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Bears upset No. 19 Santa Clara

Daily Planet Wire Services
Thursday October 25, 2001

The Cal women’s volleyball team upset No. 19 Santa Clara, 3-2 (30-21, 30-26, 24-30, 25-30, 18-16) Tuesday night at Haas Pavilion. The Bears were led by junior outside hitter Leah Young, who had a career-high 19 kills, 12 digs and a .319 hitting percentage (19 kills, four errors, 47 attempts). Young also served well and had several key plays during the five-game match.  

Cal (7-11) was also paced by sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy’s 17 kills and junior Reena Pardiwala had a solid night, finishing with 10 kills, a .360 hitting percentage (10 kills, one error, 25 attempts) and had a team-high 15 digs. As a team, Cal had its best blocking night of the year, tallying four solo blocks, 26 block assists and a season-high 17 team blocks. The Bears were also playing without freshman Mia Jerkov, who sat out the match with a strained tendon in her left foot. Santa Clara (13-7) was led by a career-high 21 kills from freshman Toni Muratore and 21 kills from Becky Potter.  

The Bears played well in game one, with Young collecting six kills, including the game-winning kill to lead Cal to a 30-21 victory. The Bears also played well in game two, winning 30-26. Game three was a struggle as Cal played poorly, falling behind 9-1 and eventually losing, 30-24. Game four was not much better for the Bears as a bad pass by Abernathy was the final point in 30-25 loss, leading to the fifth and deciding game.  

In game five, a Young kill tied the contest at 15-15. A Cal block went out of bounds to give the Broncos a 16-15 lead, but a Santa Clara service error and a hit by Muratore that went long gave the Bears back the lead, 17-16. Finally, Cal put the match away, 18-16, on block assists by sophomores Jessica Zatica and Heather Diers.  

Cal will next travel to No. 4 ranked Stanford on Friday at 7 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.