California State University at Northridge
Stanford
14th-Ranked CSUN Takes 7-Match Winning Streak to No. 10 Stanford
3/1/2023 11:58:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK
MATCH #17:
No. 14 CSUN Matadors (11-5, 1-0 Big West) at No. 10 Stanford Cardinal (9-6, 2-2 MPSF)
Friday, Mar. 3, 2023Â - 5:00Â p.m. PT
Maples Pavilion - Stanford, Calif.
Pac-12 Live Stream
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The 14th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (11-5, 1-0 Big West) plays its penultimate non-conference match of the season this week as the Matadors travel to Stanford on Friday to take on the 10-ranked Cardinal at 5 p.m. CSUN, winners of a season-high seven straight, swept Westcliff University before topping UC San Diego in four sets in its Big West opener last week.
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 REMAINS 14TH IN NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
The Matadors (11-5, 1-0 Big West) received a season-high 49 points but remained 14th in the latest NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches poll (Feb. 27). Winners of a season-high seven straight matches, CSUN has held the No. 14 spot for three straight weeks after moving back into the poll for the for the first time since the 2020 season on Feb. 6 (No. 15). 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 (13-0) is the top ranked team for the ninth consecutive poll, collecting all 22 first-place votes and 330 total points. UCLA (15-1) remained second this week followed in the top five by Penn State (13-1), Long Beach State (8-2) and Grand Canyon (14-1). UC Irvine (9-5) remained sixth, followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (10-6), BYU (10-4), Loyola-Chicago (13-2) and Stanford (9-6). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes USC (7-7), Ball State (9-5), Ohio State (11-5), the Matadors (11-5) and Charleston (14-1).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
No. 10 Stanford (9-6, 2-2 MPSF) has split its last two conference series' against No. 7 Pepperdine and at No. 13 USC. The Cardinal are coming off a four-set loss to the Trojans last Sunday despite out-hitting USC .369-.333. Will Rottman led Stanford with 21 kills on .362 hitting while setter Nathan Lietzke recorded a double-double with 45 assists and 11 digs. Rottman leads Stanford, averaging 3.79 kills per set on .305 hitting.
Series:Â Friday's match is the 77th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Cardinal with Stanford holding a 44-32 edge in the series. After coming back to win the final two sets in a five-set victory earlier this season (Feb. 3), CSUN has won two straight and six of the last 10 between the two teams. The Matadors are 10-22 all-time in 32 matches at Stanford.
TELLO NAMED BIG WEST PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Jano Tello became the second CSUN men's volleyball players honored as Big West Player of the Week when the conference announced its weekly awards on Feb. 27.
Tello opened the week with a bang, knocking down a career-high 10 kills on 10 errorless swings sets a single-match CSUN record for hitting percentage (1.000). Tello edged four Matadors who held the record at .929. Daniel Wetter's 13 kills on 14 swings in 2021 was the latest to reach the mark. Tello also added one ace and three blocks for CSUN in the win. Tello then five kills and one error on eight attacks, to go with two blocks and one assist as CSUN topped UC San Diego in four sets in its 2023 Big West opener in La Jolla. For the week, the junior from Chula Vista put down 15 kills on 18 swings to hit .778 while averaging 2.14 kills per set. He also added one ace and five blocks in the two matches.
CSUN SNAPS SKID IN BIG WEST OPENERS
Friday's four-set win at UC San Diego snapped a string of four straight Matador losses in Big West road openers dating back to 2018. CSUN dropped its 2022 conference opener at UC Santa Barbara (3-0), its 2021 road opener at UC Irvine (3-1) and its 2018 and 2019 road openers at Long Beach State (3-0, 3-0). The 2020 Big West season was not contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the win over UCSD, the Matadors improved to 20-26 (.435) all-time in conference season openers. CSUN, which will host the Tritons on Mar. 16, is an impressive 26-18 (.591) all-time in conference home openers.
MATADORS IN THE RECORD BOOKS
A trio of Matadors are looking to etch their names in the CSUN Rally Scoring era record books. Redshirt junior Kyle Hobus currently ranks fifth in kills per set with a career average of 3.36. Hobus heads into the week with 631 career kills in 188 sets while taking 1,441 attacks over his three-plus seasons. Sophomore Donovan Constable has already entered the Rally Scoring era record books with 1,134 career assists which is currently eighth. Constable opens the week just 212 assists from catching Jeff Conover (2004-05) for seventh on the Rally Scoring era assists list. Junior Griffin Walters added three aces against UCSD last week and now has 72 career service aces. Walters is now 10 aces away from moving into the top-10 as Mike Gaudino currently holds the #10 spot with 82 career aces.
CSUN QUICK SETS
After completing January with a 4-4 record following a 3-0 loss to No. 2 UCLA (Jan. 27), the Matadors went on to finish 7-1 in February, capped by Friday's 3-1 win at UCSD ... The win over the Tritons was not only CSUN's second win of the season when losing the opening set but set several season highs for a four-set match including kills (45), hitting percentage (.241), assists (40), aces (7) and total blocks (12.0) ... Kyle Hobus, who eclipsed 600 career kills and 700 career points in recent weeks, posted a career-high eight blocks in CSUN's win at UCSD. Hobus, who leads the Matadors with 205 kills and a 3.66 kills per set average, had had his two biggest blocking nights in La Jolla after posting five last March ... Lorenzo Bertozzi has now scored double figures in points in two straight matches, including 10 points on seven kills and a career-high three aces against Westcliff. Bertozzi now has double digit point totals in three of his last five matches and four of his last seven ... Griffin Walters has already surpassed his previous season-high in kills (147) with 151 through 16 matches.
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 now 13-38 (.255) in 51 Big West matches over five-plus 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 Friday's non-conference road match at 10th-ranked Stanford, CSUN will complete the Big West home-and-home series with UC San Diego on Mar. 16. The Matadors will then host Daemen in their final non-conference match of the season on Mar. 18 before hosting top-ranked Hawai'i for a pair of matches (Mar. 24-25).Â
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