Bears Open Season At Home Aug. 28
California volleyball has announced its 2026 schedule, featuring six teams that ended the 2025 season ranked in the AVCA top 25 as well as eight NCAA Tournament teams. The complete 2026 Cal volleyball schedule can be found here, with the Golden Bears opening their campaign at home the week after hosting an open scrimmage on Aug. 22.
Season tickets and single-match tickets are now available on CalBears.com.
The Bears will co-host the Gael Bear Classic with Saint Mary’s (also featuring Pacific, UC San Diego, Southern Utah and Gonzaga) on Aug. 28-30. Cal’s tournament play will also feature a trip to Nacogdoches, Texas, for the SFA Tournament (Sept. 4-5); the Santa Clara Mission Classic in Santa Clara (Sept. 12-13) and the Battle of NorCal in San Jose (Sept. 19-20).
Interspersed with the team’s tournament schedule, Cal will face South Carolina for the first time in history in Columbia, South Carolina, for ESPN Events’ “Showdown at the Net” on Sept. 8 and will travel to UC Davis on Sept. 16.
Cal’s ACC schedule begins with a trip to Pitt (Sept. 25) and SMU (Sept. 27) before the team returns to Berkeley for its conference home-opening weekend against Virginia (Oct. 2) and Virginia Tech (Oct. 3).
The yearly Big Spike matchups will take place on Oct. 28 (Berkeley) and Oct. 30 (Stanford). Cal will end its season with five straight home contests spanning Nov. 13 (vs. Georgia Tech) to Nov. 25 (vs. Notre Dame), with the last acting as Senior Day. The Bears’ regular season will conclude on the road at Boston College on Nov. 28.
Cal’s roster will feature 11 returners and seven newcomers, including four freshmen. This year’s senior class includes libero Sophia Johnson and middle blockers Sawyer Thomsen and Ashleigh Woodruff as well as graduate students Cari Bohm (a middle blocker transfer from Illinois) and Portia Sherman (an outside hitter formerly with Cal beach volleyball).
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