The SF State volleyball team faced a tough opponent in Cal Poly Pomona, and fell 3-2 in Thursday night’s match. The Gators were defeated by the Broncos 25-18, 20-25, 25-20, 23-25, and 14-16.

The Gators often matched the Broncos point-for-point. Each team pulled away with sizable leads, only to have the other rally back to a narrow margin.

“We just couldn’t play consistently throughout the match,” said Eric Ballelos, assistant coach. “We had our opportunities and at the end we couldn’t capitalize on them.”

The players agree that consistency was the name of the game tonight.

“It opens our eyes up to know that anybody can beat anybody in this conference,” senior Halimah Oswald said. “It’s not about how they look or how they play, it’s all about how consistent we are in the game and in the matches.”

Oswald led the team with a season-high 16 kills and also had a serving ace, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the Broncos.

“It was a pretty close match, especially that last game,” Oswald said. “We needed to be aggressive and we were timid instead.”

Megan Johnson, junior, had 10 kills, tying her with fellow teammates Kelly Ostello and Robyn Hall for second most of the night. Like Oswald, Johnson also added an ace to her stats tonight.

“We did want it. We just got a little bit tight at times and made some errors that really, we shouldn’t have made,” Johnson said. “If we never made them, we would have won that game.”

The team has little time to dwell on the loss. They go on the road against Chico State tomorrow at 7 p.m. and are looking to get back in the win column.

“It’s going to be a real test this weekend, on the road, regrouping from a disappointing loss like this,” Ballelos said. “Do the girls have the mental toughness to fight through and win these matches on the road? I know they do have it, it’s just a matter (of) believing in themselves.”