California State University at Northridge
UC Irvine
No. 15 Matadors Open Home-and-Home Set at No. 5 UCI on Friday
3/29/2023 1:25:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #22 (BIG WEST #5)
No. 15 CSUN Matadors (12-9, 1-3 Big West) at No. 5 UC Irvine Anteaters (14-6, 4-0 Big West)
Friday, Mar. 31, 2023Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Bren Events Center - Irvine, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #23 (BIG WEST #6):
No. 5 UC Irvine Anteaters @Â No. 15Â CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Apr. 1, 2023 - 7:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The 15th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (12-9, 1-3 Big West) continues Big West play this week as the Matadors open a home-and-home series against No. 5 UC Irvine on Friday. The Matadors and Anteaters meet at UCI's Bren Events Center on Friday at 7 p.m. before wrapping up the two-match set at Premier America Credit Union Arena in Northridge on Saturday. CSUN is coming off a two-match home series against No. 2 Hawai'i that saw the Rainbow Warriors win in straight sets both nights.
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 RANKED 15TH IN THIS WEEK'S NVA/AVCA?TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
The Matadors (12-9, 1-3 Big West) received 30 points this week but slipped from 14th to 15th in the latest NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches poll (Mar. 27). CSUN, which received a season-high 91 points to rank 12th on Mar. 13, has now held the No. 15 spot twice in 2023. 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 (20-2) reclaimed the No. 1 spot this week as the Rainbow Warriors collected 17 of 22 first-place votes and 321 total points. UCLA (21-2) moved back up to No. 2 after earning five first-place votes followed by Penn State (18-3) which held the No. 1 spot last week. The rest of this week's top five features Long Beach State (14-3) in fourth and Grand Canyon (21-2) and UC Irvine (14-6) tied for fifth. BYU (14-6) is seventh this week, followed in the top-10 by Pepperdine (14-10), Stanford (9-10) and Loyola-Chicago (19-4). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes USC (8-11), Ball State (14-8), Ohio State (15-9), Charleston (19-2) and the Matadors (12-9).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC Irvine (14-6, 4-0 Big West), tied for fifth in this week's AVCA poll, was idle last week after opening the Big West season 4-0. The Anteaters claimed Big West home-and-home series' with UC San Diego (Mar. 10-11) and UC Santa Barbara (Mar. 16-17) following a 3-2 loss at home to Penn State on Mar. 5. UCI, 7-3 at home this season, is led by Francesco Sani who leads the Big West averaging 3.92 kills per set. Sani had 21 kills (.404), 11 digs and a career-high six aces in the opener at UCSB. As a team, the Anteaters rank third in the Big West in hitting (.328) while leading the conference in aces at 1.93 per set.
Series: The two matches this week mark the 75th and 76th meetings all-time between the Matadors and UC Irvine. The Anteaters won both meetings in 2022 and now hold a slim 38-36 lead in the series. UCI won 3-0 in Irvine and 3-1 in Northridge last season. The Matadors are 17-22 against the 'Eaters in Irvine and 19-14 in Northridge in the series that dates back to 1977.
MATADOR MIDDLES MAKING AN IMPACT IN 2023Â
CSUN came into the 2023 season facing the challenge of replacing two-time All-American Daniel Wetter at middle blocker. A trio of players (junior Jano Tello, sophomore Jackson Payne and freshman Malcolm King) have more than adequately filled the spot so far in 2023. Tello, who played with Wetter in the middle in 2022, has hit a Wetter-like .428 this season. Tello, a career .384 hitter, comes into the week with 116 kills and just 33 errors on 194 attacks while making 21 starts. Payne had made 11 starts this season and is hitting .378 with 30 blocks. King has appeared in 17 matches (10 starts) and has taken over as CSUN's leader in blocks per set at 0.93 while ranking second in total blocks with 40. King has been the Matadors' leader in blocks in four of the last five matches, including a season-high 9.0 blocks against Daemen on Mar. 18.
CSUN FINISHES 11-6 IN NON-CONFERENCE PLAY
Despite a five-set loss to Daemen on Mar. 18, the Matadors wrapped up a successful non-conference season with 11 wins in 17 matches. After opening the season with consecutive losses to No. 2 UCLA and No. 10 USC in Santa Barbara, CSUN would go on to win 11 of its next 15 to complete its most successful non-conference season since finishing 10-7 in 17 non-conference matches in 2019.
HOBUS CLOSING IN ON 700 CAREER KILLS, 1,600 ATTEMPTS
With 20 kills in two matches against Hawai'i, junior Kyle Hobus now has 697 kills in his CSUN career. Hobus is looking to etch his name in the CSUN record books, along with teammates Griffin Walters and Donovan Constable. In his three-plus seasons, Hobus currently ranks fifth in CSUN's Rally Scoring era in kills per set with a career average of 3.42. Hobus heads into the week with 697 career kills on 1,598 attacks over 204 sets. Constable has already entered the Rally Scoring era record books and heads into the week with 1,311 career assists which is currently eighth. Constable opens the week trailing Jeff Conover (2004-05) by 40 assists for seventh place on the Rally Scoring era assists list. With 75 aces this season, Walters is now seven aces away from moving into the top-10 as Nils Nielsen currently holds the #10 spot in CSUN's Rally Scoring era with 82 career aces.
CSUN QUICK SETS
Two losses to No. 2 Hawai'i last weekend dropped the Matadors to 6-7 at home this season. CSUN has already surpassed its best home win total in the last three seasons. The Matadors' last winning season at home was 2019 when they finished 8-5 in 13 home contests. With three home matches remaining, CSUN can still post its highest home win total since finishing 10-3 in 2018 ... Junior Griffin Walters had a career match against Daemen on Mar. 18, connecting for a career-high 20 kills on 36 swings to hit .417. He came within one dig of his second career double-double after also narrowly missing a double-double with 10 kills and nine digs against USC on Jan. 25. Walters notched his only double-double against Long Beach State during the 2021 season when he had 11 kills and 11 digs. Hobus notched his third career double-double against Daemen with 17 kills and 11 digs. Hobus had a pair of double-doubles in 2022 when he had 12 kills and 10 digs against Stanford and 21 kills and 12 digs at Long Beach State ... Saturday's loss to No. 2 Hawai'i dropped the Matadors to 2-6 this season against ranked teams. CSUN's two wins over ranked teams both came against Stanford on Feb. 3 and Mar. 3.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
2023 marks CSUN's sixth season as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. At 1-3 this season, the Matadors are now 12-32 (.273) in 44 Big West matches over five-plus seasons since the conference's inaugural season in 2018. 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 two matches against UC Irvine this week, CSUN opens a home-and-home set with Long Beach State in Northridge on Apr. 7.
#GoMatadors
