Matadors Hit Season-High .306, Sweep Morgan State

PORTLAND, Ore. - Seyvion Waggoner and Nicole Nevarez combined for 24 kills and the CSUN Matadors hit a season-high .306 in a 3-0 sweep over Morgan State Friday at the Les Schwab Rose City Showdown at the Viking Pavilion.

With the 25-20, 25-19, 25-16 sweep, the Matadors improve to 2-6 on the season while Morgan State drops to 5-4.

KEY STATISTICS
• Waggoner, who hit a season-high .458 on 24 swings, led all players in the match with 13 kills. Nevarez added 11 kills (.259), eight digs, two blocks and one ace.
• Freshman Taylor Orshoff made her first start at opposite and posted nine kills, hitting .421 on 19 swings after hitting .545 in her collegiate debut earlier in the day.
• Sophomore setter Hannah Merjil posted her second double-double of the season and sixth of her career with 34 assists and a team-high 12 digs. Merjil also added three kills while leading the Matador hitters to a season-high .306 (45-12-108) hitting clip.
• Lexi McLeod matched Merjil with 12 digs while libero Makayla Bradford posted eight digs, three aces and a season-high six assists.
• Zoe McBride led the Bears with 12 kills (.209) and nine digs as Morgan State hit .138 (32-17-109) as a team.

COACH JEFF STORK SAID
"Our offense was much more in sync and the distribution was better in this match. Defensively, our blockers were able to get more touches on the ball which helped. Our hitting was good and our sideout percentage was super high. It was a good feeling to get our second win and now we'll turn our attention to Portland State tomorrow."

SET 1
Outside of an early 2-1 Bears lead, the Matadors held the advantage virtually the entire opening set. A kill by Nevarez opened up a 9-4 CSUN lead that was quickly erased by a 5-0 Morgan State run. The score would be tied three more times, the last at 14-14 when the Matadors outscored the Bears 7-2 over the next nine points to take a 21-16 lead. The CSUN lead never dipped below four points as another Nevarez kill on the Matadors' second swing at set point sent CSUN to the 25-20 win.

SET 2
The Bears held the lead for the first 24 points of the set, leading by as many as three points (9-6). The Matadors took their first lead at 13-12 following a Waggoner kill before the teams again played to a 14-14 tie. From that point on, CSUN took control as a 3-0 run forced a Bears timeout. The Matadors then pushed the lead to 21-16 on a Morgan State hitting error and CSUN closed the set on a 3-0 run to win by a six-point margin (25-19).

SET 3
With the score knotted at 3-3 in the early stages, McLeod served three straight CSUN points to force a Bears timeout. The Matador lead remained three at 8-5 when a Bradford ace started a 3-0 CSUN run which gave the Matadors a comfortable 11-5 lead. The lead swelled to as many as seven (14-7) following a Morgan State hitting error and remained seven at 21-14 when the Bears called their final timeout. CSUN then claimed four of the final six points to seal the 25-16 win and the 3-0 sweep.

UP NEXT
The Matadors conclude the Les Schwab Rose City Showdown Saturday afternoon as CSUN takes on the host Portland State Vikings at 1 p.m.

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Team Stats

Seyvion Waggoner

Nicole Nevarez

Taylor Orshoff

Lauryn Anderson

Players Mentioned

Makayla Bradford

Lexi McLeod

Hannah Merjil

Nicole Nevarez

Taylor Orshoff

Seyvion Waggoner