California State University at Northridge
Cal Poly
Matadors Face Cal Poly to Open 2022 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship
4/27/2022 12:45:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
2022Â BIG WEST BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round Match (Winner's Bracket)
No. 6 Seed CSUN (16-15) vs. No. 3 Seed Cal Poly (19-16)Â
Friday, Apr. 29, 2022Â - 11:30 a.m. PDT
Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex - San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Live Results
Big West Beach Volleyball Championship Central
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Beach Volleyball team is seeded sixth heading into the 2022 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship this weekend at Cal Poly's Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex in San Luis Obispo. Seven conference teams will take to the courts in San Luis Obispo (Apr. 29-30) looking to capture the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in the sixth edition of the Big West Women's Beach Volleyball Championship.
The Matadors (16-15) will open the double elimination conference championship tournament against host and No. 3 seed Cal Poly (19-16) Friday at 11:30 a.m. The winner of Friday's opening round match will remain in the Winners Bracket to take on the winner of the No. 2 seed Long Beach State vs. No. 7 seed Sacramento State match Friday at 2 p.m. The loser will play in an elimination match at 3:15 p.m. against the loser of the Long Beach-Sac State match.
THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
Hawai'i is the tournament's top seed for the fourth time out of six years. The Rainbow Wahine enter the double-elimination event ranked ninth in today's AVCA Collegiate Beach Coaches Poll and sporting a 20-14 overall record on the season. The Rainbow Wahine receive the only bye in the seven-team championship bracket and will open against the winner of UC Davis (4) vs. CSU Bakersfield (5).
The two-day double-elimination bracket will see a flurry of matches to fill each day of play, beginning at 9 a.m. Nine matches hit the sand on Friday, as matches will conclude under the lights. The field will be whittled to four squads who will take to the court on Saturday, that will be pared down to two finalists who will compete for the title beginning at 11:30 a.m. All of the final day matches will be streamed on ESPN+.
Last year at Rosie's Dog Beach, No. 1 seed Cal Poly won their first three matches to glide through the winner's bracket and into the final after defeating No. 5 seed CSU Bakersfield, No. 3 seed Hawai'i and No. 2 seed Long Beach State. The Mustangs had to again meet up with the Rainbow Wahine in the final, where Hawai'i took the 3-2 victory in the must-win match to force and if necessary game. There, Cal Poly won the 3-2 decision to earn consecutive Big West Championship crowns (2019, 2021). Since beach volleyball became a Big West-sponsored sport in 2016, the Mustangs and Rainbow Wahine (2016, '17, '18) are the only two teams to earn the title.Â
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Live results will be available for all Big West Championship matches, check the CSUN Beach Volleyball schedule page for links as matches are determined. Fans can also follow CSUN Matadors beach volleyball on-line at the official home of CSUN athletics, GoMatadors.com. 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 CAL POLY
Cal Poly (19-16), ranked 15th in the latest AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll, is seeking its third straight Big West Beach Volleyball title this weekend. The Mustangs defeated Hawai'i in the championship match in each of the past two conference championships to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Cal Poly's top three pairs have a combined record of 60-31. The No. 1 pair of Tia Miric and Ella Connor have a 23-11 record this season while the No. 2 pair of Jayelin Lombard and Piper Ferch are 20-15 heading into the weekend.
Series: CSUN is 2-8 all-time against Cal Poly which includes an 0-3 mark against the Mustangs in the Big West Championship. The two teams met in the inaugural conference championship in 2016 when the Mustangs edged the Matadors, 3-2 in Huntington Beach. CSUN then fell to Cal Poly by 5-0 scores in both 2017 and 2018. The Mustangs claimed a 5-0 win in this season's first meeting on Mar. 25 at the Big West Challenge in Long Beach.
BIG WEST TOURNAMENT HISTORY
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 Championship 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.
CSUN TOURNAMENT NOTES
CSUN heads into the conference championship tournament with 16 wins this season, the second-most in program history. The Matadors now have 63 wins over the last five seasons, including a program-best 17 victories in 2018.
The Matadors are 2-7 this season against the Big West Championship field with wins over Sacramento State (5-0) on Mar. 25 and CSU Bakersfield (4-1) on Mar. 26. CSUN dropped a pair of dual matches in Bakersfield on Mar. 4 before finishing 2-4 at the Big West Challenge in Long Beach (Mar. 25-26), falling to No. 12 Cal Poly (5-0), No. 9 Hawai'i (5-0), UC Davis (4-1) and No. 15 Long Beach State (5-0). The Matadors lost to the Beach, 5-0 in Long Beach in their final regular season tri-dual on Apr. 23.
"Since the Big West Challenge last month, we've been focused on getting better so when we see some of those same teams again this weekend, hopefully we've made some big strides," said interim head coach John Price. "I feel like we've done that in practice over last few weeks and we will be competitive and have a good weekend on the sand."Â
MATADORS WIN PROGRAM RECORD 13 TIMES ON HOME SAND
By capping the home season with wins over Life Pacific and Saint Katherine on Apr. 2, the Matadors finished a program-best 13-5 in 18 home matches in 2022. CSUN matched the 2021 team for the most-ever home matches in program history (18) but won three more times than the 2021 team which finished 10-8 on the home sand. The 2018 CSUN team holds the record for best season home winning percentage, finishing 10-3 for a .769 winning percentage followed by this season's team that finished with a .722 winning percentage. CSUN is now 53-28 (.654) all-time in eight seasons at the CSUN Beach Volleyball Complex, posting double figures in wins in three of the last five seasons.
CSUNÂ QUICK SETS
The Matadors split their final regular season tri-dual last Saturday as CSUN fell 5-0 to No. 12 Long Beach State before bouncing back to take a 4-1 win over Cal State LA at the LBSU Sand Courts. With the win over Cal State LA, the Matadors are now within one team win of matching the program's best win total of 17 set in 2018 ... CSUN's No. 4 pair of Kailey Klein and Victoria Rogers split their two matches on Saturday. With a straight-set win over Cal State LA, Klein and Rogers won for the 17th time this season which leads the team but also ties for the third-most single-season pairs wins in program history. With 20 individual wins this season, Rogers already has the single-season record followed by Klein with 19. Already the program record holder, Klein picked up career individual win No. 51 with Saturday's victory over Cal State LA ... Darbi Honeycutt and Mikaela Maughan picked up their 41st career win as a pair against Cal State LA, a program record.
Three CSUN pairs have double figures in wins this season;Â Klein and Rogers bring a 17-8 record into the conference championship followed by Lauren Eknoian and Emily Sparks (13-16) and True McCullough and Seyvion Waggoner (12-8). Honeycutt and Maughan have played 20 times together this season and are currently 9-11.
CSUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
The Matadors have an all-time record of 82-94 (.466) in their ninth season of beach volleyball, including a 53-28 (.654) 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.
#UniteTheValley
