POMONA -- Upset-minded Cal Poly Pomona, spurred on by a capacity crowd of 737 in Darlene May gym, swept past the nation's and the region's No. 2 ranked team, Cal State San Bernardino, to pull even with the visiting Coyotes in the California Collegiate Athletic Association title chase.
    The Broncos prevailed 27-25, 26-24 and 25-22 Wednesday night to improve to 15-5 on the season and 12-3 in the CCAA while CSUSB slipped to 20-3 overall and 12-3 in the conference.
    Cal Poly Pomona will host UC San Diego (11-3) on Friday night, 24 hours before the Coyotes host the Tritons in Coussoulis Arena at 7 p.m. on Saturday night in another match with conference title implications as well as regional ranking implications.
     The victory snapped the Coyotes' five-match win streak against Pomona.  It was the Coyotes' first 3-0 shutout loss since the championship game of the 2007 NCAA Pacific Regional title match with Western Washington.
    Jessica Granados led the Coyotes with 13 kills on .323 hitting with nine digs and two blocks. Ashtin Hall had nine kills and a team-high 16 digs with two block assists. Sara Hoffman had 34 assists and Meghan Haas had 13 digs at her libero position. Sara Rice and Jane Chafeh each had seven kills.
    Anne-Marie Hofmans had 14 kills on .256 hitting for Pomona with eight digs and three block assists. Allie Newman had 10 kills on .529 hitting and Vanessa Williams had nine kills and four block assists for the Broncos. Jasmine Davis had a match-high 37 assists.
    CSUSB hit just .186 for the match, nearly 100 points below its season average while the Broncos hit .246.
    Credit must go to the Broncos for staving off set points by the Coyotes in the first two sets to rally and prevail.
    CSUSB led 20-16 in the first set but the Broncos rallied to tie it at 21-all on a kill by Williams, the CCAA player of the week. A pair of kills by  Chafeh put CSUSB at match  point, 24-22,
but Pomona tied it at 24. After a kill by senior middle hitter Rice to give the Coyotes another set point at 25-24, the Broncos won three straight points to take the set.
    In the second set, the Broncos built a 20-17 lead on another kill by Williams after the set was tied at 14-14. However, the Coyotes bounced back aided by two kills by Granados to tie the set at 20-20.  CSUSB pulled ahead 24-22 to once again have two set points, but Pomona rattled off four straight points, two of them on San Bernardino errors to make it 2-0.
   After intermission, Pomona reeled off six straight points to open the set and led 18-11 before the Coyotes began to chip away in an attempt to keep the match alive. However, Pomona took a 23-17 lead only to have CSUSB rally to get within two at 24-22 on a Granados kill, but the Broncos closed out the match on a kill by Elizabeth Diaz.
    Earlier in the day, the NCAA released its Pacific Region poll which showed UCSD still the No. 1 team with the Coyotes at No. 2, Cal State L.A. No. 3 and Cal Poly Pomona No. 4.