11, 0-8 Pac-12) returns to Haas Pavilion this weekend, hosting Pride Night on Friday against USC (15-4, 7-1) at 7:00 p.m. PT followed by a matchup against UCLA (9-8, 3-5) on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.

The contest against USC will feature a t-shirt giveaway to 75 lucky fans. For every ticket sold, the program will donate $3 to the LGBTQ Center in Oakland.

USC is one of the conference’s top offensive teams and lands within the NCAA’s Top 25 in hitting percentage, aces per set, assists per set and kills per set. They currently lead the Pac-12 in total kills and service aces, due in no small part to the contributions of three-time (and reigning) Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week Skylar Fields, who ranks fifth in the nation with 358 kills and sixth with 5.04 kills per set. The Trojans are no slouches on defense, either, as breakthrough freshman Gala Trubint has won two straight Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week awards (including last week’s). She leads the conference with 298 digs and is second with 4.20 digs per set.

The Bears are 12-66 all-time against USC, having last defeated them in 2014.

As a team, UCLA currently ranks 37^th nationally in blocks per set and 50^th in assists per set, allowing an opponent hitting percentage of just .184. Senior Matti McKissock leads the Bruins and is fourth in the Pac-12 with 10.68 assists per set, also ranking fifth with 609 total assists. Cal is 8-70 all-time against UCLA.

 

NEVER SAY DIE

Although the Bears have only won 2 Pac-12 sets out of 26 total played, it would be disengenous to say that Cal lacks competitiveness – 14 of those 24 losing sets were decided by a margin of 5 points or fewer, including 6 of 8 final sets.

 

START ‘EM YOUNG

After Week Seven, Cal boasts some of the country’s top two blocking freshmen in Sophie Scott and Mikayla Hayden. No other program boasts two members ranked in the NCAA’s Top 15 freshmen in blocks per set (Scott 1.14, Hayden 1.10), while Scott also ranks 19th among all freshmen blockers nationwide with 73.0 total blocks. For her part, Hayden also proves a threat on offense, leading the Golden Bears with a hitting percentage of .311.

 

LYDIA LEADS

Junior Lydia Grote has posted a fantastic first half of her season, leading the Bears in kills (240), service aces (20) and points (287.5). Currently, she is ranked 53rd in the…