California State University at Northridge
UCLA
CSUN Opens 2023 Campaign at UCSB Asics Invitational
1/4/2023 10:47:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK - UCSBÂ ASICS INVITATIONAL
MATCH #1
CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. No. 2 UCLA Bruins (0-0)
Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023Â - 5:30Â p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #2
CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. No. 10 USC Trojans (0-0)
Friday, Jan. 6, 2023Â - 8:00Â p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
MATCH #3
CSUN Matadors (0-0) vs. Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters (0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023Â - 3:00Â p.m. PT
Rob Gym - Santa Barbara, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN men's volleyball team (0-0, 0-0 Big West) opens the 2023 season as well as the Theo Edwards era this week with three matches at the UCSB Asics Invitational at Rob Gym in Santa Barbara. The Matadors, receiving votes in the NVA/AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll, get the season underway Thursday against No. 2 UCLA at 5:30 before meeting another former MPSF foe in No. 10 USC on Friday at 8 p.m. CSUN concludes the three-day event on Saturday, taking on Lincoln Memorial at 3 p.m. All matches of the Asics Invitational will be held at Rob Gym on the UCSB campus.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
All matches of the Asics Invitational will feature live stats while live streaming of the CSUN matches is still being determined. All Matador 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.
MATADORS RECEIVING VOTESÂ IN NVA/AVCAÂ COACHES TOP-15 PRESEASON POLL
CSUN received nine points and was the third team listed in the "Others Receiving Votes" section of the 2023 Preseason NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches polls (Jan. 3). The Matadors, who received votes in the coaches poll seven times during the 2022 season including a season-high 12 points in the preseason poll, were 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.
Hawai'i, the two-time defending national champion, is the preseason No. 1 team collecting 21 first-place votes and 328 total points. UCLA is second with one first place vote and 295 total points followed in the top five by Long Beach State, Penn State and Pepperdine. Ball State is sixth in the preseason poll followed in the top-10 by UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Stanford and USC. The remainder of the preseason top-15 includes Grand Canyon, Loyola-Chicago, Ohio State, Lewis and Princeton.
SCOUTING THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
The 2023 UCSB Asics invitational features three Big West teams (CSUN, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara) taking on three non-conference foes (UCLA, USC, Lincoln Memorial).
UCLA opens the 2023 season Thursday against the Matadors before meeting UC San Diego on Friday and UCSB on Saturday. The Bruins are ranked second in the NVA/AVCA preseason poll following a 22-5 season in 2022. UCLA reached to the national semifinals a year ago after finishing first in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Thursday's match is the 89th meeting all-time between CSUN and UCLA dating back to 1978.
USC opens the 2023 season against host UCSB on Thursday before meeting CSUN on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday. The Trojans, ranked 10th in the NVA/AVCA preseason poll, finished 22-7 in 2022 and posted an 8-4 record to finish second in the MPSF. Head coach Jeff Nygaard enters his eighth season at Troy in 2023. Friday's match is the 81st meeting between CSUN and USC dating back to 1980.
Lincoln Memorial opens the 2023 season at No. 5 Pepperdine on Wednesday before taking on UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and CSUN in Santa Barbara. The Railsplitters finished the 2022 season with a 20-7 overall record which included an Independent Volleyball Association Tournament Championship as well as wins over No. 11 Loyola-Chicago and at No. 14 McKendree. Saturday's match is the first-ever between the Matadors and Railsplitters.
MATADORSÂ ATÂ THE UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL
Thursday's match against UCLA marks CSUN's 22nd appearance in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament in the last 26 years. The Matadors were scheduled to open the 2022 season against Saint Xavier in Santa Barbara but due to COVID protocols within the program, CSUN was forced to withdraw which snapped a streak of 16 consecutive appearances. After the tournament was canceled in 2021, CSUN's most recent appearance in the tournament was 2020, when the Matadors finished 1-2 with a win over Benedictine Mesa and losses to McKendree and Concordia-Irvine. In 2019, CSUN won two of its three matches; defeating No. 12 Concordia and Harvard before falling to No. 14 Grand Canyon in five sets. The loss to Grand Canyon snapped a streak of 11 straight Matador wins in the tournament dating back to a loss to Princeton in 2015. CSUN won its first-ever UCSB tournament championship in 2009 after upsetting No. 2 UCLA (3-1) and defeating No. 14 UCSB (3-1) and No. 8 Stanford (3-1). The Matadors then won their second straight crown in 2010 topping UCSB (3-1), Cal Baptist (3-1) and BYU (3-1). All-time, the Matadors are 51-33 (.607) in UC Santa Barbara's tournament.
CSUN QUICK SETS
CSUN returns five starters and 11 letterwinners from 2022's squad that finished 6-16 overall and 1-9 in the Big West. Key returners this season include 2022 All-Big West first-team selection Kyle Hobus, and Big West All-Freshman Team picks Olumide Allen and Donovan Constable. Junior Griffin Walters, redshirt junior Jano Tello and sophomore Lorenzo Bertozzi also return to anchor the CSUN lineup, which a handful of talented newcomers will bolster. Hobus, a redshirt junior, had a breakout season for the Matadors in 2022. The Big West Co-Freshman of the Year as well as an honorable mention and All-Freshman selection in 2020, he improved his numbers in every statistical category last season. Hobus led CSUN in kills with 234 and ranked fifth in the Big West, averaging 3.49 kills per set. He was the team leader in kills in 16 of 22 matches in 2022 and also ranked among the Big West's top 20 in hitting, service aces, digs, blocks, and points. Allen and Constable were the sixth and seventh Matador freshmen to earn Big West All-Freshman Team accolades since 2018. Constable had a team-high 666 assists in 22 matches last season, which is the most by a CSUN freshman since Taylor Ittner posted 992 as a freshman in 2019. Constable, who made 21 starts in his debut season, ranked fifth among Big West setters (20th nationally), averaging 9.65 assists per set. Allen ranked in the top-20 in the Big West in blocks while ranking second to Daniel Wetter in hitting percentage at .422 with 78 kills and 21 errors on 135 swings ... CSUN is 26-19 (.577) all-time in season openers heading into Thursday's season opener against UCLA.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
2023 marks CSUN's sixth season as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. Since the conference's inaugural season in 2018, the Matadors are 12-38 (.240) in 50 Big West matches over their first five seasons. CSUN finished 5-5 in the inaugural Big West season in 2018 before finishing 3-7 in 2019, 2-8 in 2021 and 1-9 in 2022. 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 the 2019, 2021 and 2022 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.
THEO EDWARDS NAMED CSUN'S MEN'S VOLLEYBALL COACH
Theo Edwards, CSUN's associate head coach since 2019, was named the successor to Jeff Campbell on Dec. 9, 2022. Edwards completed his 12th season on Campbell's coaching staff in 2022. He was promoted to associate head coach in August 2019 and served as the program's recruiting coordinator. He has been instrumental in CSUN's top recruiting classes over the last several years as the Matadors have brought in a host of AVCA Top 50 high school players. As a four-year letterwinner for the Matadors, Edwards had his finest season as a senior in 2010 as the Matadors reached the NCAA Tournament semifinals. He was the team captain of the squad that became just the second CSUN team, and first since 1993, to reach the NCAA Tournament.
LOOKING AHEAD
After three matches in Santa Barbara to open the season, the Matadors return to Northridge to host Edward Waters in their 2023 home opener on Jan. 12. The match against the Tigers opens a season-long, eight-match homestand for CSUN which concludes against Stanford on Feb. 3. The eight-match homestand is the longest in program history, surpassing a seven-match homestand in 2008 and six-match homestands in 1980, 2003 and 2020.Â
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