California State University at Northridge
Grand Canyon
CSUN Travels to Phoenix for Grand Canyon Classic
9/18/2019 9:52:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK - GRAND CANYON CLASSIC
MATCH #1Â (Season Match #10)
CSUN Matadors (3-6) at Grand Canyon Lopes (8-1)
Friday, Sept. 20, 2019Â - 7 p.m. PDT
Antelope Gymnasium - Phoenix, Ariz.
Live Stats
Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
MATCH #2 (Season Match #11)
CSUN Matadors (3-6) vs. Omaha Mavericks (6-5)
Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019Â - 10 a.m. PDT
Antelope Gymnasium - Phoenix, Ariz.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
MATCH #3Â (Season Match #12)
CSUN Matadors (3-6) vs. Idaho Vandals (3-6)
Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019Â - 4 p.m. PDT
Antelope Gymnasium - Phoenix, Ariz.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
After winning two of three matches in Portland last weekend, the CSUN Women's Volleyball team (3-6, 0-0 Big West) heads to Phoenix, Ariz. for its final tournament of the season, the Grand Canyon Classic. In their final non-conference matches of the season, the Matadors will take on the host Lopes, Omaha and Idaho over the two-day tournament. All CSUN matches will be held inside the Antelope Gymnasium on the GCU campus.
After dropping its opener to Nevada last weekend at the Les Schwab Rose City Showdown, CSUN swept Morgan State before topping Portland State in five sets.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
All three CSUN tournament matches at this week's Grand Canyon Classic will have live stats while Friday's Grand Canyon match will be streamed live. 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 GRAND CANYON CLASSIC FIELD
Grand Canyon (8-1) won all three matches of its own GCU Invitational last weekend, defeating Eastern Washington (3-0), UC Riverside (3-1) and San Diego State (3-0. Junior OH Yeny Murillo averages a team-high 3.06 kps while Melody Horton adds 2.53 kps. The Lopes are hitting .264 as a team through nine matches.
Series: Friday's match is the first-ever meeting between CSUN and Grand Canyon.
Omaha (6-5) dropped two of three matches at Creighton's Bluejay Invitational before closing the weekend with a five-set loss at home to High Point on Sunday. The Mavericks lone win over the weekend came in straight sets over Drake. Junior OH Isabella Sade leads Omaha averaging a team-high 3.85 kps for the Mavericks who are hitting .183 as a team.
Series: Saturday's match is the eighth-ever meeting between CSUN and Omaha and first since 1989 when the Matadors won their seventh straight.
Idaho (3-6) finished 1-2 at the UNLV Invite last weekend; defeating UNLV (3-2) before falling to Pacific (3-2) and Texas Tech (3-0). Kennedy Warren led the Vandals with 12 kills on .476 hitting against Texas Tech.
Series:Â Saturday's match is the 17th all-time between the Matadors and Idaho with the Matadors holding a 9-7 lead in the series. The former Big West Conference rivals met in Northridge last season with the Vandals taking a five-set win in The Matadome.
CSUN ADDS ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
The Matadors added another pair of all-tournament honors last week as freshman Taylor Orshoff and senior Morgan Salone were named to the six-player Les Schwab Rose City Showdown all-tournament team. Salone, who averaged 2.00 kps while hitting nearly .300, added to the all-tournament honors she received at Northern Arizona's Lumberjack Classic and the CSUN/Pepperdine Challenge in 2018. The accolades are the first in Orshoff's young career as she averaged 2.73 kps on .268 hitting in Portland.
RECORD DIGS IN PORTLANDÂ
Sophomore Nicole Nevarez and junior Makayla Bradford each reached 30 digs in the Matadors' 3-2 win at Portland State on Saturday. For Nevarez, her 31 digs shattered her previous career-high of eight digs while Bradford established a season-high with 30. As a team, five players reached double figures as CSUN scooped up a rally scoring era record 114 digs in the five-set win. The previous team-high in rally scoring was 95 digs against Rhode Island in 2016 and against Cal State Fullerton in 2010.
STORK PICKS UP 250TH CAREER WIN
CSUN's 3-0 victory over CSU Bakersfield on Sept, 6 marked the 250th win of Jeff 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 250-277 (.474). Since taking over the CSUN women's program in 2002, Stork has a record of 228-271 (.457) and a Big West record of 125-151 (.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 Portland State Invitational: "We finished 2-1 and two of the matches were great matches for us. I was happy with the way we scored and sided-out against Morgan State, we dictated play from start to finish. The win over Portland State was a gutsy win even though we didn't play particularly well. Taylor (Orshoff) stepped up in a big way, we've seen some of this in practice. She has a big upside and was outstanding as an attacker. She also did a good job in getting touches with her blocking, we were able to control the ball."
On the upcoming GCU Invitational: "I've been talking to the team about the process of getting better. That doesn't always have to do with the outcome, it has to do with the process of working on things that they're trying to get better at. If they can keep that focus, they will get better. Heading into this weekend, we need our hitters hitting a more broader range of shots and be comfortable doing that. We're doing that in practice and obviously we hope to come away with three wins in Arizona this weekend."Â
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
///Â In addition to setting a CSUN rally scoring era record in digs against Portland State, the Matadors also set another record with 224 total attempts. CSUN's previous high came at Cal State Fullerton in November of 2015 when the Matadors took 197 swings against the Titans.
/// CSUN has an opportunity to cap the pre-conference portion of the schedule with a .500 record. The Matadors finished the 2017 pre-conference schedule at 6-6 which was their best since posting a 9-3 record in 12 non-conference matches in 2014. The Matadors finished 4-8 in 12 non-conference matches in both 2016 and 2018.
 /// Senior Kamalu Makekau-Whittaker and sophomore Hannah Merjil have split time at setter for the Matadors this season. Makekau-Whittaker has started five matches and CSUN is 1-4. Merjil has started four times and the Matadors are 2-2. Makekau-Whittaker ranks second in the Big West in assists at 10.32 per set while Merjil is fifth at 9.23 per set.
 /// With 432 kills through the first 34 sets of the season, CSUN has the exact same kill total as its opponents. At .202, the Matadors are hitting 24 percentage points lower than their first nine opponents (.226).
LOOKING AHEAD
Following this week's Grand Canyon Classic, CSUN will open Big West Conference play at UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday (Sept. 24) before hosting Hawai'i in its 2019 home opener on Saturday (Sept. 28).
#UniteTheValley
