SAN BERNARDINO – Cal State San Bernardino's women's volleyball team clinched a tie for first place in the CCAA conference Thursday night with a 3-0 sweep of Cal Poly Humboldt before 300 fans in Coussoulis Arena.
The Yotes are now 15-2 in conference play with a one-game edge over Cal State Los Angeles (14-3) who dispatched Stanislaus State by a 3-1 score in Turlock Thursday night. CSUSB, ranked No. 7 in the nation, is now 22-3 on the season.
Sonoma State (11-6 CCAA) will be the opponent at 7 p.m. Saturday in the final home match of the regular season and it is Senior Night, honoring four special seniors in pre-match festivities – setter
Marlee Nunley, middle blockers
Jenna Patton and
Taryn King, and libero-defensive specialist
Shira Lahav.
The home win over the Lady Lumberjacks improved CSUSB's home record in 2023 to 12-0. CSUSB has now won 73 regular season home games in a row since UC San Diego beat the Yotes back in September of 2015.
The Seawolves, smarting after a 3-1 loss to San Francisco State Thursday night in the Bay Area, will be a formidable foe on Saturday, having beaten the Yotes twice this year – once in a pre-conference tournament and again in the first match of the CCAA schedule on Sept. 14. Both losses were in the Seawolves gym.
CSUSB has won 11 matches in a row since losing to 2022 CCAA regular season champ Cal State L.A. on Sept. 29.
Head Coach
Kim Cherniss, looking at Humboldt's season record of 6-19 and 3-14 in the CCAA, played 16 players, six of them seeing action in at least one set as the Yotes won the first two sets with relative ease 25-13, 25-17.
However, Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly known as Humboldt State) showed up with a secret weapon by the name of Awelina Fakalata, the team's top recruit out of American River Community College.
Fakalata, a 6-1 junior outside hitter playing her first match of the season, led her team with 14 kills on .226 hitting with three block assists and seven digs. The junior transfer earned JC all-America honors, first-team all-state and first-team all-Northern California region in leading American River to the state community college title game in 2022. She had 505 kills (4.86 per set), 382 digs (3.67 per set) with 52 total blocks.
The Yotes got a little sloppy in the third set but held on to record the sweep with a 25-23 victory in the final set. CSUSB committed six attack errors on .189 hitting in that set, 100 points below their season average. The set was tied three times.
Match point came at 24-23 in the third set when senior
Taryn King combined with
Trinity Sheridan to block an attack by Humboldt's Elyse McKinney to avoid the possibility of a fourth set.
The Yotes overcame Fakalata's surprise debut with a balanced attack led by 12 kills by junior Savannah Hoffman, 11 kills by Yotes freshman Sheridan who hit .421 with only three swing errors in 28 tries.
Defensively, the Yotes outblocked Humboldt 12 to 4 and outhit them with a .326 team hitting percentage to .093 for the visitors.
CSUSB's Patton, who leads NCAA Div. II in hitting percentage at .493, had six kills on nine swings with no errors for a .667 hitting percentage and contributed one solo block and four block assists.
Yotes setter Nunley dished out 31 assists, a service ace and two block assists.
Ashley Robinson contributed seven kills on .286 hitting and led the team in digs with 12. Lahav, among the leaders in the CCAA in digs, had 11 digs.
UP NEXT: It's Senior Night at 7 p.m. Saturday when the Yotes host Sonoma State in the regular season finale. Watch the match live streaming on the CCAA Network or follow the live stats at csusbathletics.com.
