In a crucial battle for seeding heading into the Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship, Cal Poly defeated the second-seed in the Big West, Long Beach State in a 3-1 victory on Saturday, Nov. 11 at home.
The Mustangs (18-10, 12-4 Big West) are now in a three-way tie for second place with Hawaii and Long Beach State and have won their third game in a row following the win over Long Beach.
“We have a lot of confidence right now, and it’s really showing,” redshirt junior outside hitter Tommi Stockham said. Stockham, who is second in the Big West in total kills, collected a game-high 17 kills.
The Mustangs went down double-digits early and dropped the first set 25-15.
However, the Mustangs rattled off three straight sets that all finished 27-25.
Stockham came through in the clutch twice this match, sealing the second and third sets herself. Both sets were tied at 25 when Stockham delivered two commanding kills to win both for the Mustangs.
“We know how we play well and that’s putting the pressure on them so they make errors,” Stockham said. “I never felt like we were down when we looked at the score and I always knew we were going to come back.”
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Lizzy Markovska left the game with an ankle injury early in the second set. Markovska is second on the team and sixth in the Big West in kills per set. However, Markovska should be back by the next game according to Walters.
As a result, some new faces saw the court, such as freshman outside hitter Emma Fredrick, who did a “fantastic job” making adjustments in the front, according to Walters.
Shifting the focus on defensive strength, sophomore defensive specialist London Haberfield slid onto the right side of the back row and bumped freshman defensive specialist Ella Scott into the middle of the back.
According to Walters, Markovska was good to go in the third set. But, with good momentum after the second set, Markovska sat out the rest of the game because the team played well despite the loss on the offense.
“Our team just had a lot of trust in what was going on at that moment,” Walters said. “Especially at this point in the season, you don’t want to overuse something you might not need at that moment.”
Both Walters and Stockham agree that a large contributor during Markovska’s absence was redshirt freshman middle blocker Tess Masingale. Serving for the first time in her college career and collecting five blocks, Masingale also tied her season-high nine kills, taking advantage in the middle when the Beach doubled Stockham on the outside.
“When you’re able to have someone that can just land, turn, pivot, be up and available and kill balls in transition, it helps take a huge load off of Tommi and we can bounce back and forth between the two,” Walters said.
At the beginning of the season, Walters said that she wanted the team to be “playing their best volleyball in November”. So far this November, they beat Long Beach State and Hawai’i, who were ahead of them in the conference but are now tied because of their wins.
Now they are “getting close,” as they still need to figure out how to compete in the first set according to Walters.
The Mustangs are closing out the regular season hoping to retain second place for the second seed in the Big West tournament. They play at home with games against UC Riverside next Friday and UC Davis on Saturday.