California State University at Northridge
McKendree
Matadors Open 2020 Season at UCSB Asics Invitational
1/7/2020 3:46:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK - UCSBÂ ASICS INVITATIONAL
MATCH #1
No. 13 CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. McKendree Bearcats (0-0)
Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020Â - 5:30Â p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #2
No. 13 CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. Concordia-Irvine Eagles (1-0)
Friday, Jan. 10, 2020Â - 8:00Â p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #3
No. 13 CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. Benedictine Mesa Redhawks (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 - 3:00 p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
Following a pair of exhibition victories over the University of Guelph last week, CSUN men's volleyball (0-0, 0-0 Big West) officially opens the 2020 season with three matches at the UCSB Asics Invitational at Rob Gym in Santa Barbara. The Matadors, ranked 13th in the NVA/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll, meet the McKendree Bearcats in Thursday's season opener at 5:30 p.m. CSUN then takes on Concordia-Irvine Friday at 8 p.m. before concluding the annual tournament Saturday against Benedictine Mesa at 3 p.m. All matches will be held at Rob Gym on the UCSB campus.
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 RANKED 13THÂ IN AVCAÂ COACHES TOP-15 PRESEASON POLL
In the inaugural national poll of the 2020 season, CSUN was ranked 13th in the NVA/AVCA Div. I-II Coaches Top-15 Preseason Poll released Dec. 5. The Matadors earned 56 points from the nation's coaches coming off a 2019Â season that saw them finish 13-14Â overall and 3-7Â in the Big West.
CSUN has now been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 62Â consecutive weeks and 262Â of the last 288Â weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season.
Hawai'i, last season's national runners-up, received 14 of 16 first-place votes in the preseason poll and are ranked number one heading into the 2020 season. UCLA received one first-place vote and is second followed in the top five by BYU, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara. Lewis is sixth in the preseason poll followed in the top 10 by Stanford, UC Irvine, Pepperdine, and Princeton. Loyola Chicago is 10th followed by USC, the Matadors, Purdue Fort Wayne and Penn State.
SCOUTING REPORTS
McKendree posted its best finish in program history in 2019 with a 13-13 overall record and a 7-7 conference finish. The Bearcats were selected as a host school for the MIVA quarterfinals with their fourth place finish. McKendree defeated Ball State (3-2) to move on and face Lewis in the semifinals where the Bearcats ultimately fell, 3-0 to Lewis which went on to be a 2019 NCAA Tournament semifinalist.
Series: Thursday's match is the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Bearcats.
Concordia received 11 points in the NVA/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll and are just outside the preseason Top-15, The Eagles opened the 2020 season with a 3-1 win over NAIA program, Saint Katherine. As a team, the Eagles hit .354 against the Firebirds, the best percentage in a CUI season opener since 2016.Â
Series: Friday's match is the seventh all-time between the Matadors and Eagles. CSUN leads the all-time series 4-2 and claimed the last meeting between the two teams last January in the same UCSB Asics Invitational.
Benedictine Mesa finished 26-4 overall and a perfect 10-0 in conference in 2019.The Redhawks are the defending NAIA National Champions after sweeping Aquinas College last April.
Series: Saturday's match is the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Redhawks.
THE 2020 UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL FIELD
For the second straight year, the UCSB Asics invitational features three Big West teams (CSUN, Long Beach State, UCSB) taking on three non-conference foes (Benedictine Mesa, Concordia and McKendree). Last season, the Matadors won two of their three matches; defeating No. 12 Concordia (3-1) and Harvard (3-2) before falling to No. 14 Grand Canyon (3-2). The loss to Grand Canyon snapped a streak of 11 straight CSUN wins in the tournament dating back to a loss to Princeton in 2015.
CSUN AT THE UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL
Thursday's opener marks the Matadors' 17th straight appearance in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament. In years past the 50-year old tournament was called the UCSB/Elephant Bar Invitational but was renamed the UCSB Asics Invitational in 2012. 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). All-time, the Matadors are 50-31 (.617) in UC Santa Barbara's tournament.
MATADORS DEFEAT UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH IN EXHIBITION PLAYÂ
CSUN opened the season with a pair of exhibitions against the University of Guelph from Canada. In Thursday's opener, the Matadors topped the Gryphons in four sets (25-23, 28-30, 25-20, 25-20) as junior Steven Rotter led all hitters in the match with 16 kills, hitting .324 on a match-high 37 swings. Rotter also added five digs and three blocks in his CSUN debut. Junior Maciej Ptaszynski also reached double figures with 13 kills (.290) to go with five digs, three blocks and one ace. Sophomore Daniel Wetter added eight kills (.333), three aces and a match-high six blocks. The Matadors then completed the two-match exhibition series, topping the Gryphons 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-18. Rotter led all hitters again with 17 kills, hitting an impressive .400 on 30 swings while also matching teammate Ptaszynski with a match-high four aces.
CAMPBELL OPENS 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. In 2019, he completed his 22nd season and is the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history with 318 career victories.
This past season, the Matadors finished 13-14 before falling to UC Santa Barbara in the opening round of the 2019 Big West Tournament. 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.Â
TRIO OF MATADORS NAMED TO 2019Â ALL-BIG WEST TEAMÂ
On the 2019 Big West Men's Volleyball All-Conference Team, CSUN had three players honored as senior outside hitter Dimitar Kalchev was named to the First Team while freshmen Taylor Ittner and Daniel Wetter were named to the All-Freshman Team. Ittner and Wetter were the second and third Matador freshmen to earn Big West All-Freshman Team accolades after Maciej Ptaszynski was named to the team in 2018.
Ittner finished the regular season with 947 assists while averaging 9.76 assists per set which ranks fourth among conference setters. He also finished his first collegiate season with 155 digs (1.60 dps) along with 47 blocks, 23 kills and 18 aces. He posted a trio of double-doubles which led the Matadors. Wetter finished the regular season with 169 kills while hitting a team-high .408 on 314 attacks. He also led the Matadors in blocks with 79 blocks, averaging 0.81 blocks per set which ranked ninth in the Big West.
Ittner went on to earn Off the Block Freshman All-America Team honors while Kalchev earned honorable mention AVCA All-America recognition.
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
/// A host of Matador players look to move up in the CSUN Rally Scoring Era Top-10 this season. Ittner currently ranks eighth after posting 992 assists in his first season. Ittner opens his second season needing 359 assists to move past Jeff Conover into seventh-place on the Rally Scoring list. Wetter ranks ninth with a career hitting percentage of .402 while fellow sophomore Paul Rzepniewski is 10th at .398.
/// CSUN looks to replace departed senior starters Dimitar Kalchev and Emmett Enriques. Kalchev finished his Matador career as CSUN's all-time leader in service aces while also ranking 10th in career kills. Enriques had a total of 379 digs in his two seasons at CSUN.
/// The Matadors return five starters and eight letterwinners in 2020 while welcoming 10 newcomers to the roster.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following three matches at the UCSB Invitational, the Matadors return home to open the 2020 Matadome season against Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday (Jan. 15). The match against the Mastodons opens a six-match homestand for the Matadors who will also host Ball State (Jan. 17), Menlo (Jan. 24), Cal Lutheran (Jan. 25), USC (Jan. 31) and Princeton (Feb. 1). Â
#UniteTheValley
