No. 6 Mustangs Split Pair of Matches Friday to Open Center of Effort Challenge

Friday, April 16

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

3:30 P.M.

USC

Photo by: Kyle Calzia / Cal Poly Athletics

No. 6 Mustangs Split Pair of Matches Friday to Open Center of Effort Challenge

4/16/2021 9:33:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

SAN LUIS OBIPSO, Calif. — The Cal Poly beach volleyball team split its first two matches of the second annual Center of Effort Beach Volleyball Challenge Friday at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex.

The No. 6 Mustangs (17-6) fell to No. 2 USC 0-5 before returning later in the day to defeat No. 8 Grand Canyon University 3-2.

The win over the No. 8 Lopes is Cal Poly's ninth over a ranked opponent this season and the fourth over a top 10 team.

In the first match of the day against the No. 2 Trojans (20-2), USC started off with a straight sets win at the No. 5 spot as Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse defeated freshman Sam Strah and redshirt sophomore Hannah Rogers 21-14, 21-15. Jayelin Lombard

USC's No. 4 pair of Joy Dennis and Delaynie Maple then won their match in straight sets over redshirt sophomore Vanessa Roscoe and redshirt freshman Josie Ulrich 21-13, 21-15.

A short time later, the No. 2 pair for the Trojans of Julia Scoles and Sammy Slater clinched the match win for USC with a 21-14, 21-17 victory over grad transfer Amy Ozee and redshirt sophomore Jayelin Lombard.

USC later also got straight set wins at the No. 3 and No. 1 flights to complete the 5-0 victory.

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A few hours later, the Mustangs returned to take on the No. 8 Lopes (16-7) at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex for a match that would see four of the five matchups go to three sets.

Cal Poly's No. 1 duo of redshirt senior Emily Sonny and redshirt junior Macy Gordon got things started as the only match to finish in straight sets 21-17, 21-18 over GCU's Bella Bauman and Anaya Evans. Sonny and Gordon are now a team-best 16-6 on the season together, all at the No. 1 spot in the lineup.

Later, after dropping the first set 19-21, the No. 2 Mustang duo of Ozee and Lombard rebounded to win the second set 21-17 and win the third set 15-11 over Allison Hansen and Teagan DeFalco to give Cal Poly a 2-0 lead. They are now 14-8 together this season.

Macy Gordon

The Lopes then scored their first point of the match after their No. 5 pair of Katie Sarber and Natalie Honzovicova won a tightly contested three set match over Roscoe and Ulrich. Sarber and Honzovicova took the first set 21-17 before Roscoe and Ulrich bounced back to win the second 21-19. In the third set, the two pairs kept trading points with each other until tied at 18, Sarber and Honzovicova got two consecutive points to win it 20-18.

Going on simultaneously as the No. 5 flight match was the No. 4 pairing of Mustangs Strah and redshirt sophomore Eleonore Johansen against GCU's Madi Relaz and Alina Randall. After dropping the first set 18-21, Strah and Johansen came back to take the second set 21-12 to force a deciding a wild back-and-forth third set. Even at 13 in the third, the two pairs traded 10 consecutive points to make it 18-18. Strah and Johansen then fought to win two straight points to win it 20-18 and clinch the dual match for the Mustangs. Strah and Johansen are now 9-4 together on the season.

Cal Poly will look to finish out the Center of Effort Challenge with two more wins on Saturday. First, they will take on No. 1 UCLA at 2 p.m. as they seek the program's first win over the Bruins and the first win over a No. 1 ranked team. They will then wrap up the event at 5 p.m. against No. 5 Loyola Marymount University, a team the Mustangs beat at last year's inaugural Center of Effort Challenge.

Photos courtesy of Kyle Calzia