By Christopher Pimentel Jr., October 20, 2026
Cal Poly Pomona’s volleyball team swept Stanislaus State 3-0 Oct. 9, bouncing back from their five-position drop to No. 15 in the national rankings.
The Broncos took all three sets 25-21, 25-12 and 25-19, ending their two-game losing streak from the previous weekend. The Broncos led the box score in every major statistic, including kills (42), hitting percentage (.274), assists (34), service aces (5) and digs (27).
They also limited the Warriors to a .070 hitting percentage, which is less than half of their season average of .183.
“Last week was really hard on our team, and we really wanted to make an active change and fast,” middle blocker Alexia Athans said. “And that’s something that we worked on all week, having meetings making sure we were diligent and intentional in practice. Coming into this weekend, we know what we wanted to do, and we were going to do everything in our power to execute.”
Athans led the team in kills with 11, hitting at an elite .917 hitting percentage, while outside hitter Sarah Ybarra and right-side hitter Elle Walker both followed with nine. Ybarra led the team in digs with eight, followed by defensive specialist Keira Limbrick and Bowyer right behind with five each.
First-time starter and setter Paige Bowyer led the offense as the floor general with a 30 assist game.
“Paige has been doing a nice job in practice, and she came in during our Central Washington game and a few other games, and we just needed a little bit of change,” head coach Traci Dahl said. “I think to see Paige come in and just do her thing. She’s a great setter, and she ran the offense, and I was just super proud of how we were efficient.”
The first set started with both teams going point-for-point until CPP went on a 10-5 run to pull away with a 22-15 lead late in the set.
Stanislaus State kept the Broncos in check, responding with a 6-1 run of their own to bring the set to 23-21. Despite the late Warriors’ run, the momentum was short-lived, as the Broncos scored the final three to earn the set.
A 15-assist performance from Bowyer capped off the first set, producing six key assists during the Broncos’ 10-5 run to take the lead. Bowyer credited the confidence and trust the players and coaches had in her abilities to set the ball as a key factor in her success.
“I touched almost every ball, every play,” Bowyer said. “I have trust in them, but they also have trust in me, and it’s really easy when all your hitters are very vocal about what they need and very communicative. It also makes it really easy to set good hitters. They’re all amazing, and so it makes my job really easy, and they make me look way better than I am.”
The second set started differently, with the Broncos taking an early 9-2 lead over the Warriors after they gave CPP five points due to errors.
The rest of the set was the same, as the Warriors kept feeding the Broncos free points with nine more errors. The Broncos took a commanding 24-12 lead heading into set point, before Bowyer set the ball to Ybarra for the kill and the set.
Although the Broncos earned the second set with a commanding lead, Dahl highlighted the importance of staying levelheaded and avoiding overconfidence.
“I think that it’s kind of the same mentality,” Dahl said. “We want to get better, and we want our offense to be cleaner. We want our ball control to be cleaner, and there’s always room for improvement. Even though the opponent’s getting 12 points, to me, unless they’re all opponent errors, then there’s room for improvement.”
Dahl also mentioned that every team is going to change the game plan and make adjustments between sets, so players must continuously give it their all and adjust on the fly throughout the set.
The start of the final set highlighted the adjustments the Warriors made. They went on a 4-0 run to take an early lead.
In similar fashion to the first set, the Broncos silenced Stanislaus State’s momentum, scoring 10 and giving away two due to attack errors, taking a 10-6 lead.
The Broncos defense led the charge, limiting the Warriors to five kills during the set. The offense pushed the momentum into the Broncos’ favor, keeping a minimum of a two-point lead through the end of the set.
The Broncos won the match following a Bowyer-assisted kill to Walker, which highlighted a trend of Bowyer setting the ball to Walker, Athans and outside hitter Charlotte Koerber, who each recorded at least four kills in the final set.
The Broncos finished their five intraconference stretch from Oct. 3-17 this past weekend following a win against Cal State San Marcos and a loss to No. 9 Cal State San Bernardino, bringing their California Collegiate Athletic Association conference record to 7-2, with an overall 15-4 record.
The Broncos will look to improve their overall record this Thursday and Friday in non-conference matches against San Francisco State and Cal State East Bay on the road in San Francisco.
The Broncos will have four conference matches after this weekend until the end of the season . The Broncos have not officially punched a ticket into the CCAA or NCAA tournament but hold third in conference standings and 14th national rankings.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics
