A busy weekend lies ahead for Cal's sports teams, starting with Thursday night's home debut of the women's volleyball team. Let's take a closer look.

FOOTBALL

• The Bears will attempt to bounce back from last weekend's disappointing loss to Nevada in their season-opener and Memorial Stadium-opener when they host Southern Utah. The game starts at Noon and is once again on the Pac-12 Networks.
• Following Saturday's game, Cal plays back-to-back challenging road games at No. 14 Ohio State and No. 2 USC.
• Interesting note of the week: Senior J.P. Hurrell has played in every game of his Cal career. You might expect that more from a mainstay like Isi Sofele or Aaron Tipoti. But Hurrell has carved out a very nice college career for himself by excelling on special teams.

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

• The Bears make their home debut with four matches this week. It starts with an exhibition match Thursday night against Jiangsu, a top club team from China. Jiangsu has been touring the West Coast and is undefeated against some of the best teams in college volleyball -- USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and Stanford among them. Cal then hosts the Cal Molten Classic on Friday and Saturday. The Bears welcome Penn, UC Riverside and Northern Arizona for the tourney.
• Cal is unranked this week for the first time since 2002, but put it together in its last match to beat then-No. 6 Hawaii in Honolulu on Sunday. Look for the Bears to take care of business this week and possibly re-enter the rankings Monday.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

• The No. 17 Bears take their potent offense up I-80 for a match at UC Davis on Friday night.
• Cal is 4-2 after winning twice last week.
• The Bears lead the Pac-12 in goals (17) and shots (116).

MEN'S SOCCER

• The Bears make their home debut Friday and it's a big one as it's also the team's first appearance on the Pac-12 Networks. Cal plays Central Florida at 4:30.
• It will be the home folks' first chance to see 2011 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Seth Casiple.
• Central Florida has been to the past two NCAA Tournaments.
• Impressive stat of the week: Kevin Grimes has coached the Bears for 12 years and has been named conference coach of the year five times.

MEN'S WATER POLO

• No. 3 The Bears open the 2012 to a national audience as they travel to the Princeton Invitational for games Friday-Sunday.
• Cal plays twice on Friday, with the second game against No. 12 Princeton airing on ESPNU at 3 p.m. PT. The Bears open the tournament earlier in the day against No. 18 St. Francis.
• Cal features Aleksa Saponjic, who won a bronze medal last month at the London Olympics as a member of the Croatian Olympic Team.

CROSS COUNTRY

• The Bears travel to Sacramento State for the Hornet Invitational.
• Cal got the season off to a strong start last weekend at the USF Invitational. The women's team took first place and the men placed second.

FIELD HOCKEY

• Cal takes a 3-2 record into a Friday matchup at home against Drexel. The Bears blasted Bryant 5-0 in their last game on Monday.