BERKELEY – Savannah Rennie couldn't cry. There was another point to play, after all.

It didn't matter that she had just registered her first career kill, less than five months after undergoing a liver transplant. It didn't matter that everyone around her was standing, applauding, crying. The Cal volleyball team was losing, and Savannah Rennie wanted to do everything she could to help her team.

But one of the toughest student-athletes ever to wear a jersey of any kind at Cal couldn't help herself. When the ball hit the floor on the Utah side of the court after converting a slide play, Rennie started to tear up. So did her teammates on the court. So did her teammates on the bench. So did coaches, staff and fans at Haas Pavilion.

The Golden Bears fell to Utah 25-23, 25-20, 25-16 on Friday night, but by the time Rennie had finished off an interview with the Pac-12 Network and raced off to Cal's team meeting room for a postgame meeting, nobody seemed to notice. At long last, Savannah Rennie had played in a volleyball match at Cal – something at one point in time was very much in doubt.

"It was an emotional moment," Rennie said. "I started to tear up a little bit, but I'm still out there on the court and there is another point to play. I couldn't look at the bench. I could feel them crying. I just had to focus on the next point."

Friday marked the culmination of an improbable story – a cruel one that shouldn't happen to a 19-year old woman. A former top-20 national recruit, Rennie graduated from high school early to join the Cal program during the spring of 2015. But that summer, Rennie became ill, and after extensive tests, it was determined she had a rare liver disease known as Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis with Portal Hypertension. The only solution was to find a new liver.

So she and her mother, Renee, temporarily moved to Indianapolis to be close to the Indiana University Transplant Center, where she had the best chance of finding a match in the quickest amount of time. In May, she got her new liver. By August, she was back in school at Cal and on the court during the first day of practice for the 2016 season.

Gradually, doctors cleared her to do more and more, until finally a few weeks ago she was given unlimited restrictions to play in a match. Head coach Rich Feller searched for the right moment, while Rennie worked to earn that moment.

Finally, with Utah leading 16-10 in the third set and the Golden Bears struggling, Feller decided to see if his team could find something to rally around. He called for Rennie, who sprinted off the bench to sub in to the match. The Bears, as well as the crowd at Haas Pavilion, went crazy.

"I got very emotional," Feller said. "I could barely coach the rest of the match. Every time I tried to say something, I got choked up. I hate losing and I hate the way we played tonight, but the reality is there is a young woman who is now getting to live her dream again. It kind of puts some perspective on it."

On her first point at Cal, Rennie almost crushed a Utah overpass for her first career kill. But it was dug up by a Utes defender. She took two more swings and came up empty, and the ultra-competitive Rennie was angry – doesn't matter she was lying on an operating table less than five months ago

Finally, Rennie converted off a set by Alyssa Jensen, pounding the ball inside the end line.

"I was mad she dug up that overpass," Rennie said. "She made a great play, but I should have hit it harder. I wanted the ball again after that. I wanted that first one."

While Feller had told Rennie she was close to playing in a match, she still didn't know when it would happen. While her emotions swirled during and after the match, she said she was also relieved the moment has finally come and gone.

"It's a great feeling, but it's also a relief," she said. "That first moment is something I will always cherish, but it's over now. I can finally just focus on playing."

Redshirt sophomore Ashten Smith-Gooden led the Bears on Friday with nine kills while junior Christine Alftin lhad seven.

The Bears (6-9, 0-5 Pac-12) return to the court Sunday against No. 19 Colorado at 3 p.m. The match will be televised by Pac-12 Bay Area.