POMONA -- Cal State LA's women's volleyball team, the reigning NCAA champions, came up short Friday night in a California Collegiate Athletic Association match at conference-leading Cal Poly Pomona.

The Golden Eagles let a big lead slip away in the second set and couldn't sustain their momentum after winning the third and the Broncos prevailed, 25-14, 26-24, 19-25, 25-16 in Kellogg Arena. No. 3 Cal Poly Pomona (21-1, 15-0 CCAA) remains unbeaten in conference play, while the two-time defending CCAA champion Golden Eagles (14-8, 9-6 CCAA) slipped into a tie for third place with three matches remaining.

Emily Elliott, the new CCAA career kills leader, had 17 kills and two blocks for the Golden Eagles, while Haley Roundtree had 10 kills and three blocks and hit at a .471 percentage. Zuhal Cetin had eight kills and a team-high 16 digs.

Sarah Ybarra had 18 kills and 12 digs to lead the Broncos. Charlotte Koerber had 11 kills and four aces.

Tehya Chadwick had seven kills and four digs for the Golden Eagles, while Arielle Chandler and Ashlyn Beaver combined for 33 set assists. Neely Craig had three of the Golden Eagles' five service aces.

Cal State LA had a 48-46 edge in kills, but hit only .149 to .221 for the Broncos. The Broncos had a 7-6 advantage in blocks and had 11 service aces to eight errors, while the Golden Eagles had five aces and nine errors.

After dropping the first set, the Golden Eagles responded by jumping out to a 12-3 lead in the second set and looked poised to even the match. An ace by Chandler and a kill by Havannah Vogel completed a 5-0 run to stake the Golden Eagles to the big lead.

Cal Poly Pomona, though, scored the next five points to pull close and eventually pulled ahead, 23-22 after back-to-back aces from Samantha Campion. A kill by Roundtree evened it at 23-23 and the Golden Eagles got another kill from Roundtree to fight off a set point and tie it at 24-24. Two errors by the Golden Eagles ultimately ended the set and gave the Broncos a 2-0 lead.

To their credit, the Golden Eagles jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the third set and never looked back. Craig had two aces and Chadwick had a pair of kills during a 5-0 run. Another ace by Craig made it 19-8 and a block by Roundtree gave the Golden Eagles a 20-10 lead. Two kills by Elliott the Golden Eagles to set point and a kill by Roundtree sent the match to a fourth set.

The Golden Eagles, though, were unable to duplicate their fast starts of the previous two sets and the Broncos were able to close out the match.

Cal State LA will return to action on Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. match at Cal State San Marcos.