California volleyball picked up its fourth Pac-12 win of the season on Sunday afternoon, posting a 3-0 victory over Arizona at the McKale Center to clinch a season sweep of the Wildcats. It was Cal’s (15-8, 4-8 Pac-12) first sweep of a Pac-12 opponent since Nov. 7, 2019, which also arrived in Tucson.
The Golden Bears enjoyed a strong day on both sides of the net, out-hitting the Wildcats (6-17, 1-11). 313 to 141. Junior Annalea Maeder led the court with 28 assists, upped her career count to 2,314 for the eighth most in program history, and added two aces, four kills, four digs, and a block to Cal’s total. Sophomore Sophie Scott continued his top-blocking ways on a court-leading six, while senior Tara Village paced both squads with 16 digs as the only player to reach double digits. Again, freshman Maggie Lee led the squad’s offense with 10 kills, six of which came in the first set.
Cal and Arizona continued to trade points to start, but a pair of early scoring runs for the Bears allowed them to build a four-point lead at 12-8 and hold that advantage until the first set, thanks in no small part to Arizona’s five service errors. The Wildcats forced a Cal timeout after cutting their deficit to one point at 18-17, but the Bears regained the momentum with three straight points—a block and two kills—to trigger an Arizona timeout before taking set one, 25-20.
The second set was Cal’s best offensively, finding the hardwood at a.462 clip thanks to kills from six different players. Another pair of early scoring runs helped the Bears build a 9-5 lead, which eventually stretched to seven points at 18-11. Arizona put together its first 3-0 run of the game late, bringing the score to 22-18, but didn’t score again before the senior’s kill. Sam Taumoepeau finished the set 25-19.
The Bears’ defense was the star of the third set, forcing 16 errors from the Wildcats to put them away for good. Cal scored first and jumped out to a 4-1 lead but surrendered four straight points to Arizona to give the home team the last advantage of the game. A kill from Scott tied the score at 5-5, with two more points following at 6-6 and 12-12; Scott then posted a kill and three straight blocks (all with help from the redshirt sophomore Ava Mehrten) to lead for good. The Bears took advantage of four consecutive Arizona errors to extend that advantage to 22-13, then another three to end the third set and the match at 25-14.
NEXT
The Bears return to Haas Pavilion next week, welcoming Washington (13-10, 4-8) on Friday at 7 p.m. PT and hosting No. 6 Washington State (18-4, 8-3) on Sunday at noon.
