{"id":75104,"date":"2025-11-30T02:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75104\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T02:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:40:12","slug":"cal-poly-volleyball-defeats-csu-long-beach-to-advance-to-big-west-championship-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/75104\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal Poly Volleyball defeats CSU Long Beach to advance to Big West Championship match"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second consecutive year, Cal Poly Volleyball has advanced to the Big West Tournament Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was match point for Cal Poly when CSU Long Beach sailed a serve over the net and out of bounds, sending the stadium into cheers as the Mustangs took down the hosts to advance to the championship match.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a four-set match, Cal Poly defeated Long Beach State 3-1 on Friday, giving themselves an opportunity to claim the Big West Women\u2019s Volleyball Championship title for the first time since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With one player having a career high game, two players achieving a double-double and the team advancing to the championship, the game was one for history books.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of respect for Long Beach,\u201d head coach Caroline Walters<\/a> said in a postgame press conference. \u201cWe\u2019ve had really fun battles over the years, especially in this gym. So happy that it\u2019s over and happy to be on to the next tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back and forth play\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a total of 20 ties and 10 lead changes, the match was nothing short of competitive. Set one opened with a Long Beach kill and Cal Poly responded with one of their own to set the tone early.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both teams\u2019 defenses were working overtime, holding their opponent to their lowest hitting percentage of the night in set one. The Mustangs went the extra mile, holding the Beach to a .027 hitting percentage and not allowing them to earn more than nine kills throughout the entire set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the way our passers settled in,\u201d Walters said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The set continued to be neck-and-neck as neither team ever had more than a four-point advantage, with Cal Poly\u2019s longest run being just 3-0.<\/p>\n

Redshirt senior outside hitter Annabelle Thalken<\/a> and sophomore middle blocker Chloe Leluge<\/a> continued their dominant seasons, blocking a Long Beach State attempt to win the set with a score of 25-22.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cal Poly will take on No. 1 seed UC Davis in the final match on Saturday evening. Credit: Mia Dahlgren \/ Mustang News<\/p>\n

The Mustangs\u2019 momentum did not translate into the first half of set two, as the Beach gained an early lead of 7-2.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were down, we were just talking to each other, like, we\u2019re going to work to get energy in one point at a time,\u201d redshirt senior setter Emme Bullis<\/a> said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Cal Poly played a game of catch-up going on a 6-0 run and eventually evening out the score at 17-17, it was not enough to claim set two against the Beach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the 25-23 loss, the Mustangs out-hit the Beach by five kills and kept up with their defense only falling behind by two digs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set three was the closest of the night, as both teams achieved their best hitting percentage and kill percentages with each statistic being over .500% and Cal Poly earning a .606 kill percentage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAn incredible set three of volleyball,\u201d Walters said. \u201cI think it was one of the best sets of the whole season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Thalken and junior outside hitter Emma Fredrick <\/a>were among three players who notched double digits in kills during the third set earning 15 kills each, while Leluge captained the offense with a career-high 17 kills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a middle I really rely a lot on the setter and the passes and both of that was there tonight, so it really helps me get those kills,\u201d Leluge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even with Cal Poly\u2019s strong offense, there was no lack of competitive atmosphere in the third set as it consisted of 12 ties, over half of the match\u2019s total.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To finish off the set, Bullis pulled out her signature setter dump, catching the Beach off guard and securing the 25-23 win.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commanding Final Set\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cal Poly carried their winning momentum into the fourth set, dominating the Beach and eliminating the nail-biting neck-and-neck scores.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Long Beach scored the first point of the set, that was the first and only time they would hold the lead. Cal Poly obtained a 7-3 lead and never looked back.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sophomore outside hitter Kendall Beshear<\/a> joined the double-digit club earning three kills in the set securing 10 total. She also achieved a double-double alongside Fredrick as they both reached double digits in kills and digs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Beshear] cheers so hard for her teammates and so hard in general, it\u2019s just great to play next to her and really encouraging,\u201d Thalken said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mustangs secured the 25-17 win after capitalizing on the Beach\u2019s seven errors throughout the set.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaroline would always say we want to be our best at the Big West Tournament, and I think this whole season has been working up to that, and it\u2019s so cool seeing that come into fruition,\u201d Leluge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mustangs will look to bring home the Big West title as they take on No. 1 seed UC Davis in the championship match Saturday night at 5 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the second consecutive year, Cal Poly Volleyball has advanced to the Big West Tournament Championship.\u00a0 It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[4365,43682,43683,43684,43685,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-75104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-big-west","tag-big-west-tournament","tag-cal-poly-volleyball","tag-caroline-walters","tag-emme-bullis","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}