UC Irvine Claims Final Two Sets to Hold Off CSUN in Five

Saturday, October 29

Northridge, Calif.

5:00 pm

California State University at Northridge

7-17,2-10Big West

UC Irvine

14-8,7-5Big West

UC Irvine

CSUN

Photo by: Steve Fitzgerald

UC Irvine Claims Final Two Sets to Hold Off CSUN in Five

10/29/2022 9:08:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The CSUN women's volleyball team took a two sets to one lead into the fourth set before visiting UC Irvine won the final two sets to hold off the Matadors, 3-2 in a Big West match Saturday night at Premier America Credit Union Arena.

Set scores were 23-25, 25-12, 23-25, 25-23, 15-10 as UCI improves to 14-8 overall and 7-5 in the Big West. CSUN slips to 7-17 overall and 2-10 in conference play.

KEY STATISTICS
• Three Matador hitters reached double figures as Carisa Barron and Taylor Orshoff each put down a team-high 14 kills. Barron hit .179 on a career-high 39 attacks while Orshoff hit .171 on 41 swings. Barron would complete her fourth triple-double of the season by adding 27 assists and 12 digs.
• Senior Nicole Nevarez added 13 kills and with her ninth kill of the night became the 14th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. Nevarez, who hit .270 on 27 swings, notched her 15th career double-double by adding 10 digs.
• Emily Sparks also posted a double-double, her sixth of the season, with 18 assists and 11 digs while libero Breanna Mitchell had a team-high 13 digs.
• CSUN wound up hitting .208 while the visiting Anteaters hit .286. The Matadors had a slight edge in aces (6-5) while UCI won the blocking battle 12-7.
• Onye Ofoegbu led all hitters in the match with 19 kills (.389) to lead UC Irvine.

COACH JOHN PRICE SAID
"I'm not happy that we lost tonight but I was happy with the effort we brought. I'm pleased that we put ourselves in position to win, but it's been kind of the same story much of the year, we put ourselves in a position to win but don't take advantage of the opportunity."

SET 1
Both teams hit well in the opening set as the visitors hit .312 to CSUN's .263 but the Matadors would pull out a 25-23 win. CSUN led 9-7 early on before UCI used a 4-1 run to take its first lead of the set at 11-10. The Matadors battled back to take a 13-12 lead and would extend the lead to 20-17 on a Nevarez ace. Three straight UCI points tied the score at 20-20 and the set remained tied at 21-21, 22-22 and finally at 23-23 when consecutive Nevarez kills gave CSUN the 25-23 win.

SET 2
UCI then out-hit CSUN .500 to .071 in dominating the second frame, 25-12. The Anteaters claimed eight of the first 10 points of the set and would extend the lead to double digits at 15-5 following a Joy Umeh kill. Consecutive kills by Nevarez pulled the Matadors within eight (18-10) but CSUN would get no closer the rest of the way.

SET 3
With the score tied at 9-9 in set three, UCI scored four straight to open up a 13-9 lead. The CSUN deficit grew to as many as eight at 20-12 before the Matadors mounted a rally. A co-block from Barron and Taylor Hunter would fuel a 12-2 CSUN run that put the Matadors in front 24-22 when Lauryn Anderson put up a solo block to cap the run. Following a Matador hitting error, Magdalena Juric connected on set point sending CSUN to the improbable 25-23 win.

SET 4
Looking to snap a three-match skid to UCI, the Matadors took an early 5-2 lead on a Sparks ace. But the visitors rallied back to take a 10-9 lead and would maintain the lead until an Anteater hitting error gave CSUN a 15-14 lead at the TV timeout. The Matadors led by two at 17-15 when the Anteaters connected for three straight kills to retake the lead 18-17. UCI pushed the lead to three at 22-19 and would still lead 23-20 when kills by Barron and Orshoff was followed by a UCI hitting error tied the score. But a pair of kills out of an Anteater timeout gave UCI the 25-23 win forcing a fifth set.

SET 5
The Anteaters scored the first three points of the decisive set and would extend the lead to 7-3. A kill by Juric and a UCI hitting error trimmed the lead to 7-5 before four straight points by the visitors gave UCI the margin it needed. Trailing 11-5, the Matadors scored twice to get within four but would get no close as UCI claimed the 15-10 win.

UP NEXT
The Matadors open a two-match road trip next Friday at Cal Poly at 7 p.m.

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