BERKELEY – It took every bit of effort and no shortage of stamina for the California volleyball team to find itself back in the win column after a rough weekend on the road, but the Golden Bears (3-2) had no intention of leaving Haas Pavilion disappointed on Wednesday night, coming back from a two-set deficit and playing through an extended fifth set to come out on top over visiting Vanderbilt, 21-25, 21-25, 27-25, 25-16, 22-24. Cal's win also clinched a 9-7 victory for the ACC in the two-day Showdown at the Net series, which featured 16 matchups between ACC and SEC teams across the country.
 
Sophomore Dominique Phills was one of four Cal players with double-digit kills (16) and two with a double-double, also recording a career-high 16 digs to join senior Peyton DeJardin (13 kills, 11 digs) in that category. Junior Sophia Johnson and freshman Francesca Popescu recorded career bests of their own in the digs column with 25 and 14, respectively, while senior Mikayla Hayden and junior Sawyer Thomsen posted career bests of nine blocks (Hayden) and 12 kills (Thomsen).
 
The Commodores (2-4) fielded several impressive performances of their own, including 22 kills from Kamryn Chaney and a pair of 20-dig performances from Haille Mack and Reese Animashaun; however, they had trouble with the serve, gifting Cal 16 total points via service errors.
 
"We knew this game was going to be a battle," Cal head coach Jen Malcom said. "Vanderbilt is a really good team, and we felt like we were evenly matched with them."
 
The Bears never led in the first set and were held to just .132 to the Commodores' .385. Hayden starred for Cal in Set One, posting five kills on .714 hitting, but Chaney's eight kills on .700 hitting helped Vanderbilt build an eight-point lead and fend off a pair of late three-point runs from the Bears. Cal claimed the first point of the second set with a kill from Thomsen (her fourth of the match) which kick-started a 5-1 run, but the visitors regained their momentum after taking a timeout, taking nine of the next 11 points to jump ahead and not allowing the Bears to lead for the rest of the set.
 
Cal's defense came to life in the third and flipped the script on the Commodores, holding their hard-hitting offense to under .160 for the rest of the match. After a third set that included 12 ties, six lead changes, and four Cal runs of three-or-more points, the Bears smelled blood and quickly made a statement in the fourth by scoring the first four points (with two consecutive solo blocks from Hayden, who had five total blocks in that set). They built their lead out to nine points – the largest by either team in the match – after a five-point mid-set run to bring the score to 18-9, eventually tying the match at two sets apiece with DeJardin's ninth kill of the evening.
 
Offensively, the final set was all Phills, who posted nine kills with zero errors for a hitting percentage of .818 in the fifth. Cal found itself behind after Vanderbilt closed a four-point gap, forcing a back-and-forth battle that lasted over half an hour with 14 tie scores. The Bears finally retook the advantage at 17-16 off a pair of Commodores errors, but even three more kills from DeJardin could not deter the visitors, who fended off three match points and stretched the score to 22-22. Even with another kill from Phills, things seemed far from over.
 
Out of subs, out of challenges, out of timeouts, the Bears needed to finish it. Phills took a deep breath – in, then out.
 
"My mindset was to stay calm no matter what happens, and trust in my teammates and I's training," she said.
 
Hayden served and posted a masterful dig on the return to keep the ball alive. Senior Natalie Lau set it forward and left, where Phills was lying in wait. The sophomore jumped, swung her arm, and the ball dropped like a stone off the Vanderbilt block – on the Commodores' side of the court.
 
"Dom did the little things early to get herself going," Malcom said, "and when it was time to go big and swing, she was there."
 
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will travel to San Luis Obispo for the Mustang Invitational, meeting Cal Poly (3-3) on Friday at 6 p.m. PT and San Jose State (2-3) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
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