Cal women’s volleyball head coach Matt McShane is back in Berkeley. McShane was an assistant at Cal from 2005-2009 and after a 6 year hiatus, which he spent as the head coach at Air Force, he returned last season as head coach – which turned out to be a head coach-in-waiting role. After one more year, he succeeded his former boss Rich Feller as the team’s new head coach this offseason.
The Golden Bears are off to a good start in the McShane era. After a season-opening loss to UC Irvine, the squad has rattled off 8-straight wins, including a 3-1 victory over top mid-major squad Rice in Houston on Friday.
- Watch post-game interview with Rice head coach Genny Volpe
- Read the full recap of Friday’s match here.
Afterward, McShane spoke with VolleyMob about what it was like being back in Berkeley, and what’s different this time around as head coach. The team was 114-47 in his first 5-year run, which included the school’s first-ever trip to the Final 4.
He also spoke about his team’s high hitting velocity – which, having seen it first-hand this weekend, is not puffery. The team hits hard, though a strong Rice block help partially negate that on Friday.
Cal has already almost matched its 9 wins from last season and will play St. Mary’s and Pacific next weekend with a chance to eclipse that mark before even starting Pac-12 play. Things get tougher there, though. The Golden Bears were only 3-17 last season in Pac-12 play, and start this year with a big one: a September 20th prime-time game against the defending NCAA Champions, and their bay-area arch rivals, Stanford, in Stanford.
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