SAN FRANCISCO – Down 2-1 on the road Thursday, the Cal Poly Pomona volleyball team rallied for a thrilling 3-2 victory at San Francisco State to secure the team's first conference win of 2011. Fittingly, the final point came on a block.

The Broncos recorded 17 blocks, as Courtney Alberi and Taylr Kreutziger collected seven apiece. The total of 17 is the highest for the program since Nov. 8, 2008. The work on the front line certainly stifled the Gators' attack Thursday, as the hosts managed just a .139 hitting percentage. The set scores couldn't have been much tighter in the final frames, with CPP coming out on top in the last set by a margin of 16-14.

Diana Lake also contributed an impressive performance for the visitors, leading the team in kills (15) and digs (22). Jessica Doerner, limited to just one set through the season's first six matches as she battled back from injury, played all five Thursday and added 11 kills.

"Our team really had to grow in this match," Broncos' head coach Rosie Wegrich said. "We really struggled early on but we got better and better as it moved along. We had some well-formed blocks tonight and it was great to see how our team stepped up while under pressure."

The result raises the Broncos' marks to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), while SFSU drops to 4-4 overall and 0-3 through league play.

In the opening set, the Gators pushed out to a 7-3 lead on a stretch capped off by a Megan Johnson kill paired with an assist from Sarah Kurfess. Once SFSU broke into double digits, the Broncos couldn't trim the margin lower than four points for the rest of the frame.

On the Gators' first set point, CPP freshman middle blocker Lauren Jones collected a kill to bring the score to 24-16. Although SFSU committed attack errors on the next two points, the hosts eventually wrapped up the 25-18 victory in set one.

The second set proved considerably closer, with the score getting locked at 8-8 in the early going. A kill from Broncos' junior outside hitter  Doerner gave CPP the lead on the next point and the Broncos didn't relinquish the advantage for the rest of the set. Doerner added two more important kills in the second and Lake also performed well as she racked up six kills in the frame, including one on the deciding point.

The Gators stole the momentum right back though in the third, racing out to a 5-1 lead. CPP couldn't win more than one point at a time until three-straight attack errors on SFSU pulled the score from 17-9 to 17-12 in favor of the Gators. The Broncos improved in the later stages of the set when they won seven of the final 12 points but SFSU did enough to take a 2-1 lead in sets with the 25-20 decision.

Trailing on the road, CPP battled back with an impressive fourth set. The Broncos took a 6-1 lead out of the gates, a stretch that included a 5-0 run initiated by block assists from Alberi and Karissa Lagmay. CPP took a 23-16 into the late stages of the set and a fourth frame seemed imminent.

The Gators managed to rattle off seven of the next eight points, forcing the Broncos to take a timeout while clinging to a 24-23 lead. Despite that SFSU stretch that featured four-straight kills from senior outside hitter Lauren Walsh, a strong attack from Doerner gave CPP the 25-23 decision.

The final set proved to be epic, as the score was tied nine different times. Down 13-11 with just two Gators' points to spare, the Broncos once again battled back. CPP captured five of the final six points, with Lake leading the charge. The Covina, Calif., native collected two kills during the run and joined Kreutziger for a block on the final point.

CPP continues its road trip with a 7 p.m. match Friday at Cal State Stanislaus. The Warriors hold marks of 5-1 overall and 1-1 in CCAA play.