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Cal Poly Pomona earned its first CCAA Tournament Championship holding off Sonoma State in five sets.
The No. 3 seeded Broncos opened the match with 25-16 and 25-20 set wins before No. 5 Sonoma State answered to win sets three and four, 25-15 and 25-21, respectively. The fifth set could have gone either way, but a couple of clutch plays late in the match gave Cal Poly Pomona a 15-10 set win and the first tournament championship in program history.
Tournament MVP Daisy Duke had a team-leading 15 kills and ended the tournament with 59 kills in the three matches. She and the Broncos received help tonight from Madison Novak, who led the team with 16 points off 14 kills and four assisted blocks. Kaitlan Tucker also stepped up for CPP in the championship match. The middle posted seven kills with just one error, and she also had four blocks. Tucker and Novak were both named to the all-tournament team.
Caitie Mueller and Avery Percival joined them on the all-tourney team. Mueller dished out 43 assists in the title match and ended the tournament with 136 assists. Percival registered 20 digs to average 5.23 digs per set in the tournament.
Sonoma State was led by Kiana Richardson's match-high 21 kills. She earned all-tournament accolades along with her teammates Jaden Krist and Jen Trephan after posting 49 kills in the three matches. Crist followed up a clutch performance of 18 kills in the semifinals with 17 kills in the championship match. She hit a match-best .371. Trephan continued to do a bit of everything for the Seawolves. She the match leading the team in digs (15) and assists (26). She also had seven kills and four blocks.
The Broncos began the match firing on all cylinders as they hit .407 in the first set. Daisy Duke had seven kills and no errors on nine swings in the opening stanza. Sonoma State was within striking distance most of the second set and cut it to 22-20. A service error gave the ball back to Cal Poly Pomona, and it got a kill from Novak and an ace from Samantha Campion to close the set and take a 2-0 lead.
Just as it had done the previous match against No. 1 Cal State LA, Sonoma State flipped a switch between sets and came out as an entirely new team. After a Kaitlan Tucker kill tied the match at 2-2, Sonoma went on a 17-5 run to take a commanding 19-7 advantage. The Seawolves would trade points with the Broncos down the stretch to complete the at 25-15.
Sonoma State also outplayed Cal poly Pomona in most aspects of the game in the fourth set. SSU held CPP to a .029 hitting percentage, as the Broncos had only seven kills in the set. The set was tied at 21-21 after the Broncos put together an 8-4 run. The Seawolves scored the final four points and put the set away on an ace by Brynna Slayton and a kill by Richardson.
The Broncos appeared to have regained some of their swagger coming out for the fifth set. They split points with Sonoma, going back and forth until the match was tied at 9-9 following a kill by Sonoma's Megan Trottier. The Broncos posted back-to-back points on a kill from Novak and an attacking error by SSU to go up two (11-9) with just four more points needed. Sonoma banked one more point on a kill by Leilani Hallman before the Broncos seized the opportunity to close out the match and earn the CCAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
First, Daisy Duke got the serve back for CPP with a kill. Jenna O'Shea immediately followed with her third ace of the match, and Erin McFarland put down a perfectly placed ball off a bump set from Mackenzie Sullivan to go up 14-10. The match ended on the next point when Mueller again found Duke, this time for the conference-winning point.
This was the second consecutive season Cal Poly Pomona played in the CCAA Tournament Championship match and the third in program history.
The Broncos and the Seawolves will both find out their NCAA playoff fate on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m. on the NCAA Selection Show. The Seawolves were No. 7 in the last NCAA Regional rankings, and the top 8 teams in the final rankings will earn a bid. Cal Poly Pomona is already in as the conference's automatic qualifier. Sonoma State will be looking to make the tournament as an at-large bid.
2022 CCAA Volleyball All-Tournament Team
Daisy Duke, Cal Poly Pomona (MVP)
Madison Novak, Cal Poly Pomona
Avery Percival, Cal Poly Pomona
Kaitlan Tucker, Cal Poly Pomona
Caitie Mueller, Cal Poly Pomona
Kiana Richardson, Sonoma State
Jen Trephan, Sonoma State
Jaden Krist, Sonoma State
Karis Carter, Cal State East Bay
Autumn Kirby, Stanislaus State
Marlee Nunley, Cal State San Bernardino
Emily Elliott, Cal State LA