Cal Poly Preparing For Home-and-Home Against LMU This Week

Thursday, September 16

Los Angeles, Calif.

5 P.M.

Loyola Marymount

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Preparing For Home-and-Home Against LMU This Week

9/14/2021 12:33:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly volleyball team will play its final two matches of non-conference play this week with a home-and-home series against Loyola Marymount University.

The Mustangs (2-7) will travel to Los Angeles on Thursday to take on the Lions (7-1) at 5 p.m. inside Gersten Pavilion. They will then host LMU on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Mott Athletics Center.

Saturday's home match is the first 'Double Up Saturday' of the year. Fans who show their ticket to the Cal Poly football game against South Dakota which starts at 5 p.m. that day get in to volleyball for free.

Thursday's match at LMU will be live streamed on the WCC Network. Saturday's home match will also be live video and audio streamed. Links for all these can be found on the volleyball schedule page.

The Mustangs are seeking both their first road and home wins of the season this week. They are 0-3 in road matches and 0-1 in home matches. Their loss at home to Texas A&M on September 1 was the first since October 28, 2016 and ended a streak of 32 consecutive wins at home which had been the nation's longest active streak.

Cal Poly is coming off a pair of losses to two Top 25 teams last weekend. On Saturday, the Mustangs fell to No. 9 Washington 3-1, a team that made the final four last season. They then lost a five-set heartbreaker on Sunday to No. 22 Pepperdine 3-2. In both matches, the Mustangs were led in kills by redshirt senior outside hitter Jamie Stivers. Stivers had a double-double of 12 kills and 12 digs against the Huskies. She followed that performance up by tying her career-high with 17 kills and seven digs against the Waves.

So far this season, Stivers leads the team in kills at 2.91 per set while hitting .246 and averaging 2.47. Leading the way defensively this season has been junior middle blocker Meredith Phillips and freshman libero Peyton Dueck. Phillips is averaging a team-leading 1.12 blocks per set to go with 2.38 kills per set. Dueck leads the team in digs at 4.16 per set as well as service aces with 11. Junior setter Avalon DeNecochea has 293 assists this season (9.16 per set) which ranks 69th in the nation.

LMU is 7-1 this year and has won their last seven matches after losing their opening match of the season to No. 8 Purdue. They are coming off winning the Liberty Tournament over the weekend with wins over Old Dominion, Navy, and Liberty. Thursday's match against the Mustangs will be their first at home this season while on the road they are 2-1 so far. The Lions have been led by 6-5 freshman outside hitter Kari Geissberger who is averaging 4.79 kills per set, which ranks seventh in the nation, while hitting .302 to go with 1.59 digs per set and .97 blocks per set.

Cal Poly is 9-4 all-time against LMU. The Mustangs won the last matchup 3-2 on August 31, 2018 at a tournament in Logan, Utah.

Following this week's final non-conference matches, Cal Poly will open Big West Conference play on the road against Long Beach State on Friday, September 24 followed by an away match at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, September 25.