Arizona went to Berkeley with a 47-27 lead in the all-time series against California. The Wildcats had not lost to the Golden Bears since 2019, a year when UA was racked by injuries. There was no such excuse this year as Arizona was largely uncompetitive in a 3-1 (26-24, 25-20, 20-25, 25-18) Cal victory at Haas Pavilion.
Arizona ran into common problems. Those were largely problems of its own making. There were issues with defense and communication that were especially costly in the opening set.
The Wildcats came out strong. They took the 2-1 lead in the opening set and didn’t trail until 22-21.