Pac-12 volleyball on ESPN? I’m not missing this. (Pac-12 Network can suck it) This match is a significant opportunity for the Golden Bears. Coming off a win against Oregon, if they can pull off upset against the Huskies, they’ll at least have a shot at a tournament bid. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still a massively disappointing year for them. They were #17 in the preseason poll and though they’ve had a lot of injuries (most notably to senior libero Robin Rostratter), they have at no time played like a team that deserved to be ranked. They come into tonight 13-11 and among those 11 are some really bad losses (Baylor, San Francisco twice {once was in a preseason invitational}, swept by Arizona State). But a win here, should they pull it off, would also make them 8-7 in the Pac-12, with lowly Washington State coming to Berkeley tomorrow night. They would at least be in consideration for a bid, which considering where they were just two weeks ago would be…something, at least.
The Bears are led by top scorer Shannon Hawari, a fifth-year senior listed at “middle hitter,” which I don’t quite understand. I guess it’s a hybrid of the two scoring positions. She averages a little over two and a half kills and some 1.3 blocks per set, for a whopping .377 hitting percentage (fourth in the Pac-12). This says to me solid and dependable, but not necessarily game-changing. I don’t care how effective you are, you have to be a little bit selective to maintain a .377 over a whole season. Or a dinking setter. The Bears’ second-most efficient hitter (and just barely…she’s at .376) is setter Joan Caloiaro (a first cousin of Kerri Walsh Jennings), the only setter the Bears use on a regular basis.
It’s a tall order for them to knock off the Huskies, though. The ladies in purple and gold are of course led by sophomore outside hitter Krista Vansant, who checks in at 4.3 kills per set (also good for fourth in the Pac-12). Vansant hits “only” .293 for the season, which I take to be the mark of a much more active and explosive hitter. The Huskies run a two-setter offense, with Katy Beals and Jenni Nogueras just about smack even in assists on the season, but it’s interesting to note that neither are scorers themselves. It seems the setter dink is not in Washington’s playbook, as Beals has just 3 kills on the season and Nogueras doesn’t have even one. They don’t block, either — Beals has no blocks on the season, and Nogueras has just a single block assist. This is not to say that the Huskies aren’t a blocking team, though, oh no siree. Four different Huskies average more than a block per set, with Amanda Gil the leader at nearly two blocks per set. The Huskies have outblocked their opponents on the season 274 to 130.5 (remember, a block triple counts as 1.5 team blocks).
Karch Kiraly on the call! Sweet!
The Huskies ran out to a 4-1 lead to start set number one with some smart serving and blocking and a lucky break where a ball bounced off the head of Kelcey Dunaway for a kill on the other side. Kiraly notes that Cal’s starting libero Mary McKennon is a freshman walk-on, filling in for the injured Rostratter, and Washington targeted her repeatedly with their serves. At 8-4, Washington’s scoring hit was so emphatic that it knocked the flag right out of the flagger’s hand, so that he had to make his in- call with his hand. Kiraly also notes that Washington’s two setters play strictly back-row rotations — guess that explains their lack of scoring output.
The advantage held steady at 4 or 5 points throughout the early parts of the set after Washington first claimed it, going up 15-10 at the TV timeout. Their block was stifling; it didn’t always score, but it has to be demoralizing to get the ball consistently thrown back at you after swinging. Much of the scoring that Cal did get came off the hand of Hawari, finding a favorable matchup against the diminutive Cassie Strickland at the net. Cal closed back to 3 for the first time since early in the set at 18-15 with a nice block-double from Kat Brown and Correy Johnson. Washington extended back to 5 at 21-16, but Cal closed to 2 at 22-20. Coming back from the timeout, Cal had to have a really demoralizing moment when a long rally ended with a long hit on their side. They called their second there, down 23-20. The Huskies got the first set point at 24-21, and converted their second attempt with a kill off the touch.
Cal started off the second set much more competitively than the first, and in fact took their first lead of the night at 4-3. Cal’s Marlee Davis wore goggles on the court, which I quite liked. Always love a girl in glasses. This set was a long stretch of sideout after sideout, with Cal taking the first 2-point lead at 10-8. They then took the first 3-point lead at 13-10 with Adrienne Gehan, victim of many a block in set number one, hitting higher and harder for a kill to force the Huskies’ first timeout of the set. Gehan scored another nice kill coming out of the timeout, but Davis gave it back on the next point with a netball service error.
Caloiaro made a potentially crucial ball handling error on 17-14, giving the Huskies another point on the thunderous serve of Stickland. Though the resultant rally was long, it was sort of like a serve-and-volley in tennis; the Bears were on the defensive the entire rally and weren’t really able to organize any kind of attack. Surely enough, the Huskies eventually put the rally away to close back within one at 17-16 and force a timeout from Cal. Cal managed to get the first point back from the timeout with a block solo from Christina Higgins, who had a prolific match as a scorer.
Oy… the play-by-play announcer mentioned that Washington’s Gil has come back from a particularly nasty ACL injury (as has Hawari for Cal), one that actually required doctors to break and realign her femur as part of the treatment. Yowch! Higgins snuck a ball through Gil’s tenacious block to put Cal up 22-20, forcing Washington’s second timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Cal got the first set point at 24-21 after Washington’s offense broke down a little. Kiraly attributed this to a lack of familiarity between the 50/50 setters and the hitters. The Bears closed out the set at 25-22 with a kill from Higgins, after the Huskies crowded the opposite side of the net to bolster Strickland’s single block against Hawari, leaving Higgins with just a single blocker herself. She made the shot count, sending us to intermission with the match tied at a set apiece.
Cal went up early in set number three, with a surprising advantage at the net, forcing Washington’s timeout at 5-2. The Huskies’ only two points to this point were Cal service errors. The lead for Cal extended to 4 at 10-6 when Caloiaro sent it over on two to catch the Huskies off guard. The Bears gave it right back, though, with a service error to follow, putting a cap on any momentum that may have shifted. Caloiaro scored Cal’s first ace of the match on 11-8 to re-establish their 4-point lead. A great effort on the Washington side of the net on 13-10, as three different Huskies chased a wayward ball well off their court, but they weren’t able to keep it in play.
Higgins and Hawari got the Bears to a 5-point lead at 17-12 with a perfectly-positioned block double. This prompted the Huskies to take their second timeout of the set. The Bears took the first point back from the timeout when Gehan’s serve could only be returned for an easy smash on the right side from Cal. The lead extended to 7 at 20-13 with a fine solo block from Brown, giving Cal the advantage in blocking for the night at 6-5. Higgins made it 8 at 22-14, marking a pretty shocking turnaround from the first set. Vansant’s attacking error made it 23-14, efore she finally ended the run to make it 23-15. The damage was long since done, though, as the Bears won set number three 25-16.
The Huskies took the early advantage in the fourth set at 4-1 with a marked advantage at the serving line. This lead extended to 7-3 at Cal’s timeout. Cal stormed back after the timeout, with a powerful swing from Hawari closing them to within a single point, prompting Washington’s timeout. Oh look, Kerri Walsh is watching the match. That’s kinda cute.
Cal’s run continued coming out of the timeout, to give them their first lead of the set at 8-7. Vansant at last sided out for the Huskies, to end the run with Washington down 9-8. An ace from the libero Jenna Orlandini drew the match even at 10. She gave it back on the next ball by sending it into the net, but both serves effectively negated the Hawari/Strickland net mismatch for the Huskies. An overpass on the Cal side of the net led to Washington regaining a 2-point lead at 14-12. A block double led by Kylin Muñoz got Washington up 3 at 16-13, and the Bears took their last timeout of the set trailing 17-13. From there, it was mostly sideout after sideout until 21-18, when Cal took two on Hawari’s serve to close within one again. Washington called their last timeout there.
The Huskies came out of the timeout strong to go up 23-20, but Cal won the point of the match on 23-22 to tie it at 23. Washington earned the first set point at 24-23, but Strickland’s powerful jump serve went long, leaving it a race to 2. Washington got another set point at 25-24, after a Cal hitting error, but the Bears staved it off. After a bad set led to the Huskies’ offense breaking down, Cal got their first match point at 26-25, but Vansant saved that one for the Huskies. Washington got their third set point at 27-26, and finally converted it with a double block.
Washington took a quick 2-0 lead in the decider, but gave it back with a hitting error after Cal sided out. The Bears established a 2-point lead at 5-3 with back-to-back kills from Johnson, leading to Washington’s timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Huskies knotted the set again with a kill from Vansant and a double block led by timely substitution Gabbi Parker. Cal went back up 2 after Davis, perpetrator of a number of service errors earlier in the match, got a little karma in her favor with a sneaky let-ace. The advantage for Cal held, at 8-6, to the side change.
Caloiaro and Gehan put up a huge, timely double block to give Cal a 9-6 lead ahaead of Washington’s second timeout. A few unfortunate camera angles during the timeout show that there’s not a lot of people in attendance at this match, but to their credit those there were making quite a bit of noise when the homestanding Bears did something good. The serve on 9-6 got Washington badly out of system, leading to an easy kill for Higgins. Cal took their first timeout leading 10-7 ahead of a Washington serve. With a hitting error by Higgins and then a couple of kills by Parker, the Huskies tied the match at 10. Hawari finally stopped the run with a kill. Kiraly speculated that Cal perhaps should not have called that timeout at 10-7, feeling that they lost momentum.
Cal managed to cleanly receive Strickland’s big serve at 11-11, and Higgins put the ball away to get Cal out of a difficult rotation. Higgins put another ball away on the next rally to put Cal two away from victory. Cal fed Higgins numerous times on 13-11, but it got stuffed right back at them every time, finally scoring with Muñoz and Melanie Wade putting up a double block. Cal called their final timeout here, but their serve reception was less clean this time, leaving them out of system and tying this remarkable fifth set once again, at 13. The Huskies made a big mistake on the next point, with a net violation occurring on an otherwise successful block to give the Bears match point at 14-13. Vansant staved it off to the back corner of the court. Vansant put another away on the next ball to give the Huskies their first match point. Gehan staved this one off, but on the next ball she gave it back with a hitting error. She was desperate for a touch to be called, but she didn’t get one. Washington’s big star Vansant put away match point out of the back row, off the touch and out, to end it.
#5 Washington d. California (25-22, 22-25, 16-25, 28-26, 17-15)
Whew. That was quite a match.
It’s a heartbreaker for Cal. They had two match points and couldn’t put either away. If they could have put this one away, they would have had a fair case for a tournament bid. As it is, I’m still pretty sure they’re on the outside looking in, unless they can really turn a few upsets in their final few matches against the LA schools and Stanford.
Oh, speaking of Stanford…the Cardinal had an easy time of it tonight against Pac-12 bottomfeeders Washington State, in a match that took about half the time of this one. Both of these teams turn back around tomorrow to play again in short order, but while Cal gets to host the mediocre Cougars, Washington has just short rest before taking on Stanford on their home court. There’s a good chance they won’t be too competitive.
But then again, Karch Kiraly suggested on the broadcast that even Arizona might be in line for an at-large tournament bid. That’d surprise the hell out of me (I have Arizona has the Pac-12’s eighth team), but I really hesitate to doubt Kiraly, so maybe Cal are sitting better than I think. We’ll know before too long.
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