The Pacific Tigers defeated the Mustang volleyball team in four games, snapping a five-match win streak by games scores of 24-30, 30-28, 34-32 and 30-26.
With the loss, Cal Poly drops to 18-6 overall and concludes Big West Conference play with a 10-4 record. Pacific improves to 15-11 overall and 7-5 in conference play.
The Mustangs opened the match with the hot hand, hitting .390 to the Tigers .227. The game was tied at 10-10 when Cal Poly took control outscoring its opponent 12-5 and cruising to a 30-24 win.
The second game saw 11 ties and three lead changes in a battle the Tigers won 30-28. Cal Poly hit .265 to the Tigers .277.
In the third game the score was tied 14 times with eight lead changes. Near the end of the game and Pacific holding a 30-29 advantage, Vanessa Gilliam put away a kill to tie the game. On the next play the Mustangs gained a point advantage (31-30) on a block by Candace Milton and Kylie Atherstone.
With game point on the line, the Tigers tied the score on a kill by Sidney Bennett as the teams continued to exchange points. With the score tied 32-32, a kill by Kara Uhl gave Pacific the advantage and won the game on the next play with a kill by Ashley Groothuis (34-32).
In the third game, Cal Poly hit .385, but the Tigers hit .472 in the win.
The fourth game was controlled by the Tigers with the last tie coming at 17-17. Pacific would hold a two to three point advantage most of the game until the end when they won 30-26.
In the loss for the Mustangs, Atherstone recorded a season-high 21 kills in hitting .378 for the match. Senior Kayla Mulder added 19 kills hitting .349.
Overall Cal Poly hit .309 while the Tigers hit .342. The Mustangs outblocked the Tigers 9.5 to 7.0 but Pacific held a 78-74 advantage in digs.
Sophomore Cal Poly setter Chelsea Hayes handed out 62 assists and managed 14 digs while libero Kristin Jackson led the team with 28 digs.
Milton, a native of Stockton, led the team with seven assisted blocks.
Cal Poly returns to action at home for its final regular season match on Nov. 19 at 7 pm.
Prior to the non-conference match with UC Davis, Cal Poly will honor the team’s three seniors (Vanessa Gilliam, Kayla Mulder and Nicole Bertotti.