Matadors Split Mid-Week Dual Matches With Colorado Mesa

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - After dropping Wednesday's opening dual, the Matador Beach Volleyball team battled back to win the nightcap against Colorado Mesa in a mid-week, two-match set at the CSUN Beach Volleyball Complex.

COLORADO MESA 4, CSUN 1
Completing a stretch of 10 home matches in nine days, the Matadors fell 4-1 in Wednesday's opening dual as the Mavericks claimed the first four wins of the day and their first-ever win over CSUN. Ara Norwood and Sierra Hunt got the scoring underway as CMU's No. 4 pair knocked off CSUN's Kailey Klein and Victoria Rogers in straight sets (21-17, 21-14). The Mavericks went up 2-0 when Holly Schmidt and Macie Lachemann posted a 21-14, 22-20 victory over Seyvion Waggoner and Mikaela Maughan fell in the No. 2 pairs. Colorado Mesa also claimed the exhibition pair to close the opening flight as Savannah Ott and Hailey Peters held off Madison Klungel and Jadin Williams, 21-18, 21-15.

The Mavericks then clinched the dual win in the No. 5 pairs as Tye Wedhorn and Sabrina VanDeList topped Abbey Sweeting and Layla Cederlind in straight sets (21-18, 21-11). CMU then made it four straight wins as Jada Hall and Jessa Megenhardt swept True McCullough and Darbi Honeycutt in the No. 3 pairs, 21-14, 21-19. The Matadors salvaged the final point of the dual when Lauren Eknoian and Emily Sparks came back after dropping the first set to defeat Savannah Spitzer and Hohni Johnson in the No. 1 pairs on center court, 18-21, 21-10, 15-7.

CSUN 3, COLORADO MESA 2
CSUN made a couple of lineup changes in the afternoon dual and it immediately paid off as the Matadors won the first two points in the opening flight. McCullough and Waggoner paired together at No. 2 and picked up a straight-set win (21-18, 24-22) over CMU's Schmidt and Lachemann. Klein and Rogers then earned their team-leading 10th win of the season, holding off Norwood and Hunt in three tight sets (17-21, 21-18, 17-15) to make it 2-0 CSUN. The two teams again played an exhibition No. 6 pair as Sweeting and Madison Klungel also won in three sets over Sydney Loffler and Ashton Reece, 21-15, 15-21, 15-7.

The Mavericks cut the lead in half after Spitzer and Johnson handed Eknoian and Sparks a 21-13, 21-6 loss in the No. 1 pairs before CMU evened the dual at 2-2 when Wedhorn and VanDeList held off CSUN's No. 5 pair of Williams and Cederlind 19-21, 21-10, 15-11. The dual would come down to the No. 3 pairs and the Matadors would re-pair Honeycutt with Maughan and the program's all-time leader in pair wins came through with a 21-15, 15-21, 17-15 win over Hall and Megenhardt to clinch the dual win for CSUN. With the Matador pair holding a 16-15 lead, Maughan served an ace to send the Matadors to their ninth win of the season and the pairs' 34th career win.

COACH JOHN PRICE SAID
"We were hoping for better than a split today but when you lose the first one, you're more than happy with a split. I feel like we got a lot better pretty quickly in the past few weeks and then plateaued a little bit lately, so we need to find a way to step up over the last five weeks of the season. Every time we play a team, I feel like I learn something about our team and I learned more today and hope to apply it in some way this weekend."

UP NEXT
CSUN (9-9) travels to Long Beach this weekend for the Big West Challenge where the Matadors will play three matches on Friday (Cal Poly, Hawai'i, Sacramento State) and three matches on Saturday (UC Davis, CSU Bakersfield, Long Beach State) to determine seeding for the Big West Championship at the end of April.

COLORADO MESA 4, CSUN 1
#1 - Eknoian/Sparks (CSUN) def. Spitzer/Johnson (CMU) – 18-21. 21-10, 15-7
#2 - Schmidt/Lachemann (CMU) def. Waggoner/Maughan (CSUN) 20-22, 24-22, 15-9
#3 - Hall/Megenhardt (CMU) def. Honeycutt/Cederlind (CSUN) – 21-14, 21-23, 15-10
#4 - Norwood/Hunt (CMU) def. Klein/Rogers (CSUN) – 21-17, 21-14
#5 - Wedhorn/VanDeList (CMU) def. Sweeting/Cederlind (CSUN) – 21-18, 21-11
Exh. - Ott/Peters (CMU) def. Klungel/Williams (CSUN), 21-18, 21-15

CSUN 3, COLORADO MESA 2
#1 - Spitzer/Johnson (CMU) def. Eknoian/Sparks (CSUN) – 21-13, 21-6
#2 - McCullough/Waggoner (CSUN) def. Schmidt/Lachemann (CMU) – 21-18, 24-22
#3 - Honeycutt/Maughan (CSUN) def. Hall/Megenhardt (CMU) – 21-15, 15-21, 17-15
#4 - Klein/Rogers (CSUN) def. Norwood/Hunt (CMU) – 17-21, 21-18, 17-15
#5 - Wedhorn/VanDeList (CMU) def. Williams/Cederlind (CSUN) – 19-21, 21-10, 15-11
Exh. - Sweeting/Klungel (CSUN) def. Loffler/Reece (CMU), 21-15, 15-21, 15-7

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Matadors Split Mid-Week Dual Matches With Colorado Mesa

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Players Mentioned

Layla Cederlind

Lauren Eknoian

Darbi Honeycutt

Kailey Klein

Madison Klungel

Mikaela Maughan

True McCullough

Victoria Rogers

Emily Sparks

Abbey Sweeting

Seyvion Waggoner

Jadin Williams