California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
UC San Diego
CSUN Takes on No. 13 UCSD in Home-and-Home Series
3/31/2021 9:24:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #5Â (BIG WEST #5)
No. 13 UC San Diego (1-7, 1-3 Big West) at CSUN Matadors (1-3, 1-3 Big West)
Friday, Apr. 2, 2021Â -Â 7Â p.m.
The Matadome - Northridge, Calif.
Watch
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #6Â (BIG WEST #6)
CSUN Matadors (1-3, 1-3 Big West) at No. 13 UC San Diego (1-7, 1-3 Big West)
Saturday, Apr. 3, 2021 - 7 p.m.
RIMAC Arena - La Jolla, Calif.
Watch
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN men's volleyball team (1-3, 1-3 Big West), receiving votes in the AVCA Top-15 poll, continues Big West Conference play this week, taking on 13th-ranked UC San Diego (1-7, 1-3 Big West) in a home-and-home series beginning Friday in Northridge. The Matadors meet the Tritons in The Matadome Friday at 7 p.m. before traveling to La Jolla for a second 7 p.m. match Saturday at RIMAC Arena.
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.Â
All CSUN athletics events on campus this Spring will be held without spectators. Our campus remains closed to all but essential personnel.
CSUN Athletics understands and recognizes the disappointment felt by fans, particularly the families of our student-athletes and coaches, who are unable to show their support in person and appreciates everyone's effort in creating the safest possible environment for student-athletes, coaches and team staff. CSUN thanks everyone for their understanding, cooperation and continued support of CSUN Athletics and our student-athletes, coaches and staff.
SCOUTING UC SAN DIEGO
No. 13 UC San Diego (1-7, 1-3 Big West) dropped 3-1 and 3-0 decisions at top-ranked Hawai'i last weekend which followed its lone win of the season, 3-2 over UC Irvine on Mar. 12. The Tritons, 1-2 at home and 0-5 on the road, are led by senior outside hitter Kyle McCauley who ranks fifth in the Big West averaging 3.63 kills per set. As a team, the Tritons are hitting .221 through eight matches which ranks sixth in the conference just behind CSUN's .224.
Series: The two matches this week mark the 87th and 88th meetings all-time between the Matadors and UC San Diego with CSUN holding a commanding 78-8 lead in the series dating back to 1977. The two teams, who did not meet last season, had played at least one match every season since 1992. The Matadors have won five straight, nine of the last 10 and 53 of the last 55 matches in the series dating to 1988. CSUN is 26-3 all-time against the Tritons in Northridge and 39-5 all-time in La Jolla.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - MAR. 29
The Matadors (1-3) received two points from the nation's coaches this week after dropping a pair of matches to No. 3 UC Santa Barbara. CSUN, which received four points in the Mar. 22 poll, was last among the top-15 in the 2020 preseason coaches poll (Jan. 13, 2020) when the Matadors were ranked 13th. Prior to that, CSUN 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.
Hawai'i (9-0) received 15 of 16 first-place votes and 239 points this week and is ranked number one for the fifth straight week. BYU (14-2), which picked up one first-place vote, remains second this week followed in the top-five by UC Santa Barbara (7-4), Pepperdine (11-5) and Lewis (15-2). UCLA (11-4) remains sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Long Beach State (3-1), Penn State (16-2), Grand Canyon (4-8) and Loyola Chicago (13-3). The remainder of this week's top-15 is NJIT (11-5), McKendree (9-4), UC San Diego (1-7), UC Irvine (2-8), and George Mason (12-5).
PTASZYNSKI LEADS BIG WEST IN ACES
With eight aces in 14 sets this season, senior Maciej Ptaszynski continues to lead the Big West in aces per set. Ptaszynski, who averaged a conference-leading 0.50 aces per set in 15 matches last season, is averaging 0.57 aces per set through four matches. Ptaszynski matched his career-high with four aces in CSUN's 3-1 win over UCI on Mar. 21 and added two in the 2021 season opener in Irvine. He then had single aces in both matches against UC Santa Barbara last weekend. With 83 career aces, the senior from Gdansk, Poland moved past Nils Nielsen (82) into ninth place on the CSUN rally scoring era career aces list and now trails Axel Hager by seven aces for 10th-place on the Matador all-time list. Ptaszynski also has 537 kills, 333 digs in his Matador career.
WETTER RANKS SIXTH NATIONALLY IN HITTING PCT.
After holding the national lead in hitting percentage last week, redshirt sophomore Daniel Wetter slipped to sixth in the NCAA and third in the Big West this week at .483 (32-4-58). Luke Visgitis of Mount Olive took over as the national leader at .524 while Patrick Gasman of Hawaii leads the conference at .509. Wetter, the Big West Player of the Week on Mar. 22, hit a combined .667 in CSUN's two-match split with No. 12 UC Irvine (Mar. 20-21). In the process, Wetter matched the CSUN program record for a single match by hitting .929 with 13 kills in 14 errorless attacks the Matadors' 3-1 win over the Anteaters. He is tied with Dimitar Kalchev (2017), Jared Moore (2012) and Kevin McKniff (2010) who also hit .929 as a Matador. Wetter also added a pair digs along with one ace and one block in the win.
MORE CSUN DEBUTS
After Kyle Merchen made his CSUN debut in the season-opening series against UC Irvine, another freshman Jano Tello made his Matador debut in the UC Santa Barbara series. Tello, who redshirted the 2020 season, came off the bench in the final set in Friday's opener and recorded his first two collegiate kills. He then played in two sets in Saturday's finale at Rob Gym and connected for five kills on 21 attacks (.048) to go with his first two collegiate blocks.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST
2021 marks CSUN's fourth season of men's volleyball as a member of the Big West Conference. The Matadors are a combined 9-15 (.409) four matches into their fourth Big West season. CSUNÂ finished 5-5 in 2018 and 3-7 in 2019 before the 2020 conference season was not contested. The Matadors reached the semifinals of the Big West Tournament in 2018 in Long Beach before falling in the 2019 quarterfinals in Hawai'i. Prior to 2018, CSUN played 25 seasons as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) from 1993-2017 and 16 seasons in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (WIVA) from 1977-92.
MATADOR NOTES
In addition to holding the Big West team lead in aces per set (1.71), the Matadors rank third nationally behind Daemen (2.57) and Penn State (1.83) ... CSUN hit a season-high .393 in its 3-1 win over UC Irvine but has not hit higher than .179 in any of its other three matches.
CAMPBELL IN HIS 24TH 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 323-326 (.498) and is the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history.
Campbell become the program's all-time winningest coach during the 2010 season, reaching the 150, 200, 225 and 250 career win milestones over the last 10 seasons. Currently, the second-longest tenured head coach at CSUN (men's golf coach Jim Bracken is in his 35th 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.
LOOKING AHEAD
After this week's home-and-home series with No. 13 UC San Diego, the Matadors welcome top-ranked Hawai'i to The Matadome for a pair of matches Friday and Saturday, Apr. 9-10. CSUN then caps the brief 2021 regular season with a home-and-home series against No. 7 Long Beach State (Apr. 16-17).
#UniteTheValley
