BERKELEY – The familiar faces were more familiar than usual at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts this fall.

The Cal beach volleyball team didn't lose any seniors from last year's team, meaning a strong nucleus of returners is back for another season. Aside from a couple of players who left the team during the offseason, everyone is back. Throw in an accomplished freshmen class, and it was an exciting fall season for the Golden Bears.

"We have athletes that have been part of this program and know what we expect as a coaching staff," Cal head coach Meagan Owusu said. "We can rely on a large majority of the team to carry on our cultural values and they can teach the freshmen what Cal beach volleyball is all about."

The Bears wrapped up fall workouts last week, and the continued growth of the program has resulted in more expectations than ever. Cal, which was ranked in the top-20 throughout most of last season, figures to be even better this year.

"I'm so excited for spring," senior and co-captain Bryce Bark said. "We've grown so much. Every other school is getting better too, so it will be really, really cool. The competition is going to be really fun."

Stalwarts such as Bark, Mia Merino, Grace Campbell  and co-captain Teya Neff are back to provide leadership and stability. Each has played a slew of matches during their careers. Iya Lindahl, Camille Stepanof and Bridget Gustafson also return following promising freshmen seasons, and an incoming freshmen class led by AVCA High School All-American Alexia Inman made great strides during the fall.

"This offseason went really, really well," Bark said. "We have raised the competitive level of our play so much more because everyone is so excited to be here and so ready to try new things. The end of this offseason, there is a huge difference looking back at where we started."

While the fall was encouraging and productive for the Bears, they also were without two potential major contributors in freshman Mima Mirkovic and senior Jessica Gaffney, each of whom played for Cal's indoor team during the fall. Mirkovic has won two international bronze medals for her age group while Gaffney played for the Bears' No. 1 pair most of last season.

With so much experience, Owusu pointed out that the Bears have potential contributors up and down the roster, regardless of class.

"Our captains have been very vocal this fall and I expect them to continue to lead the troops through the spring as we compete," Owusu said. "The freshmen have been playing at a very high level, but so have some of our key sophomores and juniors. We have role players within every class this year."

The Bears are now preparing for finals and then will break for the holiday season. When they return in mid-January, they will go into in-season mode and start preparing for the 2018 campaign, which commences at the beginning of March.

"Because we have so much time off, we really have to work hard to maintain exactly how hard we've worked to build up this whole semester," Bark said. "We can't lose it over our four-week break. We've all talked about it and we all have a workout schedule that we plan on following through on and getting in as much reps as we can."