After pulling off another reverse sweep against UC Irvine, the Cal Poly Mustangs (8-7, 2-1) get their third win in a row in a 3-1 victory against the Cal State Fullerton Titans (1-11, 0-3).
The first set remained close at the start, but the Mustangs pulled away after going on an 8-2 run. Cal Poly would never look back as they would win the set 25-13 in dominating fashion.
“We talked about coming out fast, hard and hungry and I think we saw that tonight for most of the match,” Head Coach Caroline Walters said.
Redshirt Junior Tommi Stockham would finish the set with six kills while redshirt junior Kate Slack would add on three kills.
Set two would be dominated by redshirt sophomore Lizzy Markovska and redshirt sophomore Emme Bullis. Markovska would finish the set with 7 kills as well as an ace, while Bullis would have 9 assists, two blocks and a kill. Markovska would also finish the game with a season-high hitting percentage of .412.
“Ironically, I did not worry about my hitting efficiency at all during the game, which is something I struggle with,” Markovska said.
The Mustangs would start the second set with a service ace by Stockham and a kill by Markovska to take an early 3-0 lead.
From there, the Mustangs would score 10 of the next 16 points and lead 13-6. The closest the Titans would get would be a five-point difference as Cal Poly would win the set 25-15 and take a 2-0 lead over the Titans.
The third set would be the closest set of the match as Cal State Fullerton would take a 4-3 lead, but the Mustangs would score eight straight on a huge 10-1 run.
The Titans would not go down without a fight as they would go on a run of their own and bring the game back to only a four-point difference at 22-18.
Cal State Fullerton would tie it up at 23 and went on to score two straight to win the set 26-24.
The fourth set would be back and forth to start but Cal Poly would pull away after a 10-2 run and take a 12-4 lead over the Titans. Cal State Fullerton would try to fight back but Markovska and the Mustangs would not let that happen.
“We played nine sets of volleyball over the past two days so we need to use today to make sure we are recovering,” Walters said. “Then it is back to getting in the gym and working on things that we’re going to need to do to beat two good teams on the road.”
The Mustangs’ defense would be the leading factor to the win in set four only allowing nine points. They would win the set 25-9 and win the match, 3-1.
Markovska finished the fourth set with five kills and the overall match with 16 kills as well as 14 digs. Slack would add on 12 kills and a season-high nine blocks in the victory.
Cal Poly starts a three-game road trip starting with UC Davis on Oct. 5. That game will start at 6 p.m.