California State University at Northridge
UC Irvine
CSUN Looks to Carry Momentum Into Weekend Series With UC Irvine
4/7/2022 11:23:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #18Â (BIG WEST #7)
No. 14 UC Irvine Anteaters (8-13, 1-5 Big West) @CSUN Matadors (6-11, 1-5Â Big West)
Friday, Apr. 8, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.Â
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #19Â (BIG WEST #8)
CSUN Matadors @ No. 14Â UC Irvine Anteaters
Saturday, Apr. 9, 2022Â - 7:00Â p.m. PDT
Bren Events Center - Irvine, Calif.Â
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Men's Volleyball team (6-11, 1-5 Big West) looks to build on the momentum of its first conference win as the Matadors open a home-and-home series with 14th-ranked UC Irvine Friday at the Premier American Credit Union Arena at 7 p.m. CSUN then travels to the Bren Center on Saturday, also at 7 p.m. to complete the season series with the Anteaters. The Matadors not only picked up their first conference win of the season last Thursday but also their first road win of the season with a straight-set win at No. 9 UC San Diego.
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 Irvine (8-13, 1-5Â Big West)Â has dropped four straight since a 3-1 victory over George Mason on Mar. 12. The 14th-ranked Anteaters lost 3-1 to No. 6 UC Santa Barbara at home before falling in straight sets in Goleta last week. The Anteaters were out-hit by the Gauchos .347-.250 in the finale. Sophomore Francisco Sani leads UCI averaging 3.94 kills per set which ranks third in the Big West.
Series: The two matches this week mark the 73rd and 74th meetings all-time between the Matadors and UC Irvine with the two teams tied at 36 wins apiece. The two teams split the season series in 2021 with each team winning in four sets at home. CSUN is 19-13 all-time against the Anteaters in Northridge and 17-21 all-time in Irvine.
NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL - APR. 5Â (WEEK 14)
After earning votes in three straight NVA/AVCA Top-15 Coaches polls (Feb. 29-Mar. 14), CSUN (6-11) was not listed in the latest poll released Apr. 5. 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 seventh straight week as the Bruins (17-3) earned 14 of 19 first-place votes and 280 total points. Long Beach State (16-3) remained second this week, earning four first-place votes followed in the top-five by Penn State (20-3), Hawai'i (18-5) and UC Santa Barbara (16-6). USC (17-6) dropped to sixth this week followed in the top-10 by Ball State (19-2), Pepperdine (14-7), Grand Canyon (16-9) and UC San Diego (12-8). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Loyola-Chicago (16-7), Stanford (10-11), Lewis (13-11), UC Irvine (8-13) and McKendree (12-10).
CSUN DIGS IN ON DEFENSE
After scooping up a season-high 40 digs in a 3-1 win over No. 12 Stanford on Feb. 26, the Matadors would not surpass 23 team digs in a match over their next five matches. The stretch culminated with a season-low nine digs against No. 7 Pepperdine (Mar. 18). Since then, CSUN has averaged nearly 27 digs over its last four matches. The Matadors had 33 digs in a four-set loss at No. 4 Hawai'i on Mar. 25 and then had 34 digs in Thursday's straight-set win at No. 9 UC San Diego. Redshirt junior Joe Picone has helped stabilize the back row, starting the last eight matches at libero. Picone scooped up a CSUN season-high 11 digs at Hawai'i (Mar. 25) and then came back with nine digs in the Matadors' road win at UC San Diego. Picone's 11 digs 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.
HOBUS CONTINUES CAREER SEASON INÂ 2022Â
Redshirt sophomore Kyle Hobus continues to enjoy his best season since his first season (2020) when he was named the Big West's Co-Freshman of the Year along with Long Beach State's Mason Briggs. Hobus appeared in 13 of CSUN's 15 matches during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before being limited to six of the Matadors' 11 matches last season due to injury. This season, Hobus has already established season-highs in matches played (15), sets played (50), kills (152), hitting percentage (.293), aces (14) and blocks (41). He has reached double figures in kills nine times this season and has been CSUN's leader in kills 11 times in 17 matches. Hobus also continues to rank among the conference's top-15 in several statistical categories. He is currently ninth in both kills per set (3.04) and points per set (3.78) while ranking 10th in hitting percentage (.304) and 11th in both aces per set (0.28) and blocks per set (0.82).
MATADOR NOTES
With 14 kills in two matches last week, sophomore Griffin Walters surpassed 100 kills for the season for the first time in his career. With 113 kills this season, Walters ranks second to Hobus (152) with Daniel Wetter (103) the third CSUN hitter with at least 100 kills this season ... Freshman Lorenzo Bertozzi earned the first starts of his collegiate career in the UC San Diego series. Bertozzi notched six kills and a season-high seven digs in CSUN's 3-0 win in La Jolla after coming off the bench in the second match against Hawai'i to connect 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 ... With a split in two matches against UC San Diego, CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell improved his career record to 41-6 all-time against the Tritons ... 10 of the Matadors' 11 losses this season have come to teams ranked in the NVA/AVCA Top-15 poll, while their 11th came against NJIT which was receiving votes in the poll. CSUN will get another shot at its second win over a ranked opponent this week in No. 14 UC Irvine. 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), 1-1 against No. 9 (UC San Diego) and 1-1 against No. 12 (Stanford).
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 330-345 and has been the most successful coach at CSUN over the past 17 years. Campbell has posted 279 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 330 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 previous 24 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 11-25 (.306) in 36 Big West matches. 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 two-match series with UC San Diego, the Matadors will play one final home-and-home series in the regular season against Long Beach State (Apr. 15-16). CSUN's final home match of the season will be Apr. 16 when the Matadors host the Beach at 7 p.m.
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