How to watch, what to expect when Arizona volleyball visits Cal

The Arizona volleyball team will continue Pac-12 play in Berkeley this weekend with a chance to improve to .500 with a sweep over last-place Cal. The Wildcats (7-9) have been hot lately, winning three of their last four matches including a home sweep of Colorado last weekend. Cal (1-15) has lost nine in a row.

Here is how to tune into this weekend’s matches plus some insight from head coach Dave Rubio on what Arizona is up against.

Rubio’s take: The Arizona coach is concerned about last-place Cal because he thinks young teams can overlook someone at the bottom of the standings. The Wildcats' second match at Arizona State is evidence of that. Rubio also knows that road matches are tougher even in the days of COVID-19. The team is still trying to get its first road win of the season.

“I thought that Cal last year should have been selected to the NCAA tournament,” Rubio said. “It was kind of a travesty that they weren’t. And then they returned everybody. But when the season got suspended and pushed back to the spring, their best players left and one of them went to to Florida and one of them went to Baylor. And so both those teams are in the top 10 in the country. And then the best left side hitter is now playing beach only. So it really hurt those guys. I feel bad for Sam (Crosson). Basically he had to replace all those players in a really short window, and there just weren’t enough top-level recruits.”

• When: Friday, March 19 at 6 p.m. MST and Sunday, March 21 at 1 p.m. MST
• Where: Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif.
• TV: Friday’s match will be on Pac-12 Bay Area
• Streaming: Sunday’s match will be on Cal Live Stream
• Stats: In-match stats are available via Arizona Live Stats
• Twitter: Follow us at @AZDesertSwarm. You can also follow our editor at @RKelapire and our reporter at @KimDoss71 for coverage during the game and throughout the season.