California State University at Northridge
UC San Diego
No. 12 Matadors Return to Big West Play, Hosting UCSD on Thursday
3/14/2023 4:44:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK
MATCH #18 (BIG WEST #2):
UC San Diego Tritons (6-12, 0-4 Big West) @ No. 12 CSUN Matadors (12-5, 1-0 Big West)
Thursday, Mar. 16, 2023Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #19:
Daemen Wildcats @ No. 12 CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Mar. 18, 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 12th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (12-5, 1-0 Big West) puts its season-long, eight-match win streak on the line this week as the Matadors resume Big West play before concluding the non-conference season. CSUN hosts UC San Diego in the second-half of its two-match Big West series on Thursday at 7 p.m., before hosting Daemen University in its final non-conference match of the season Saturday at 7 p.m. The Matadors last played a match on Mar. 3 when CSUN knocked off No. 10 Stanford in straight sets at Maples Pavilion.
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 TO 12TH IN NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
The Matadors (12-5, 1-0 Big West) received a season-high 91 points to move up to 12th in the latest NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches poll (Mar. 13). Winners of a season-high eight straight matches, CSUN held the No. 13 spot last week after holding the No. 14 spot for three straight weeks (Feb. 13-27). The Matadors moved 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 (17-1) is the top ranked team for the 11th consecutive poll, collecting 14 of 22 first-place votes and 322 total points. Penn State (17-2) moved into second this week with eight first-place votes followed in the top five by UCLA (19-2), Long Beach State (11-2) and Grand Canyon (18-1). UC Irvine (12-6) remained sixth, followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (12-8), BYU (12-6), Loyola-Chicago (16-2) and Stanford (9-8). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes USC (8-9), the Matadors (12-5), Ball State (11-7), Charleston (17-1) and Ohio State (11-8).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC San Diego (6-12, 0-4 Big West) has dropped six straight matches after falling to sixth-ranked UC Irvine twice last week. The Tritons fell 3-0 in Irvine on Friday before falling in straight sets to the Anteaters at home on Saturday. Ryan Ka averages a team-high 3.78 kills per set for the Tritons who rank fifth in the Big West in hitting at .269. Ka currently ranks fourth in the Big West in kills per set, sixth in points per set (4.20) and 15th in hitting (.233).
Series:Â Thursday's match is the 93rd meeting all-time between the Matadors and Tritons. CSUN owns an 80-12 record in the previous 92 matches but UCSD has won four of the last six between the two teams. The Matadors are 36-5 all-time against the Tritons at home.
Daemen (11-1) are venturing to the West Coast for the first time in school history this week as the Wildcats take on Concordia Irvine on Wednesday, No. 7 Pepperdine on Friday and the Matadors on Saturday. Daemen heads into the week carrying a season-long, 10-match winning streak after defeating Long Island University in NEC play last Thursday. Zach Schneider, Henry Moffitt and Sean Califf reach received Northeast Conference honors this week for the Wildcats.
Series:Â Saturday's match is the first-ever match between CSUN and Daemen.
MATADORS ENJOY LONGEST WIN STREAK SINCE '09
Winners of a season-high eight straight matches, CSUN has engineered its longest winning streak in 13 seasons. The Matadors have not lost since falling to Vanguard (3-0) on Feb. 1, winning all seven of their remaining matches in February before opening the month of March with a sweep at No. Stanford (Mar. 3). The 2009 CSUN squad had the program's most recent sizable win streak, claiming 10 straight from Feb. 6 to Mar. 11. The program record is 14 straight wins by the 2008 Matadors who went almost two months (Feb. 8 to Mar. 28) without losing a match.
CSUN SNAPS SKID IN BIG WEST OPENERS
The Matadors will return to Big West play this week after their four-set win at UC San Diego on Feb. 24 snapped a string of four straight CSUN losses in Big West road openers dating back to 2018. The Matadors come into Thursday's match against the Tritons holding a 26-18 (.591) record in 44 conference home openers dating back to 1977. CSUN is 1-2 over its last three Big West home openers, falling in straight sets to UC Santa Barbara in 2022 following a 3-1 win over UC Irvine in 2021. The Matadors lost their home openers to Long Beach State to open both the 2018 and 2019 seasons before the 2020 Big West season was not contested due to COVID-19.Â
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 3.38. Hobus heads into the week with 645 career kills in 191 sets while taking 1,470 attacks over his three-plus seasons. Sophomore Donovan Constable has already entered the Rally Scoring era record books with 1,170 career assists which is currently eighth. Constable opens the week just 176 assists from catching Jeff Conover (2004-05) for seventh on the Rally Scoring era assists list. Junior Griffin Walters added a pair of aces at Stanford last week and now has 74 career service aces. Walters is now eight aces away from moving into the top-10 as Mike Gaudino currently holds the #10 spot with 82 career aces.
CSUN QUICK SETS
Lorenzo Bertozzi has now scored double figures in points in three straight matches while hitting .489 over the stretch. With 26 kills and just four hitting errors over 48 swings, Bertozzi is now hitting .323 on the season which leads the Matador pin hitters. The sophomore from Parma, Italy connected for 10 kills on 15 errorless attacks in CSUN's most recent win over Stanford while also adding eight digs, narrowly missing his second collegiate double-double ... Jano Tello is also on a tear of late, putting down 21 kills with just one error on his last 26 swings. Tello is now hitting a team-high .409 on the season with 90 kills and 27 errors on a career-high 154 swings ... Saturday's match against Daemen marks CSUN's final non-conference match of the 2023 regular season. The Matadors have won 11 of their 16 non-conference matches this season, the lone losses coming to No. 2 UCLA (twice), No. 10 USC (twice) and Vanguard.
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 12-29 (.292) in 41 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. He picked up his first collegiate coaching win when the Matadors swept Lincoln Memorial in Santa Barbara on Jan. 7. 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 Saturday's non-conference finale against Daemen, Big West play resumes in earnest as the Matadors will take on top-ranked Hawai'i (Mar. 24-25), No. 6 UC Irvine (Mar. 31-Apr. 1), No. 4 Long Beach State (Apr. 7-8) and UCSB (Apr. 15-14) over the next four weeks.
#GoMatadors
