Broncos face Coyotes in CCAA Game of the Week
By Christopher Pimentel Jr., October 6, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona’s volleyball team climbed to a top 10 spot in the national rankings following its comeback win in five sets against Cal State San Bernardino Sept. 26.
The Broncos jumped up four spots in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II rankings to No. 10. Heading into the match, the Broncos were ranked No. 14, behind San Bernardino’s No. 9 ranking.
“I had no doubt in my mind that we were all going to play with so much confidence, play for each other and play to be 1% better,” said Broncos right-side hitter Sarah Ybarra. “It’s always just a new set, and it’s game on.”
Along with Ybarra, outside hitter Elle Walker rounded out the top two in kills, racking up 22, and Ybarra put away 19. Setter Alexia Zammit led the Broncos in assists at 42, while outside hitter Charlotte Koerber and libero Renee Nachtigall earned 17 digs, with Ybarra close behind at 15.
Even though the Broncos earned the first point, their early momentum died quickly after both teams went point-for-point throughout the first set. Eventually the Broncos pulled away 25-20 after going 6-2 in the final moments of the set. The Broncos utilized players’ ability to play multiple positions and pulled away 25-20 over the Coyotes.
Although Ybarra did not match her season average of 4.11 kills per set, she contributed to the box score elsewhere with a serve ace, three digs and two assists, proving her utility as a tool player, according to Ybarra.
“I think we did a nice job of not hyping up one team over the other,” head coach Traci Dahl said. “What we did know was that it was going to be a dog fight. I mean, anytime you have two ranked teams going against each other, that’s what you want.”
The second set started off similarly, with both teams going point-for-point before Coyotes’ right-side hitter Kisa Sagiao made an attack error that prompted a challenge by San Bernardino, which failed. Although the Coyotes lost the challenge, this flipped the momentum in their favor. They went on a 7-1 run against the Broncos, giving them a 9-5 lead going into a CPP timeout.
However, the timeout wasn’t enough to settle San Bernardino’s run. The Coyotes went on another hot streak, going on a 5-1 run, leading the Broncos to substitute Zammit out. Dahl said the substitution was because she just needed a little breather at times.
“Paige and Kiyomi, another freshman setter, and Lexi work tirelessly in the gym as setters and so anyone of them can go in,” Dahl said. “We just needed a little bit of a change up at that moment and Paige came in and gave us a boost, and that was good.”
The substitute only provided a temporary boost, as the scoring returned to a back-and-forth battle that ended with the Coyotes pulling away to win the set 25-19.
The third set started differently than the previous two. San Bernardino gained momentum early, going on a 6-2 run before Bowyer once again subbed in for Zammit. This momentum carried throughout the rest of the set with a 25-17 win for the Coyotes.
The Broncos looked out of it throughout the set, and the stadium felt like a home game for San Bernardino with fans cheering loud and its bench showing more energy than the Broncos’. A poorly executed plan of attack led the set after CPP had nine attack errors, two service errors and one bad set, which led to around half of the Coyotes’ points in the set.
“I kind of lost my cool from the third to fourth set,” Ybarra said. “I was lowkey kind of yelling, and Charlotte was like, ‘Bring it down, we’re fine. We’re going to get out of this.’”
With the offensive struggles in mind, Dahl went with a more defensive approach, with both defensive specialists Rachel Mau and Keira Limbrick playing most of the set. The results of the defensive switch showed in the scorebook after the Coyotes committed four service errors, three attack errors and two bad sets, which secured the latter half of the Broncos’ points.
Along with a strong defensive game plan, the scoring was heavily reliant on Walker, who had nine kills in the set. That led the Broncos to take the set 25-18 .
“My drive is what changed, like my drive to execute and end the play,” Walker said. “One thing me and Sarah have in common is that we really don’t like losing. We get more competitive as time goes on and so by the fourth and fifth set it was kind of just swing at everything and hope it hits the ground.”
The final set started similarly to the first, with a close-knit battle between both teams, and the Broncos pulled away 15-13 to win the match.
Ybarra led charge in the final set, who contributed to around half of the team’s total points with six kills and one serve ace. A kill by Ybarra secured the final point, but she mentioned it was still stressful because she dinked the ball over and described it as a great time play but a weird point.
“I think it was just such an emotional win for me personally just because I feel like I’ve worked so hard,” Ybarra said. “And I’m not going to go down without a fight, especially with a team who wants to shut me down, and they know I’m a good player.”
The Broncos improved their record to 12-1 overall and 4-0 in conference matches. During the past week’s two-game road trip, the Broncos traveled to San Diego and lost 3-0 against the No. 20 ranked Point Loma Oct. 1 and lost 3-2 against Cal State Los Angeles Oct. 3. The Broncos look to break their losing streak this week against Stanislaus State Oct. 9 and Chico State Oct. 10.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics