California State University Northridge Athletics
CSUN Concludes Road Stretch at Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara
10/19/2016 3:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
THE WEEK AHEAD:
MATCH #19Â (Big West #7):
CSUN Matadors (6-12, 2-4 Big West) at Cal Poly Mustangs (12-6, 5-2 Big West)
Friday, Oct. 21, 2016Â - 7:00 p.m. PDT
Mott Athletics Center (3,032) - San Luis Obispo, CA
Live Stats
Live Video
Live Audio
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
MATCH #20 (Big West #8):
CSUN Matadors (6-12, 2-4 Big West) at UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (12-8, 3-4 Big West)
Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016Â - 7:00 p.m. PDT
The Thunderdome (6,000) - Goleta, CA
Live Stats
Live Video
Live Audio
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
Weekly Match Notes (PDF)             Â
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (6-12, 2-4 Big West) looks to get back in the win column this week as the Matadors conclude a three-match road trip at Cal Poly (12-6, 5-2 Big West) and UC Santa Barbara (12-8, 3-4 Big West). CSUN, in the midst of a four-match skid, takes on the Mustangs at Mott Athletics Center Friday before heading down the coast Saturday to face the Gauchos at the Thunderdome. Both matches are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first serve.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Both matches this week will be streamed live on BigWest.TV. The matches will also feature live stats (link on the women's volleyball schedule page at GoMatadors.com). Six Matador home matches this season will be streamed live on Big West.TV via the CSUN Sports Network.
All home matches this season will include live stats coverage at GoMatadors.com. For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the women's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Cal Poly (12-6, 5-2) has won five straight matches heading into Friday's home match against the Matadors. The Mustangs, just 1-1 at home this season, swept both Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside on the road last week and have not dropped a set in the last four matches. Sophomore Adlee Van Winden leads Cal Poly and ranks fifth in the Big West averaging 3.60 kills per set. Big West Player of the Week Raeann Greisen, who had combined 32 kills last week, adds 3.46 kps for the Mustangs who are hitting .174 as a team. Cal Poly holds a 30-26 lead in the all-time series and has won five straight matches after coming back to beat CSUN in five in Northridge on Oct. 1.
UC Santa Barbara (12-8, 3-4) has split its last six matches which includes a 3-1 loss at UC Riverside and a 3-1 win at Cal State Fullerton last week. The Gauchos, 4-3 on their home court, got off to a 9-3 start this season before going 3-5 over their last eight. Freshman Lindsey Ruddins leads UCSB and ranks second in the Big West averaging 3.98 kills per set. Senior Phoebe Grunt ranks second in the conference in hitting at .394 for the Gauchos who are hitting .227 as a team. UCSB holds a 36-8 lead in the all-time series which includes a 3-1 Gaucho win in Northridge on Sept. 30.
SATO REMAINS THIRD IN BIG WEST DIGS
Junior libero Katie Sato remained third in the conference averaging 4.17 digs per set after scooping up five digs at Long Beach State on Saturday. Among conference liberos, Sato ranks behind only Emilia Petrachi of UC Santa Barbara (4.72) and Heather Reed of UC Davis (4.39). With 296 digs this season, Sato is quickly closing in on her season career-best of 328, set as a sophomore last season. The junior from Calabasas has upped her CSUN career total to 756 which is 205 away from the Rally Scoring era top 10. Â
CONATI SURPASSES 1,000 CAREER ASSISTSÂ
Junior Lauren Conati became the sixth player in CSUN's Rally Scoring era to reach 1,000 career assists. Last week, Conati added 15 assists at Long Beach State to reach 1,208 assists for her career. This season, Conati has passed Annie Shrieve (2000-01) and Steffi Miller (2012-14) to take over sixth place on the CSUN rally scoring era assists list. Nadine Nickel (4,798) is first on the list followed by Sydney Gedryn (3,532), Sam Orlandini (2,761), Kayla Wright (2,434) and Angela Hupp (1,718). Nickel is CSUN's all-time leader as well with Alison Wool (3,608) second. With 608 assists this season, Conati has already set a new career-high for a single season. She had 291 assists as a sophomore last season and 309 in 11 matches as a true freshman in 2014.
COACHES CORNER
Matador head coach Jeff Stork shares his thoughts each week on the team, this week's matches and other topics.
On getting back on the winning track: "Right now I think the girls are trying to figure out how to win. When things don't go their way, they get away from thinking about the process of winning. That process has to do with trying harder, being persistent and giving effort every single time and when those things happen, the results will change over time."Â
On road matches at Cal Poly and UCSB this weekend: "We're heading into an important point in our season. We've played the top half of the conference over the past few weeks and now we're playing teams a little closer to us in the standings. I think we've played pretty well on the road this season, so this could be a good thing for us."
MATADORS: THIS & THAT
CSUN is nearing the halfway point of its 16-match conference schedule. Matches this week against Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara will wrap up the season series with those two teams before the Matadors have played a single match against either UC Riverside or Cal State Fullerton ... Senior Julie Haake notched her first ace this season, and first since Oct. 2, 2015, when she connected at Long Beach State ... Sophomore Nada Dragovic missed her first match this season when illness caused her to miss the Long Beach State match. Dragovic started 23 of 27 matches as a redshirt freshman in 2015 and had started all 17 matches for the Matadors this season ... This week, CSUN ranks as high as fifth in the Big West (blocks) and as low as ninth (kills) ... Saturday's match at UC Santa Barbara concludes a nearly two-month stretch where the Matadors played 17 of their first 20 matches away from home. Only Cal Poly and UC Davis have played less home matches that CSUN so far in 2016 ... Last Saturday's loss at Long Beach State snapped a streak of three straight road wins for the Matadors dating back to Sept. 17 at Utah Valley.
UP NEXT
Following the conclusion of CSUN's three-match road trip, the Matadors return home next Friday (Oct. 28) to host UC Davis. The CSUN-UCD match opens a stretch where the Matadors play five of their final eight regular season matches at home.
#GoMatadors
