No. 6 Mustangs Fall to Pair of Top Five Teams Thursday

Thursday, March 4

Los Angeles, Calif.

10 A.M.

UCLA

No. 6 Mustangs Fall to Pair of Top Five Teams Thursday

3/4/2021 3:16:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

LOS ANGELES — Despite being competitive at all five courts in both matches, the sixth-ranked Cal Poly beach volleyball team fell Thursday to No. 4 UCLA and No. 3 USC by scores of 0-5 at Merle Norman Stadium on the campus of USC.

Against the Bruins (3-0), the No. 6 Mustangs' (3-3) No. 5 pairing of freshman Piper Naess and redshirt sophomore Delaney Peranich fell to UCLA's Rileigh Powers and Jaden Whitmarsh 17-21, 12-21.

At the No. 4 spot for Cal Poly was redshirt freshman Josie Ulrich and redshirt sophomore Vanessa Roscoe. They fell to UCLA's Lea Monkhouse and Cami Sanchez 15-21, 19-21.

The Bruins' No. 2 duo of Devon Newberry and Lindsey Sparks then beat the Mustangs' Jayelin Lombard and Amy Ozee 21-17, 21-13 to clinch the victory.

At the No. 1 spot, Cal Poly redshirt junior Macy Gordon and redshirt senior Emily Sonny battled in each set but fell to UCLA's Savvy Simo and Lexy Denaburg 17-21, 15-21.

The Mustangs' No. 3 pair of redshirt junior Tia Miric and redshirt sophomore Eleonore Johansen nearly took the first set from the Bruins' Megan Muret and Jacqueline Quade but ended up losing 19-21, 16-21.

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Against the No. 3 Trojans (3-0), Cal Poly got off to a strong start by winning the first set at both the No. 4 and No. 5 positions. At the No. 4 spot, Ulrich and Roscoe won the first set over USC's Joy Dennis and Delaynie Maple 21-16 but ended up just falling in the second set 21-23 and ultimately lost the third set 7-15.

The Mustangs' No. 5 duo of Naess and fellow freshman Sam Strah were in a tight battle against the Trojans' sister duo of Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse. Naess and Strah fought to win the first set 21-18 before the Nourse sisters took the second set 21-18 to force a deciding third. It was a close third set before the Nourse sisters ended up winning it 15-10.

USC would go on to win on courts three, two and one all in straight sets to seal the 5-0 victory.

The Mustangs will stay on their next three matches next week. They will travel to Bakersfield next weekend to face both Master's University and CSU Bakersfield on Saturday, March 13 at 12 and 2 p.m. They will then head to Malibu on Sunday to take on No. 9 Pepperdine at 12 p.m.