Nick CamachoThe Cal Poly Mustangs opened Big West Conference play with sweeps over Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge Friday and Saturday at Mott Gym this weekend.
The Mustangs (8-6, 2-0), who are now 20-3 at home under head Coach Jon Stevenson, handled the 49ers for the fourth straight contest, taking the match 30-27, 30-22, 30-17.
“We get to play in front of 2,000 people who want us to win,” Stevenson said following the game with Long Beach State.
The energy was high prior to the Long Beach match. The 2,127 fans in attendance, many who knew the lyrics to the Cal Poly fight song – “hi ki yi” and all – witnessed middle blocker Jaclyn Houston nearly dent the floor with a massive kill as soon as the 49ers hit the ball over the net to put the Mustangs up 1-0.
Houston, who leads the Big West in blocks with 1.37 average per contest, stayed true to the statistic with a block on the third point.
Teammates Dominique Olowolafe, Kylie Atherstone and Ali Waller kept the momentum high with several homicidal send-overs of their own early on in the contest.
Despite the momentous start, Long Beach kept the match close to the very end. From a 10-10 deadlock, the teams remained within one point of each other until a Waller kill sent the Mustangs up by two at 17-15.
Gaby Rivera, a transfer outside hitter from Florida State, picked up the pace for Poly near the end of the game in her first appearance in Mott Gym. She had five kills in the game, two of them on the 27th and 28th point of the match. She closed out the game with a service ace.
Atherstone added five kills, Waller three. Chelsea Hayes set up her teammates 13 times.
Ashley Lee and Alexis Crimes, ranked in the Big West’s top 10 in three categories, each threw down four kills for the 49ers.
It’s as though someone pressed an instant replay button on Houston as she threw down another game opening kill in game No. 2. The rest of the team did not follow suit as the Mustangs quickly fell to 1-5 to the 49ers, who punched out four straight kills, two by Crimes.
Atherstone broke the streak with a monstrous kill to add another point for Cal Poly. After the point, she shook her head as if to say, “enough already.”
The Mustangs tied the game up at 7-7 and the teams remained within three points of each other until several attack and service errors set Long Beach back 20-16.
The crowd ignited when Atherstone blocked an attack attempt by Long Beach outside hitter Quincy Verdin for the 20th point.
Atherstone killed it the rest of the way for the Mustangs as she finished up game No. 2 with six more kills as Cal Poly won 30-22.
Crimes ended the match with six kills and defensive specialist Talaya Whitfield had 12 digs for 49ers.
After game No. 2, several patches of green arose amongst the bleachers as Cal Poly fans left confident in the team’s ability to finish the match with a win.
“I’d rather have them stay the whole time. You never know what can happen,” Atherstone said.
On Saturday, the Mustangs handed Northridge its first conference loss with a 30-23, 30-22, 30-18 sweep in front of a crowd of 508 – the first time attendance was below 1,000 since Oct. 6, 2006 – at Mott Gym.
“Northridge is like the rest of our conference (they have) a number of very good players,”
Stevenson said after the Northridge match.
The offensive attack was led again by Atherstone who had 13 kills and four service aces, followed by Waller who came up with 11 on 31 attempts. Overall the team had a .321 attack percentage while limiting the Matadors to a .108.
“Things look promising,” Waller said following the Northridge match. “We’re heading in the right direction.”
Rivera, who posted only a .045 attack percentage on Friday came back on Saturday with 10 kills on 16 total attempts with only one error against Northridge, ending the match with a career-high .562.
“Gaby is a high-risk, high reward athlete the way she plays right now,” Stevenson said. “The moment she serves, they are torture on our opponents.”
Hayes finished the match with a near perfect assist percentage, picking up 38 on 40 attempts and Olowalafe picked up 10 blocks.
Cal Poly will travel to Northern California next weekend to face UC Davis (3-10, 0-2), the newest member of the Big West, on Friday and then will play Pacific (7-3, 1-1) on Saturday.
Sports Editor Josh Ayers contributed to this report.