California State University at Northridge
Purdue Fort Wayne
CSUN Opens Home Season vs. No. 10 Purdue Fort Wayne
1/14/2020 12:43:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #4
No. 10 Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons (2-0) vs. CSUN Matadors (1-2)
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
The Matadome (2,000) - Northridge, Calif.
Big West TV
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #5
Ball State Cardinals (2-0) vs. CSUN Matadors (1-2)
Friday, Jan. 17, 2020Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
The Matadome (2,000) - Northridge, Calif.
Big West TV
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN men's volleyball team (1-2) opens the home season as well as a six-match homestand Wednesday against 10th-ranked Purdue Fort Wayne (2-0) in The Matadome at 7 p.m. The homestand continues Friday as the Matadors host Ball State (2-0), also at 7 p.m.
CSUN finished 1-2 at the UCSB Asics Invitational last weekend, falling in five sets to McKendree and Concordia-Irvine before bouncing back with a 3-0 sweep over Benedictine Mesa. After playing three matches on the road at the UCSB last weekend, CSUN will not play another road match until traveling to Lindenwood in Illinois on Feb. 7-8.Â
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Follow CSUN Matadors volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. All regular-season home matches will feature live stats and will be streamed live by the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health via Big West TV with Darren Preston handling the play-by-play. For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the men's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.Â
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
MATADORS RECEIVING VOTES IN AVCA?TOP-15 COACHES WEEK ONE POLL
After being ranked 13th in the NVA/AVCA Div. I Coaches Top-15 Preseason Poll released Dec. 5, CSUN (1-2) slipped out of the top-15 this week. The Matadors received seven points from the nation's coaches after finishing 1-2 at the UCSB Asics Invitational last week. CSUN, which received 56 points in the preseason poll, had been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 62 consecutive weeks and 262 of the last 289 weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season. The last time the Matadors were not ranked in the top-15Â was Mar. 9, 2015.
Hawai'i (5-0), the preseason number one, received 15 of 16 first-place votes this week and are ranked number one for the second straight poll. BYU (4-0) moved up to second this week, followed in the top five by UCLA (3-0), UC Santa Barbara (3-0), Lewis (3-1) and Long Beach State (3-0) which share fifth. UC Irvine (2-1) is seventh this week, followed in the top 10 by Pepperdine (1-0), Stanford (4-1) and Purdue Fort Wayne (2-0). Princeton (2-3) is 10th followed by Loyola Chicago (1-3), George Mason (1-2), Penn State (0-2) and Ohio State (3-0).
SCOUTING REPORTS
Purdue Fort Wayne is ranked 10th in the NVA/AVCA Top-15 poll this week after opening the season with wins over Queens (3-1) and Belmont Abbey (3-0). The Mastodons, who have yet to play a road match in 2020, are led by freshman OPP Jon Diedrich who leads the nation averaging 6.86 kills per set. Diedrich had 48 kills in Purdue Fort Wayne's two wins last week. As a team, the Mastodons are hitting .392.
Series: Wednesday's match is the 13th all-time between the Matadors and Mastodons with CSUN holding an 11-2 lead in the series. The two teams met last season in Fort Wayne with the Matadors pulling off the reverse sweep after dropping the first two sets. CSUN is 2-1 all-time against the Mastodons in The Matadome.
Ball State opened the season with 3-0 wins over Queens and Belmont Abbey and are just outside the top-15 with 12 points in the NVA/AVCA Week One Coaches Poll. The Cardinals are led by senior OH Matt Szews who averages a team-high 3.50 kills per set through two matches. As a team, Ball State is hitting .254.
Series: Friday's match is the 21st all-time between the Matadors and Cardinals with CSUN leading the series 13-7. The two teams met last season in Muncie, Ind. with the Cardinals claiming a five-set win. The Matadors are 3-1 all-time against Ball State in Northridge.
HOBUS NAMED BIG WEST FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Redshirt freshman Kyle Hobus was honored as Big West Freshman of the Week when the conference announced its weekly awards on Monday, Jan. 13. Hobus led the 13th-ranked Matadors to a 1-2 mark at the UCSB Asics Invitational in Santa Barbara. For the week, he tallied 60 kills over 13 sets while averaging a team-high 4.62 kills per set. Hobus hit .291 on a team-high 127 swings and was the lone Matador named to the All-Tournament Team.Â
Hobus was CSUN's leading hitter in the first two matches, pounding 24 kills against McKendree before eclipsing that with 29 kills against Concordia. He added 14 digs against the Eagles for his first collegiate double-double.
CSUN AT THE UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL
The Matadors made their 17th straight appearance at the UCSB Asics Invitational and came away with a losing record for the first time since 2015 and just the fourth time in the last 10 years.
All-time, the Matadors are now 51-33 (.607) in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament. CSUN has now played in the tournament 21 times since 1996. The Matadors did not participate in either 2001 or 2002. CSUN won its first-ever tournament championship in 2009 after upsetting No. 2 UCLA (3-1) and defeating No. 14 UCSB (3-1) and No. 8 Stanford (3-1). The Matadors then won their second straight crown in 2010 topping UCSB (3-1), Cal Baptist (3-1) and BYU (3-1).
MATADOR DEBUTSÂ
In addition to Hobus, a quartet of CSUN players also made their debut at the UCSB Asics Invitational. Junior Steven Rotter, who also redshirted in 2019, started all three matches and averaged 2.45 kills per set on .188 hitting. Rotter was also CSUN's second-leading server with three aces, one behind Maciej Ptaszynski's four. True freshman Johnny Anselmo started all three matches at libero and posted 19 digs (1.46 dps) and seven assists in his first collegiate action. Junior Cole Chea and sophomore Luke Krzmarzick also made his Matador debut in the tournament.
CSUN IN THE NATIONAL STATS
As a team, the Matadors rank in the top-five in the national stats in four different categories. CSUN ranks as high as third in digs per set, averaging 10.69 as a team. The Matadors are fourth in assists per set (12.31), kills per set (13.23) and team attacks per set (29.08). Individually, sophomore Daniel Wetter ranks third in hitting (.531), Hobus ranks fourth in kills per set (4.62) and sixth in points per set (5.00) and Taylor Ittner ranks fifth in the assists per set (10.77).
CAMPBELL IN HIS 23RD SEASON AS HEAD COACH
In terms of wins and losses, Jeff Campbell has been the most successful coach at CSUN over the past 17 years. Campbell has posted 267 wins (nearly 16 wins per season) since the 2003 season which is quite an accomplishment considering the Matadors have annually played in the toughest men's volleyball conference in the country. He has a career record of 319-314 and is the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history. Having become CSUN men's volleyball's all-time winningest coach during the 2010 season, Campbell reached the 150, 200, 225 and 250 career milestone wins over the last 10 seasons. Currently, the second-longest tenured head coach at CSUN (men's golf coach Jim Bracken is in his 32nd season) Campbell has posted double figure win totals in 20 of his 22 seasons on the bench, posting a career-best 24 wins in 2009.
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
/// Purdue Fort Wayne will be the first ranked team CSUN faces this season. Concordia-Irvine was listed among schools receiving votes last week as is Ball State this week. Last season, the Matadors finished 4-14 against teams ranked in the AVCA Top-15.
/// Wednesday's match is the first of 16 regular season home matches for the Matadors. CSUN posted an 8-5 record on its home floor last season and is now 323-215 (.600) all-time in home matches dating back to 1977. The Matadors won a school record 14 home matches under Campbell in 2009.Â
/// CSUN dropped to 26-17 all-time in season openers with Thursday's 3-2 loss to McKendree. The Matadors bring a 30-12 record in home openers into Wednesday's match against Purdue Fort Wayne.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following matches against Purdue Fort Wayne and Ball State this week, the Matadors continue the homestand against Menlo (Jan. 24) and Cal Lutheran (Jan. 25) next week before wrapping up the homestand against USC (Jan. 31) and Princeton (Feb. 1). CSUN then returns to The Matadome on Feb. 14 to host UC Merced.Â
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