Georgia Tech

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at Georgia Tech

10/24/2025 | 4:00 p.m.


Oct. 24 (Fri) / 4:00 p.m.


at Georgia Tech

BERKELEY – The California volleyball team forced five sets for the second contest in three days Saturday afternoon, welcoming Florida State to Haas Pavilion in hopes of starting a new winning streak after upsetting No. 14 Miami in a reverse sweep Thursday night. Ultimately, however, the match finishes in the Seminoles’ favor (22-25, 25-15, 25-20, 22-25, 16-14), with Florida State improving to 9-8 (3-5 ACC) and Cal falling to 6-12 (3-5) on the year.
 
Peyton DeJardin led the Bears with 17 kills, followed by Dominique Phills and her season-high-tying 16 kills on .306 hitting. Mikayla Hayden posted her fourth-straight match with double-digit kills, recording 12; she also tied with Sawyer Thomsen for a team-high six blocks.
 
Ashley Li was the final Cal player to join the double-digit kills party with 10 on the night, while freshman setter Maria Știrbu was just one assist high of her career best, posting 47 as well as nine digs and three blocks. For the second-straight match, all three of the Bears’ defensive specialists saw playing time, as Sophia Johnson led the team with 16 digs followed by Francesca Popescu’s 12 and Elise Lau’s career-best six. Popescu also performed well at the service line, tying for a match-high three aces.
 
Florida State’s offense was led by Iane Henke (27 kills) and Kyleene Filimaua (25 kills), while its defense was commanded by Delaney Ewing  (eight blocks) and Mio Yamamoto (19 digs). As a team, the Seminoles out-hit the Bears, .276 to .201.
 
Both teams utilized a strong offense in the first set, with Cal hitting .375 to Florida State’s .345 and fielding four kills apiece from Li (.500) and DeJardin (.400).The Bears battled back from a four-point deficit at 13-9 and finally took the lead for good on a late three-point sequence that included kills from Hayden and Annemarie O’Gara and an ace from Popescu to make the score 23-21, before Phills’ third kill of the match finally ended it to give Cal its first Set One win in seven matches.
 
The Seminoles’ offense improved to .394 in the second set while their defense held the Bears to just .030, out-blocking Cal 4.0 to 2.0. After scoring the first point on a block from Hayden and Li, Cal never led for the rest of the set as Florida State responded with a 4-0 run and responded decisively to an early three-point streak from the Bears, evening up the match at one set apiece with a 10-point final advantage. The visitors stumbled early in a very defensive third set as Cal took a 12-8 lead off a pair of scoring runs, but Ewing posted five of her blocks to help the Seminoles claw back into contention and overtake the Bears to go up two sets to one.
 
In a repeat performance, Cal kicked off the fourth set by scoring the first three points; this time, however, the advantage was one that stayed, as the Bears stretched their lead to seven points (18-11) and fended off any of Florida State’s hopes for a comeback with a five-kill, .714 performance from Phills that included the set-clincher. Both squads hit .300 or better in the final set, which went to extra points thanks in part to three more DeJardin kills, but a kill apiece from Henke and Filimaua to score last two points finally gave the Seminoles the victory.
 
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will hit the road again next week, visiting Georgia Tech (8-8, 3-4) on Friday at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET and Clemson (12-7, 0-7) on Sunday at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m.  ET.
 
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