California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
Cal State Fullerton
Matadors Travel to Orange County for Two Matches
11/7/2019 3:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #24 (Big West #12)
CSUN Matadors (10-13, 5-6Â Big West) @ Cal State Fullerton (11-10, 3-7Â Big West)
Friday, Nov. 8, 2019Â - 7 p.m. PDT
Titan Gym - Fullerton, Calif.
Live Stats (XML)
Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
MATCH #25Â (Big West #13)
CSUN Matadors (10-13, 5-6Â Big West) @ UC Irvine (4-18, 1-9Â Big West)
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019Â - 7 p.m. PDT
Bren Events Center - Irvine, Calif.
Live Stats
Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Women's Volleyball team (10-13, 5-6 Big West) travels to Orange County for road matches against Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine this week. The Matadors and Titans square off Friday at 7 p.m. followed the next night with a 7 p.m. first serve at UCI's Bren Center.
The Matadors are coming off a 2-1 week that opened with a 3-0 loss at Cal Poly before CSUN rebounded with dominating 3-0 sweeps over both UC Davis and UC Riverside at home.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Both matches this week 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 WestÂ
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 THE OPPONENTS
Cal State Fullerton (11-10, 3-7 Big West) is 3-3 over its last six matches after dropping a four-set decision at UC Davis on Tuesday. The Titans, who claimed a 3-1 win at home over UC Irvine just 1-3 on their home court this season. Offensively, Julia Crawford leads Fullerton averaging 3.81 kills per set which ranks fourth in the Big West. As a team, the Titans are hitting .175 as a team which ranks seventh in the conference.Â
Series: Friday's match is the second this season and 51st all-time between the Matadors and Cal State Fullerton with CSUN holding a commanding 39-11 lead in the series. The Matadors won in straight sets inside The Matadome on Oct. 19, their 17th consecutive victory over the Titans.
UC Irvine (4-18, 1-9 Big West) has dropped six straight matches since upsetting Hawai'i in Honolulu on Oct .4. The Anteaters fell in five sets at UC Riverside on Tuesday after dropping a four-set decision at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday. Offensively, Abby Marjama leads UCI averaging 2.80 kills per set. Onye Ofoegbu is hitting a team-high .274 while the 'Eaters are hitting .160 as a team.
Series: Saturday's match is the second this season and 59th all-time between the Matadors and UC Irvine with the series knotted at 29 wins apiece. CSUN won in five sets in this season's first meeting on Oct. 18. The Matadors are 11-17 all-time in Irvine.
MAKEKAU-WHITTAKER PASSES 1,000 CAREER ASSISTS
With 52 assists in home wins over UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton (Oct. 18-19), senior setter Kamalu Makekau-Whittaker passed the 1,000 career assists plateau for her CSUN career. Now with 1,089 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 86 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.
BIG WEST STANDINGS Â
Heading into the homestretch of the 2019 Big West season, the Matadors have moved into a tie for fourth place with UC Davis and Long Beach State at 5-6. CSUN is five back in the win column from conference-leading Hawai'i (10-2) and opens the week four back of UC Santa Barbara (9-2) and Cal Poly (9-2). Cal State Fullerton (3-6) is seventh followed by UC Irvine (1-8) and UC Riverside (1-10). The Matadors are currently three slots ahead of where they were predicted to finish in the preseason conference coaches poll (7th).
STORK PICKS UP 100TH MATADOME WIN
CSUN's 3-0 sweep over Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 19 gave head coach Jeff Stork his 100th career home win. Stork now has a Matadome record of 102-85 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 259-285 (.474). Since taking over the CSUN women's program in 2002, Stork has a record of 237-279 (.457) and a Big West record of 130-157 (.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.Â
COACHES CORNER
Matador head coach Jeff Stork shares his thoughts each week on CSUN's upcoming matches, his team, and other topics.
On upcoming road matches at Fullerton and Irvine: "Both teams are playing good volleyball right now but what I'm most concerned with this week is what we do on our side of the net and how we mentally prepare to play teams that we've beaten already this season."
On the team leadership: "I think this group has a lot of leadership in it. That's part of the reason we don't have captains, everyone's a captain and we expect each player to hold themselves and each other accountable. We can see the end of the season on the horizon but hopefully we can stay focused and in the moment this week and for the rest of the season."
MATADOR QUICK SETS
/// Freshman Taylor Orshoff carried a hot hand in the Matadors' two home wins last week. Orshoff, who ranks third on the Matadors with 152 kills, had 22 kills while hitting .538 against UC Davis and UC Riverside. Orshoff had 11 kills in each match, taking 22 errorless swings against the Highlanders one night after committing just a single error on 17 attacks against the Aggies.Â
/// Senior Morgan Salone, who leads the team in blocking this season, has moved into a tie for fourth in CSUN's Rally Scoring era with 48 career solo blocks. Salone is now just three total blocks from moving into a 10th-place tie with Cieana Stinson who had 221 total blocks from 2012-15. Salone opens this week's play with 218 total blocks, including 48 solo and 170 assists.
/// Junior middle blocker Hayden Warnock moved into the Big West top-10 in blocking this week as she is fifth with a 1.04 blocks per set average. Junior libero Makayla Bradford continues to rank fifth in digs per set at 3.59 while CSUN has two players in three other statistical categories. Seyvion Waggoner (3.51) and Nicole Nevarez (2.87) rank sixth and 10th in kills per set while Lauryn Anderson (0.35) and Lexi McLeod (0.27) rank fourth and 10th in aces per set. Finally, Makekau-Whittaker (8.32) and Hannah Merjil (6.67) rank fifth and ninth in assists per set.
LOOKING AHEAD
After road matches at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine this week, the Matadors return home for their final homestand (Nov. 15-16) against UCSB and Cal Poly.
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