Cal Women Ranked in Top 25 for the First Time Since 2018-19

Golden Bears come in at No. 24 in the AP poll after beating Stanford and Austin Peay

Cal head coach Charmin Smith / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

For the first time since the 2018-19 season Cal's women's basketball team is ranked in the Associated Press top-25 poll.

The Golden Bears, who are 11-1, are ranked No. 24 in the AP poll released Monday morning. It's the first time the Bears have been ranked since Charmin Smith became the Cal head coach prior to the 2019-20 season.

Cal was ranked as high as 13th in the 2018-19 season under head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, but that team finished the season unranked. That was the last season Cal earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, and Gottlieb left after that season to become an assistant coach witth the Milwaukee Bucks. She is now head coach at USC, which is ranked No. 7 in this week's poll.

Cal received 81 voting points from the members of the media who vote in the AP poll. That put the Bears just ahead of No. 25 Mississippi and right behind No. 23 Nebraska.

Cal is one of six ACC teams ranked in the top 25 this week, joining No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 9 Duke, No. 17 Georgia Tech, No. 19 North Carolina and No. 21 Norh Carolina State.

Cal defeated archrival Stanford by 20 points on Friday, then beat Austin Peay by 26 points on Sunday to improve to 11-1, which is the Bears' best start since they began the 2016-17 season 13-0.

Cal hosts Fordham on Saturday, then faces either Xavier or Temple the next day. Cal resumes ACC play with a road game at Clemson on January 2.

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