California State University at Northridge
Long Beach State
Matadors Travel to Long Beach State for Saturday Rematch
10/22/2019 1:40:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #20 (Big West #8)
CSUN Matadors (8-11, 3-4 Big West) @ Long Beach State (6-13, 3-4 Big West)
Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019Â - 7 p.m. PDT
Walter Pyramid (4,000) - Long Beach, Calif.
Live Stats
Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
Following an unbeaten two-match homestand, the CSUN Women's Volleyball team (8-11, 3-4 Big West) heads to Long Beach Saturday for a rematch with the Beach at Walter Pyramid at 7 p.m. The Matadors picked up their first home wins of the season last week, defeating UC Irvine in five sets on Thursday before sweeping Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Saturday's CSUN-Long Beach State match will be streamed live through Big West.TV. The match will also have live stats (links available at GoMatadors.com). All non-televised home matches this season will streamed live by the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health via Big West TV. For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the women's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING REPORT
Long Beach State (6-13, 3-4 Big West) is 3-3 over its last six matches after splitting home matches against Cal State Fullerton (L, 3-0) and UC Irvine (W, 3-0) last week. Offensively, sophomore OH Kashauna Williams leads the Beach averaging 4.01 kills per set which ranks second in the Big West. Long Beach State is hitting .224 as a team which ranks fourth in the conference.
Series:Â Saturday's match is the 45th meeting all-time between CSUN and Long Beach State with the Beach holding a 32-12 lead in the series. Long Beach State won this season's first meeting (3-1 in Northridge) and has won four straight dating back to CSUN's last win in 2017.
MAKEKAU-WHITTAKER PASSES 1,000 CAREER ASSISTS
With 52 assists in two matches last week, senior setter Kamalu Makekau-Whittaker passed the 1,000 career assists plateau for her CSUN career. Now with 1,016 career assists, Makekau-Whittaker became the 17th setter in CSUN history to reach the career milestone and first since Lauren Conati in 2016. The senior from Hilo, Hawai'i also moved up to seventh in CSUN's Rally Scoring era (2001-present), passing Steffi Miller who had 992 from 2012-14. Makekau-Whittaker needs 159 more assists this season to reach the all-time CSUN top-10. Currently, Sydney Gedryn and Laura Woiemberghe share 10th-place on the career list with 1,175 assists.
BRADFORD NAMED BIG WEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEKÂ Â
Junior libero Makayla Bradford was named Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Week Monday (Oct. 21) after helping CSUN to a perfect 2-0 homestand. The award is the first Defensive Player of the Week honor in Bradford's Matador career and first for a CSUN player since Katie Sato earned three defensive awards during the 2017 season. In wins over UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton last week, Bradford averaged 4.63 digs per set. The junior from Gardena had a match-high 23 digs in CSUN's 3-2 win over UC Irvine on Friday to go with a career-high four aces and three assists. She then added a team-high 14 digs and two assists as the Matadors swept Cal State Fullerton on Saturday. This season, Bradford leads the Matadors in digs with 271 while averaging 3.61 digs per set. She is also third on the team with 15 aces and 53 assists.
WARNOCK PROVIDES A SPARK IN THE MIDDLEÂ Â
Earning her seventh and eighth starts of the season, junior Hayden Warnock provided a boost both offensively and defensively last week. Warnock established a new career-high with 11 kills in CSUN's five-set win over UC Irvine and came back with eight kills in Saturday's 3-0 win over Cal State Fullerton. Now hitting a team-high .357 this season, Warnock would rank third in the conference in hitting percentage if she had enough attempts to qualify. She hit .552 with 19 kills and three errors on 29 swings as CSUN went 2-0 last week, while also adding 12 blocks and a pair of aces on the homestand.
STORK PICKS UP 100TH MATADOME WIN
Saturday's 3-0 sweep over Cal State Fullerton gave head coach Jeff Stork his 100th career home win. Stork now has a Matadome record of 100-85 in 18 seasons. The Matadors' 3-0 victory over CSU Bakersfield on Sept, 6 also marked the 250th win of Stork's coaching career. Including his time as the interim head coach of the Pepperdine men's volleyball team, Stork currently has a career head coaching record of 255-283 (.474). Since taking over the CSUN women's program in 2002, Stork has a record of 233-277 (.457) and a Big West record of 126-155 (.453). Stork's best season at CSUN was 2013 when the Matadors finished 24-7 (9-3), tying for the Big West regular season championship and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
COACHES CORNER
Matador head coach Jeff Stork shares his thoughts each week on CSUN's upcoming matches, his team, and other topics.Â
On the 2-0 homestand: "This is the third full match that we've utilized the 6-2 and I think we've been pretty steady. Saturday was the steadiest match we played against a much-improved Fullerton team so I think the lineup, the roles and familiarity with positioning is becoming much more fluid and we're playing at a higher level."
On Makayla Bradford earning Defensive Player of the Week honors: "Makayla is truly a two-way player and the untold story is her passing ability that sets up our offense. While she's getting a defensive player award we certainly appreciate the contributions she makes to the team offensively with her first and second contact."
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
/// Junior Miranda Poole came off the bench to give the Matador offense a lift against UC Irvine. Poole played in three of the five sets against the Anteaters and contributed a season-high nine kills on 18 attacks with just a single hitting error. Poole wound up hitting .444 and also added one block assist. Â
/// With a team-high 21 aces this season, sophomore Lexi McLeod moved into the top-10 in the Big West this week, averaging 0.28 aces per set. Redshirt freshman Lauryn Anderson, sidelined four of CSUN's last six matches, continues to rank fourth at 0.35 with McLeod sixth..
/// With 24 assists and 13 digs against Cal State Fullerton, Makekau-Whittaker posted her team-leading sixth double-double of the season. The senior setter now has nine career double-doubles, one in front of McLeod's eight.
LOOKING AHEAD
After Saturday's match at Long Beach State, the Matadors remain on the road for a Tuesday match at Cal Poly (Oct. 29). CSUN returns home to host UC Davis and UC Riverside for its penultimate homestand of the season (Oct. 26, 29)
#UniteTheValley
