(RV) Houston Baptist
No. 6 Mustangs Sweep No. 7 Grand Canyon, Houston Baptist Friday
3/6/2020 12:00:00 AM | Beach Volleyball
PHOENIX — The Cal Poly beach volleyball team had two of its most dominant performances of the season Friday, picking up 5-0 sweeps of both Houston Baptist University and No. 7 Grand Canyon at the first day of a tournament hosted by GCU.
The No. 6 Mustangs (6-2) accomplished their first clean sweep of the season in the first match of the day against the Huskies (3-6), with each pair winning in straight sets.
Cal Poly's No. 2 pairing of senior Torrey Van Winden and junior Macy Gordon won the first match of the day, 21-12, 21-13.
The No. 4 pairing of senior Brayden Gruenewald and sophomore Vanessa Roscoe then followed suit with a 21-16, 25-23 win.
The victory for Cal Poly was later clinched by the No. 3 duo of senior Emily Sonny and sophomore Jayelin Lombard, who last weekend also had the clinching victory over Pepperdine. Lombard and Sonny won their match 21-13, 21-11.
Playing at the No. 1 spot for the first time this season, juniors Tia Miric and Mariah Whalen picked up a 21-17, 22-20 win.
The sweep was completed after the No. 5 pair of senior Adlee Van Winden and freshman Josie Ulrich took down their opponents 21-13, 21-16.
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A little bit later in the day, Cal Poly returned to pick up its fourth win of the season against an AVCA Top 20 team, including its third over a top 10 team, after shutting out the Lopes (8-2).
The No. 4 pair of Roscoe and Gruenewald put the Mustangs on the board first after a win in straight sets, 21-15, 21-16. The two wins on the day improve their record as a pair to 4-4.
Torrey Van Winden and Gordon made it 2-0 Cal Poly after a coming back from dropping the first set to win it 18-21, 21-19, 17-15. They are also now 4-4 together this season.
For the second straight match, Sonny and Lombard had the win that cliched the win for the Mustangs after a 21-15, 21-15 victory at the No. 3 spot to improve their record to 7-1.
Miric and Whalen then won their match again in straight sets at the No. 1 position, taking it 21-14, 21-18 to also move to 7-1 together.
The clean sweep was sealed once again by Adlee Van Winden and Ulrich after they won their match from the No. 5 spot in three sets, 23-21, 18-21, 15-13.
Having now won four matches in a row, the Mustangs will look to extend that Saturday when they face San Diego Community College at 10 a.m. and Abilene Christian University at 12 p.m. PT in Phoenix. However, the match against San Diego Community College will not count towards Cal Poly's pairs or overall record.
