California State University at Northridge
Colorado Mesa
CSUN Hosts Colorado Mesa Before Traveling to Big West Challenge This Weekend
3/22/2022 10:00:00 AM | Beach Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022
CSUN Beach Volleyball Complex - Northridge, Calif.
Colorado Mesa vs. CSUN - 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Mesa vs. CSUN - 12:00 p.m.
Friday, Mar. 25, 2022
Rosie's Dog Beach - Long Beach, Calif.
CSUN vs. No. 12 Cal Poly - 9:30 a.m.
No. 9 Hawai'i vs. CSUN - 12:00 p.m.
CSUN vs. Sacramento State - 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, Mar. 26, 2022
Rosie's Dog Beach - Long Beach, Calif.
UC Davis vs. CSUN - 10:45 a.m.
CSUN vs. CSU Bakersfield - 2:30 p.m.
No. 15 Long Beach State vs. CSUN - 3:45 p.m.
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
After playing eight matches in five days last week, CSUN Beach Volleyball (8-8) concludes a 10-match homestand against Colorado Mesa on Wednesday before traveling to Long Beach for the Big West Challenge this weekend. The Matadors, 8-4 on their home sand this season, host the Mavericks of Colorado Mesa (8-5) for a pair of matches Wednesday at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.
CSUN will then play three matches on both Friday and Saturday in the Big West Challenge at Rosie's Dog Beach as the Matadors will face all six other Big West teams. CSUN opens the tournament Friday against Cal Poly at 9:30 a.m. before taking on Hawai'i at noon and Sacramento State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday's schedule has the Matadors taking on UC Davis at 10:45 a.m., CSU Bakersfield at 2:30 p.m. and Long Beach State at 3:45 p.m.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Follow CSUN Matadors beach volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the beach volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.Â
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the beach volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNBeach) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Colorado Mesa (8-5) set a program record for season wins when the Mavericks picked up their seventh and eighth wins on Mar. 12. CMU defeated Trinidad State JC (5-0) and the University of Utah (3-2) to improve to 8-5 on the season.Â
Series: Wednesday's pair of matches will be the sixth and seventh meetings all-time between the Matadors and Colorado Mesa. CSUN has not lost in five previous meetings with the Mavericks dating back to 2016. The two teams last met in 2021 in Northridge with the Matadors winning all five pairs.
Cal Poly (10-8)Â finished up its second straight weekend at home by winning two of its three matches Monday at Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex. The Mustangs are coming off wins over Boise State (5-0) and No. 16 Arizona (4-1) before falling to No. 10 Cal (4-1).
Series:Â Friday's match marks the 10th meeting all-time between CSUN and Cal Poly. The Mustangs have won seven straight in the series after the Matadors won the first two matches in 2015 and 2016.
Hawai'i (10-5) was idle weekend but has won eight of their last 10 matches, including a 4-2 record at the Outrigger Queens Cup (Mar. 10-12) where the 'Bows finished third.
Series:Â Friday's match is the eighth meeting all-time between CSUN and Hawai'i with the 'Bows holding a perfect 7-0 record in the series. The two teams last met in the 2021 Big West Championships where Hawai'i swept the Matadors, 5-0 in first round match.
Sacramento State (3-5) split a pair of matches on the finale of a two-day tournament hosted by San Jose State at Spartan Beach last weekend. The Hornets defeated San Francisco, 3-2 before falling to host San Jose State, 5-0, later in the day. Sac State opened the tournament with narrow losses to Saint Mary's and Oregon.
Series: The Matadors and Hornets will meet for the seventh time on Friday. The Matadors, 6-1 in the all-time series, have won three straight including a 5-0 win in the second round of the 2021 Big West Championship.
UC Davis (5-8) dropped a pair of 4-1 decisions to No. 8 Stanford on Monday afternoon in Davis. Prior to that, the Aggies won two of their six matches at the Outrigger Queens Cup (Mar. 10-12) in Honolulu.
Series:Â Saturday's match is the fourth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Aggies. CSUN won the first two meetings before UC Davis edged the Matadors, 3-2 at the 2021 Big West Challenge in San Luis Obispo.
CSU Bakersfield (6-4) will take on Houston Baptist and No. 2 USC on Tuesday before this weekend's Big West Challenge. The Runners have split their last four matches including a 5-0 loss to No. 18 Pepperdine and a 4-1 loss to Concordia in their most recent outings.
Series: The Matadors have met the Roadrunners more than any other opponent in their beach volleyball history. Saturday's match is the third this season and 21st all-time between CSUN and CSUB. The Matadors are 12-8 all-time against the Runners with CSUN winning five of the last seven. CSU Bakersfield defeated the Matadors twice earlier this season (Mar. 4), taking 4-1 and 3-2 decisions at the Barnes Beach Volleyball Complex in Bakersfield.
Long Beach State (2-8) split a pair of matches last Thursday, falling to No. 18 Pepperdine (3-2) before sweeping Southern Miss, 5-0. The Beach is 2-8 on the season with nine of their duals against Top 20 opponents.
Series: Saturday's match is the 16th meeting all-time between CSUN and Long Beach State. The Matadors have not defeated the Beach in 15 previous meetings dating back to 2014. CSUN played host to Long Beach State twice in 2021 with the Beach taking dual matches by the scores of 4-1 and 5-0.
MATADOR NOTES
After some reshuffling within the pairs over the last two weeks, CSUN's No. 4 pair of Kailey Klein and Victoria Rogers has emerged with a team-best 9-1 record. Since partnering up against Vanguard on Mar. 12, Klein and Rogers only have a 3-2 loss to Westcliff (Mar. 15) to blemish their pairs record. Since the loss, the duo has won seven straight including CSUN's lone win in a 4-1 loss to Boise State last Saturday ... Five other Matador pairs have a .500 record so far in 2022, as Lauren Eknoian and Emily Sparks are now 7-7 followed by Seyvion Waggoner and Mikaela Maughan at 5-5 while Abbey Sweeting and Jadin Williams are 4-4 in eight duals. Sweeting is also 3-3 playing with Rogers while Waggoner is 3-3 playing alongside True McCullough ... Klein, Maughan and Darbi Honeycutt all came into the 2022 season with over 30 individual wins in their CSUN careers. With nine wins this season, Klein has moved into third place with 41 wins while Maughan has added six wins this season and Honeycutt has won five times so far in 2022. With 39 wins, Maughan is now fourth while Honeycutt is fifth with 38 career wins. Lauren McMurray (2018-21) holds the program wins record with 48 while Aeryn Owens (2016-20) is second with 42.
CSUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
The Matadors have an all-time record of 74-87 (.460) in their ninth season of beach volleyball, including a 48-27 (.640) record on their home sand. After setting a program record for most wins in one season with 17 in 2018, the Matadors came within one victory of equaling the mark with a 16-12 record in 2019.
The Matadors have steadily improved since the induction of the sport in 2014. Playing 10 matches, all on the road in its inaugural season, CSUN finished 1-9 in 2014. The Matadors picked up their first-ever beach volleyball win on Mar. 27, 2014 when CSUN defeated Oregon (3-2) at USC's Merle Norman Stadium.
The Matadors then debuted their on-campus facility in 2015, playing 11 matches overall and four matches at home. CSUN's first-ever home match was Mar. 5, 2015 against No. 7 UCLA. CSUN won at home for the first time on Mar. 9 of the 2015 season when the Matadors defeated TCU, 4-1. CSUN ultimately upped its season win total to three culminating with a 3-8 overall season record to close the 2015 season.
The 2016 season saw the Matadors finish 8-14 before falling to Cal Poly in the third round of the Big West Tournament. CSUN then posted an overall record of 6-12 in 2017 before winning a program-record with 17 times in 2018. After posting 16 wins in 2019, the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Matadors off to a 4-1 start. CSUN won 11 times in 2021, finishing with an overall record of 11-15.
BIG WEST BEACH VOLLEYBALL
2022 marks CSUN's seventh season as a member of the Big West Conference in beach volleyball. The Matadors are 5-10 all-time in the Big West Tournament which was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19.
The Matadors were the No. 4 seed in the seven-team field at the 2019 Big West Tournament at Zuma Beach in Malibu. CSUN finished 2-2 in the championship tournament, their best showing since also finishing 2-2 in the inaugural conference tournament in 2016.Â
After winning two of three matches on the opening day, CSUN came up empty against No. 3 seed Long Beach State on Saturday and was the fourth squad eliminated from the tournament. Cal Poly, the No. 2 seed, went undefeated in four tournament matches to capture its first conference championship along with the Big West's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Hawai'i, the top seed coming in, finished second.
At the 2018 championship in Hawai'i, the Matadors were seeded fourth in the six-team field in but were upset by fifth-seeded CSU Bakersfield in the opening round (3-2). CSUN then fell to No. 2 seed Cal Poly in an elimination match (5-0). The Matadors were also seeded fourth at the 2017 Big West Tournament held at Pismo Beach, but fell to Sacramento State (3-2) and Cal Poly (5-0) in their two tournament matches. In 2016, CSUN was the third seed in the inaugural conference tournament before finishing 2-2 including a close 3-2 loss to Cal Poly in a third-round elimination match at Huntington Beach.
Last season in the tournament held at Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach, the Matadors were swept (5-0) by Hawai'i before sweeping Sacramento State (5-0). CSUN was then knocked off by CSU Bakersfield (3-2) in an elimination match.
#UniteTheValley
