In the Cal beach volleyball team’s four losses going into Tuesday, a glaring inability to close out matches became evident.The Bears would play well and give their opponents a tough fight but ultimately end up losing in the end. Unsurprisingly, all of the Bears’ losses had the familiar scoreline of 2-3. On Tuesday, however, in front of a loud and encouraging crowd, Cal (5-4) stepped up its game and seems to have put a stop to the close-match voodoo for the time being.
The Bears came out on top against two high-quality teams in the form of San Francisco (9-1) and Pacific (3-4). USF headed into the matchup on a hot streak with eight consecutive wins and no losses. But on the warm and sunny day, the Dons’ performance felt cold.
Cal’s sophomore pair of Emily Shults and Katie Regalia started the proceedings with a straight set win. USF got one back on court 4, but the Bears’ play was too much to handle for the Dons, who conceded losses on the other three courts.
“It feels awesome,” said Cal head coach Meagan Schmitt of breaking USF’s winning streak. “We had a gameplan against both USF and Pacific of coming out and taking our points instead of waiting for the opponent to make mistakes. I think the girls did a wonderful job of controlling their destiny today.”
Cal defeated Pacific by the same scoreline of 4-1 later in the day. This time, Shults and Regalia dropped their match on court 5 but the pair of sophomore Teya Neff and freshman Rachel Wilson — who were the lone pair to lose against the Dons — were able to win theirs in three sets. The match was the only three-set match of the day and goes to show how much Cal improved after its previous seven matches.
“I think what we have been working on is owning our strengths,” Neff said. ”In the first game, we didn’t execute our offense too well. But in the second game, we went in with an aggressive mentality. We won the first set pretty handily. They came back in the second set, but I did not lose trust in our team, and in the third set, we won easily.”
The pair of senior Kory Lamet and sophomore Bryce Bark were dominant again as they notched two wins on that day to take their record to 8-1 for the season. The pair showed great composure and mental fortitude in posting wins that would clinch the overall victory in both matches.
“It feels great to have such a good record,” Bark said. “It sort of puts a bit of pressure, but it’s really exciting to have a girl that I can trust as a partner and know that she’ll play great defense behind me while I’m up blocking or hitting.”
In beach volleyball, movement on the court is of utmost importance as the presence of only two players makes it easy to exploit open spaces on the court. To offset this aspect of the game, partner communication is crucial and against both these teams, Cal deployed a very effective communication strategy which was key to their success.
In the game against Pacific, the pair of senior Sarah Cole and freshman Mia Merino put on a brilliant display of such communication. In one of the points being played, Merino passed the ball to Cole for a spike but the spike was returned well. Cole had already shouted out to Merino for coverage and she was able to pick up the subsequent Pacific spike. The two teams traded spikes and blocks until Merino, while passing the ball again, spotted an opening on the court and shouted out to Cole to exploit it. Cole duly complied and hit a strong but well-placed spike that ended the point in favor of Cal.
“We’ve been focusing a lot on partner communication both during the plays and after the plays,” Schmitt said. “They did a great job of making the correct calls and trusting their partners to give them the right information.”
Cal is scheduled to face Saint Mary’s and Sacramento State on Saturday. The Bears have already played the Hornets once this season, a 3-2 win and will look to increase the margin of victory this time around. Saint Mary’s is currently on a record of 4-1 with its lone loss coming to USF and will be looking to avenge the 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Bears last season.
If Cal can muster up the same level of performance it gave Tuesday, it has a good chance of coming out victorious.
Devang Prasad covers beach volleyball. Contact him at dprasad@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @DevangPrasad.