California State University at Northridge
UC San Diego
Matadors Open Home-and-Home Set Thursday at UC San Diego
3/30/2022 5:50:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #16Â (BIG WEST #5)
CSUN Matadors (5-10, 0-4 Big West) @ No. 9 UC San Diego Tritons (11-7, 3-2 Big West)
Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PDT
RIMAC Arena - La Jolla, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #17Â (BIG WEST #6)
No. 9Â UC San Diego Tritons @Â CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Apr. 2, 2022 - 7:00 p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.Â
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Men's Volleyball team (5-10, 0-4 Big West) opens the homestretch of the 2022 season this week as the Matadors travel to No. 9 UC San Diego on Thursday before opening the final month of the regular season on Saturday against the Tritons inside the Premier American Credit Union Arena. Both matches are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first serve. The Matadors are still seeking their first conference win of the season after dropping a pair of matches at fourth-ranked Hawai'i last weekend.
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
UC San Diego (11-7, 3-2 Big West) has won three straight, including a pair of wins over No. 13 UC Irvine last week. The Tritons defeated the Anteaters in four sets at home before pulling out a five-set win in Irvine. UC San Diego, 6-4 at home and 5-3 on the road, is 3-2 in five Big West matches with wins over UC Santa Barbara, Hawai'i and UCI. Senior Kyle McCauley leads the Tritons and ranks second in the Big West averaging 4.20 kills per set while UCSD ranks fourth as a team, hitting 285 through 18 matches.
Series: The two matches between the Matadors and Tritons this week mark the 90th and 91st meetings in the all-time series which dates back to 1977. CSUN currently holds a 78-11 lead in the series but UCSD has won three straight including a 3-1 win in the first round of the 2021 Big West Championship in Hawai'i. The Matadors are 36-4 all-time against the Tritons at home and 39-6 all-time in La Jolla.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - MAR. 28Â (WEEK 13)
After earning votes in three straight NVA/AVCA Top-15 Coaches polls (Feb. 29-Mar. 14), CSUN (5-10) was not listed in the latest poll released Mar. 28. The Matadors received a season-high 12 points in the 2022 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 three points in consecutive weeks (Mar. 7, 14). 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 sixth straight week as the Bruins (15-3) earned 10 of 19 first-place votes and 270 total points. Long Beach State (14-3) moved into second this week, earning five first-place votes followed in the top-five by Penn State (19-3), Hawai'i (18-3) and USC (17-4). UC Santa Barbara (14-6) remained sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Ball State (17-2), Pepperdine (12-7), UC San Diego (11-7) and Grand Canyon (14-9). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Loyola-Chicago (14-7), Stanford (10-9), Lewis (12-10), UC Irvine (8-11) and McKendree (12-8).
MATADORS SECOND IN BIG WEST IN ACESÂ
With 14 aces in two matches at Hawai'i, which included matching its season-high with 10 on Friday, CSUN moved up to second in the Big West in aces at 1.44 per set. The Matadors now have 69 aces in 48 sets. CSUN has 11 fewer aces than UC San Diego but has played in 25 fewer sets than the Tritons. The Matadors have 10 aces in a match three times this season, vs. UC Merced (Feb. 4), vs. Stanford (Feb. 26) and at Hawai'i (Mar. 25), and are 2-1 in such matches. In this week's Big West statistics, six Matadors rank in the top-20 in individual aces as Griffin Walters in sixth (0.40), Kyle Hobus is 11th (0.30), Donovan Constable is 14th (0.24), Luke Krzmarzick is 17th (0.21), Olumide Allen is 18th (0.18) and Jano Tello is 20th (0.17).
MATADOR NOTES
Digs have been somewhat scarce for the Matadors in 2022. CSUN has been out-dug by its opponents eight times in 15 matches this season and are now 1-7 in such matches. Conversely, the Matadors are 4-2 in six matches when winning the battle of the back row. Redshirt junior Joe Picone has started the last six matches at libero and scooped up a CSUN season-high 11 digs Friday at Hawai'i. It marked just the third time this season that a Matador players has posted double figures in digs in a match. Walters had 10 at USC and Hobus also had 10 in CSUN's 3-0 win over Stanford ... Freshman Lorenzo Bertozzi made quite a splash in his just his second appearance in the Matadors' last eight matches. Bertozzi came off the bench in the second match against Hawai'i and connected for a team-high seven kills on 14 swings. At one point in the match, the freshman from Parma, Italy had six kills and one error on seven swings before finishing the night with a .214 hitting clip ... All 10 Matador losses this season have come to teams ranked in the NVA/AVCA Top-15 poll. CSUN, which will more than likely play ranked teams the rest of the regular season, will get another crack at a ranked opponent this week in No. 9 UC San Diego. The Matadors are 0-1 this season against No. 2 (UCLA), 0-2 against No. 4 (Hawai'i), 0-2 against No. 5 (UC Santa Barbara), 0-3 against No. 7 (USC, Pepperdine) and 1-1 against No. 12 (Stanford) ... In this week's Big West Individual stats, Hobus continues to rank among the conference's top-20 in five statistical categories. He is currently 10th in kills per set (2.91), hitting percentage (.291) and points per set (3.65) while also ranking 11th in aces per set (0.30) and 12th in blocks per set (0.80). Daniel Wetter continues to be the highest ranked CSUN player this week as he ranks third in the conference in hitting at .380.
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 329-344 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.
Now in his 25th season, he is the all-time winningest coach in CSUN men's volleyball history with 329 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.
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 the conference's inaugural season in 2018, the Matadors are 10-24 (.294) in Big West play. 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 this week's home-and-home series with UC San Diego, the Matadors will close the regular season with home-and-home series' with UC Irvine (Apr. 8-9) and Long Beach State (Apr. 15-16). CSUN's final home match of the season will be Apr. 16 when the Matadors host Long Beach State at 7 p.m.
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