SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Daisy Duke proved why she was named the CCAA's Player of the Year in volleyball this season, smashing a career-high 25 kills and hitting at a .407 clip as the 23rd-ranked Cal Poly Pomona volleyball team earned a 3-1 win over Stanislaus State (25-20, 25-21, 24-26, 25-23) Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the CCAA Volleyball Tournament at The Sports Center in San Marcos.
Click
HERE to hear what head coach
Traci Dahl, senior
Daisy Duke and sophomore
Caitie Mueller had to say about Thursday's win.
The Broncos (21-5), the No. 3 seed in the CCAA Tournament, advances to play No. 2 seed and 15th-ranked Cal State San Bernardino in Friday's semifinal at 3:00 pm in San Marcos. The No. 6 seed Warriors see their season come to an end with a 19-10 record.
Duke and the Broncos opened the contest on fire, leading the first set from start to finish before capturing a 25-20 win. Duke was unstoppable in the opening frame, firing 10 kills on 13 attacks without an error – a .769 hitting percentage – to set the tone offensively.
The Broncos' momentum continued through a 25-21 win in set two, and powered CPP to a 17-11 lead in set three, before the Warriors rallied to make things interesting. Stanislaus State scored 10 of the next 14 points to knot the score at 21-21 and the two teams went point-for-point from then on until two straight kills by the Warriors' Macky Morris clinched the third set win for Stanislaus, 26-24.
The fourth set saw CPP hold control until late when the Warriors made a push to come within a point at 21-20, but the Broncos proved to be too much, pulling away for the 25-23 win.
Duke was the only CPP player with double-digit kills,
Madison Novak scored the second-most kills with eight while
Erin McFarland chipped in with seven.
Caitie Mueller, the CCAA Newcomer of the Year, handed out 42 assists and tied a career-high with four service aces. Defensively,
Avery Percival matched a career-high with 30 digs, complemented by the 18 digs from
Mackenzie Sullivan and 17 from
Samantha Campion.
Kaitlan Tucker recorded five blocks to shore up CPP's defensive effort.
As a team, the Broncos hit .235 to the Warriors' .228, but Stanislaus held the statistical advantage in kills (59-57), assists (56-52), digs (93-86) and solo blocks (4-1).
The Warriors were led by the 12 kills of Morris.
Cal Poly Pomona returns to action Friday at 3:00 pm in the conference semifinal against Cal State San Bernardino in a rematch of last year's CCAA Tournament final.
For more information about the CCAA Tournament, including schedule and ticket information, visit
goccaa.org/vbtourney.
Bronco Bits
- Head coach Traci Dahl moves to 52-26 in her fourth year (third season) at Cal Poly Pomona, including 44-10 the last two seasons.
- Cal Poly Pomona has won the last four matchups with Stanislaus State, improving to 38-10 all-time against the Warriors, including 2-0 in the CCAA Tournament.
- The 25 kills by Daisy Duke is the third-most for CPP in a single-match since the current 25-point scoring format was instituted in 2008.
- The Broncos matched a season-high with 10 service aces.
- Daisy Duke has a career-best 375 kills this season; it is the second-most for CPP in a single-season since 2008 when the scoring format went to its current 25-point format (the current record for most kills in a season since 2008 is 386, set by Kristen Hamlin in 2018).
- Daisy Duke's 4.08 kills per set this season is currently the seventh-most in program history across all years.
- Daisy Duke increases her career total to 852; her career kills per set average of 3.34 is currently the third-most all-time in program history.
- Kaitlan Tucker has recorded 115 total blocks this season, which is the third-most in program history since 2008 when the scoring format went to its current 25-point format.
- Avery Percival matched a career-high in digs with 30 Thursday; she previously tallied 30 digs in a match vs Western Oregon on (9/10/21) when she played for Hawaii Pacific.
- Caitie Mueller matched a career-best of four service aces Thursday, a mark she has reached two other times in her career, one of which was against Stanislaus State earlier this season.
- This is the Broncos' fourth-ever appearance in the CCAA Volleyball Tournament (2015, 2018, 2021), and have reached the tournament final twice (2018, 2021), but have never won.
- The Broncos are now 5-3 all-time in the CCAA Tournament, and 2-0 against Stanislaus State.
- It is the seventh time in program history that the Broncos have opened their season with an 21-5 record or better through the first 26 matches.
- Ranked in the Top 25 this week at No. 23, CPP is now 282-167 as a nationally-ranked team since 1986.
- As a program, CPP is now 773-534 all-time, including 195-136 in neutral-site matches since the program's inception in 1980.
- CPP is now 225-163 in four-set matches all-time.
