This story was posted at 12:41 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.
The No. 24 Cal Poly women’s volleyball team continued its domination at home Friday night by sweeping UC Davis 25-22, 25-20, 25-11 while amassing a season-high 12 service aces.
“We work a lot on serving during practice because it’s a way we can win games by getting them off the net and getting them out of their systems,” Cal Poly middle blocker Jaclyn Houston said.
Cal Poly opposite Kylie Atherstone led all players with five aces and sophomore libero Alison Mort had four aces of her own, all in the third game. It was the first time since Sept. 5 that Cal Poly had more aces than serving errors.
Cal Poly (8-6, 3-0 Big West) came out hitting hard and out-hustled UC Davis (8-8, 0-3 Big West) to open the match. The Mustangs only trailed once throughout. Yet, inconsistent play and what Cal Poly head coach Jon Stevenson called “poor offense and execution” brought UC Davis within one point, 22-21. The Mustangs rallied around Atherstone’s clutch serving and overpowered the Aggies.
“We start out really strong but sometimes when we get up on a team we let go of the passion,” Atherstone said. “Sometimes you show respect to a team by whoopin’ on them.”
Cal Poly seemed to intimidate UC Davis with its powerful serving, hitting and active blocking. Throughout the match the Aggies looked confused as they tried to match the Mustangs’ power and get around their blockers.
“Hitters don’t like to see hands,” Stevenson said. “If they don’t like two hands they really don’t like four; if they don’t like four, they really hate six. We have more blocking than any team you will see.”
The Mustangs came out much more crisp in the second game. UC Davis answered by settling down and started to find its rhythm, which led to a series of long rallies. Cal Poly went on a 10-2 run that swung momentum going into the third set.
“You can never let the opponent take control,” Atherstone said. “We need to play at our speed and our tempo. Our problem can be when we start playing at a lower tempo, but we really need to play our style and stretch it out with our middles up and five along the back row.”
But Cal Poly took advantage of UC Davis’ untimely mistakes and scratched its way through the second set.
“Tonight was the story of grinding it out when they had some rough patches,” Stevenson said.
The third set was all Cal Poly, led by Mort’s three opening aces in a row.
“We found out their tendencies and where they like to set and we cut down on our errors,” Houston said.
Houston had four blocks, which leaves her 13 shy of the Mustangs record of 499, established by Lael Perlstrom. Atherstone and outside hitter Ali Waller tallied nine kills apiece while Mustangs setter Hailey Fithian finished with 34 assists.
The Mustangs will host Pacific (2-8, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Sunday in Mott Gym.
“If they can play like they did in the third set, I would take that,” Stevenson said.