California State University at Northridge
UTRGV
CSUN Wraps Up Non-Conference Schedule at USF Challenge
9/14/2023 11:47:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #9
CSUN Matadors (1-7) vs. UTRGV (6-4)
Friday, Sept. 15, 2023Â - 11Â a.m. PDT
War Memorial at The Sobrato Center - San Francisco
Live Stats
MATCH #10
CSUN Matadors vs. San José State Spartans
Friday, Sept. 15, 2023Â - 3Â p.m. PDT
War Memorial at The Sobrato Center - San Francisco
Live Stats
MATCH #11
CSUN Matadors @ San Francisco Dons
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023Â - 2Â p.m. PDT
War Memorial at The Sobrato Center - San Francisco
Live Stats // Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (1-7, 0-0 Big West) concludes non-conference tournament play this week as the Matadors travel to the Bay Area to meet UTRGV (6-4), San José State (7-3) and San Francisco (3-6) at the USF Challenge inside War Memorial at The Sobrato Center.
CSUN is coming off an 0-3 weekend in Portland that saw the Matadors drop five-set decisions to Eastern Washington and host Portland before falling in four sets to an undefeated Wyoming squad. This week, CSUN meets UTRGV (11 a.m.) and San José State (3 p.m.) on Friday before taking on the host USF Dons on Saturday at 2 p.m.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. All home matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Darren Preston handling the play-by-play and CSUN men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason providing commentary for select matches. All matches will also feature live stats at GoMatadors.com.
For road matches, related links to the match, including for any live stats, audio and video, will be posted before the match on the women's volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
UTRGV (6-4) improved to 2-0 at home and 6-4 on the season with a 3-0 sweep (25-19, 25-10, 25-17) over Incarnate Word on Tuesday. Junior setter Luanna Emiliano had a double-double with 29 assists, 15 digs and two kills in the win. The Vaqueros come into the weekend hitting .245 as a team with freshman Nadine Zech averaging a team-high 2.84 kills per set.
Series: Friday's match is the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
San José State (7-3) won its second straight match with a 3-1 win at Saint Mary's on Tuesday night. Blaire Fleming, who leads the Spartans averaging 3.76 kills per set, had a career-high 22 kills on .405 hitting in the win. San José State comes into the weekend hitting .185 as a team.
Series: Friday's match is the 13th meeting all-time and second this season between CSUN and San Jose State. The Spartans defeated the Matadors in five sets earlier this season (Aug. 25) to trim the CSUN lead to 7-5 in the series.
San Francisco (3-6) finished 1-2 at the Utah Classic last weekend, falling to UC Santa Barbara (3-2) and Utah (3-0) around a 3-2 victory over Tennessee State. The Dons were led by Kennedy Muckelroy, who tallied 35 kills in the three matches while Abby Wadas had a team-leading 48 digs in three matches. USF is hitting .175 as a team though nine matches this season.
Series: Saturday's match is 10th meeting all-time between CSUN and San Francisco with the Dons holding a slim 5-4 edge in the series. USF has won the last four matches in the series, including a 3-2 win in the most recent meeting in San Francisco in 2017.
KNUDSEN NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT IN PORTLAND
Graduate transfer Kelsey Knudsen, CSUN's digs leader in 2023, was named to the Portland Invitational All-Tournament Team after scooping up 63 digs in the Matadors' three matches. Knudsen, who is averaging a team-high 4.33 digs per set in eight matches this season, averaged 4.50 digs per set in Portland with 63 digs over CSUN's 14 sets. Knudsen posted a season-high 28 digs in five sets against Portland around a 19-dig effort against Eastern Washington and a 16-digs effort against Wyoming. Knudsen moved up to third in the Big West in digs per set this week.
HUNTER SETS SEASON-HIGHS VS. PORTLAND
Redshirt junior Taylor Hunter also had an solid weekend in Portland, but enjoyed a particularly impressive night against the host Pilots. In the match, Hunter matched or set season-highs in six statistical categories; kills (14), attempts (23), hitting percentage (.609), blocks (10), assists (2) and aces (2). Her two aces matched her career-high while a pair of assists was also a career-best. For the season, Hunter leads the Matadors in blocks with 48 (10 solo) and is second in hitting (.293) and fourth in kills (63).
BARRON ADDS SECOND AND THIRD DOUBLE-DOUBLES
After posting her first triple-double of the season at Fresno State (Sept. 1), junior Carisa Barron added her second and third double-doubles of the season this past weekend in Portland. Barron has now doubled up this season against California Baptist (26 assists-13 digs), Eastern Washington (13 kills-11 assists) and Portland (24 assists-11 digs). She came within a single kill of her second triple-double of the season against the Pilots, notching nine kills.Â
ORSHOFF CLOSES IN ON 1,000 CAREER KILLS
Taylor Orshoff, who opened the season with 786 career kills, has added 83 kills to her total this season and now needs 131 kills to become the 15th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. After putting down 170 kills as a freshman in 2019, Orshoff had a team-high 314 kills in 2021 before posting 302 kills last season. Orshoff also posted a career first in the opening weekend of the season, recording the first two double-doubles of her career. She had identical 13 kill-11 dig performances against both San Jose State and California Baptist last weekend which surpassed her previous career-high in digs which was eight against UC San Diego in 2021. With 12 kills against Portland and 11 against Wyoming last weekend, Orshoff has now reached double figures in kills 41 times in her CSUN career.Â
MATADOR QUICK SETS
Leah Miller matched her season-high with 16 kills against Eastern Washington while taking a season-high 45 swings against the Eagles. Miller then matched her season-high in blocks with three against Wyoming ... Redshirt freshman Iye Okolo set several season-highs against Wyoming, putting down five kills on 11 attacks to hit .364. Okolo also notched a season-high six blocks against Portland ... CSUN posted a .255-.198 advantage in hitting against an unbeaten Wyoming team but fell in four sets. The Matadors have led four different opponents in both kills and hitting percentage this season and are 1-3 in such matches ... Five-set losses to Eastern Washington and Portland last weekend dropped CSUN to 0-5 in five-set decisions this season. The Matadors are also 0-2 in four-set matches but have yet to be swept in eight matches this season.
LOOKING AHEAD
This week's trip to San Francisco wraps up CSUN's 2023 non-conference schedule as the Matadors will next turn their attention to Big West play. CSUN opens the 2023 conference season on the road at Cal State Bakersfield (Sept. 19) and Hawai'i (Sept. 24).
#GoMatadors
