California State University at Northridge
Long Beach State
No. 15 Matadors Host No. 4 Long Beach State in Two-Match Opener Friday
4/5/2023 6:31:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #24Â (BIG WEST #7)
No. 4 Long Beach State (16-3, 5-1 Big West) at No. 15 CSUN Matadors (12-11, 1-5 Big West)
Friday, Apr. 7, 2023Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #25 (BIG WEST #8):
No. 15Â CSUN Matadors at No. 4 Long Beach State
Saturday, Apr. 8, 2023Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Walter Pyramid - Long Beach, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The 15th-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team (12-11, 1-5 Big West) opens the homestretch of the 2023 Big West season this week as the Matadors open a home-and-home series against No. 4 Long Beach State Friday in Northridge. The Matadors and Beach will then wrap up the season series Saturday in Long Beach at 7 p.m. CSUN looks to put an end to a six-match skid after the Matadors dropped a pair of 3-0 decisions to No. 5 UC Irvine 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 RANKED 15TH IN THIS WEEK'S NVA/AVCAÂ TOP-15 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
The Matadors (12-11, 1-5 Big West) received 27 points in the latest NVA/AVCA Men's Division I-II Coaches poll and is ranked 15th for the second straight week. CSUN, which received a season-high 91 points to rank 12th on Mar. 13, has now held the No. 15 spot three times 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 (22-2) held on to the No. 1 spot again this week as the Rainbow Warriors collected 14 of 22 first-place votes and 317 total points. UCLA (23-2) is No. 2 after earning the remaining eight first-place votes followed by Penn State (20-3), Long Beach State (16-3) and UC Irvine (16-6). Grand Canyon (21-4) is sixth this week, followed in the top-10 by BYU (16-6), Pepperdine (15-10), Stanford (11-10) and Loyola-Chicago (21-4). The remainder of this week's top-15 includes Ball State (16-8), USC (8-13), Ohio State (17-9), Charleston (21-2) and the Matadors (12-11).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Long Beach State (16-3, 5-1 Big West), fourth in this week's AVCA poll, improved to 5-1 in the Big West with a pair of 3-0 sweeps over UC San Diego last week. Simon Torwie, the nation's leading blocker, was named Big West Defensive Player of the Week after averaging 2.67 blocks per set. He posted 16 blocks over two matches, while also contributing 1.50 kills per set on a .353 attack percentage. Mason Briggs also leads the Big West in digs per set at 2.36. As a team, the Beach lead the Big West in opponent hitting percentage (.199) and blocking (2.92 per set).
Series: The two matches this week mark the 87th and 88th meetings all-time between the Matadors and Long Beach State. The Beach won both meetings in 2022 and have won three straight and 10 of the last 11 in the series. Since 2012, CSUN's only wins in the series came in 2016 and 2021, both in five sets in Northridge. The Matadors are 16-21 all-time against Long Beach State in Northridge and 10-26 in Long Beach in the series that dates back to 1981.
CAREER NUMBERS WATCH
With 22 kills in two matches against UCI, junior Kyle Hobus surpassed the 700 career kills milestone 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 3.41. Hobus heads into the week with 719 career kills on 1,644 attacks over 211 sets. Hobus also has 277 career digs and 131 career blocks in his Matador career. Constable has already entered the Rally Scoring era record books and heads into the week with 1,348 career assists which is currently eighth. Constable opens the week trailing Jeff Conover (2004-05) by just three 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.
OUTRIGGER BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIPÂ ON THE HORIZON
The 2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men's Volleyball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands is set to open Thursday, April 20 at UC Irvine's Bren Events Center. First round matches will feature the No. 4 seed taking on the No. 5 seed at 5 p.m. and the No. 3 seed is pitted against the No. 6 seed at 7:30 p.m. The schedule on Friday, April 21, sees the advancing teams taking on the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, with the games again slated for 5 and 7:30 p.m. The first two days of the championship will be streamed nationally on ESPN+. Produced by Spectrum Sports, Kanoa Leahey will be on the call with Chris McLachlin providing analysis for the four matches. The championship finale is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU, serving as the first and only nationally-televised men's volleyball prior to the national championship on ESPN platforms in 2023. Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett will be on the call from Irvine.
CSUN QUICK SETS
In addition to surpassing 700 career kills last week, Hobus is closing in on 300 kills on the season for the first time in his career. With 293 kills this season, Hobus has already set a season career-high surpassing the 234 kills he had in 2022. With 16 digs in two matches against the Anteaters, Hobus reached 100 digs for the first time. He has now been CSUN's digs leader in the last three matches ... Matteo Salvador joined Taylan Cook as CSUN's second libero for the UC Irvine series. Salvador, a first-year sophomore from Sesto San Giovanni, Italy, notched his first CSUN kill and dig against Vanguard on Feb. 1. He combined with Cook and scooped up a season-high four digs in Irvine on Friday before matching that total with four digs in Northridge on Saturday ... Saturday's loss to No. 5 UC Irvine dropped the Matadors to 6-8 at home this season while Friday loss in Irvine was CSUN's first true road loss of the year ... Despite the loss to UCI, the Matadors have already surpassed their best home win total in the last three seasons. CSUN's last winning season at home was 2019 when the Matadors finished 8-5 in 13 home contests. With two home matches remaining, CSUN can still post its highest home win total since finishing 10-3 in 2018 ... Two losses last week to No. 5 UCI dropped the Matadors to 2-8 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 1-5 this season, the Matadors are now 12-34 (.261) in 46 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 Long Beach State this week, CSUN caps the 2023 regular season with a home-and-home set against UC Santa Barbara in Northridge on Apr. 14. The two teams play the regular season finale in Santa Barbara on Apr. 15. Â
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