California State University at Northridge
UC Santa Barbara
Matadors Host UCSB Tuesday Before Heading to Hawai'i
10/18/2022 12:31:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #21 (BIG WEST MATCH #9)
UC Santa Barbara (11-7, 7-1Â Big West) @ CSUN Matadors (7-13, 2-6Â Big West)
Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022Â - 7:00 p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
Live Stats // ESPN+
MATCH #22 (BIG WEST MATCH #10)
CSUN Matadors (7-13, 2-6Â Big West) @ Hawai'i (10-6, 7-1 Big West)
Friday, Oct. 21, 2022Â - 10:00Â p.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. local time)
SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center - Honolulu, O'ahu
Live Stats // Video
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
After splitting the first two matches of a three-match homestand, the CSUN women's volleyball team (7-13, 2-6 Big West) wraps up the homestand against UC Santa Barbara (11-7, 7-1) Tuesday at 7 p.m. The week continues for the Matadors on Friday in Hawai'i as CSUN faces the top two teams in The Big West, taking on the Rainbow Wahine (10-6, 7-1) at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center at 10 p.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. local time).
The Matadors held off UC Davis in five sets last Friday to pick up its second home victory before falling the next night in four sets to UC Riverside.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. All home matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ (Darren Preston PBP) and feature live stats at GoMatadors.com.
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For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the women's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC Santa Barbara (11-7, 7-1 Big West) swept both UC Riverside and UC Davis this past weekend to remain unbeaten at home (6-0). The Gauchos out-hit the Highlanders .286 to .010 before posting their top hitting percentage of the year (.403) against UC Davis. Tasia Farmer had 13 kills on 18 errorless attacks to hit .722. The Gauchos are the top blocking team in The Big West at 2.60 blocks per set average. Deni Wilson ranks second at 1.22 blocks per set while Nia Correal is fifth at 1.17 b/s.
Series: Tuesday's match is the 54th meeting all-time between CSUN and UC Santa Barbara with the Gauchos holding a 43-10 lead in the series. UCSB claimed both meetings last season and have now won seven straight over the Matadors dating back to CSUN's last win in 2017. The Matadors are 7-17 all-time against UCSB in Northridge.
Hawai'i (10-6, 7-1 Big West) fell for the first time in conference play, 3-1 at Cal Poly on Saturday. The loss drops the Rainbow Wahine into a three-way tie atop the Big West with Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara at all at 7-1. The loss also snapped UH's season-long eight-match win streak that began with their win over USC on Sept. 10. Hawai'i middle blocker Amber Igiede led UH with her 14th-straight double-digit kill match and a team-high five blocks at Cal Poly.
Series: Friday's match is the 29th meeting all-time between CSUN and Hawai'i with the Rainbow Wahine holding a commanding 26-2 lead in the series. CSUN, 0-17 all-time against Hawai'i in O'ahu, last defeated the Rainbow Wahine in 2014 when the Matadors won in straight sets at home. CSUN's other win over Hawai'i came the season before (2013) when the Matadors upset the Rainbow Wahine in a thrilling five-setter (15-10 in set five).
NEVAREZ CLOSING IN ON 1,000 CAREER KILLS
Nicole Nevarez, in her fourth season at CSUN, continues to close in on several career milestones in 2022. With a team-high 224 kills this season, Nevarez is now 15 kills away from becoming the 14th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. She heads into the week having appeared in 104 matches and 392 career sets while posting 985 career kills on 2,978 career attempts to go with 751 career digs, 184 career blocks and 69 career aces. Last week, she moved into the CSUN all-time top-10 in career attacks (10th) and recently moved into the CSUN Rally Scoring era top-10 in a pair of categories, she is currently seventh in attacks and eighth in kills. Her best season offensively was in 2019 when she connected for 285 kills while she set a season-high for digs with 245 in 2021. This season, Nevarez is hitting a season-high .224 on a team-high 664 swings.
BARRON POSTS CONSECUTIVE TRIPLE-DOUBLESÂ
After posting her first career triple-double in CSUN's five-set win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sept. 16, Carisa Barron added back-to-back triple-double efforts last weekend to her impressive sophomore season. Barron, who was named Big West Setter of the Week on Sept. 19 after notching CSUN's first triple-double since 2007, registered 29 assists-16 kills-14 digs while hitting .412 on 34 swings in the Matadors' five-set win over UC Davis on Friday. She then came back with 22 assists, a team-high 19 kills and 10 digs against UC Riverside on Saturday. Barron led all hitters in the match with her career-high 19 kills while hitting an impressive .474 on a career-high 38 attacks. One of CSUN's main attackers of late, Barron was hitting .059 on Sept. 14 but has upped her season hitting percentage to .163 this week.
BIG WEST RANKINGSÂ
The Matadors remained in the top-five in the Big West in both digs and blocks this week. CSUN has 1,156 team digs this season which trails only UC San Diego (1,260) while the Matadors average 14.63 digs per set. Cal State Fullerton is the conference leaders at 15.80 digs per set. With two big blocking efforts in their last three matches (20.0 at Long Beach State, 21.0 vs. UC Davis), the Matadors now have 188 team blocks this season for an average of 2.38 team blocks per set.
MATADOR QUICK SETS
This week's matches against Big West front-runners UC Santa Barbara and Hawai'i mark the end of the first half of the Big West season. At 2-6, the Matadors would need to pick up two wins this week to match last season's 4-6 first-half record for CSUN ... Lauryn Anderson slipped to .337 in hitting percentage this week but remained third among conference hitters ... CSUN is now 4-1 when posting a hitting percentage advantage over its opponent but slipped to 0-5 this season in four-set matches following the 3-1 loss to UCR.
PRICE NAMED CSUN'SÂ DIRECTOR OF WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
John Price was named Director of Women's Volleyball at CSUN in June of 2022. He will oversee both the indoor and beach volleyball programs. Price returned to the CSUN indoor program in 2021 where he served as an assistant on interim head coach Susie Terrusa's staff. Price previously as an assistant coach on Jeff Stork's women's volleyball coaching staff from 2012-2015. He also served one season as the head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball team in 1993, compiling a record of 12-17 as an NCAA Independent.
Price's CSUN resume also includes 12 seasons as the head coach of the nationally-ranked Matador men's volleyball team (1986-1997) where he amassed an overall record of 194-158 (.551) leading CSUN to a 23-10 record and a berth in the 1993 NCAA Championship match where the Matadors fell to UCLA. Price then moved on to CSU Bakersfield women's volleyball and remains the winningest coach in program history. He posted a career record of 232-169 (.579) over 14 seasons, leading the Roadrunners to a 28-4 overall record in his first season. Price was also at the helm of the CSUB program when the school made the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I status. Price's 2008 squad was the first Roadrunner team in any sport to post a winning record (18-15) in the school's Division I era.
LOOKING AHEAD
After concluding their three-match homestand against UC Santa Barbara Tuesday followed by Friday's road match at Hawai'i, the Matadors return home to host UC San Diego (Oct. 28) and UC Irvine (Oct. 29) to open the second half of the Big West season.
#UniteTheValley
