Matadors Take UCSB Asics Invitational Opener in Straight Sets Over Quincy

Friday, January 6

Santa Barbara, Calif.

10:00 a.m.

California State University at Northridge

3-0

Quincy University

0-1

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Quincy	16	19	23	0
CSUN	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

Matadors Take UCSB Asics Invitational Opener in Straight Sets Over Quincy

1/6/2017 1:18:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

SANTA BARBARA, CA – The 14^th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team opened the 2017 UCSB Asics/South Coast Inn-vitational with a straight-set win (25-16, 25-19, 25-23) over the Quincy Hawks Friday morning at The Thunderdome.

The win was the Matadors' third in as many matches this season as sophomore Dimitar Kalchev was virtually unstoppable for the third consecutive match.

Kalchev, who came into the match hitting a robust .688 this season, pounded a match-high 11 kills on 19 swings to hit .526. The sophomore outside hitter also had a season-high four aces, two coming as CSUN pulled out a tight third set.

"These matches are tough because neither team is used to playing this early in the morning," said CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. "I thought we played really well in the first two sets, but Quincy played better in the third and made it close. We had some guys respond, Dimitar hit over .500 and played well at the end of set three."

Redshirt freshman Schylar Lillethorup had a second straight strong match at opposite, adding nine kills on .389 hitting in two sets. Also playing just two sets, senior Jakub Ciesla chipped in six kills on .417 hitting and sophomore Eric Chance set a new career-high with two aces for the Matadors.

Sophomore setter Sam Porter recorded 32 assists as CSUN hit .378 (38-10-74) as a team. Senior libero CJ Suarez also collected a match-high six digs in the win.

CSUN dominated much of the opening two sets as the Matadors hit .440 to Quincy's .000 in taking the first set 25-16. The hitting percentages tightened in the second (.333-.103) but CSUN had plenty of room to take the 25-19 decision.

After a Lillethorup kill gave CSUN a 16-10 lead in the third, the Hawks outscored the Matadors 9-3 over the next 12 points to tie the score at 19-19. After a Kalchev kill, Quincy scored three straight to take their largest lead at 22-20. Another Kalchev kill followed by a pair of aces by the sophomore from Bulgaria and the Matadors reclaimed the lead 23-22.

The Hawks forged a 23-23 tie when a pair of Quincy hitting errors on the ensuing two points gave CSUN the straight-set win.

David Seibum led the Hawks (0-1) with nine kills (.034) while Jerrod Kelso added seven kills (.267) and four digs.

CSUN continues tournament play this evening as the Matadors take on the Fort Wayne Mastodons (0-2) at 7 p.m.

#GoMatadors