Riverside—Just one night removed from picking up its first Big West conference victory, the UC Riverside Volleyball Team fell in a tight, 3-0, sweep to visiting Cal Poly.

The Highlanders established an 18-12 lead midway through the opening set. The Mustangs responded by taking eight of ten points to tie the score at 20 apiece, before going ahead 24-21. UCR would hold off two set points, but Cal Poly narrowly took the first set 25-23, marking the first time in four home matches this season that the Highlanders dropped the opening frame.

The second saw the teams play at close range until the visitors created a four-point margin at 17-13, forcing a UC Riverside timeout. Coming out of stoppage, the blue and gold took four of five points to cut the Cal Poly margin to one at 18-17. The match would later be tied at 24 all, when the Mustangs got kills from Adlee Van Widen and Taylor Gruenewald to closeout the set, 26-24, and go up two sets to none.

Through two sets played UCR was being outhit .221 to .141. They also had 16 attack errors compared to Cal Poly's 11, while the kills count was nearly even at 28-27 in favor of the visitors. 

In the third and final set, Cal Poly jumped out to a 17-12 lead.and never looked back as they went to take the third set 25-13, and the match 3-0. The Highlanders had eight kills and eight attack errors in 20 attempts for an .000 hitting percentage, while the Mustangs had 13 kills in those same 20 attempts with just one error for a .600 percentage in the final set. Cal Poly also won the battle at the defensive net with 16.0 blocks to UC Riverside's 5.0. 

The Highlanders were led by Chelsea Doyle with 30 assists and 12 digs. Cristina Maietta had nine digs, while Brooke Callahan and Mickayla Sherman tallied seven each in the loss. Maddie Hubbell had 10 digs and three of team's six service aces.

The UC Riverside Volleyball plays two matches on the road next week, Thursday, October 20 at UC Davis, and Saturday, October 22 at UC Irvine.