By Ashanti Velez, October 7, 2025
The Cal Poly Pomona women’s volleyball team had a clean sweep over Cal State Monterey Bay in their first home conference game Sept. 26, with assistance from volleyball offensive player of the week Sarah Ybarra, who gained 19 kills, two aces and 17 digs over the Otters.
The Broncos maintained their ongoing winning streak at the start of their CCAA season achieving three wins in a row, two of which were on the road against Chico State and Cal Poly Humboldt.
The Broncos overpowered the Otters in three straight leads throughout the night 25-20, 25-22 and 25-18.
Head coach Tracy Dahl said the team played some of the best Bronco volleyball she’s seen all year. She emphasized the team’s focus on starting strong and finishing strong, which was a goal the team accomplished.
“Everybody had their opportunity to shine,” Dahl said. “Offensively, defensively, we serve tough. and we passed a good ball tonight. We were in system most of the night, which is a big deal for us. You know, we really work hard in practice to run a faster offense, and tonight it just really clicked. We were real aggressive at the net. Our blocking got better, so I think the takeaway from start to finish was that we never gave up.”
Outside hitters Sarah Ybarra, Charlotte Koerber and Elle Walker dominated the night on offense, each contributing double digit kills continuously, helping the team maintain a strong percentage of .269 throughout the game.
“Our goal was to be aggressive with serving and digging more balls to target and being very disciplined with that, so I thought we did a really good job in that part of the game plan,” Ybarra said. “… I think we did a good job of adjusting as needed but also sticking to our game plan as well as what’s going to come at us.”
The match started off strong with a kill by middle blocker Alexia Athans, setting the tone early as the Broncos took the lead and maintained control throughout the set.
Monterey Bay fought hard to close the slim gap at 21-19 after an attack error by Walker. However, Walker quickly bounced back, reading the play and sealing the set with a kill.
The Otters tried to redeem themselves by coming up in the second set where the Broncos had three back-to-back attack errors. The momentum shift allowed Monterey Bay to strike an 11-point run, causing CPP to be down at most three points. However, the Broncos made their return and battled back to secure a close 25-22 win.
“I think we were down by two or three points if that, but we took control after, so that was fine,” Dahl said. “It was an opportunity for them to be down and then come back.”
Gaining early rhythm in the third set, the Otters struck first with two consecutive kills by middle blocker Malia Thorne and outside hitter Juliette D’Eliseo bringing them to a 3-0 lead before the Broncos took control.
“We’re really good at eye contact,” Walker said. “We really emphasize eye contact when the game gets close, a lot of positive talk and just productive talk.”
Falling behind 3-0, the Broncos quickly gained momentum, crushing the Otters with a dominant 19-10 advantage halfway through the set, effectively shutting down any chances of a comeback attempt by the Otters.
CPP sealed the win with a key block from setter Kacie Caoili, followed by a final attack error from the Otters.
The Broncos secured a 25-22 victory with only three sets dropped, earning their current 3-0 record for this season.
Feature image courtesy of the CPP Athletics