California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
#4 Seed UC San Diego
4/21/2021 11:55:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
2021Â OUTRIGGER BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP:
MATCH #1Â (SEASON MATCHÂ #11)
No. 5 Seed CSUN (2-8, 2-8 Big West) vs. No. 4 Seed UC San Diego (3-12, 3-7 Big West)
Thursday, Apr. 22, 2021Â - 10:05Â p.m. PDT (7:05 p.m. local time)
SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center - Honolulu, O'ahu
Watch
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN men's volleyball team (2-8, 2-8 Big West) earned the No. 5 seed in this week's Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship and will open the tournament Thursday against No. 4 seed UC San Diego (3-12, 3-7 Big West) at 10:05 p.m. PDT. The winner of Thursday's first round match will advance to Friday's Semifinal round where top-seeded Hawai'i awaits.
The other first round match features No. 3 seed Long Beach State taking No. 6 seed UC Irvine which precedes the CSUN/UCSD match at 7:30 p.m. PDT. No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara will meet the winner of the LBSU/UCI match in the first Semifinal match on Friday.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
All matches at the 2021 Outrigger Men's Volleyball Championship at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center will be streamed live by Spectrum Sports via Big West TV. Fans can also follow CSUN Matador men's volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com for related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video.
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 THE OPPONENT
No. 4 seed UC San Diego (3-12, 3-7 Big West) has dropped five straight since taking a pair of matches from the Matadors on Apr. 2-3. The Tritons were swept by Long Beach State in a home-and-home series (Apr. 9-10) before dropping three straight vs. No. 2 UC Santa Barbara (Apr. 14-17). Senior Kyle McCauley leads UCSD averaging 3.60 kills per set which ranks fifth in the Big West. The Tritons are hitting .237 as a team which ranks fifth in the conference, just ahead of CSUN's .227.
Series: Thursday's match is the 89th meeting all-time between the Matadors and UC San Diego with CSUN holding a commanding 78-10 lead in the series dating back to 1977. The Matadors dropped both matches to the Tritons this season, the first time since 1986 that CSUN has lost a season series to UCSD. The Matadors have still won five of the last seven matches and 13 of the last 16 between the two teams. CSUN is 3-0 all-time against the Tritons in neutral site matches.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - APR. 19
The Matadors (2-10) received a season-high 10 points from the nation's coaches this week after splitting a pair of matches against No. 7 Long Beach State. CSUN, which received four points in the Mar. 22 poll and two points in the Mar. 29 poll, was last ranked among the top-15 in the 2020 preseason coaches poll (Jan. 13, 2020) when the Matadors were 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 (15-0) received 15 of 16 first-place votes and 239 points this week and is ranked number one for the eighth straight week. BYU (17-3), which picked up one first-place vote, remains second this week followed in the top-five by UC Santa Barbara (13-4), Lewis (19-2) and Pepperdine (11-5). UCLA (14-5) remains sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Long Beach State (6-4), Penn State (19-3), Grand Canyon (8-10) and Loyola Chicago (15-5). The remainder of this week's top-15 features NJIT (13-5), McKendree (11-6), George Mason (13-6), UC San Diego (3-12) and Ball State (12-8).
CSUN BIG WEST TOURNAMENT NOTES
Thursday's Outrigger Big West Championship opener against UC San Diego marks the Matadors' 20th appearance in a postseason conference tournament since 1990. The No. 5 seed in the most recent Big West Tournament in 2019, CSUN dropped a five-set decision to No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Matadors' most recent win in the conference tournament came over the Gauchos (3-1) in the first round of the 2018 Big West Tournament at the Walter Pyramid.Â
The victory over UCSB in 2019 was CSUN's first postseason victory since defeating BYU in the semifinals of the 2010 MPSF Tournament at Stanford. The Matadors were regular participants in the MPSF Tournament, earning a spot in the postseason each and every season from 2002-2010. In all, CSUN has now qualified for the postseason tournament 20 times since 1990. The Matadors are 8-12 in conference tournament matches under head coach Jeff Campbell. CSUN has reached the conference tournament championship match three times, most recently the MPSF Tournament Championship in 2010.
WETTER, MERCHEN NAMED ALL-BIG WEST
CSUN had two student-athletes named to the 2021 Big West Men's Volleyball All-Conference Team as Daniel Wetter earned first-team honors while Kyle Merchen was named to the All-Freshman Team. Wetter, who led the nation in hitting percentage earlier this season, is currently hitting .422 which ranks third in the Big West and 11th nationally. The redshirt sophomore, who was also a first-team All-Big West selection in 2020 and an All-Freshman Team pick in 2019, is the CSUN leader with 92 kills and 24 blocks this season. He matched his career-high with 15 kills at UC San Diego on Apr. 3 and tied the single-match CSUN record by hitting .929 (13-0-14) in the Matadors' 3-1 win over UC Irvine on Mar. 21.
Merchen had a solid first season for the Matadors after transferring to CSUN from Santa Barbara City College. He ranks third in the Big West in assists per set at 8.84 while leading the Matadors with 327 assists. A solid two-player, Merchen is also tied for the team lead in digs with 53 while averaging 1.43 digs per set. He had a season-high 49 assists at UC San Diego on Apr. 3 and posted 45 assists, five kills and two blocks in CSUN's 3-2 upset win over No. 7 Long Beach State on Apr. 16. Merchen is the fifth Matador freshman to earn Big West All-Freshman Team accolades after Maciej Ptaszynski (2018), Taylor Ittner and Wetter (2019) and Kyle Hobus (2020).
MATADOR NOTES
Senior Maciej Ptaszynski is closing in on several milestones as his CSUN career winds down. Ptaszynski is now within eight kills of 600 for his career and also within eight aces of 100. He is also within 34 digs of 400 career digs ... With 17 aces in 37 sets, Ptaszynski ranks second in the conference, averaging 0.46 aces per set. As a team, CSUN slipped to third in the conference and 11th nationally this week in aces averaging 1.32 per set ... The CSUN middles, Wetter and Cole Chea have been a season-long bright spot for the Matadors in 2021. Wetter, who held the national lead in hitting percentage in 2020 as well as earlier this season, currently ranks third in the Big West and 12th nationally at .422 (92-13-187). Chea, who hit a season-high .667 against No. 1 Hawai'i on Apr. 10, ranks seventh in the conference and 19th nationally, hitting .351 (57-18-111). 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 in 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.
A SEASON OF RANKED OPPONENTS
Last weekend's matches against seventh-ranked Long Beach State marked the ninth and 10th straight matches this season that CSUN's opponent has been ranked in the NVA/AVCA Top-15 National Coaches Poll. Beginning with 12th-ranked UC Irvine on Mar. 20, the Matadors have faced No. 3 UC Santa Barbara, No. 13 UC San Diego, No. 1 Hawai'i and No. 7 Long Beach State in succession. The trend will continue this week when CSUN's first round opponent, UC San Diego is ranked No. 13 in this week's NVA/AVCA Top-15 Poll.
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 10-20 (.333) 10 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.
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 324-333 (.493) 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.
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