CSUN Captures Big West Opener at Cal State Fullerton

Tuesday, September 19

Fullerton, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

7-6

Cal State Fullerton

4-9

CSUN

Cal State Fullerton

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

CSUN Captures Big West Opener at Cal State Fullerton

9/19/2017 7:32:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

FULLERTON, CA - Aeryn Owens had 25 kills and Morgan Salone added 10 as the CSUN Matadors won their 2017 Big West Opener in four sets at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Gym Tuesday night.

CSUN (7-6, 1-0 Big West) won the first set 25-23 before falling by the score of 25-9 in set two. The Matadors bounced back to pull out a 25-22 win in set three and then dominated the Titans to close out the match 25-13 in set four.

Owens notched her team-leading eighth double-double with 25 kills (.276) and 11 digs to pace the Matadors. Salone matched her career-high with 10 kills, hitting .300 on 20 swings. Senior Rachel Diaz added nine kills (.533) and three blocks as CSUN won its Big West opener for the fifth straight season.

"We're still trying to find our rhythm of play and sustain it over a long period of time," said CSUN head coach Jeff Stork. "We're capable of producing a lot of points but we're still a little inconsistent at times. We got the win and we're 1-0 which we're happy about."

Setter Lauren Conati posted 45 assists, five digs and two aces while Kristey Markle had a match and season-high 17 digs to go with two more aces which pushed her team-leading total to 19. Senior Katie Sato and Erin Indermill also posted double figures in digs with 15 and 10 respectively as CSUN had 61 digs as a team.

With CSUN up 8-6 following an Eaglin kill, the hosts rolled off seven straight points to open up a 13-8 lead. But behind the serving of Markle, CSUN answered with a 7-0 run of its own to take a 15-13 lead.

Trailing 23-22, Conati found Owens for a pair of huge swings down the left side before turning to the sophomore again on set point. Instead of blasting a ball, Owens tipped the Titan block and found the floor giving the Matadors the 25-23 set one win.

The Titans took control of set two early, scoring eight of the first 10 points, forcing the Matadors into an early timeout. The lead swelled to as many as 10 (15-5) when Owens' attack went long and CSUN called its second and final timeout.

The set continued to spiral out of control for the Matadors who trailed by as many as 16 (21-5) before falling 25-9.

The Titans continued the momentum into set three, scoring three of the first four points. With the score tied 8-8, CSUN got a pair of kills from Salone followed by a Salone-Eaglin co-block to go up 11-8. But the hosts answered with a 6-0 run to erase the Matador lead and take a 14-11 lead. The two teams traded the lead until 18-18 when a Diaz kill and a Conati ace put CSUN on top 20-18.

But Fullerton answered with a 3-0 run to take a 21-20 lead when an Owens kill snapped the run. Then Conati turned to Salone who drilled three straight kills setting the Matadors up with set point at 24-21. After the Titans saved one set point, Salone put down a Titan overpass and CSUN had a two sets to one lead following the 25-23 win.

The Matadors opened set four on an 8-1 run and never looked back. A Conati kill gave CSUN a nine-point cushion at 14-5 and the Matadors extended the lead to 10 (17-7) following a Titan hitting error. Fullerton could only get within eight points the rest of the way as Hayden Warnock collected her first collegiate kill on match point giving CSUN the 25-13 win.

Summer Kerins and Shimen Fayed each had 10 kills to lead Cal State Fullerton which dropped to 4-9 overall and 0-1 in the Big West.

CSUN returns to The Matadome Saturday to host Long Beach State in its Big West home opener at 7 p.m.

#GoMatadors