California State University at Northridge
UC Santa Barbara
Matadors Open Big West Play With a Pair vs. No. 5 UC Santa Barbara
3/8/2022 4:29:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #10 (BIG WEST #1)
CSUN Matadors (5-4, 0-0 Big West) @ UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (12-4, 0-0 Big West)
Thursday, Mar. 10, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PST
Robertson Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #11Â (BIG WEST #2)
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (12-4, 0-0 Big West) @Â CSUN Matadors (5-4, 0-0 Big West)
Friday, Mar. 11, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PST
The Matadome - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Men's Volleyball team (5-4, 0-0 Big West) opens the 2022 Big West Conference schedule this week as the Matadors travel to No. 5 UC Santa Barbara (12-4, 0-0) on Thursday before hosting the Gauchos on Friday. Both matches are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first serve. CSUN saw its mini two-match winning streak snapped with a 3-0 loss to NJIT last Thursday. The loss to the Highlanders was also the Matadors' first loss in The Matadome this season. 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. Victoria Dennis and Kyle Friend will be on the call for Friday's Big West opener. 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
#5 UC Santa Barbara (12-4, 0-0 Big West) has won six straight including a 25-13, 25-22, 25-13 win over Long Island in its most recent match. The fifth-ranked Gauchos have now won seven straight and 11 of their last 12 matches. Junior outside hitter Ryan Wilcox, who had 12 kills on .526 hitting against LIU, leads UCSB averaging 3.38 kills per set. Donovan Todorov, the conference's leading hitter, ranks second in the Big West in blocking. The Gauchos rank fourth in the conference in hitting percentage behind CSUN at .283.
Series: The two matches this week mark the 102nd and 103rd meetings all-time between the Matadors and UCSB. The Gauchos hold a 59-42 lead in the series that dates back to 1978. UCSB has won five straight and eight of the last 10 between the two teams. CSUN, 22-19 all-time against the Gauchos in Northridge and 14-37 all-time in Santa Barbara, last defeated the Gauchos in the first round of the 2019 Big West Tournament (3-1) in Long Beach. The Matadors' last win at home over UCSB came during the 2018 season.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - WEEK 9 (MAR. 7)
CSUN (5-4) earned three points and was the fifth team listed in the "receiving votes" section in this week's NVA/AVCA Top-15 (Mar. 7). 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. 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 third straight week as the Bruins (12-2) earned 16 of 19 first-place votes and 282 points. Long Beach State (10-2) picked up the other three first-place votes to remain second this week followed in the top-five by Penn State (13-3), Hawai'i (14-3) and UC Santa Barbara (12-4). USC (13-3) remained sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (8-6), Ball State (11-2), Grand Canyon (9-8) and UC San Diego (8-7). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Loyola-Chicago (11-6), Lewis (10-6), Ohio State (9-6), McKendree (8-6) and NJIT (9-5).
CSUN IN CONFERENCE OPENERSÂ
Heading into Thursday's Big West opener at UC Santa Barbara, CSUN is 19-24 (.442) all-time in conference season openers but is an impressive 26-17 (.605) all-time in conference home openers. The Matadors dropped their conference opener at UC Irvine (3-1) last season before rebounding with a 3-1 win over the Anteaters in their home conference opener. CSUN is 1-2 in three previous Big West home openers and 0-3 in conference road openers. The Matadors lost both their home and road openers to Long Beach State to open the 2018 and 2019 seasons before the 2020 Big West season was not contested due to COVID-19.
MATADOR NOTES
With a pair of non-conference matches remaining against Pepperdine (Mar. 16-18), 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 record in 2019 when the Matadors finished 10-6 ... After missing four matches (UC Merced, Vanguard, USC, Stanford) with an injury, redshirt junior Daniel Wetter continues to make his usual impact both offensively and defensively. Wetter, who has upped his hitting this season to .456, put down a season-high 13 kills Thursday against NJIT. He now has double figure kill totals in three of his five matches this season. Wetter has had his two best blocking efforts of the season in the Matadors' last two matches. He put up a career-high seven blocks in CSUN's 3-1 win over Stanford and had four blocks Thursday against NJIT. Wetter currently ranks second in the Big West in hitting and third in blocking ... Kyle Hobus has posted double figures in points in three straight matches and six of nine matches this season ... Freshman setter Donovan Constable put down a season-high three kills against NJIT ... As a team, CSUN ranks as high as second in the Big West in service aces (1.69 per set). The Matadors also rank third in hitting percentage (.299) and opponent hitting percentage (.227) ... The loss to NJIT marked the Matadors' first-ever loss to the Highlanders and their loss this season when they lead their opponent in kills. CSUN is now 0-4 when trailing its opponent in hitting percentage and 5-0 when leading ... The Matadors are 0-1 to open the month of March after finishing 4-2 in February and 1-1 in January.
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 329-338 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.Â
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. The Matadors will bring are a record of 10-20 (.333) into their Big West opener Mar. 10 at UC Santa Barbara. 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 opening Big West Conference play with a home-and-home series against UC Santa Barbara this week, the Matadors will play their final non-conference matches of the season next week when they take on former MPSF rival Pepperdine in a home-and-home series Mar. 16-18. CSUN travels across the Valley to Malibu on Mar. 16 before the Waves return the visit on Mar. 18.Â
#UniteTheValley
