Cal Poly Beach Volleyball had their nation-best 18-match win streak snapped against No. 11 Long Beach State before bouncing back against No. 17 Hawai’i at the Best of the West tournament in Laguna Beach, Calif. on Sunday, April 6.
The Mustangs (21-3) dropped a close 3-2 final against the Beach (18-10) but managed to end the tournament on a high note with a 4-1 win over the Rainbow Wahine (12-15).
The Mustangs were up 2-1 through the first three games after the No. 5 line of senior Abbey Reinard and freshman Elise Lenahan and the No. 2 duo of junior Izzy Martinez and sophomore Logan Walter took down their opponents in straight sets.
The loss in those three games came from the No. 1 duo of senior Piper Ferch and sophomore Erin Inskeep. It was their only loss on the entire weekend.
The last two matches were neck and neck as the No. 4 duo of redshirt junior Ella Connor and senior Madi Nichols fell in straight sets 21-19, 21-19 to tie things up a 2-2.
The final match at the third line of sophomore Quinn Perry and graduate Lindsey Sparks dragged out to three sets.
Cal Poly took the first one 22-20 before falling 17-21 to force a third set.
That set saw the Perry and Sparks fall in a 15-12 final third set to give the Beach the game and upset win over the Mustangs.
Cal Poly’s second match was a much different story as lines one, two, three and five all won their matches in straight sets to clinch a 4-1 win to end the tournament on a high note.
Ferch and Inkseep bounced back in a big way with a 21-10, 21-15 win at line one. The duos of Martinez and Walter won 21-15, 21-16 at line two, while the third duo of Connor and Nichols won handily 21-13, 21-16.
The Mustangs will look to keep their momentum going the possibly their biggest tournament yet. They’ll play host to No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Florida State and No. 7 and defending national champions USC at the Center of Effort Challenge.
The tournament will begin on Friday, April 11, at 12:30 p.m. against Stanford and end on Saturday, April 12.
