mustang daily staff report
Senior opposite Kylie Atherstone wrapped up her at-home Cal Poly career with a team-high 13 kills and a .379 hitting percentage to lead the Mustangs women’s volleyball team to a 25-16, 25-15, 25-14 Senior Night sweep of UC Riverside on Saturday at Mott Gym.
Senior middle blocker Jaclyn Houston added eight kills and senior outside hitter Ali Waller chipped in four in the win.
Sophomore middle blocker Dominique Olowolafe led the Mustangs (15-10, 10-4 Big West Conference) with a .471 hitting percentage.
While Cal Poly as a team hit .300, its defense, led by Alison Mort’s 11 digs, limited the Highlanders (8-21, 3-11) to a mere .072 hitting performance.
Junior setter Hailey Fithian distributed 34 assists.
The Mustangs, who stayed in a second-place tie in the Big West with UC Irvine, visit UC Riverside at 5 p.m. Friday.
Wrestling
Cal Poly 30, Menlo 10;
Cal Poly 26, SF State 13
Cal Poly rolled past Menlo and San Francisco State on Saturday to open its season.
Filip Novachkov and Joel Shaw were the only Mustangs to win by fall, as Novachkov pinned San Francisco State’s Joaquin Carlos in 2:19 in the 141-pound class and Shaw took down Zach Sesar, also from SFSU, in 2:21 in the 165-pound class.
Chase Pami won both of his matches. The 17th-ranked 157-pounder defeated Sabas Cruz of Menlo 14-3 by major decision and then recorded a technical fall over SFSU’s Mark Berton in five minutes.
Cross country
NCAA West Regional
Cal Poly’s Daniel Gonia ran to a ninth-place finish at the 25-team race Saturday in Palo Alto.
Gonia finished in a time of 29 minutes, 12 seconds on the 10K course to lead the Mustangs to a seventh-place overall finish. Oregon won as a team.
Bridie McCarey was the first Mustang to finish the women’s 6K race, with a 30th-place time of 20:56.
The women finished 21st overall, with Washington taking top honors.
Women’s basketball
Cal Poly 75, New Mexico State 53
Mustangs senior forward Megan Harrison scored a team-high 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting as Cal Poly got its first win of the season on Sunday.
Fellow senior forward Lisa McBride added 19 points in the win.
Cal Poly junior forward Becky Tratter also added double figures for the visiting Mustangs (1-1), with 13 points.
Men’s tennis
UCSB Classic
Cal Poly’s top singles player, Robert Foy, edged out a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 nail-biter against Loyola Marymount’s Aris Andresian on Friday, as the Mustangs took six of seven singles matches and two of three in doubles play.
Drew Jacobs and Nick Berger were the only two singles players to win in two sets for Cal Poly. Jacobs defeated Aram Abgaryan 6-4, 6-0 in the No. 4 match and Berger defeated Dmitry Popov 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 7 match.
The Mustangs dropped their match 7-5 to Sacramento State on Saturday but saw singles wins from Andre Dome, Berger and Robert Zacks. Dome and Berger also picked up a doubles win when they defeated Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Blake Wardman in the No. 2 match.
Sunday, Dome finished the weekend a perfect 3-0 by edging UC Santa Barbara’s Matt Forget 6-4, 6-7, 6-2.
Cal Poly begins its spring season by hosting Concordia at noon Jan. 17.
Women’s tennis
Cal Poly Invitational
Cal Poly’s Suzie Matzenauer rolled past UC Santa Barbara’s Tova Hausman 6-1, 6-1 on her way to a Flight 1 championship on the final day of the invitational Sunday at the Cal Poly Tennis Courts.
The Mustangs duo of Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong finished the tournament with an undefeated record following their 8-2 win over San Francisco’s Cecilia Gratian and Jessy Mekpoh.
– Josh Ayers, Mustang Daily