Mustangs Back Home This Week to Host UC Riverside, UC Davis

Friday, October 7

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

7 P.M.

UC Riverside

Tickets

Photo by: Eyasu Betwos

Mustangs Back Home This Week to Host UC Riverside, UC Davis

10/5/2022 1:17:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Off to a strong start in Big West play at 3-1, Cal Poly returns to Mott Athletics Center this week to host a pair of Big West matches. The Mustangs (6-8, 3-1 BW) will first play host to UC Riverside on Friday followed by UC Davis on Saturday. First serve for both matches is set for 7 p.m. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+. Daniel Gillman and Harry Kaseff will be on the call. Links to that as well as live stats can be found on the schedule page of GoPoly.com. Friday's match is staff appreciation night which gives free admission to any Cal Poly faculty or staff member. The Mustangs are coming off a week in which they went 1-1 on the road, falling 3-1 to UCSB before bouncing back the next night to beat CSUN 3-1. Several Mustang players put up strong numbers in those matches. Against UCSB, senior right side hitter Maia Dvoracek had a double-double of 16 kills and a career-high 21 digs for her ninth double-double of the year. Redshirt freshman setter Emme Bullis had double-doubles in both matches to push her season total to of double-doubles to nine. After posting 19 kills against UCSB, redshirt sophomore outside hitter Tommi Stockham had a season-high 24 kills the next night against CSUN. She now has 15+ kills in six matches, including all four of the first conference matches. SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: UC Riverside is coming off a 1-1 record last week in which they beat UC San Diego before losing to UC Irvine the next night. The Mustangs are 32-8 all-time against UC Riverside and have won 14 straight. UC Davis is off to a strong start to conference play, going 3-1 so far. Last week, they collected a pair of five-set wins over UC Irvine and UC San Diego. Libero Shira Lahav ranks sixth in the Big West in digs at 3.71 per set while middle blocker Josephine Ough is sixth in blocks at 1.14 per set. Cal Poly leads the all-time series 21-12 and has won 10 straight. STRAIGHT KILLERS: Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Tommi Stockham and senior right side hitter Maia Dvoracek hold the top two spots in the Big West in kills per set. Stockham is averaging a conference-leading 3.80 per set while Dvoracek is right behind her at 3.56 per set. BLOCK PARTY: Through the first 14 matches of the season, the Mustangs are second in the Big West and are 34th in the nation in blocks per set, averaging 2.55 per set. Senior middle blocker Meredith Phillips leads the Big West and ranks 25th in the nation in blocks per set at 1.37. Phillips has now moved into 9th all-time in program history in career solo blocks with 63, career blocks assists with 311, and career total blocks with 374. ACE IN THE HOLE: Now with 81 career aces to her name, senior Maia Dvoracek has moved into fourth all-time in program history with a career aces per set average of .44. She recorded 64 of those in 2019, just two shy of the all-time Cal Poly single-season mark. She also has the program record for aces in a match with 8. STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: Cal Poly put itself to the test in non-conference play with all 10 of their first matches on the road. Five of those were against teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2021. PRESEASON COACHES' POLL: Cal Poly was selected to finish third in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll. They were picked behind two-time defending champion Hawai'i and last year's second place finisher UC Santa Barbara. The Mustangs last won the Big West title in 2018. DVORACEK, STOCKHAM NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-BIG WEST TEAM: Cal Poly senior right side hitter Maia Dvoracek and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Tommi Stockham were each named to the eight-player Big West Preseason All-Conference Team. Stockham is back for her second year with the Mustangs after earning First Team All-Conference honors last season. The outside hitter led the team and was fourth in the Big West in kills at 3.54 per set. That included posting at least 20 kills five times, six double-doubles, and double digit kills in 16 of 20 conference matches. Dvoracek last played in 2019 due to the 2020 season being cancelled due to the pandemic and was forced to miss the 2021 season while recovering from a severe knee injury. She burst on to the scene in 2019 in her first year as a starter. That year, she led the team and was second in the Big West in kills at 4.25 per set in addition to ranking top-five in the nation in service aces. She was named First Team All-Big West and an AVCA Third Team All-American, becoming the seventh Mustang in program history to be named to one of the three All-American teams. GUESS WHO'S BACK?: After being forced to miss the 2021 season while she recovered from a serious knee injury, senior outside hitter Maia Dvoracek returns to the Cal Poly lineup this season. In her first year as a starter in 2019, Dvoracek averaged 4.25 kills per set overall and 5.09 kills per set during conference matches. Her 4.25 kills per set ranked second most in the conference that year. She was also top-five in the nation in service aces per set at .58 and 64 total aces. She recorded double-digit kills in the final 20 matches of the 2019 season and had 20 or more kills on seven matches, including a career-high 30 against Utah. She also averaged 2.21 digs per set and had seven double-doubles on the year. She was named an AVCA Third Team All-American as well as First Team All-Big West and AVCA Pacific North All-Region RETURNING POWER: Although the program lost seven letterwinners from last year's team, eight are back this year for the Mustangs, including five who played in at least 80 sets last season. In addition to Dvoracek and Stockham, several key pieces return. Senior middle blocker Meredith Phillips, a three-time All-Big West honoree, is back after leading the team last season in blocks (118) and hitting percentage (.310) while also being second in kills (2.40 per set). Senior setter Avalon DeNecochea, the Mustangs' starting setter the last three seasons, returns for her final season. Coming into the season, she ranks sixth in program history for career assists with 3,187. Last year, she was second in the Big West in assists at 10.31 per set. She was also third on the team in blocks (69), digs (198) and service aces (24) and posted three double-doubles. Back for her second season after playing in 111 of 112 as a freshman last season is redshirt sophomore middle blocker Kate Slack. Last season, Slack was second on the team in blocks with 90 and was sixth in kills at 1.32 per set. Redshirt sophomore Amy Hiatt will be another key piece off the bench for the Mustangs this season. In her first season of action last year, she played in 86 sets and was third on the team in kills with 228. She had at least 10 kills in 10 matches. She was also fourth on the team in blocks with 52.