BERKELEY, Calif. – After going 2-1 in its home state last weekend, the West Virginia University volleyball team (3-3) is headed to the West Coast to compete in the Cal Classic hosted by the California Golden Bears at Haas Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.
The Mountaineers will face host Cal (4-1) on Friday in a match slated for a 10 p.m. ET start before taking on No. 19 Santa Clara (6-0) at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. WVU will finish the tournament with an 8 p.m. ET match against Grand Canyon (4-2) but will stay in the Bay Area to face Pacific on Monday.
Live stats for all Cal Classic matches can be found at CalBears.com. A live stream of the WVU-Cal match can also be found on their website.
The Mountaineers have not played on the West Coast since 2010, when they went 2-2 at the Fullerton Classic at Cal State Fullerton.
Five Mountaineers boast ties to California, as three players and a coach are natives of the Golden State. Senior setter Haley Roe hails from Campbell and attended St. Francis High, while junior libero Gianna Gotterba is from Stockton and played for St. Mary’s. Freshman outside hitter Katelyn Evans is from Palmdale and recently completed her career at Highland High. Assistant coach Jojit Coronel hails from Los Angeles and played for U.C. Santa Cruz. Coronel was an assistant at Pacific from 1995-99. In addition, head coach Reed Sunahara played for UCLA and started his coaching career with the Bruins.
In addition to being a Bay Area native, Roe boasts another Cal connection. Her older sister, Ashley, played volleyball for the Golden Bears. Ashley was a defensive specialist/setter on Cal’s Elite 8 team and played for the Bears in 2008 and 2009 before transferring to Georgia Southern.
Cal is the only team the Mountaineers have faced prior to this weekend. The Mountaineers and the Golden Bears previously met in 1991 with Cal taking a 3-0 win.
All five of WVU’s matches at last week’s Capital Classic went to five sets, with the Mountaineers topping Indiana State and Morehead State while falling to Marshall. West Virginia has not gone to five sets in back-to-back matches since 2012 when they squad went to in four straight contests, posting a 2-2 record with wins over Cleveland State and Murray State and losses to Robert Morris and TCU.
Payton Caffrey added a pair of honors to her resume with her play at The Capital Classic. Leading WVU with 3.55 kills per set - scoring 26 or more kills in each match - the rookie was named to the all-tournament team for her efforts. Caffrey was also named the WVU Varsity Sports Report Student-Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
