California State University at Northridge
Lindenwood
CSUN Heads to Missouri for Two Matches at Lindenwood
2/4/2020 1:39:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #10
CSUN Matadors (2-7) at Lindenwood Lions (5-4)
Friday, Feb. 7, 2020 - 5:00 p.m. PT
Robert E. Hyland Arena - St. Charles, Mo.
Watch
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #11
CSUN Matadors (2-7) at Lindenwood Lions (5-4)
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 - 5:00 p.m. PT
Robert E. Hyland Arena - St. Charles, Mo.
Watch
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN men's volleyball team (2-7) heads to St. Charles, Mo. this week for a quick two-match series with the Lindenwood Lions (5-4). The two teams play Friday and Saturday, with both matches slated for a 5 p.m. PST start (7 p.m. local time). The Matadors, who are making their first-ever trip to Lindenwood, finished up a season-long, six-match road trip with losses to USC (3-2) and No. 13 Princeton (3-0) last week.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.
SCOUTING REPORT
Lindenwood (5-4) has won two straight and three of its last four after defeating Tusculum (3-0) and Urbana (3-1) last week. The Lions, who have played all nine of their matches at home this season, are led by freshman OH A.J. Lewis who averages a team-high 2.79 kills per set. As a team, Lindenwood is hitting .253 through nine matches.
Series: The two matches this weekend will be just the third and fourth meetings all-time between the Matadors and Lindenwood with CSUN holding a 2-0 edge in the series. The two teams met in The Matadome last season with the Matadors winning in straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-15). CSUN also defeated the Lions in its final match of the 2016 UCSB Asics Invitational in Santa Barbara (25-21, 25-23, 25-14). The Matadors have never played a road match at Lindenwood.
WETTER CONTINUES TO LEADÂ NATION IN HITTING
Despite hitting .289 in matches against USC and No. 13 Princeton last week, redshirt sophomore Daniel Wetter continues to hold the national lead in hitting percentage this week. Wetter is now hitting .545 on the season with 95 kills and just 11 errors on 154 swings. The sophomore middle had not hit less than .357 over CSUN's first eight matches this season before connecting at a season-low .100 clip on 10 swings against No. 13 Princeton on Saturday. A career .447 hitter, Wetter would rank third in CSUN's men's volleyball history.
ITTNER PASSES CONOVER IN CAREER ASSISTS
With 70 assists in two matches last week, sophomore setter Taylor Ittner moved past Jeff Conover (2004-05) into seventh-place on CSUN's rally scoring era assists list. Ittner, who now has 1,353 career assists, has a team-high 359 assists this season after posting 992 assists during his freshman season in 2019. Sam Porter (2016-19) is next on the list with 2,711 career assists which ranks sixth in rally scoring and eighth all time.
POND PROVIDES A LIFT IN THE MIDDLE
After making his first two collegiate starts against Menlo and Cal Lutheran (Jan. 24-25), redshirt freshman Greg Pond was back in the starting lineup against No. 13 Princeton on Saturday. Pond responded with a season-high five kills on five swings to hit 1.000 for the third time this season. Pond, a middle blocker from Granada Hills, has 12 kills on 13 error-less attacks to open his Matador career. He also has at least two blocks in each of his last three matches, including a season-high three blocks against Menlo.
MATADORS HIT THE ROAD Â
After completing a season-long, six-match homestand on Saturday, CSUN hits the road this week for its first true road matches of the season. The Matadors played three neutral site matches against McKendree, Concordia and Benedictine Mesa in Santa Barbara to open the season (Jan. 9-11) but will play on an opposing teams' home court for the first time at Lindenwood on Friday. Last season, CSUN finished 3-7 in road contests and were 2-2 on neutral site courts.
CSUN IN THE NATIONAL STATS
As a team, the Matadors continue to rank in the top-10 in the national stats in a pair of categories. This week, CSUN ranks seventh in assists per set (11.75) and ninth in kills per set (12.64). The Matadors are also currently 12th in hitting percentage (.294), 24th in blocks per set (2.04), 26th in aces per set (1.28) and 29th in digs per set (8.26).
Individually, Wetter not only ranks first in hitting but is also 37th in blocks (0.89), 66th in points per set (3.29) and 67th in kills per set (2.64). Sophomore setter Taylor Ittner ranks seventh in assists per set (10.29) and is also 47th in digs per set (1.80). Freshman Kyle Hobus ranks 21st in attacks per set (8.06), 30th in kills per set (3.29), 32nd in points per set (3.90) and 86th in digs per set (1.51). Junior Maciej Ptaszynski is currently 30th in aces per set (0.42), 37th in hitting percentage (.308), 40th in points per set (3.63) and 76th in blocks per set (0.67).
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 320-319 (.501) and is the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history. Having become the program'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 earned double-figure win totals in 20 of his 22 seasons on the bench, posting a career-best 24 wins in 2009.
MATADOR QUICK SETSÂ
/// In just his second collegiate start, freshman Griffin Walters connected for a season-high 15 kills Friday against USC. Walters, who hit a season-high .481 on 27 swings against the Trojans, is now averaging 2.64 kills per set on .250 hitting for the season.
/// Junior Maciej Ptaszynski upped his team-leading aces total to 15 with one ace against USC. Ptaszynski now has 63 career aces and is 17 aces away from the CSUN rally scoring era top-10. Isaac Kneubuhl (2005-08) currently holds down 10th-place with 80 career aces. After hitting .368 against USC and Princeton last week, Ptaszynski has also bumped his season hitting percentage to a career-high .308.
/// Friday's 3-2 loss to USC dropped the Matadors to 0-4 in five-set matches this season. CSUN also fell to McKendree and Concordia in five to open the season before dropping a 15-12 fifth set to Ball State on Jan. 17.
LOOKING AHEAD
After two matches at Lindenwood this week, CSUN returns to The Matadome on Feb. 14 to begin a three-match homestand against UC Merced. The Matadors will also host Vanguard (Feb. 21) and No. 8 UCLA (Feb. 28) during the homestand. CSUN then plays at UCLA on Mar. 5 before opening its third season in the Big West Conference Mar. 13 against top-ranked Hawai'i.
#UniteTheValley
