#23 CSUN Faces #5 Hawai'i at Big West Championships on Friday

Friday, April 28

Santa Barbara, Calif.

1:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

Hawai'i

Photo by: Connor Clark

#23 CSUN Faces #5 Hawai'i at Big West Championships on Friday

4/27/2023 10:25:00 AM | Women's Water Polo

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---No. 23 CSUN Water Polo embarks on competing at the 2023 Big West Women's Water Polo Championship this Friday. The seventh seed Matadors square off with second seed Hawai'i in an opening round match at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

A win over the Rainbow Wahine would move CSUN to the semifinal round of the Big West Championship against the winner of third seed Long Beach State and sixth seed UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Matadors notched their first conference win of the season with a 12-5 win over Cal State Fullerton last Saturday in the regular season finale. CSUN led from start-to-finish and held a nine-goal lead late in the fourth period. The Matadors broke open a 2-1 game after eight minutes by outscoring the Titans 4-0 in the second period.

Dorottya Telek recorded a hat trick in the match to go with two steals, one assist and one field block. Helena Sandhagen and Valeria Martinez also had two goals apiece while Meghan Lopez racked up 16 saves in front of the cage and had one goal scored.

MATADOR HEADLINES
Dorottya Telek has produced a historic season in the pool. On March 7, Telek broke the single-season scoring record in team history with her 81st goal, surpassing Whitney Delgado's previous 80-goal mark. Telek's three goals this Saturday pushed her season goal to an impressive 100. In The Big West, Telek tops the conference in goals by a 27-goal margin while she also paces the league with 111 points. In addition, Telek is second in the league in steals (44).

Meghan Lopez leads The Big West with 283 saves entering the postseason to go with a 8.98 goals-against-average. Elsewhere in The Big West, Anna Pal is second in the league in assists (41), sixth in steals (36) and seventh in points (70). Shelby Hovanesian is also seventh in the conference in assists (26) while Valeria Martinez is eighth in steals (30).

In addition to Telek, three other Matadors have scored over 20 goals this season. Hovanesian has hit the net 32 times while Pal has 29 goals and Helena Sandhagen has 21 goals.

CSUN honored Lacey Hall on Senior Day last Saturday against Cal State Fullerton. Hall, who will be wrapping up her CSUN career this season, has played in 57 matches in her collegiate career, tallying 27 points, 27 steals and 21 assists. On Saturday, Hall scored a goal and dished out an assist in her final Matador home match.

SERIES HISTORY
Hawai'i defeated CSUN 12-3 earlier this season on March 12 at Matador Pool. The Rainbow Wahine has won the last eight meetings in the series with CSUN's last win coming on March 7, 2015.

The teams have played three times in the postseason with the Rainbow Wahine winning two of those games. Hawai'i knocked off CSUN 6-5 at the 2015 Big West Championship while CSUN picked up a 6-5 win at the 2014 championships. The teams also squared off as members of the MPSF with Hawai'i coming out on top 13-5 at the 2006 conference tournament.

SCOUTING HAWAI'I
Fifth-ranked Hawai'i finished the regular season with a 19-5 overall record and 6-1 league mark. The Rainbow Wahine is coming off a 12-8 win over UC Davis last Saturday. All of the teams' five losses this season have come to teams currently ranked in the top-six nationally. Hawai'i has advanced to four-straight Big West title games with back-to-back wins taking place in 2019 and 2021 (the 2020 tournament was canceled).

Bia Mantellato Dias ranks second in The Big West in goals with 73 while Alba Bonamusa Boix is in ninth place with 48 goals. Four other players have scored above 20 goals this season, which include Jordan Wedderburn (36 goals), Lot Stertefeld (29 goals), Emma von Rossum (26 goals) and Lucia Gomez de la Puente (21 goals). This season, de la Puente tops the team in assists (29) and steals (24). In front of the cage, Bridget Layburn sports a 7.63 GAA and 157 saves.

#GoMatadors