California State University at Northridge
9-5, 2-5
UC Irvine
9-5, 6-4
UC Irvine Holds Off CSUN's Upset Bid
2/11/2017 10:22:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
IRVINE, CA - The 13th-ranked CSUN Matadors pushed No. 7 UC Irvine to the limit Saturday before falling in five sets in an MPSF match at the Bren Center.
The loss drops CSUN to 9-5 overall and 2-5 in conference while the Anteaters improve to 9-5 and 6-4.
After winning the first set 25-23 behind .474 hitting, the Matadors struggled offensively over the next two sets, falling by the scores of 25-21 and 25-23. CSUN rebounded to hit .450 to handily win the fourth set 25-19 but was out-hit .692 to .000 in dropping the decisive fifth set 15-9.
"We played really well tonight, it's just unfortunate we didn't play as well as we could have in set five," said CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. "I was happy with our effort and mentally we were ready to play at a high level which is what you have to do every night in this league. UC Irvine is a really good team and I felt like we took some positive steps and had some opportunities to win the match."
Junior Arvis Greene put down a team-high 17 kills while sophomore Dimitar Kalchev added 15 as the two combined to hit .297 on 64 attacks. Senior Jakub Ciesla added eight kills while matching his career-high three aces. Junior Josiah Byers chipped in seven kills on eight swings to hit .750.
The host Anteaters, who out-blocked CSUN 15.5 to 5.5, helped the Matadors by committing 28 service errors. CSUN did have seven aces to six for UCI.
A Michael Saeta ace gave UCI an 11-8 lead in the first set before CSUN battled back to tie the game at 14-14 on a Parker Maki ace. The teams traded sideouts until the Matadors used a Kalchev followed by a UCI attack error to take a 23-21 lead. Each team scored twice over the final four points with kills from Greene and Ciesla sending CSUN to the 25-23 win.
The hosts opened up a 14-11 lead in set two and still led by three at 19-16. A Byers ace pulled the Matadors within two at 22-20 but CSUN could get no closer as UCI took the set 25-21.
The Matadors bolted out to an 8-4 lead in the third set before the Anteaters went on a 6-2 run to knot the score at 10-10. After the two teams forged a 19-19 tie, a UCI hitting error followed by a Ciesla solo block put CSUN up 21-19. A kill by Tamir Hershko and another UCI block tied the set back up at 21-21 before the hosts outscored the Matadors 4-2 down the stretch to take the 25-23 win.
A slim 6-5 CSUN lead in set four swelled to 17-10 as the Matadors put together an 11-5 run. The Anteaters would get within four on a few occasions down the stretch but CSUN hung on for the 25-19 win forcing a fifth and deciding set.
The Anteaters opened the fifth set with a 4-1 lead which included back-to-back blocks. Consecutive UCI errors helped CSUN creep to 8-6, but Hodges rolled a kill softly in the middle of the court to stop the momentum. A flying kill from the backrow by Hershko and two Matador errors, the last a block on match point gave UCI the set 15-9.
CSUN continues its four-match road trip next week as the Matadors travel to UCLA on Wednesday and UC Santa Barbara on Friday.#GoMatadors
