CARLSBAD, Calif. – In the midst of a five-set win streak, te No. 23 Cal State San Marcos volleyball team concluded its regular season schedule with a sweep (25-13, 25-13, 25-11) over visiting Hope International Friday night.  The Cougars improve to 23-10 while the Royals drop to 8-18. 
 
CSUSM's five seniors, Kara Barkdoll, Alyssa Foster, Alyssa Hubbard, Kelli McLin and Erin Talafus, who were playing in the final regular season match in front of their home crowd, were honored in a ceremony prior to the start of the match.  All five seniors started the match, even Barkdoll who saw limited play in her final season due to injuries.
 
CSUSM, who holds the all-time record of 6-0 over Hope International, hit .316 while collecting 10 blocks. The Cougars tallied its seventh match of the season with double-digits in aces. Freshman Ashley Kaylor registered a program-record eight aces in a three-set match while the team finished with 11 aces.
 
The CSUSM middle hitting duo of freshman Kristen Parker and Talafus were unstoppable, hitting a combine .630 with no errors (17-for-27). Hubbard added a match-high 10 kills.  
 
The Cougars will enter the Association of Independent Institution (A.I.I.) Conference Championship as the No. 1 seed and face No. 6 seed Walla Walla on Friday, Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. MST (12 p.m. PST) in Denver, Colo.  In its three years of existence, CSUSM has accumulated a 12-0 conference tournament record and brought home three A.I.I. titles.