After an impressive 2023 season, the bar was set extremely high for the California beach volleyball team entering 2024. The Bears answered the call and exceeded all expectations. They started the new season strong with a resounding 5-0 win last weekend. All four opponents.
The Bears played American River College and San Jose State University on Friday, and St. Mary's University and Santa Clara on Saturday.
Cal defeated ARC, which was 7-1 at the time, in all five games. The Bears never allowed the Beavers to score more than 14 points in a set, and Cal held American River to single digits in eight of the 10 sets.
Lara Booth, a graduate student transfer, and senior Brooke Buchner dominated the match, defeating the Beavers 21-6 in the first set and 21-2 in the second. Booth earned his AVCA top-flight status as a senior at LSU last year. This status is intended to recognize a pair of beach-he who in a particular flight competed in at least 15 matches together and won at least 75%.
In the showdown with San Jose State, the score difference was close. Freshman Emma Donley and junior Alexandria Young-Gomez had the highest scores at 21-19 and 21-17. The Spartans may have outshot the Beavers 5-0, but the Bears still dominated San Jose State 5-0.
It was windy during Friday's opener, but that didn't keep Cal sophomore Portia Sherman and her partner from mixing up the plays.
“What we're really working on is moving it around and making unique plays like jump sets, back sets, out sets, etc. It was tough today because it was so windy,” Sherman said. . “We didn’t have a lot of wind practice, but I think in the end we were able to get the flow, switch up our game and run with more variety.”
Sherman played this weekend with junior Ella Dreiholz, who tied her for the most individual wins in program history with a 28-9 record as a freshman. Dreibholz currently ranks second at the University of California with an individual winning percentage of .756. She and Sherman have known each other since their early teens.
“In the first game of the season, I got to play with Ella, a great partner that I've been playing with for a long time,” Sherman said. “Before entering university, we were in the same club, so we played together for a bit, so we felt very comfortable with each other.''
The two played in all four games this weekend and won. The closest games were 21-17 against both the Gaels and Broncos. Sherman was thrilled with his debut victory on his home field.
“This was actually the first time we played a real game at home,” Sherman said. “Freshman year is really tough for anyone. It was especially in my head, so I worked really hard on it over the summer. Being able to really test that out and go out there and play in the lineup is great. That’s wonderful.”
The second day of play proved to be even more difficult for the Bears, but the players did not let up. Cal State dropped its only set of the weekend to St. Mary's, with junior Ella Sears and graduate transfer Kendall Peters battling for the win. The match scores were 21-12, 22-24, and 15-12. During his junior season at Tulane, Peters competed as a top pair in every tournament and was ranked in the top five pairs by ACVA.
After falling behind by five points in the first set, sophomores Maril Parry and Gia Fisher rallied to win 21-17, 21-9.
In Santa Clara, three of Cal's five teams held the Broncos to 14 points or less. The remaining two pairs, Parry and Fischer and Sherman and Dreipholz, held leads of at least four points in the final set and defended their victories.
The Bears will travel to Los Angeles this weekend for the Battle for LA Tournament in Mapes Beach, where they will face UCLA and Cal Poly on Friday, and Concordia University Irvine and LMU on Saturday.
