California State University at Northridge
Pepperdine
CSUN Takes on No. 7 Pepperdine to Wrap up Non-Conference Play
3/16/2022 2:08:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #12
CSUN Matadors (5-6, 0-2 Big West) @ No. 7 Pepperdine Waves (9-6)
Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PDT
Firestone Fieldhouse - Malibu, Calif.
WCC Network
Live Stats
MATCH #13
No. 7 Pepperdine Waves (9-6) @ CSUN Matadors (5-6, 0-2 Big West)
Friday, Mar. 18, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PDT
The Matadome - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Men's Volleyball team (5-6, 0-2 Big West) opens up a home-and-home series with seventh-ranked Pepperdine (9-6) Wednesday at Firestone Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. The Waves return the visit Friday as the two teams meet in The Matadome at 7 p.m. The Matadors, 5-2 on their home floor this season, will play their final two non-conference matches of the season against the Waves this week before returning to Big West play at Hawai'i next week (Mar. 25-26). Â
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
All CSUN home matches this season will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform with Darren Preston handling a majority of the play-by-play this season. Fans can also follow CSUN Matador men's volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com for related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
#7 Pepperdine (9-6) improved to 9-6 on the season with a straight-set win (25-18, 25-14, 25-17) over George Mason last Friday. The Waves committed only four attack errors and hit .483, while forcing the Patriots into 27 hitting errors and limiting GMU to .035 hitting. Graduate transfer Jaylen Jasper, who leads the Waves averaging 3.52 kills per set, hit .692 with 10 kills against George Mason.
Series: The two matches this week mark the 84th and 85th meetings all-time between the Matadors and Pepperdine. The Waves hold a 62-21 lead in the series that dates back to 1978. The two teams were members of the MPSF from 1983-2017 when they met twice each season. The two teams last met in 2019 when Pepperdine won in four sets in Malibu before winning in four sets in The Matadome.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - WEEK 9 (MAR. 14)
CSUN (5-6) earned three points and was the fourth team listed in the "receiving votes" section in this week's NVA/AVCA Top-15 (Mar. 14). The Matadors received a season-high 12 points in the preseason poll before receiving nine points in week one (Jan. 10), seven points in week two (Jan. 17), six points in week eight (Feb. 28) and now three points in consecutive weeks. CSUN was last ranked among the top-15 on Jan. 13, 2020 when the Matadors were 13th in the 2020 preseason coaches poll. Prior to that, CSUN had been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 62 consecutive weeks and 262 of the last 289 weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season.
UCLA remained number one for the fourth straight week as the Bruins (13-3) earned eight of 19 first-place votes and 259 points. Penn State (15-3) picked up six first-place votes and moved into second followed in the top-five by Long Beach State (11-3), Hawai'i (16-3) and USC (15-3). UC Santa Barbara (14-4) slipped to sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (9-6), Ball State (13-2), Grand Canyon (10-8) and UC San Diego (9-7). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Loyola-Chicago (12-6), Lewis (10-8), UC Irvine (8-9), Stanford (9-8) and NJIT (9-6).
WETTER REACHES 500 CAREER KILLS Â
With 12 kills in two matches against UC Santa Barbara last week, redshirt junior Daniel Wetter surpassed the 500-kill mark for his CSUN career. Despite missing four matches earlier this season, Wetter still ranks fourth on the team with 57 kills this season. With 57 kills and just 13 hitting errors on 103 swings, Wetter is hitting .427 this season. The middle blocker from Camarillo heads into the week with 502 career kills on a career hitting percentage of .450. Wetter posted a season-high 176 kills as a redshirt freshman in 2019 followed by 159 kills in 2020 and 110 in the abbreviated 2021 season. His best hitting percentage season was 2020 when he hit .528 on 252 attacks to earn NVA/AVCA Honorable Mention All-America as well as All-Big West First Team accolades.
MATADOR NOTES
With a pair of non-conference matches remaining against Pepperdine this week, the Matadors are currently 5-4 in nine non-conference matches in 2022. CSUN, which played only Big West matches during the abbreviated 2021 season, finished 4-11 in non-conference play in 2020 and last posted a winning non-conference season record in 2019 when the Matadors finished 10-6Â ... After putting down a season-high 14 kills against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Kyle Hobus has now posted double figures in kills in four of his last five matches and five times overall this season. Hobus leads CSUN with 94 kills this season and after hitting a combined .390 in two matches against UCSB last week has upped his season hitting percentage to .281 ... As a team, CSUN ranks as high as second in the Big West in service aces (1.51 per set). The Matadors also rank fourth in both hitting percentage (.287) and opponent hitting percentage (.261) ... Individually, Hobus ranks among the conference's top-20 in five statistical categories. He is currently seventh in aces per set (0.38), ninth in kills per set (2.94), 11th in hitting percentage (.287), 15th in blocks per set (0.75) and 19th in digs per set (1.31). Wetter continues to be the highest ranked CSUN player this week as he ranks third in the conference in hitting at .413.
CAMPBELL PICKS UP 325TH CAREER WIN
CSUN's 3-0 win over Cal Lutheran on Jan. 28 was the 325th career win for CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell. In his 25th season at the helm of the program, Campbell now boasts a career record of 329-340 and has been the most successful coach at CSUN over the past 17 years. Campbell has posted 278 wins (nearly 14 wins per season) since the 2003 season which is quite an accomplishment considering the Matadors have annually played in the toughest men's volleyball conference in the country.
He heads into his 25th season as the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history with 326 career victories. Campbell become the program's all-time winningest coach during the 2010 season, reaching the 150, 200, 225 and 250 career win milestones over the last 10 seasons. Currently, the second-longest tenured head coach at CSUN (men's golf coach Jim Bracken is in his 36th season) Campbell has earned double-figure win totals in 20 of his 22 seasons on the bench, posting a career-best 24 wins in 2009.
CSUN IN CONFERENCE OPENERSÂ
The Matadors slipped to 19-25 (.432) all-time in conference season openers following Thursday's 3-0 loss at No. 5 UC Santa Barbara. Despite Friday's loss to the Gauchos, CSUN remains an impressive 26-18 (.591) all-time in conference home openers. The Matadors are now 1-3 in Big West home openers and 0-4 in Big West road openers.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
The 2022 season marks CSUN's fifth as a member of the Big West Conference in men's volleyball. Since 2018, the Matadors are 10-22 (.313) after dropping their first two conference matches to No. 5 UC Santa Barbara last week. CSUN finished 5-5 in the inaugural Big West season in 2018 before finishing 3-7 in 2019 and 2-8 in 2021. The 2020 conference season was not contested due to COVID-19. The Matadors reached the semifinals of the Big West Tournament in 2018 in Long Beach before falling in both the 2019 and 2021 quarterfinals in Hawai'i. Prior to 2018, CSUN played 25 seasons as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) from 1993-2017 and 16 seasons in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (WIVA) from 1977-92.
LOOKING AHEAD
After playing their final non-conference matches of the season this week against former MPSF rival Pepperdine, the Matadors open the home stretch of the 2022 season beginning Mar. 25-26 at No. 2 Hawai'i.Â
#UniteTheValley
