Poly volley can't pull off upset

After cruising through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament unscathed, Stanford head volleyball coach John Dunning was obviously relieved his top-ranked Cardinal wasn’t one of the seeded teams that fell victim to an upset.
Of the 16 teams that made it to this weekend’s third round, six were underdogs that advanced via upsets – five of which came on the right side of the bracket. Oregon was the lone unseeded team remaining on the left side.
“Some amazing upsets, and it’s just a sign of the parity in the sport,” Dunning said after the sweep of Sacramento State in the second round. “There are so many good teams. Women’s volleyball is amazing, the number of good players. The skill level, all the teams are good.”
But in an NCAA Tournament that's been filled with upsets, the Stanford Regional went according to the seeds on Friday night.
Top-seeded Stanford swept 16th-seeded Cal Poly.
Eighth-seeded UCLA took out unseeded Oregon in four games.
No real surprises here, although the Mustangs were disappointed they didn’t really do any better against the Cardinal the second time around.
Cal Poly lost 30-15, 30-24, 30-20 on Friday, exactly three months after losing to Stanford on the same floor by scores of 30-20, 30-18, 30-28 in the Stanford Invitational.
Because the match didn’t get over until 11:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday’s story will be without any postgame reaction. I’m working on a follow for Sunday’s paper, which will wrap up the season and include plenty of player reaction.