Hawai'i Defeats Matadors in Straight Sets

Saturday, March 12

Northridge, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

12-9, 5-9MPSF

Hawai'i

12-9, 7-9MPSF

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Hawai'i	25	27	25	3
CSUN	21	25	16	0

Photo by: Laura Pierson

Hawai'i Defeats Matadors in Straight Sets

3/12/2016 9:38:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, CA - The CSUN Matadors fell for the second straight night to No. 8 Hawai'i as the visiting Rainbow Warriors swept the No. 11 Matadors, 25-21, 27-25, 25-16 in MPSF action Saturday at The Matadome.

CSUN (12-9, 5-9 MPSF) came into the two-match set with Hawai'i leading the Warriors by one game but after two losses, the Matadors slip into eighth place in the MPSF by one game.

After being out-blocked by the margin of 12-2 on Friday, CSUN posted an 11-6 advantage at the net on Saturday but the Matador offense deserted them. One night after hitting .318, CSUN hit just .188 (29-14-80), it's lowest hitting clip at home since Feb. 6 against Stanford.

"It was definitely an off night for us tonight," said CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. "Our offense was nowhere near where it was last night. We made some blocking adjustments which paid off, but we didn't pass very well and our setting wasn't where it needs to be."

Junior Jakub Ciesla had a match-high 12 kills on .375 hitting but no other Matador hit better than .200. Freshman Dimitar Kalchev added eight kills (.190) and four blocks and also notched his 40th and 41st aces of the season. Josiah Byers was limited to three kills (.000) but did have a match-high six blocks.

The Matadors were out-hit .346 to .069 and had just eight kills in dropping the opening set 25-21. CSUN was within 9-7 in set two when the visitors engineered a 10-4 run to extend the lead to 19-11. A kill by Kalchev then propelled the Matadors on a 12-4 run that eventually evened the score at 23-23. Justin Toth's ace gave CSUN set point at 24-23 when his ensuing serve caught the net. Kalchev then put down a kill giving the Matadors another set point but Kupono Fey's kill sent Hawai'i on a set clinching 3-0 run.

The final set was all Rainbow Warriors as they hit .385 to CSUN's .174.

Sinisa Zarkovic and Stijn van Tilberg each had 11 kills to lead Hawai'i which improved to 12-9 overall and 7-9 in conference play.

CSUN plays a home and home with top-ranked Long Beach State next week as the Matadors travel to Long Beach on Friday before hosting the 49ers on Saturday.

#GoMatadors