Hawai'i
Mustangs Look for Payback Across the Pacific in Hawai'i Clash
11/1/2024 12:30:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After sweeping both matches of this season's Blue-Green rivalry with a shutout of the Gauchos on Tuesday, Cal Poly (15-7, 8-3 BWC) heads to Hawai'i (13-7, 7-3 BWC) just ahead of the Rainbow Wahine in the standings as the Mustangs look to get revenge for their own sweep loss just two weeks ago.
Cal Poly is enjoying an 8-2 record on the road, the best in the Big West by a full match, but is also coming up against the best home record with Hawai'i at 9-3, which is three wins better than the next closest team.
Speaking of the Mustangs and their success, with seven sweeps on the season thus far, they have already matched their season-high total from the past two campaigns.
With her fourth kill against UC Santa Barbara tonight, Tommi Stockham moved into third all-time for Cal Poly career kills with 1,469 of them!
— Cal Poly Volleyball (@CalPolyVolley) October 30, 2024
Congratulations to the redshirt senior on continuing to build her legacy as a Mustang with this accomplishment!#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/BMPIIc67aI
Cal Poly takes the match-winning third set 26-24 after a tight battle, and the Mustangs are now alone in second place again!
— Cal Poly Volleyball (@CalPolyVolley) October 30, 2024
? Match Sweep ??
? Series Sweep ??#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/wGIhyDhvCv
During an unusual Tuesday match due to multi-day travel to the islands later in the week, Cal Poly had a number of notable individual performances against UC Santa Barbara on top of sweeping the Gauchos for the second time this season.
Most importantly, Tommi Stockham notched her sixth consecutive double-digit kill total (15) while also moving into third all-time for Cal Poly career kills as the redshirt senior passed Melanie Hathaway on her fourth kill of the match and 1,469th of her career.
Elif Hurriyet, true freshman libero and reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Week, tallied at least 20 digs for the fourth time this season. Also, on the defensive side of things, Breklyn Pulling and Chloe Leluge put up 4 total blocks each. Pulling also co-led the match with Amy Hiatt at .500 hitting percentage.
Hiatt had herself a fantastic night, tallying 10 kills for her third consecutive double-digit match while committing zero errors against the Gauchos.
Cal Poly still paces the conference with a .245 team hitting percentage, as the team is led individually by Pulling (.351) at third in the conference. Nationally, the Mustangs are 60th for their consistent hitting.
Emme Bullis, after yet another 30+ assist effort against UCSB earlier this week, retained her position as the top setter in the conference with 10.61 assists per set while also staying in the top-20 of the country (19th).
Stockham is now second in the conference with 3.68 kills per set, trailing only the Rainbow Wahine's Caylen Alexander (5.23) who the Mustangs will need to heavily mark in their blocking scheme on Saturday.
Caylen Alexander of Hawai'i is far and away one of the best hitters in the country currently, sitting third nationally for her kills-per-set rate with Hawai'i, as a team, 40th for that stat. Even so, the Rainbow Wahine have the second-lowest blocks per set in the Big West, the least service aces per set, and third-highest opponent hitting percentage.
On paper, the match looks like it will come down to if Cal Poly can figure out how to stall UH's offense while retaining its own hitting game. During the first match between these two opponents, the Mustangs had all of the answers to Alexander's game, holding her to less than .200 hitting in the first set, but were still unable to cover the middle and slide with Jacyn Bamis.
As the Rainbow Wahine adjusted to Cal Poly's defense, they ended up with a .298 team hitting percentage for the match while leading on Alexander and Bamis to combine for 33 of the team's 56 kills.
Stockham enjoyed a 14 kills, 10 dig double-double last time against Hawai'i and will certainly be looking to emulate that success again as Cal Poly is aiming to come away from the islands with a road win over the Rainbow Wahine for a second straight season after last year's 3-2 win.
