This weekend marks Cal beach volleyball\u2019s last home tournament for the 2026 season, where the Bears will celebrate their seniors with matches against UC Davis and San Jose State.<\/p>\n
Cal\u2019s last match was March 21 at the Death Valley Invitational. As students left for Spring Break, the Bears were competing against one of their greatest rivals: No. 3 Texas.<\/p>\n
In one of the most impressive upsets of the season, Cal beat the Longhorns three sets to two in an incredibly satisfying win for the Bears. Texas had knocked them out of last year\u2019s national championship bracket in the first round.<\/p>\n
For senior Marilu Pally, the win was more than just a rivalry match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reinstalled our confidence in each other individually, and just within the team, that we are that good,\u201d Pally said. \u201cWe have a shot at the natty. I\u2019m optimistic, and everyone else is feeling optimistic, and we\u2019re hungry. I\u2019m excited to see how the next month plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the Bears\u2019 matches against Davis and San Jose State, the two teams are not ranked in the top 20, as many of Cal\u2019s toughest opponents are.<\/p>\n
The Bears\u2019 last match against Davis was during the Battle of the Bay at the end of February, and the Aggies lost on all five courts. It was one of Cal\u2019s best tournaments all season, and Davis was one of four clean sweeps that weekend.<\/p>\n
Though the Aggies stand at 8-14, competing against No. 9 Cal is a major opportunity. In the words of Pally, it\u2019s a make-or-break moment that will require discipline and the team\u2019s A-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying against us and potentially being able to beat us would make their season, and in that way, they can go into games on Friday and Saturday being the underdog,\u201d Pally said. \u201cPlaying against a team who adopts that type of mentality where they do not have anything to lose and are going to play their hardest because of that is very, very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis has yet to pull off an upset win of such caliber this season and was swept in both of its matches against Cal last year.<\/p>\n
Still, the Aggies are a Division I program, and have taken sets against top-20 opponents, such as Hawaii and Washington.<\/p>\n
San Jose State, similar to Davis, has been able to eke out set wins against tougher teams, but struggled last year with an overall record of 15-20. Among those was a 5-0 loss to the Bears.<\/p>\n
This year, the Spartans\u2019 record stands at 7-8, with notable wins against USF, Pacific and Santa Clara, all of which compete against Cal.<\/p>\n
With experience playing both Cal and teams that it\u2019s used to seeing, the San Jose State match might not necessarily be a clean sweep.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur coaches (say) it could be a trap weekend,\u201d Pally said. \u201cThis week we\u2019ve been really focusing on staying present, controlling what we can control and just taking time in between points, in between sets, in between games, to be very mindful of what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pally notes that the home court advantage with the presence of family and friends can make it an emotional weekend for the seniors, meaning there are a lot of variables at play.<\/p>\n
As Cal\u2019s season draws closer to league and national championships, this mindset will likely contribute to its success on the court this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe top 10 to 15 teams in the nation right now are so neck and neck and neck that it doesn\u2019t surprise me when I see these upsets,\u201d Pally said. \u201cThroughout the season, we\u2019ve been 2 points away from an upset, and so it was kind of bound to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of whether an upset will occur this weekend, it will undoubtedly be an exciting two days for the program.<\/p>\n
Cal will play both teams twice, starting with Davis on Friday at 11:30 a.m., and San Jose State at 2 p.m. Play will resume Saturday morning, with matches at the same times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend marks Cal beach volleyball\u2019s last home tournament for the 2026 season, where the Bears will celebrate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[38924,93565,11604,10109,111448,9905,2289,109611,111449,1602,88,90,89,996,197,1001,564,52379,558],"class_list":{"0":"post-250262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-aggies","9":"tag-battle-of-the-bay","10":"tag-bears","11":"tag-cal","12":"tag-cal-beach-volleyball","13":"tag-davis","14":"tag-hawaii","15":"tag-longhorns","16":"tag-marilu-pally","17":"tag-pacific","18":"tag-san-jose","19":"tag-san-jose-headlines","20":"tag-san-jose-news","21":"tag-san-jose-state","22":"tag-santa-clara","23":"tag-spartans","24":"tag-texas","25":"tag-usf","26":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}