For the second straight year, Cal Poly Beach Volleyball’s dreams of a Big West Championship title were spoiled by Long Beach State in an upset on Friday, April 25.
The No. 6-ranked Mustangs (29-7) went into the tournament as the strong favorite and No. 1 seed but fell to the No. 10-ranked Beach 3-1 on the beaches of Santa Monica.
It was the second time this season that Long Beach had taken down the higher-ranked Mustangs, the first being back on April 6 when they broke Cal Poly’s 18-game win streak, which was the longest running streak in all of Division I.
Last year, the two faced off in the Big West semifinals, where the Beach played spoiler in a close 3-2 game.
Earlier in the day, Friday, the Mustangs had punched their ticket to the championship round in a 3-0 sweep of No. 2-seed CSUN.
Going into the championships, the Mustangs hadn’t lost a single individual match in the tournament, having swept both UC Davis and CSUN on the first day of the tournament, Thursday.
No. 2 pairing of sophomore Logan Walter and junior Izzy Martinez was the only Mustang duo to win their match against the Beach.
Cal Poly’s No. 1 pairing of senior Piper Ferch and junior Erin Inskeep lost to the Beach but won their first match Friday against CSUN, securing the 100th win in Ferch’s Cal Poly career.
She becomes the second mustang to reach the coveted 100-win milestone this season, following graduate student Lindsey Sparks, who did it on April 22.
Martinez also hit a major career milestone during the tournament, having reached 75 career wins in the championship match.
This won’t be the final appearance for the Mustangs this year, who still have a shot at an NCAA championship after securing an at-large bid as the No. 6 seed.
The Mustangs will travel down to Gulf Shores, Alabama, to face No. 11-seeded LSU on Friday, May 2, at 1 p.m.