Cal Poly Site of This Week’s Big West Beach Volleyball Tournament

Friday, April 29

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

11:30 A.M.

CSUN

Photo by: Kyle Calzia / Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Site of This Week’s Big West Beach Volleyball Tournament

4/26/2022 4:47:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — For the first time since 2017 and the first time since the Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex was built, Cal Poly will be the host site of this week's Big West Beach Volleyball Tournament. The double-elimination tournament will take place Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30 starting at 9 a.m. each day at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex in San Luis Obispo. For fans not able to attend in person, live stats of each match will be available to follow. Saturday's matches will be streamed live on ESPN+. Links to those can be found on the tournament central page, HERE. The No. 14 Mustangs (19-16), who enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed, will have their first match on Friday at 11:30 a.m. against sixth seeded CSUN. If Cal Poly wins, they will play at 2 p.m. against the winner of the Long Beach State and Sacramento State match. If they lose, they will play at 3:15 p.m. against the losing team from that match. No. 9 Hawai'i (22-14) heads into the tournament as the No. 1 seed, followed by No. 11 Long Beach State (19-12) as the No. 2 seed. UC Davis is the No. 4 seed, followed by CSU Bakersfield as the No. 5 seed, CSUN as the No. 6 seed, and Sacramento State as the No. 7 seed. Cal Poly will be seeking to win its third straight Big West title this weekend. The Mustangs have beaten Hawai'i in the championship match each of those time times. In fact, Cal Poly and Hawai'i are the only two teams to have won the Big West title in its five-year history with the Rainbow Wahine winning it in 2016, 17, and 18 and Cal Poly in 2019 and 2021. The Mustangs' top three pairs have been strong all season, with a combined record of 60-31. The No. 1 pair the entire year has been the tandem of redshirt senior Tia Miric, who is No. 2 all-time in program history for career wins with 94, and freshman Ella Connor. Together, they have a record of 23-11, the most wins on the team and head into the tournament having won their last three matches. The No. 2 pairing of redshirt junior Jayelin Lombard and freshman Piper Ferch have been a formidable duo together to the tune of a 20-15 record, good for the second most wins on the team. The best win percentage on the team belongs to the No. 3 duo of grad transfer Addison Hermstad and freshman Peyton Dueck. Together, they've been on a winning tear with a 17-5 record, including a 15-4 record at the No. 3 spot alone. Cal Poly has played every team in the Big West this year. The Mustangs are 0-1 against Hawai'i, 1-1 against Long Beach State, 2-0 against UC Davis, 1-0 against CSU Bakersfield, 1-0 against CSUN, and 1-0 against Sacramento State. This year marks the first time the tournament winner gains an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which has expanded to 16 teams. There are eight automatic bids and eight at-large bids (two East, two West, four wild card) up for grabs this year. The NCAA Tournament selection show is slated for Saturday, April 30 at 6 p.m. PT on NCAA.com