Matadors Post Home Sweep Over Cal State Fullerton

Saturday, November 12

Northridge, Calif.

5:00 pm

California State University at Northridge

8-20,3-13Big West

Cal State Fullerton

12-12,6-10Big West

Cal St. Fullerton

CSUN

Photo by: Steve Fitzgerald

Matadors Post Home Sweep Over Cal State Fullerton

11/12/2022 8:27:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Behind a combined 21 kills from Taylor Orshoff and Carisa Barron, the CSUN women's volleyball team got back in the win column with a straight-set win over visiting Cal State Fullerton in a Big West match Saturday night at Premier America Credit Union Arena.

Set scores were 25-15, 25-14, 27-25 as the Matadors snap an eight-match skid while improving to 8-20 overall and 3-13 in Big West play.

CSUN hit .288 as a team, its best hitting percentage since hitting .291 against UC Riverside on Oct. 15. Orshoff led all players in the match with 11 kills, hitting .364 on 22 swings to go with three digs and two blocks. Barron narrowly missed her sixth triple-double of the season by adding 10 kills, 17 assists, seven digs and a match-high five blocks.

KEY STATISTICS
• Following Orshoff and Barron, senior Nicole Nevarez had eight kills (.250) and six digs. With her fifth kill of the night, Nevarez moved past Nancy Ma into 12th-place on the CSUN career list. Nevarez now has 1,034 career kills heading into the final four matches of the season.
• Magdalena Juric chipped in seven kills on 11 attacks to hit a season-high .545 while Taylor Hunter had four blocks along with three kills.
• Kaia Kanan posted a team-high 18 assists and five digs while libero Breanna Mitchell had a match-high 18 digs and a season-high four aces for the Matadors in the win. Layla Cederlind added three aces and Elizabeth Gannon had two as CSUN served nine aces as a team.
• The Matadors would limit the Titans to an .090 team hitting percentage while also posting an 11-5 advantage in blocks.
• Danielle Jefferies led Fullerton with nine kills (.200) as the Titans slipped to 12-12 overall and 6-10 in conference play.

COACH JOHN PRICE SAID
"Fullerton was down a couple key players tonight but even so I thought we played really well and It felt great to get a win. We've had some injuries too but the team has played hard the entire season and had chances to win more matches than we have. We desperately needed a win tonight and I hope we can carry this momentum into next week and continue to finish the season strong."

SET 1
The Matadors hit .333 to the Titans' .121 in the opening set as CSUN won by 10. Mitchell's tough serving got the Matadors out to a 6-1 lead and CSUN extended the lead to eight (10-2) following a Nevarez kill. Three straight kills by the visitors trimmed the lead to five before a Juric kill fueled a 4-1 run that pushed the Matador lead back to eight at 14-6. The Titans would get within six on a pair of occasions but would get no closer as a Nevarez kill followed by a Nevarez-Hunter co-block sealed the 25-15 win.

SET 2
CSUN continued its solid hitting into the second set as the Matadors connected at a .414 clip to win by double digits. Gannon opened the set at the service line and served five straight CSUN points. An Orshoff-Lauryn Anderson block extended the lead to 7-1 and the Matadors would maintain a comfortable six-point lead at 9-3 following a Juric kill. An Orshoff kill gave CSUN its largest lead at 17-8 forcing a Fullerton timeout. After a Nevarez kill pushed the lead to 10 (23-13), the Matadors claimed two of the final three points of the set to take a 25-14 win.

SET 3
Neither team hit particularly well in the final set which featured 13 ties and eight lead changes. The Titans jumped out to an early 7-3 lead forcing a CSUN timeout. Another Barron-Hunter block would cap a 6-2 run by the Matadors which tied the score at 9-9. The teams traded sideouts until a Barron kill and a Mitchell ace gave CSUN a 15-13 lead. Clinging to a one-point lead at 17-16, the Matadors used kills from Orshoff and Anderson along with a Cederlind ace to open up a 20-16 cushion. The visitors would rally to tie the score at 20-20 before ultimately taking set point at 24-23 following a Jefferies block. Two straight CSUN points saved one set point before Jefferies saved match point with a kill at 25-24. But a Barron block on the next point set up another match point and Orshoff connected giving the Matadors the 27-25 win.

UP NEXT
The Matadors open a three-match road trip Nov. 17 at UC Riverside. CSUN will also travel to UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara to close out the 2022 road schedule.

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