Cal Beach Volleyball makes 1st Pac-12 Championship final in program history after wins over ASU, USC, and Stanford

Golden Bears won the winners' bracket and will face UCLA at 4 pm PT Friday for the Pac-12 title

Cal Athletics has another legit national championship contender this school year in Cal Beach Volleyball.

For the first time in program history, Cal Beach Volleyball has advanced to the Pac-12 title dual. The Pac-12, which will retain both UCLA and USC Beach Volleyball programs as members even after they moved to the Big Ten for other sports, is the only conference to have ever won the NCAA Beach Volleyball National Championship. Cue Bill Walton shouting, “Conference of Champions!”

Ranked 9th in the nation and seeded 3rd in this double-elimination Pac-12 Tournament, California Golden Bears (28-8) should already have their place secured in the expanded again (to 17 teams from 12) NCAA Tournament. Nonetheless, Cal probably felt even better about their chances next week at Gulf Coast, Alabama after the historic win over No.3 USC Trojans yesterday (more on this below). Coincidentally, host Stanford also managed to upset No.1 UCLA Bruins on the other side of the winners’ bracket to set up a Big Spike on Friday morning for a berth in the Pac-12 title dual (coming up later on Friday at 4 PM PT on the Pac-12 Network).

Head coach Meagan Owusu has shuffled her lineup since the start of the season. The Pac-12 Network broadcast mentioned that the team always practiced with a mixed lineup on Mondays, so it was perhaps not too surprising that certain players have different partners in addition to the change in rankings. Ascending from No.5 pair to No.1 pair is the transfer duo of redshirt sophomore Sierra Caffo (from LSU) and redshirt junior Liz Waters-Leiga (from FSU). Continuing their partnership since the successful second half of last year (3-0 at the Pac-12 tournament and a win at the NCAA), senior Ainsley Radell is still playing with 5th-year Ashley Delgado at No.2 pair. The season-opening top pair of junior Maya Gessner and sophomore Ella Dreibholz got new partners now. Gessner is playing with freshman Gia Fisher at No.3. Dreibholz is reunited with redshirt senior Lexi McKeown at No.4 with this successful pair having gone 23-7 in 2022. Junior Brooke Buchner is paired with sophomore Alex Young-Gomez at No.5.

On Friday morning, Cal took control of the Big Spike rematch by winning at both No.2 and No.4 in the 3rd set. Bear won the first set at No.2 but lost the first set at No.4, but in an expectedly close contest, the losers took the second set to force a deciding 3rd set. Cal jumped out to 3rd set leads in both courts and held on to take them.

Check out the clinching points in the Tweet below:

https://twitter.com/CalBeachVB/status/1651999938287665153

Minutes later, Cal also went up 1-0 in the No.1 pair as Caffo and Waters-Leiga took a close first set. They again won by the minimum two-point to take the second set and give Cal the dual.

Check out the clinching point from the No.1 pair in the Tweet below:

https://twitter.com/CalBeachVB/status/1652011679646113792

With the victory, Cal Beach Volleyball extended its program record in team wins to 28. A 29th win by the end of today would be extremely sweet.

Despite the 3-0 win, it was a very narrow victory for the Golden Bears in the three matches against the Cardinal. On the season, Cal defeated Stanford 3-2 in their first two duals before a 1-4 setback last weekend.

Cal vs. Stanford

1 Sierra Caffo and Liz Waters-Leiga (Cal) def. Xolani Hodel and Maddi Kriz (STAN) 21-19 22-20
2 Ashley Delgado and Ainsley Radell (Cal) def. Charlie Ekstrom and Maya Harvey (STAN) 21-15 16-21 15-11
3 Maya Gessner and Gia Fisher (Cal) vs. Kate Reilly and Emmy Sharp (STAN) 19-16
4 Lexi McKeown and Ella Dreibholz (Cal) def. Kelly Belardi and Ashley Vincent  17-21 21-18 15-8
5 Brooke Buchner and Alex Young-Gomez (Cal) vs. Line Andersson and Daria Gusarova (STAN) 19-17
Order of finish: 4,2,1

Lifting Cal to national championship contender status has got to be the Thursday win over USC. At the Pac-12 South tournament in the second week of the season, Cal nearly pulled off an upset at USC where they had a dual point but could not convert. They were able to complete the upset in the rematch in NorCal this time around.

Despite the preview picture, the following Pac-12 Network highlights clip on YouTube is all on Cal’s win over USC.

Cal swept the first flight between the No.2 and No.4 pairs, but the 2-times defending NCAA champions USC would not go away easily. Trojans took the No.1 and No.3 pairs matchups and it came down to a deciding 3rd set in the No.5 pair match. Junior Brooke Buchner and sophomore Alex Young-Gomez had to come from behind after dropping the first set before Buchner (whose QB brother, Tyler, is probably NOT transferring from Notre Dame to Cal Football) hammered down the deciding point to set off the Cal celebration.

Photo Credit: Glen Mitchell (via CalBears.com)

This was Cal’s first win over USC in program history and is a monumental achievement in the program’s ascension to the top. Stanford’s win over UCLA on Thursday was also the first in their program history. There is more parity in Pac-12 and NCAA Beach Volleyball this school year.

Cal vs. USC

1 Megan Kraft and Laynie Maple (USC) def. Sierra Caffo and Liz Waters-Leiga (Cal) 22-20 21-11
2 Ashley Delgado and Ainsley Radell (Cal) def. Madison White and Madison Shields (USC) 21-14 21-16
3 Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse (USC) def. Maya Gessner and Gia Fisher (Cal) 22-20 21-19
4 Lexi McKeown and Ella Dreibholz (Cal) def. Delaney Karl and Ashlyn Rasnick-Pope (USC) 21-19 21-13
5 Brooke Buchner and Alex Young-Gomez (Cal) def. Olivia Bakos and Gabby Walker (USC) 21-19 14-21 15-13
Order of Finish: 2,4,1,3,5

On Wednesday, 3rd-seed Cal took care of business by defeating ASU Sun Devils in straight sets in the first round of action.

Cal vs. ASU

1 Sierra Caffo and Liz Waters-Leiga (Cal) def. Lexi Sweeney and Kylie Wickley (ASU) 21-18 21-15
2 Ashley Delgado and Ainsley Radell (Cal) vs. Anya Pemberton and Ivey Weber (ASU) 21-10 8-3
3 Maya Gessner and Gia Fisher (Cal) def. Carys Thomas and Rylie Kael (ASU) 24-22 21-16
4 Lexi McKeown and Ella Dreibholz (Cal) vs. Sarah Waters and Taryn Ames (ASU)  21-17 12-9
5 Brooke Buchner and Alex Young-Gomez (Cal) Kate Fitzgerald and Adri Nieves Papaleo (ASU) 21-10, 21-17
Order of finish: 5,3,1

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There will be an NCAA preview post next week, but the NCAA has again revamped the Beach Volleyball championships. In addition to the expanded field (as mentioned above), the entire championships will be single-elimination for the first time, unlike the double-elimination format when it was just 8 teams (before 2022) or for the final 8 teams like in 2022 (when Cal, making their NCAA Championships debut, lost to LSU in the round before that).

We have seen a lot of parity in collegiate Beach Volleyball this season. The top four teams all lost on Thursday with No.2 TCU losing to No.7 Grand Canyon and No.4 Florida State losing to No.6 LSU in addition to the Bay Area schools beating the LA schools. Back in the season opener, Cal lost to No.5 LMU by mere two points in the deciding 3rd set of the No.1 pair matchup. The new format should bring about even more upsets than usual and perhaps the Cal Bears could be the one to capitalize on that and be the first team other than UCLA and USC to win the NCAA title.

Before we get there, the winner-take-all Pac-12 title match this afternoon should be a good experience to emulate that kind of pressure, particularly with the opponent being the winner out of UCLA/USC/Stanford who would have played an extra dual today. In 2023, Cal is 0-1 vs. UCLA, 1-1 vs. USC, and 3-1 vs. Stanford.

ROLL ON YOU BEARS!