Matadors Split Season-Opening Tri-Dual

Thursday, February 28

Northridge, Calif.

11:00 a.m.

California State University at Northridge

Loyola Marymount

Photo by: Braden Villanueva

Matadors Split Season-Opening Tri-Dual

2/28/2019 5:20:00 PM | Beach Volleyball

LMU-CSUN Box Score // Vanguard-CSUN Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - The CSUN Beach Volleyball team dropped its season opener 5-0 to No. 13 Loyola Marymount before bouncing back to sweep Vanguard in splitting a tri-dual Thursday at the Matador Beach Volleyball Complex.

CSUN-LMU
The tri-dual began with the Lions winning all six matches including the exhibition match at No. 6. which went to Paige Panter and Sylvia Hernandez 21-15, 21-17 over CSUN's Shawnee De Oliveira and Kathryn Zaloom.

Sarah Slattery and Reka Orsi Toth got the Lions on the board first, defeating Daniella Molinari and Seyvion Waggoner in the No. 1 spot, 21-14, 21-17. Megan Rice and Bozeno Culo made it 2-0 LMU after going the distance to defeat Nicole Nevarez and Lexi McLeod, 17-21, 21-17, 15-12. Megan Nash and Emma Doud then clinched the dual win for the Lions at No. 2, sweeping Darbi Honeycutt and Mikaela Maughan, 21-16, 21-13.

LMU then won the final two matches of the second flight as Erin Martin and Veronica Nederend swept Cassidy Rosso and Kailey Klein at No. 5 (21-12, 21-14) before Sara Kovac and Jess Prichard completed the sweep, topping Taylor Brydon and Lauren McMurray 21-13, 21-15 in the No. 4 match.

CSUN-VANGUARD
After LMU swept Vanguard in the middle dual, the Matadors followed suit, posting the 5-0 win. De Oliveira and Zaloom picked up CSUN's inaugural win of the season, 21-10, 21-10 in the No. 6 exhibition spot before Molinari and Waggoner picked up the Matadors' first point with a hard-fought 21-23, 21-15, 15-12 win over Kelli Dowell and Hannah Holder at No. 1.

Brydon and McMurray then got on the board for the first time at No. 3, picking up a quick 21-6, 21-18 victory over Dani Erdelatz and Brooke Wilsman, The second flight of afternoon matches got underway with a dual-clinching CSUN win at No. 5 as Cassidy Rosso and Kailey Klein swept Vanguard's Kayla Darm and Karli Burk, 21-15, 21-8.

Nevarez and McLeod then swept Eliana Johnson and Karly Cantu at No. 4 (22-20, 21-13) before the pair of Honeycutt and Maughan picked up their first collegiate win at No. 2 (21-11, 26-24) to complete the Matador sweep.

COACH NOELLE ROOKE SAID
"I'm really proud of the battle we put in against the 13th-ranked team in the country. LMU is a very disciplined team from top to bottom and I thought we were right there in every set of every match. It was nice to see us respond the way we did against Vanguard. Obviously our goal is always to win but for me right now it's about the growth in our team and our program. We will definitely be tested this weekend in Malibu, we have nowhere to go but up so we're looking forward to the challenge."

UP NEXT
The Matadors (1-1) travel to the coast Saturday for the Zuma Classic which pits CSUN against No. 8 Long Beach State, CSU Bakersfield and No. 3 Pepperdine at Zuma Beach.

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