California State University at Northridge
UC Riverside
CSUN Hosts UC Riverside, UC Davis to Open Four-Match Homestand
9/26/2023 12:26:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #14Â (BIG WEST #3)
UC Riverside Highlanders (2-12, 1-1 Big West) @Â CSUN Matadors (2-11, 0-2 Big West)
Friday, Sept. 29, 2023Â - 6:00 p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
Live Stats // Watch
MATCH #15 (BIG WEST #4)
UC Davis Aggies @Â CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023Â - 3Â p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
Live Stats // Watch
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNWVB
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (2-11, 0-2 Big West) returns home this week to open a season-long, four-match homestand Friday against UC Riverside. The Matadors and Highlanders meet Friday at 6 p.m. before CSUN welcomes UC Davis to Premier America Credit Union Arena Saturday at 3 p.m.
CSUN opened the conference slate last week, falling at Cal State Bakersfield in five sets before Hawai'i defeated the Matadors in straight sets in Honolulu on Sunday.
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 OPPOSITION
UC Riverside (2-12, 1-1 Big West) snapped a three-match skid on Saturday, picking up its first conference win in straight sets win at Cal State Fullerton. Sophia Ewalefo reached 10 of her 14 kills in set two. The New Orleans transfer recorded her fourth 10-kill outing in her last five. UCR recorded its second-highest hitting percentage of the season at .270.
Series: Tuesday's match is the 85th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Highlanders with CSUN holding a 62-22 lead in the all-time series. The Matadors are 31-5 all-time against UCR in Northridge. The two teams split the series last season with each team winning on the road.
UC Davis (7-5, 2-0 Big West), which travels to Bakersfield on Friday, has won four straight including road wins at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine to open conference play. The Aggies picked up a pair Big West weekly awards as Julia Ng was named Defensive Player of the Week while Ally Chandler was tabbed Freshman of the Week. Ng had 23 digs in Fullerton before scooping up 24 digs in the five-set victory over UCI.
Series: Saturday's match is the 39th meeting all-time between CSUN and UC Davis with the Matadors holding a 22-16 edge in the series. CSUN is 10-7 all-time in 17 matches against the Aggies in Northridge. The two teams split the series last season with each team winning on its home court.
BARRON ADDS SECOND TRIPLE-DOUBLE AT CAL STATEÂ BAKERSFIELD
After posting her first triple-double of the season at Fresno State on Sept. 1, junior Carisa Barron added her second at Cal State Bakersfield (Sept. 19). With a season-high 16 kills, 17 assists and 12 digs, Barron now has eight career triple-doubles. Barron also notched her fourth and fifth double-doubles of the season last weekend in San Francisco. Barron opened the weekend with 14 assists and 12 kills in the Matadors' 3-0 win over UTRGV before completing her fifth of the season with 25 assists and 14 digs against the host Dons. Barron, who now has 13 career double-doubles, has also doubled up this season against California Baptist (26 assists-13 digs), Eastern Washington (13 kills-11 assists) and Portland (24 assists-11 digs).
HUNTER MOVES UP TO SECOND IN BIG WEST IN HITTING
After hitting a combined .391 at Cal State Bakersfield and Hawai'i last week, redshirt junior Taylor Hunter has moved up to second in the Big West in hitting at .330. Hunter, who trails only Amber Igiede of Hawai;i, hit .438 at Bakersfield which continued her torrid hitting stretch over her last four matches. Including three matches in San Francisco (Sept. 15-16), Hunter hit over .400 with 36 kills and just eight errors on 68 swings. Hunter, who has hit .400 or better three times this season, hit .538 in the win over UTRGV before hitting .294 against San José State and .409 against San Francisco. With a team-high 65.0 blocks this season, Hunter also ranks sixth in the Big West in blocking, averaging 1.18 per set.
ORSHOFF CONTINUES PURSUIT OF 1,000 CAREER KILLS
After missing three matches, Taylor Orshoff came off the bench with three kills against Hawai'i on Saturday. Orshoff, who opened the season with 786 career kills, has added 89 kills to her CSUN total this season and now needs 125 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 this 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 (Aug 25-26) which surpassed her previous career-high in digs which was eight against UC San Diego in 2021. Orshoff has now reached double figures in kills five times this season and 41 times in her CSUN career.Â
MATADOR QUICK SETS
With a 3-0 sweep over Cal State Bakersfield in its Big West home opener last season, CSUN improved to 25-12 (.676) in 37 previous conference home openers. The Matadors have already improved to 21-22 (.488) all-time in 43 previous home openers after sweeping Fresno State on Aug. 30 ... In addition to matching their season-high with 11 aces at Cal State Bakersfield last Tuesday, the Matadors had several players set season-highs in the match. Barron set a season-high with 16 kills on 39 attacks while Layla Cederlind notched a season-high three aces. Perri Starkey also matched her season-highs in aces (4), blocks (3), assists (1) and Kaia Kanan set a new career-high with 21 assists ... Tuesday's five-set loss in Bakersfield dropped CSUN to 0-7 in five-set decisions this season. The Matadors are now 2-2 in three sets and 0-2 in four sets this season ... CSUN has hit over .300 as a team twice this season (Fresno State, UTRGV) and are 2-0Â in such matches ... Six Matadors have played in all 55 sets this season; Barron, Hunter, Knudsen, Starkey, Leah Miller and Paige Sentes.Â
LOOKING AHEAD
After opening a four-match homestand against UC Riverside and UC Davis this week, CSUN concludes the home stretch next week against UC San Diego (Oct. 6) and Long Beach State (Oct. 7).Â
#GoMatadors
