After finishing the regular season with a 23-7 record and a 14-4 mark in conference play, the Cal Poly Mustangs have secured the No. 2 seed in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2025 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. This placement gives them a first-round bye and an automatic spot in the semifinals.
Head Coach Caroline Walters led the team to its highest win total during her tenure, marking four straight seasons with at least 14 conference victories. The Mustangs’ postseason campaign continues after they clinched second place following a decisive sweep over Cal State Fullerton last Friday.
On Wednesday night, tournament action at LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid determined Cal Poly’s semifinal opponent. No. 3 Long Beach State defeated No. 6 UC Irvine, setting up a match against Cal Poly on Friday at 6 p.m. In the other semifinal, top-seeded UC Davis will face UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs and Long Beach State split their two regular-season meetings, each team winning at home. Most recently, Cal Poly swept Long Beach State to secure its postseason berth. Last year, as the No. 1 seed, Cal Poly eliminated Long Beach State in the semifinals and aims to repeat that outcome on Long Beach’s home court.
Several Mustangs received individual recognition this week from the Big West Conference. Setter Emme Bullis and Kendall Beshear were named to the First Team All-Big West squad. Bullis earned her fourth career all-conference honor and surpassed 1,000 assists for her third season—becoming only the second player in the league to reach that milestone this year—and recorded a double-double in Saturday’s finale. Beshear contributed both offensively and defensively as a six-rotation player.
Other honorees included Chloe Leluge (Second Team), Annabelle Thalken (Honorable Mention), Emma Fredrick (Honorable Mention), and Charlotte Kelly (All-Freshman Team).
Despite losing their final regular-season match to UC Irvine, Cal Poly now turns its attention fully to postseason play with hopes of claiming both a conference championship and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
