“It just shows how deep and personal our team is,” Dreibholz said. “We’re lucky. In the preseason, we get an opportunity to put a bunch of different people and try to develop all those different partner relationships. So, it was exciting for the people that got an opportunity to be in the lineup and step […]
“It just shows how deep and personal our team is,” Dreibholz said. “We’re lucky. In the preseason, we get an opportunity to put a bunch of different people and try to develop all those different partner relationships. So, it was exciting for the people that got an opportunity to be in the lineup and step up.”“After that really tough loss against LSU, it was a really awesome moment to see how we all turned it around and collectively as a group thought, ‘We are not going to let this affect us,’ ” said Dreibholz.Under the Texan sun last Friday, the Bears began their battle with a loss against LSU before flipping the script with wins against Texas, Florida International and Georgia State to close out the weekend.Donley and Sherman brought Cal its second match win against FIU, but the Panthers defeated Jenna Colligan and partner Alex Adishian on court four.But Fisher and Caffo won in three sets as Cal continued to trade matches with the Longhorns until Emma Donley and Portia Sherman clinched their first win of the day — and the duel. They dominated in their final set, winning 21-12.Following the heartbreaking loss, the Bears had to bounce back against Texas, which holds a strong 16-5 season record and was undefeated at home.Gia Fisher and Sierra Caffo won the next game in an intense competition that saw the pair win by two in the first set (24-22), fall by two in the second (23-21) and finally close out the third set — again by two (15-13).Then-ranked No. 12 and No. 10, respectively, the LSU Tigers and Texas Longhorns had played Cal just the week before. LSU lost in a 0-5 sweep, but this time demonstrated a thirst for redemption and defeated the Bears 3-2 — marking Cal’s sixth loss by only one court.Saturday began with Cal’s third rematch of the weekend against Florida International University.The Panthers were 0-4 in Texas but went 2-3 against the Bears. Marilu Pally, partnered with graduate student Maile Somera, defeated FIU 21-14 and 21-5, the most decisive win of the weekend.Dreibholz spoke to the mindset the team embodies — “punching first” and continuing to maintain that momentum when the other team fights back.Cal was able to sweep its new challenger 5-0, consistently keeping Georgia State below 18 points.With the weekend’s wins under their belt, the Bears will return home after two weeks off to compete against Saint Mary’s, SJSU, Pacific and USF during the first weekend of April.“The game isn’t over until the game is over,” Dreibholz said. “It was a really good learning lesson for us, (and) we have to anticipate that teams are going to come back and they’re going to give us a hard time.”Pally and Dreibholz suffered a tough loss to Macey Butler, who transferred from UCLA in 2024, and freshman Noa Sonneville, 21-14, 21-13.This weekend was the first time this season the Bears won the first two sets and were still reverse swept.Cal seemed to find rhythm easily that day, with new matchups excelling on the courts. Ella Dreibholz — who competed against LSU with Ella Sears last week — was paired with Marilu Pally, and the two secured the first win of the match (21-17, 21-18).Christine DeRoos and Dreibholz won the third match against FIU and another later that day against Georgia State. Clearly, the roster changes still brought the Bears’ success.In a twist, LSU took the remaining three sets in a comeback victory that delivered Cal its first and only loss in Texas.
