Beach Volleyball

Six from The Big West Named to AVCA Collegiate Beach All-America Listings

All-Time Big West All-Americans | AVCA release >>> 

Two Big West couplings from the league’s National Collegiate Volleyball Championship-bound teams have earned AVCA First Team All-America: Piper Ferch and Erin Inskeep of Cal Poly and Long Beach State’s Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah. 

The junior pairing from Long Beach State of Gementera and Hagenah are earning their second consecutive selection to the First Team All-America listings after guiding the Beach to The Big West Championship from the No. 1 position. This year, the duo is 33-4 on the sand, and winners of their last six matches and eight of their last 10. Thirty of their wins in 2025 have come in straight sets and the point on Court 1 was the match clincher for LBSU on eight occasions. 

The Cal Poly No. 1 tandem of Ferch and Inskeep are up from the All-America second team listings a year ago. The senior/sophomore pairing are 27-6 from the top flight in the lineup, winning their last six matches and eight of their last 10.  

The two first-team All-America pairs went up against each other in the title match at The Big West Championship, and the hot battle was an unfinished point. LBSU’s Gementera and Hagenah won the first set, 21-17. Cal Poly’s Ferch and Inskeep evened the match with an extra-point 29-27 score in the second. The third was 11-10 in favor of the Beach before play was halted. 

Also on the All-America listings is the Cal Poly duo of Izzy Martinez and Logan Walter, taking home a second-team nod.  

A first team selection a year ago, this is a second All-America nod for Martinez, a junior from Winnetka, Calif. Walter, a sophomore from San Mateo, Calif., is making a first appearance on the All-America listings. The tandem heads sports a 29-7 record on the year, playing all but one match from the No. 2 position. The two currently hold Cal Poly’s longest streak with eight consecutive dual points won. Martinez and Walter was the Mustangs’ lone point in the Championship finale, taking care of their Court 2 opponents in straight sets, 21-14, 21-19. 

Cal Poly is one of four schools in the country to have two pairs bestowed with All-America honors. 

Both teams open play in the national postseason on Friday, May 2 from Gulf Shores, Ala. No. 9 seed Big West champion Long Beach State jousts with eighth-seeded Florida State at 9:30 a.m. and No. 6 seed Cal Poly opens play against No. 11 LSU at 1 p.m.