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September 11, 2006
Hello Cal Volleyball Fans, Cal volleyball had a very good week. We hosted the second tournament of the year here in Berkeley and it came off without a hitch. I have to say that planning a two day tournament with a total of four matches on a football Saturday is a huge task. My kudos go out to our facilities crews, administration, ticket office people and sports information office for a job, above and beyond the call, well done. Special thanks go to John Luluquisen and his crew and Greg Desharnais and his crew for a superior job of management of the event. As for our team, they took care of business also. Playing in their seventh, eighth, and ninth matches of the year within a three week period, we seemed to grow stronger as time moved along. Our opening match was against Colorado State, an 11-straight NCAA tournament team. Only a short lapse in game three allowed them in the door and gave us our first game loss of the season. In a way, this was good for our team. We came back to win the match and put up some great numbers. Sam Carter set a super offense, distributing the ball around the floor and gathering 44 assists and 5 kills in only six tries. Our three pinhitters, Angie Pressey, Hana Cutura and Natalie Smart each collected 12 kills and our two middles, Ellen Orchard and Morgan Beck had eight and nine, respectively. Jill Davis kept us in system with her timely digging and pin point passing. The next day, we faced a TALL American University team. Yes, they have the tallest set of female twins in the world, 6-8, and they play volleyball. At one point Angie at 5-8 was hitting over those two and showed that she really can play big. In this match we really dominated the games and the statistics. We were big on kills and small in errors, a combination that every coach likes. Later that evening, we put together one of our most impressive performances yet. Taking on the No. 18-ranked Pepperdine Waves, Cal came out smoking hot. Pepperdine is a tall and young team. They are bigger than we are, but we are quicker and stronger. We completely dominated in games one and two. Pepperdine came out more focused in game three and we dropped to a 9-1 deficit. Then, we got really tough going on a 29-10 run to finish out the game and match. The game scores were 30-17, 30-18, and 30-19. We out hit our opponent .422 to negative .025. We out-blocked them, 13 to 3. We placed Sam, Hana and Morgan on the All-Tournament Team and Angie was named MVP. I have to make mention of Jillian and Sam's play in this tournament. They were unbelievably steady and inspiring leaders. They truly are the offensive and defensive captains of the team. They lead by example, emotion and intensity. They both could have been named MVP for their contributions. This week, we only play two matches. Thursday night we travel to UOP in what was supposed to be a three day tournament and will now be a single match for us. Saturday night (yes after another football game) we host Yale here in Haas at 7:00 p.m. Come one and come all to see this exciting edition of the Cal Bears volleyball team. Until next time, Go Bears Rich Feller
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