California State University at Northridge
Benedictine University
No. 14 CSUN Hosts Benedictine in Non-Conference Action Thursday at 7 p.m.
2/16/2023 10:49:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK
MATCH #14:
Benedictine Eagles (4-3) at No. 14 CSUN Matadors (8-5)
Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The 14th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (8-5, 0-0 Big West) returns from a successful three-match trip to the East Coast to open a two-match homestand Thursday vs. Benedictine University at 7 p.m. The Matadors, who will also host Westcliff University next week to cap the homestand, open the week having won four straight which matches their season-high. CSUN won a pair of five-setters on the trip (Princeton, NJIT) while also sweeping Fairleigh Dickinson.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
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.
CSUN MOVES UP TOÂ 14TH IN NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After winning all three road matches on its East Coast road trip, CSUN (8-5) moved up to 14th in the latest NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches poll (Feb. 13). The Matadors, who moved back into the poll for the for the first time since the 2020 season last week at No. 15, earned a season-high 35 points this week, up 16 points from last week. Prior to Feb. 6 poll, 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 (9-0) is the top ranked team for the seventh consecutive poll, collecting all 22 first-place votes and 330 total points. UCLA (11-1) moved back into second this week followed in the top five by Penn State (9-1), Long Beach State (6-2) and Grand Canyon (11-0). UC Irvine (9-3) moved up to sixth this week, followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (8-4), BYU (8-2), Stanford (7-4) and Ohio State (9-3). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Ball State (6-4), USC (6-4), Loyola-Chicago (9-2), CSUN (8-5) and Charleston (11-0).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Benedictine (4-3), an NCAA Division III school from Lisle, Ill., opens up a four-match West Coast swing at CSUN on Wednesday. The match against the Matadors will count as an exhibition for the Eagles who will also play three weekend matches at Cal Lutheran against the Host Kingsmen, UC Santa Cruz and Moorpark College. Benedictine slipped to 4-3 on the season after falling in four sets to North Central on Feb. 11 in the first ever Christian Staple Battle of Chicago and Maple. Chase Olson, Martin Radomski and Cooper Armstrong all put down eight kills for Benedictine while Kyle Vasquez recorded 18 digs and Eoin O'Toole totaled six blocks. Thursday's match will the first-ever meeting between CSUN and Benedictine.
MATADORS CLAIM FIRST TRUE "ROAD" MATCHES
In its first true road matches of the season, CSUN came away with three wins on the East Coast. Making their furthest trip east in program history, the Matadors defeated Princeton and NJIT in five sets before capping the trip with a straight-set win over Fairleigh Dickinson. CSUN, which opened the season with three neutral site matches in Santa Barbara, last won on the road when the Matadors swept No. 9 UC San Diego on Mar. 31, 2022. The win turned out to be CSUN's lone road win as the Matadors went on to finish the season 1-9 on the road last season. Of its final 14 matches of the 2023 regular season (10 Big West matches), CSUN will play just five more road matches over the next two months.
CSUN IN THE BIG WEST STATS
The Matadors moved up to as high as second in the Big West statistics this week, ranking second in points per set (14.55). CSUN also ranks fourth this week in both opponent hitting (.252) and blocks per set (1.80). The Matadors are fifth in four other statistical categories. Kyle Hobus ranks among the top-20 in the Big West in five different categories this week. Hobus ranks fourth among Big West hitters in kills per set (3.66) while also ranking sixth in points per set (4.17), 14th in hitting percentage (.263), 17th in blocks (0.55) and 18th in aces (0.20). Griffin Walters also ranks in the top-20 in five categories this week; sixth in aces per set (0.41), eighth in hitting percentage (.283), ninth in kills per set (2.95) and points per set (3.55) and 20th in digs per set (1.15).
CSUN QUICK SETS
After picking up his first collegiate double-double against Stanford on Feb. 3, Donovan Constable narrowly missed adding two more double-doubles to his tally last week. Constable racked up 44 assists and eight digs in CSUN's 3-2 win over Princeton before following up with 53 assists and nine digs against NJIT. Constable and Lorenzo Bertozzi have CSUN's two double-doubles this season as Bertozzi also reached the milestone against Stanford with 12 kills and 11 digs ... After scooping up a career-high 20 digs in CSUN's win over Stanford on Feb. 3, Taylan Cook added 16 digs at NJIT and is now averaging 2.28 over his last four matches. Cook, who has moved up to sixth in the Big West averaging 1.84 digs per set, has been CSUN's digs leader in seven of the team's 13 matches this season ... With last week's road wins, CSUN improved to 3-2 all-time vs. Princeton and 5-1 all-time against NJIT. The last time the Matadors ventured as far as the East Coast was 2011 when CSUN fell in straight sets at Penn State.
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 a two-match homestand against Benedictine (this week) and Westcliff (next week), the Matadors hit the road to open the Big West schedule Friday (Feb. 24) at UC San Diego. In a scheduling quirk, CSUN will then play a non-conference match at Stanford (Mar. 3) before hosting the Tritons on Mar. 16 to cap the two-match conference set.
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