Photo by: Steve Fitzgerald
Matadors Open Fall Exhibition Season With Three Wins at Long Beach State
10/26/2022 9:27:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - The CSUN men's volleyball team opened the 2022 fall exhibition schedule on Saturday (Oct. 22) at Long Beach State.
The Matadors played four matches at the Walter Pyramid with CSUN coming away with a 3-1 record. CSUN opened with a 30-28, 25-21 win over Concordia before topping Vanguard in three sets. The Matadors then topped UC San Diego in straight sets (25-17, 25-19) before falling to the Beach in their final match.
Inaki Bustamante led CSUN in the opener against Concordia with eight kills on .400 hitting on 15 swings. Lorenzo Bertozzi also had eight kills while hitting .375. First-year freshmen Malcolm King and Jalen Phillips each hit well in his Matador debut.
Against Vanguard, redshirt freshman Cody Bowker had eight kills while hitting over ,300 as CSUN won the final two sets after dropping the opening set 25-23.Â
The Matadors turned to their returning players in the win over UC San Diego as Kyle Hobus put down a team-high 10 kills on 18 attacks to hit .333. Griffin Walters and Nathan Merren each added four kills with Merren hitting .500 on eight errorless swings.
CSUN wrapped up Saturday's play against host Long Beach State with Hobus and Walters combining for 14 kills as the Matadors hit .320 as a team in winning the second set against the Beach.Â
"Having the ability to play in that type of tournament, with that level competition in the fall was so good for our guys," said CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. "After a long summer and then having only two weeks of practice, it was nice to get out and just compete. We played some really good teams and competed really well and improved a lot. We had quite a few of our freshmen play and top-to-bottom they exceeded all of our expectations. We have a lot of video to look at and highlight the positives and also make some adjustments that we can take into this weekend at USC."
CSUN continues the fall schedule this Saturday (Oct. 29), heading to Los Angeles to compete at USC's fall tournament at the Galen Center Pavilion. Matches are best of three sets, with the first two sets to 25 points and the third set to 15 points (no cap). If a match is decided after 2 sets, teams may elect to play a non-counting third set.
"We don't usually know how other teams are going to line up in terms of A and B teams, but we'll definitely have two different teams at USC this weekend," said Campbell. "Everyone is going to play three matches we're going to see a lot of guys play a lot of volleyball which is awesome for us."
The Matadors open an action packed Saturday at 8 a.m., taking on the USC "Gold" team and The Master's in a pair of split squad matches. CSUN then takes on Stanford at 11 a.m., UC San Diego at 12:30 p.m., Saint Katherine at 2 p.m. and UC Irvine at 3:30 p.m.Â
#UniteTheValley
The Matadors played four matches at the Walter Pyramid with CSUN coming away with a 3-1 record. CSUN opened with a 30-28, 25-21 win over Concordia before topping Vanguard in three sets. The Matadors then topped UC San Diego in straight sets (25-17, 25-19) before falling to the Beach in their final match.
Inaki Bustamante led CSUN in the opener against Concordia with eight kills on .400 hitting on 15 swings. Lorenzo Bertozzi also had eight kills while hitting .375. First-year freshmen Malcolm King and Jalen Phillips each hit well in his Matador debut.
Against Vanguard, redshirt freshman Cody Bowker had eight kills while hitting over ,300 as CSUN won the final two sets after dropping the opening set 25-23.Â
The Matadors turned to their returning players in the win over UC San Diego as Kyle Hobus put down a team-high 10 kills on 18 attacks to hit .333. Griffin Walters and Nathan Merren each added four kills with Merren hitting .500 on eight errorless swings.
CSUN wrapped up Saturday's play against host Long Beach State with Hobus and Walters combining for 14 kills as the Matadors hit .320 as a team in winning the second set against the Beach.Â
"Having the ability to play in that type of tournament, with that level competition in the fall was so good for our guys," said CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. "After a long summer and then having only two weeks of practice, it was nice to get out and just compete. We played some really good teams and competed really well and improved a lot. We had quite a few of our freshmen play and top-to-bottom they exceeded all of our expectations. We have a lot of video to look at and highlight the positives and also make some adjustments that we can take into this weekend at USC."
CSUN continues the fall schedule this Saturday (Oct. 29), heading to Los Angeles to compete at USC's fall tournament at the Galen Center Pavilion. Matches are best of three sets, with the first two sets to 25 points and the third set to 15 points (no cap). If a match is decided after 2 sets, teams may elect to play a non-counting third set.
"We don't usually know how other teams are going to line up in terms of A and B teams, but we'll definitely have two different teams at USC this weekend," said Campbell. "Everyone is going to play three matches we're going to see a lot of guys play a lot of volleyball which is awesome for us."
The Matadors open an action packed Saturday at 8 a.m., taking on the USC "Gold" team and The Master's in a pair of split squad matches. CSUN then takes on Stanford at 11 a.m., UC San Diego at 12:30 p.m., Saint Katherine at 2 p.m. and UC Irvine at 3:30 p.m.Â
#UniteTheValley
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/ Men's VolleyballCalHOPE Award Nathan Merren
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