Meagan Owusu

After taking the 2021 season off to care for her newborn triplets, head coach Meagan Owusu is back at the reins.

UC Berkeley alumna and former Cal beach volleyball player Mackenzie Feldman and her former teammate and campus junior Bridget Gustafson spoke out against the use of glyphosate-based herbicides on campus in fall 2017. Almost two years later, on May 14, UC President Janet Napolitano issued a temporary suspension, with several exceptions, on the use of glyphosate-based herbicides at all UC locations because of health concerns and ecological hazards.

One factor that may affect the outcome of the Bears’ matchup with the Bruins is the pairings. Last weekend, four of the five competitive pairs for Cal had never played in a tournament together before.

The two 5-0 sweeps gave the Bears crucial opportunities to practice their competition play before their schedule brings them face to face with several more challenging foes.

Overall, Cal will be facing off with 13 teams that ended last year nationally ranked. Among these, four qualified for the 2018 NCAA Championships, and eight were ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Taking third at the Pac-12 Championships, Cal beach volleyball (24-8) finally established its name among the best, while checking off goals that were left unaccomplished for the past four seasons.

From owning their highest regular season ranking at No. 13 to beating a top-five ranked school, 2018 has been a year of firsts for Cal beach volleyball.

In the Pacific Northwest, the team will face a competitive field of two days. Cal will play Oregon and Washington on day one, two teams eager for an upset, and two ranked opponents the following day — No. 14 Stanford and No. 4 USC.

The desert was a battleground this weekend, and No. 14 Cal beach volleyball came fully equipped for a war in Arizona.

Cal beach volleyball had similar early success last season with an 8-0 record, before they took four straight losses to teams including UCLA and USC.