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September 28, 2005
Wow What a Weekend for Cal Volleyball Maybe you already know, but Friday night at Haas Pavilion history was made. The Cal volleyball team, for the first time EVER, defeated UCLA's volleyball team. To top it off, we defeated them in three games. This was a great moment and milestone in our programs resurgence and history. The crowd was loud and wild during the match and after. Every game was close at the start but we just kept on pushing harder every time UCLA pushed us. There were great performances from several players, but mostly, everyone did their job and contributed to the win. Angie Pressey led the team in kills with 19, followed by fellow sophomore Ellen Orchard with 12. Jillian Davis dug up 18 balls and Alexis Kollias had 10 digs of her own and scored on three service aces. After the match, the atmosphere was jubilant and a little chaotic, but the team was able to refocus very quickly and showed how mature they are. The coaching staff had pre-scheduled a post game meeting to give out USC scouting reports and watch fifteen minutes of video clips. The team responded so well to that even though they were tired and would rather have just left the gym. It paid off with our performance the next day. On Saturday night, USC came into our Haas. This was to be our first live TV game with Comcast Sports Net televising it live throughout their networks around California. Our Friday night match was live video streamed from the Cal web-site and all future matches should be available for a small fee. Game one, both teams showed great offense and not much blocking or defense, considering they hit .469 as a team and we hit .349. Sam was spreading our offense very well and keeping USC's block and defense guessing, USC was hitting around and over our block for their points. That would change as the as the match went on. Digging became one of the most exciting aspects of this match, with liberos and players on both sides making play after play to keep the rally going. USC won the first tight game 30-28. We would not let down and battled back in game two from 27-23, holding off two game points to win 33-31. What a game. Going into the locker room at halftime we told our team that we didn't need to change any of our game plan. We just needed to improve some of our ball handling and tighten up our block. They listened. Game three was ours all the way and we won 30-19, hitting .351 to USC's .081 Game four would swing USCs way, mostly because of our mistakes, but we still battled to make it close losing 25-30. Now it came down to game five, with a lot on the line. We started with trading points early and then built up some momentum before the change of sides. By that time we were in control, winning the game and match 15-12. Sam Carter was outstanding in spreading the offense and repeatedly finding the right hitter. Angie lead with 21 kills 14 digs and scored 25 points for us. We did have four other hitters in double digit kills and points, Morgan Beck 12 kills, 13 points, Alicia Powers 15, 17, Jenna Brown 16, 18 and Ellen 10, 11. Jillian had 17 digs and along with her 60 assists, Sam had 12 digs of her own. For this game, the crowd was really fantastic. The Cal Straw Hat band was there as well as a good number of the Rally Com. We had several high school teams in attendance and there was lots of Go--Bears going back and forth across Haas. After the final point was scored our team celebrated on the court and honored the great fans that had witness a truly exceptional college volleyball match. This was the best. This week, we have a road trip to Oregon. Our Thursday night match against the Ducks will be the Fox Pac-10 Game of the Week re-broadcast on Saturday. Hope you see you all in Haas soon
Rich Feller |
