Matadors Fall 3-0 at UC Santa Barbara in Final Road Match

Tuesday, November 22

Santa Barbara, Calif.

7:00 pm

California State University at Northridge

UC Santa Barbara

Photo by: Steve Fitzgerald

Matadors Fall 3-0 at UC Santa Barbara in Final Road Match

11/22/2022 8:49:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The CSUN women's volleyball team played its final road match of the season Tuesday, falling in straight sets to UC Santa Barbara in a Big West match at the Thunderdome.

Set scores were 25-19, 25-20, 25-18 as the Gauchos improve to 20-9 overall and 16-3 in the Big West. With the loss, the Matadors slip to 9-22 overall and 4-15 in conference play.

Taylor Orshoff led CSUN with eight kills (.125) while Taylor Hunter added six kills on .385 hitting but CSUN wound up hitting .150 as a team in the loss.

KEY STATISTICS
• Carisa Barron posted her fifth double-double of the season with 10 assists and 12 digs. Barron, who leads the Big West with six triple-doubles this season, added five kills and a pair of blocks for the Matadors.
• Nicole Nevarez also had five kills on 15 errorless attacks (.333) to up her career kills total to 1,067 with one match remaining on Saturday.
• Breanna Mitchell, the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Week, had a team-high 15 digs and a match-high three aces while Kaia Kanan added 15 assists and five digs.
• In hitting .314 as a team, the Gauchos nearly doubled the Matadors' kill total (50-29) while also posting a slight edge in digs (59-54). CSUN out-blocked UCSB (8-6) while each team had six aces.
• Michelle Ohowobete led all hitters with 12 kills (.273) while Briana McKnight and Julia Shepherd each chipped in 10.

SET 1
The hosts claimed four of the first five points in the opening set and would lead 9-2 after just 11 points. The Matadors still trailed by seven at 13-6 before putting together a 6-3 run out of timeout to pull within four at 16-12. UCSB would bounce back out of its own timeout to use a 3-1 run to push the lead back to six at 19-13. CSUN then used a Gaucho service error, a Barron kill and a Kanan ace to trim the UCSB lead to 19-16. The Matadors remained within three at 20-17, 21-18 and 22-19 before the hosts scored the final three points to take the set 25-19.

SET 2
The second set began in a similar fashion as the Gauchos jumped out to a 7-1 lead and would never trail. A kill by Hunter got the Matadors as close as five at 8-3. Still down five at 9-4, CSUN surrendered a 6-2 run that opened up a 15-6 UCSB lead. An Orshoff kill kept the deficit in single digits at 17-8 before the Gauchos opened up a 10-point lead with a kill. Trailing by eight at 22-14, the Matadors staged a late 6-2 rally to pull within 24-20 before a UCSB kill ended the set.

SET 3
The final set was the tightest of the match, featuring five ties and one lead change. An ace by Mitchell followed by a Hunter kill gave the Matadors a 2-0 lead before the hosts rallied to take a 6-5 lead on a McKnight kill. UCSB then snapped a 6-6 tie by scoring three straight before CSUN answered with a 3-1 run to pull within 10-9. The Gauchos would then outscore the Matadors 8-2 over the next 10 points to open up an insurmountable 18-11 lead. A pair of solo blocks by Magdalena Juric pulled CSUN within three at 19-16 but the Matadors would get no closer down the stretch, falling 25-18.

UP NEXT
The Matadors conclude the 2022 season on Saturday as CSUN hosts Hawai'i at Premier America Credit Union Arena at 7 p.m. The Matadors will honor their three seniors, Lauryn Anderson, Elizabeth Gannon and Magdalena Juric, in a pre-match ceremony.

#UniteTheValley