After years of playing only one competitive team during its annual Bay Area road trip, the Arizona volleyball team now must face a California team that may be even better than perennial volleyball power Stanford.

Just a day after falling to the Cardinal, 3-1, Arizona (10-12, 4-7 Pacific-10 Conference) travels across the Bay to face the No. 6 Golden Bears (18-2, 9-2) in Haas Pavilion tonight.

Last night, the Wildcats fell to No. 9 Stanford in four sets ÷ 28-30, 25-30, 33-31, 24-30. With 24 kills, sophomore outside hitter Kim Glass became the fastest Wildcat to reach 1,000 for her collegiate career. Glass reached the milestone in only 54 matches ÷ 11 fewer than former leader Barb Bell.

Glass' accolades aside, Arizona recognizes it must focus on the task at hand: salvaging a split with the Bay Area powerhouses.

"It's always been a difficult trip because of Stanford being consistently one of the best teams in the country," said UA head coach Dave Rubio. "But now, it is double jeopardy with Cal being theoretically better than Stanford."

Arizona looked like it would be swept last night, but the Cardinal failed to capitalize on three match points in the third game, including an overturned line call that kept the UA alive and allowed the Wildcats to send the match to a fourth game.

Sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Abernathy had 19 kills against Stanford while posting a .455 hitting percentage, and sophomore middle blocker Bre Ladd had 16 kills on .370 hitting.

A few weeks ago in the "The Big Spike," Cal beat Stanford in Berkeley for the first time since 1982 ÷ a string of 40 matches ÷ behind 3,021 fans, the biggest ever non-Midnight Madness Golden Bear volleyball crowd.

Rubio said the foundation for Cal's breakout season was built last year when the Bears had one of the best seasons in school history en route to a 20-12 mark and a berth in the NCAA Tournament ÷ their first since 1989.

"It's quite a turnaround for Cal from last year to this year," Rubio said. "The building blocks for Cal were being set in motion last year.

"They have all the personnel. It just took a year for them to kind of get the experience needed to be able to have a year like this year."

Arizona will be playing its sixth top-10 opponent in its last 10 matches. The Wildcats are 2-4 against top-10 teams this year and are 2-3 all-time in matches on Halloween.

This week, the Golden Bears, who swept the Washington schools last week for the first time since 1989, will be seeking a sweep of the Arizona schools for the first time in their history. Even though Cal beat the Wildcats, 3-0, earlier this year in Tucson, the UA still owns a 29-8 all-time record against the Bears, and has won in Berkeley 10 straight times.

California is led by junior outside hitter and current Pac-10 Player of the Week Mia Jerkov, who currently sits first in the conference in kills and points. She is third in aces and sixth in digs. Freshman setter Samantha Carter is second in the Pac-10 in assists while junior outside hitter Gabrielle Abernathy ÷ the sister of Arizona's Jennifer Abernathy ÷ is eighth in aces. Junior middle blocker Camille Lefall is fifth in the conference in blocks and sixth in hitting percentage.

"They have one of the best players, maybe the best player in the conference in Mia Jerkov," Rubio said. "They're playing with a lot of confidence and Jerkov really gives them that extra sense of confidence out there."

Jerkov, who has been named Pac-10 Player of the Week four times, was featured in the Oct. 27 edition of Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section after a week in which she won conference and national player of the week awards.