MANHATTAN BEACH – The No. 7 California beach volleyball team split a pair of duals Friday to open up the East Meets West Invitational. The Golden Bears dropped the first match of the weekend to No. 8 Florida State 3-2 before bouncing back to defeat No. 19 FIU 4-1.
 
The Bears experienced a bit of déjà vu against the Seminoles as they dropped their third straight match to a top-10 team in the final set of the contest. The two teams traded punches with FSU claiming the first match in each flight and Cal answering each time.
 
After Florida State won on court four to start the day, graduate student Sierra Caffo and junior Gia Fisher got the Bears on the board with a straight set win in the two-spot. The Seminoles regained the lead with a win at the 1s and Cal responded with a come-from-behind win on court three by senior Alexandria Young-Gomez and junior Marilu Pally.
 
It all came down to court five where the Bears won the first set and held a lead in the second, but FSU turned a corner and went on a run to force a tiebreaker and ultimately win the final set of the dual.
 
Cal got back in the win column to end the day defeating the Panthers for its third ranked victory of the season.
 
Fisher and Caffo were the first off the sand, winning in two sets once again to improve to 2-0 on the day. The court-four pair of graduate student Christine DeRoos and junior Jenna Colligan dropped its first set but bounced back to force a third that the two won in extra points. The clincher came on court five with seniors Ella Dreibholz and Ella Sears picking up their first win of the day.
 
No. 8 Florida State - 3, No. 7 Cal - 2
1. Durish/Koenig (FSU) def. Donley/Sherman (Cal) 21-17, 21-15
2. Fisher/Caffo (Cal) def. Andrew/Trusty (FSU) 21-19, 23-21
3. Pally/Young-Gomez (Cal) def. Filimaua/Flaherty (FSU) 17-21, 21-15, 15-12
4. Higgins/Sassack (FSU) def. Colligan/DeRoos (Cal) 21-17, 21-15
5. Wolfe/Massey (FSU) def. Sears/Dreibholz (Cal) 25-27, 21-19, 15-9
Order of finish: 4, 2, 1, 3, 5*
 
No. 7 Cal – 4, No. 19 FIU - 1
1. Donley/Sherman (Cal) def. Gray/Vogel (FIU) 21-18, 21-12
2. Fisher/Caffo (Cal) def. Panko/Sanchez (FIU) 21-18, 21-12
3. Drodz/Luoma (FIU) def. Pally/Young-Gomez (Cal) 21-15, 21-18
4. Colligan/DeRoos (Cal) def. Cahill/Brown (FIU) 15-21, 21-10, 16-14
5. Sears/Dreibholz (Cal) def. Chudzik/Heflin 21-7, 22-20
Order of finish: 2, 4, 5*, 3, 1