Cal Poly Beach Volleyball Announces 2025 Schedule
1/24/2025 11:35:00 AM | Beach Volleyball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Coming off a historic 2024 campaign, Cal Poly Beach Volleyball has released its 2025 schedule that features three home events, including the marquee Center of Effort Beach Volleyball Challenge.
10th year head coach and reigning Big West Coach of the Year Todd Rogers has put together another challenging schedule for his Mustangs in 2025. The team is set to face 10 teams who qualified for the NCAA Championships last season.
Cal Poly will open the season Feb. 28 at the Battle for LA in University of California, Los Angeles. They will take on NCAA Championships Finalists UCLA in their first match. In that event, they will also face Long Beach State, Concordia, and LMU NCAA Championships Quarterfinalists.
They will then head out to the Sun Devil Classic in Tempe, AZ. There, they will take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Coastal Carolina, Arizona, and Arizona State, who Cal Poly beat in the first round of the NCAA Championships last season.
The first home event The Mustang Roundup will take place March 15-16 at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex. The Mustangs will welcome San Jose State, GCU, UC Davis, and HCU for the two-day event. Cal Poly will play San Jose State March 15 at 11:30 a.m. and GCU at 7 p.m. Then they will face UC Davis at 2 p.m. and Houston Christian University at 4:30 p.m.
The second home event will take place March 21-23 at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex. The Mustangs will welcome Sacramento State, Hawaii, Cal State Bakersfield, and Long Beach, UC Davis, and CSUN for the two-day event. Cal Poly will play Sacramento State March 21 at 10:15 a.m. and Hawaii at 7 p.m. They will face Cal State Bakersfield March 22 at 2 p.m. and Long Beach State at 7 p.m. On Sunday they will play against UC Davis on March 23 at 11:30 p.m. and CSUN at 2 p.m.
The Mustangs then head to Laguna Beach, CA for the Best in the West Tournament April 4-6. They will face Washington, UCLA, LMU, Stetson, Long Beach State, and Hawaii. UCLA, LMU, Long Beach State, and Hawaii were NCAA Championships Qualifiers.
The last home event, the annual Center of Effort Beach Volleyball Challenge, will take place April 11-12 and will see seven other top collegiate programs come to Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex. It will feature USC, UCLA, Florida State, TCU, LMU, Stanford, and ASU. Just like last year, the format will be pool play with two groups of four with the winners of each pool meeting in a championship match to crown a winner. In pool play, Cal Poly is scheduled to face Stanford, USC, and Florida State.
After COE, the Mustangs will head to Austin, Texas to finish out the regular season April 18-19 where they will face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Southern Miss, Texas, and North Florida.
The Big West Championships will take place April 24-25 in Santa Monica, CA. Last year, Cal Poly advanced to the semi-finals of the Big West Championship falling to Long Beach State.
The NCAA Championships will be held May 2-4 in Huntington Beach for the first time The Mustangs have made it there four of the last five seasons.
The Mustangs will be led this year by nine players who return that earned All-Big West honors last year, including four All-Americans: sophomore Logan Walter, grad student Lindsey Sparks, sophomore Quinn Perry, senior Madison Nichols and senior Abbey Reinard as well as AVCA All-Americans Ella Connor, Izzy Martinez, Piper Ferch, and Erin Inskeep.
The Mustangs have added 10 new players, eight freshmen and two transfers. Three of those freshmen were AVCA Beach High School All-Americans: Elise Lenahan, Summer Witherby, and Haylee LaFontaine. Overall, the Mustangs have 22 returners and only lost one starter from last year.
Cal Poly will look to surpass their success from 2024 which was the best season in program history. The Mustangs reached the Semifinals of the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history. In the 10 years of the program, they have won three Big West titles, been to the NCAA Championship four times, and have seen nine players be named AVCA All-Americans.
