26-7,14-4Big West
BYU
22-9,10-8Big 12
Mustangs Upset 5-Seed BYU and Advance to NCAA Round 2 Versus USC
12/4/2025 10:30:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
LOS ANGELES — For the first time since 2019, and the third time in a decade, the Mustangs are advancing to the NCAA Second Round.
Twelfth-seeded Cal Poly (26-7) engineered a stunning five-set comeback Thursday night, upsetting fifth-seeded BYU after dropping two of the first three frames in a marathon match that featured 26 tie scores and 127 combined kills. The Mustangs rallied to take the final two sets (25-19, 17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 15-10), completing a thrilling reversal against the #22 ranked Cougars.
Highlights of the Match
A balanced, relentless effort powered Cal Poly to victory. The Mustangs posted 64 kills, 61 assists, 72 digs, and 12 team blocks, while outhitting BYU .313 to .256 and tallying more service aces (7-4); a key point of pre-match emphasis from Head Coach Caroline Walters.
Three Mustangs recorded double-digit kills, four notched at least four blocks, and four collected double-digit digs. Kendall Beshear (20 kills, 12 digs) and Emma Fredrick (15 kills, 10 digs) delivered standout double-doubles with all-court impact.
Beshear turned in perhaps the most complete performance of the night, her second 20+ kill match of the season and eighth double-double. She hit an efficient .383, committed only two errors, and added two solo blocks.
Setter Emme Bullis continued her climb in the program record books, setting a new personal single-season career high (1,140 assists) and jumping two spots on Cal Poly’s Division I career assists list. Her 52 assists against BYU marked the fourth time this season she surpassed the 50-assist mark.
[This group] makes my job easy. Their joy is infectious, and it's not just on match days; it's every day. Let's keep this thing going! We're excited to play [USC], scout them, and spend another day together. It's what we're most grateful for.Head Coach Caroline Walters
Set-by-Set Story
The Mustangs started strong, trading points with BYU early and holding a narrow 15-14 edge at the first-set media timeout. Cal Poly pushed ahead to 19-17 after the break, forcing BYU to burn both timeouts. Then, behind Leluge’s six first-set kills, the Mustangs closed the set on a 6-0 run to win 25-19.
Leluge, Beshear, and Fredrick powered an offense that posted 15 total kills with zero errors in the opener, hitting .357 as a team and siding out at a remarkable 94% rate. The set featured 16 ties, foreshadowing the back-and-forth battle to come.
BYU shrugged off any momentum shift in the second set, racing to a 12-7 lead while hitting .778. Though Cal Poly hit .500 during that stretch, passing struggles near the net allowed the Cougars to pull away and even the match with a 25-17 win.
In the third, BYU used several small runs, including a 4-1 spurt to go up 10-6, to build an early edge. Cal Poly closed within one point twice late, but the Cougars held firm to take the set 25-20 and a 2-1 match lead.
Facing elimination, the Mustangs responded with force in the fourth. Beshear’s powerful attacks and a strengthened net presence from Charlotte Kelly, Annabelle Thalken, Leluge, and Bullis helped Cal Poly seize control midway. Leading from 10-9 onward, they closed out the set 25-20 to force a fifth.
The Mustangs grabbed the tiebreaker early, taking a 4-3 lead and never looking back. A locked-in defense limited BYU to a .000 hitting percentage in the fifth, and Cal Poly surged to a 15-10 victory to seal the upset.
Looking Forward
Just hours later, the Mustangs learned their next opponent: host and fourth-seeded USC, which swept Princeton to set up a Friday night showdown at 7 p.m.
USC (25-6) finished the regular season tied with Purdue for third in the Big Ten, behind only Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Trojans have secured wins over ranked teams this season and, like Cal Poly, boast one of the nation’s best offenses, ranking 34th in NCAA Division I volleyball in hitting percentage and 31st in kills per set.
Where USC distinguishes itself from nearly every other team, however, is on defense. The Trojans have held opponents to a remarkably low .185 hitting percentage and rank 15th nationally in blocks per set. The Mustangs will aim to deploy their own 18th-ranked hitting percentage against USC’s sturdy net-front defense.
Leading that defensive effort are three Trojans averaging more than 1.00 blocks per set: Leah Ford (1.35), Mia Tvrdy (1.15), and Rylie McGinest (1.06). USC’s most dangerous hitter is clearly London Wijay (3.55 kills per set), but the team features four attackers overall who average more than 2.00 kills per set.
Cal Poly last reached the Sweet 16 in 2007, sweeping Xavier and Purdue before falling to Stanford. The Mustangs are 6-11 all-time against USC and last faced the Trojans in 2012, a 3-0 loss when USC was ranked No. 5. Their only previous second-round meeting with USC was also in Los Angeles, back in 2000.
Now, Cal Poly aims to finish the job, and pull off another upset, to advance to the Sweet 16 and join the nation’s top teams.
