California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
Pepperdine
No. 12 CSUN Travels to Pepperdine, Hosts Princeton This Week
1/29/2019 4:25:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK
MATCH #10:
No. 12 CSUN Matadors (5-4) @ No. 6 Pepperdine Waves (5-2)
Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019Â - 7:00 p.m. PT
Firestone Fieldhouse - Malibu, Calif.
Live Stats
WCC Sports
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #11:
Princeton Tigers (1-5) @Â No. 12 CSUN Matadors (5-4)
Friday, Feb. 1, 2019Â - 7:00 p.m. PT
The Matadome(2,000) - Northridge, Calif.
Live Stats
Big West TV
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The 12th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (5-4, 0-0 Big West) opens a two-match week Wednesday with a short trip across the Valley to take on sixth-ranked Pepperdine (5-2) before returning home Friday to host Princeton (1-5). Both matches are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first serve.
The Matadors look to snap a three-match skid after falling to No. 5 Loyola-Chicago (3-0) and No. 9 Lewis (3-2) at home last week.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Follow CSUN Matadors volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. All home matches will feature live stats and will be streamed live by the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health via Big West TV. 11Â Matador home matches will feature a webcast with Darren Preston handling the play-by-play. For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the men's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.Â
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
MATADORS RANKED 12TH IN JAN. 28 AVCAÂ TOP-15 COACHES POLL
After falling to No. 5 Loyola-Chicago (3-0) and No. 9 Lewis (3-2) last week, CSUN slipped one spot to 12th in this week's AVCA Div. I Coaches Top-15 Poll released Jan. 28. The Matadors earned 66 points this week, down 14 points from last week and a 32-point drop from the season-high 98 points they received on Jan. 14. CSUN, which has reached as high as No. 10 this season, has now been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 51 consecutive weeks and 251 of the last 277 weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season.
Long Beach State (7-0) received all 16 first place votes this week and are ranked number one for the fifth straight poll. Hawai'i (3-0) remained second this week followed in the top five by BYU (4-0), UC Irvine (6-2) and UCLA (6-2). Pepperdine (5-2) is sixth this week followed in the top 10 by Loyola-Chicago (6-2), Stanford (7-1), UC Santa Barbara (7-3) and Lewis (6-3). Ball State (4-4) is 11th this week followed by the Matadors (5-4),George Mason (6-1), Ohio State (3-3) and USC (5-3)Â rounds out this week's top-15.
SCOUTING REPORTS
Pepperdine: The sixth-ranked Waves (5-2) have dropped two of their last three matches after opening the season 4-0. After splitting a pair of matches against No. 7 Loyola-Chicago (2-3) and No. 8 Lewis (3-1) two weeks ago, Pepperdine fell in four sets at No. 3 UC Irvine last week. Offensively, senior outside hitter David Wieczorek leads the Waves averaging 3.83 kills per set through seven matches. Pepperdine, 2-0 at home this season, is hitting .318 as a team. Head coach David Hunt is in his second season as head coach and has a career record of 20-10.Â
Princeton: The Tigers (1-5) snapped a season-opening five-match losing streak with a 3-1 win over Erskine on Jan. 12. The night before, Princeton fell in straight sets to No. 3 UC Irvine. Junior opposite George Huhmann leads the Tigers averaging 3.25 kills per set on .304 hitting. As a team, Princeton is hitting .236 while averaging 11.05 kills per set. Head coach Sam Shweisky is in his 10th season and sports a career record of 100-125.Â
SERIES STORIESÂ
Wednesday's match is the first of two meetings this season and 82nd all-time between CSUN and Pepperdine with the Waves holding a 60-21 lead in the series. The two teams met every season from 1981 to 2017, the Matadors' last season in the MPSF. CSUN is 7-32 all-time at Firestone Fieldhouse.
Friday's match is just the third all-time between CSUN and Princeton with the series tied at one win apiece. The Matadors and Tigers have met twice at UCSB's Asics Invitational with CSUN winning 3-0 in 2018 and Princeton winning in five sets in 2015.
KALCHEV CLOSING ON CAREER ACES RECORD
With five aces in two matches last week, senior outside hitter Dimitar Kalchev inched closer to taking over as CSUN's career aces leader. Kalchev now has 175 career service aces and trails Eric Vance and second place by six aces and CSUN career leader Eckhard Walter by eight. With a team-high 23 aces this season, he ranks third in the Big West and 10th nationally in aces per set (0.61). With his fifth kill against Ball State on Jan. 19, Kalchev became the 15th player in CSUN history to reach 1,000 career kills. Kalchev, who now has 1,042 kills in his Matador career (sixth in CSUN's Rally Scoring Era), is this first player since Eric Vance in 2009 to reach the career milestone.
CAREER HIGHS ANDÂ SEASON HIGHS VS. LOYOLA, LEWIS Â
Junior Ksawery Tomsia had a career night in Saturday's 3-2 loss to Lewis while several other Matadors posted season highs in the two matches. Tomsia, who opened the match against Lewis with 10 kills on 10 swings, finished the night with 24 kills on 54 swings, both new career highs. Redshirt freshman Paul Rzepniewski connected for six kills on 11 attacks, both season-highs, against Lewis while matching his season-high with three blocks against Lewis. Setter Taylor Ittner, who came in with a season-high 49 assists, eclipsed that with 50 helpers in the five-set loss to the Flyers. Ittner also matched his season-high with eight digs against Lewis.
CSUN SLIPS TO 3-4 AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS IN 2019
With losses to No. 5 Loyola-Chicago and No. 9 Lewis, the Matadors slipped to 3-4 this season against teams ranked in the AVCA Top-15. CSUN opened the season with a 3-1 win over then No. 12 Concordia-Irvine before falling in five sets to then No. 14 Grand Canyon. The Matadors then pulled off their biggest win of the season to date, knocking off No. 2 UCLA in straight sets on Jan. 9. A road win at No. 13 Purdue Fort Wayne preceded successive losses to No. 14 Ball State, Loyola and Lewis. CSUN plays its eighth ranked team in its first 10 matches Wednesday at No. 6 Pepperdine.
CAMPBELL VS. THE MIVA
CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell came into last week's matches with an impressive 29-13 (.690) record against teams from the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Campbell dropped to 29-15 with losses to Loyola-Chicago and Lewis but the CSUN boss still has a .500 or better record four of the eight MIVA teams. All-time, Campbell is 10-1 vs. Quincy, 7-1 vs. Purdue Fort Wayne, 3-3 vs. Ball State and 1-0 vs. Lindenwood. He is now 4-5 all-time vs. Loyola-Chicago, 3-4 vs. Lewis and 1-2 vs. Ohio State. CSUN has never played McKendree, the eighth team in the MIVA.Â
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
• Either Kalchev and Tomsia has been CSUN's kill leader in eight of the teams' nine matches in 2019. Kalchev has been the team leader four times (Concordia, Harvard, IPFW, Ball State) while Tomsia has also led in four matches (Grand Canyon, UCLA, Loyola-Chicago, Lewis). Sophomore Domanik Stratford is the only other CSUN hitter to lead the team in kills when he put down a career-high 10 in the Matadors' 3-0 win over UC Merced. Â
• After winning five of nine matches in the opening month of the season, the Matadors look to close January with six wins as well as snap a three-match skid with a win Wednesday at Pepperdine.
• CSUN slipped to 2-3 in five-set matches with Saturday's loss to Lewis. The Matadors are now 1-1 in three setters and 2-0 in four setters this season. CSUN is also winless in three Saturday matches in 2019.
LOOKING AHEAD
Friday's match against Princeton opens up a season-long, three-match homestand for the Matadors who will also host Cal Lutheran (Feb. 8) and Pepperdine (Feb. 13) on the home stretch. CSUN has another three-match homestand scheduled for Mar. 2-9 when the Matadors host Long Beach State, Saint Francis and Lindenwood.Â
#GoMatadors
