Cal Poly advances to Big West final in women’s volleyball

IRVINE, Calif. - Cal Poly put together a remarkable team effort in a sweep over Long Beach State during Friday's Big West Championship Semifinals, which not only gave the Mustangs their highest win total in the Caroline Walters era (22) but also advanced them to their first Big West Championship Final.

The Mustangs and Beach battled point-for-point throughout the match, but Cal Poly came out on top with its 15th sweep of the season (25-22, 25-20, 25-20).

Long Beach State, last season's Big West Championship runner-up, stayed true to its game with sturdy defense by keeping Cal Poly under .250 hitting while throwing up eight total blocks.

However, the Mustangs' offense was even better and overcame the challenge in the end, tallying 48 kills as a team—tied for their highest this season in a three-set match.

Standout Stangs
With Emme Bullis unavailable, Sam Callahan was next on the depth chart and met the increased responsibility with poise and clutch ability. Despite getting the start on short notice, she contributed 40 of the team's 43 assists, also the second-best total by Cal Poly in a three-set match in 2024.

Callahan had already set her new single-match career-high assist mark midway through the second set with her previous personal best (25) being shattered.

Tommi Stockham, after arguably her best match of the season last time out in the title-clinching effort against UC Davis, played up to her reputation with a killer performance against the Beach's top defense in the conference.

The redshirt senior captain not only led the match with 17 kills but was also tied for second on the team with nine digs and led Cal Poly with a pair of service aces.

Elif Hurriyet added to her All-Freshman season with another double-digit dig match (13) while transfer and All-Big West First Team member Breklyn Pulling followed Stockham with 11 kills.

First Set
Long Beach State started the match with a 3-1 lead, but the Mustangs quickly found some consistency hitting on the sides and took their first lead of the match at 9-8.

Cal Poly won the race to the media timeout at 15-14 as the tight opening set continued. LBSU was forced to take a timeout after Cal Poly went up 18-16 coming out of the break

Callahan was shouldering a massive load as the primary setter in relief of All-Big West Second Team member Emme Bullis, and the sophomore seemed more than up to the task with 16 assists during the first set, including 11 by the media timeout.

An LBSU three-point run caused coach Walters to call a timeout and regroup as the Mustangs committed three straight errors while the Beach capitalized and took back a 20-19 lead.

Cal Poly nearly tied the match again, but LBSU challenged and earned the reversed point to go up by a pair before the Mustangs earned two consecutive points to tie it anyway, 21-21. The Mustangs battled back with two kills from Pulling and one from Stockham to take the opening frame 25-22.

Second Set
Cal Poly jumped out to a multi-point lead in the second set, but Long Beach State clawed back within a few due to steady blocking against Cal Poly's pin hitters. A trio of errors widened the gap for a 13-8 Cal Poly lead before LBSU called a timeout to try and halt the momentum.

The Mustangs faced slight resistance but were able to greatly extend the lead to nearly double-digits as the Beach's offense stumbled and began regularly creating errors. Up 20-11, Cal Poly had a lapse in hitting consistency, and Long Beach State pulled back a few points during an 8-4 run to force a Cal Poly timeout.

Despite the valiant comeback attempt, Long Beach State was too late as Cal Poly found its final few points amidst the Beach's run for a 25-20 second set victory. By the end of the set, Callahan had already reached her new single-match career high set assists mark.

Third Set
Long Beach State blazed to a 6-2 opening lead in the third set, forcing the Mustangs on their back foot to take an early timeout. The Mustangs lessened the deficit point-by-point until they finally knotted the set at 10-10, which caused LBSU to take a strategic timeout.

Although the Mustangs had slight trouble with the Big West's number one opponent hitting defense, they were still able to take plenty of points off Beach errors, tying the match yet again at 13-all before pulling ahead for the first time since 1-0 at the beginning of the set.

Tommi Stockham continued her incredible afternoon, notching kill-after-kill while Amy Hiatt, Breklyn Pulling, and Lizzy Markovska also had big third sets to extend Cal Poly to a 20-15 lead.

Another strong push by LBSU gave Cal Poly a scare, but Hiatt and Leluge combined for a pair of kills to put the match away and advance the Mustangs to their first Big West Championship Final since the advent of the tournament before 2023.

Final vs… Hawai'i
To wrap up the 2024 Big West Championship, no. 1 seed Cal Poly will take on no. 2 seed Hawai'i after the Rainbow Wahine narrowly defeated no. 3 UC Davis on Friday evening in a five-set thriller that came down to a 15-13 score.

Two titans of the conference will clash in what should prove to be an exciting final as Hawai'i is playing for its fifth consecutive Big West Championship while the Mustangs are on their largest win streak of the season (7) and are looking to become the first team since the conference tournament started to sweep both the regular season and postseason titles.

The Rainbow Wahine were the only opponent this season to take a series from the Mustangs, outsourcing Cal Poly six sets to one despite a hard-fought effort in both matches.

Cal Poly's goal will surely be to shore up the defense and play UH's pin hitters hard, as Caylen Alexander combined for 38 total kills in the pair of matches against the Mustangs earlier this season. The Mustangs will also need to watch for a sneaky Kate Lang, who paced the conference in assists but also caught Cal Poly with quite a few dumps through 2024.

Not only that, but the Mustangs will also be playing for revenge after being bumped out of the inaugural Big West Championship 3-0 by Hawai'i last season. That opportunity for Cal Poly comes at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow in the Big West Championship Final.

(Article courtesy of Cal Poly)