California State University at Northridge
Harvard
No. 18 CSUN Hosts Harvard on Friday in 2024 Home Opener
1/10/2024 12:00:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK
MATCH #4
Harvard Crimson (0-0) vs. No. 18Â CSUN Matadors (1-2)
Friday, Jan. 12, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The 18th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (1-2, 0-0 Big West) opens the 2024 home season this week as the Matadors welcome Harvard (0-0) to Premier America Credit Union Arena Friday at 6 p.m.
CSUN, which opens a three-match homestand against the Crimson, finished 1-2 at the season-opening ASICS Invitational at UCSB last weekend. The Matadors fell to No. 7 Grand Canyon (3-0) before topping NJIT in four sets. CSUN wrapped up the weekend with a 3-1 loss to No. 20 George Mason on Saturday.Â
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 18TH IN SECONDÂ AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After finishing 1-2 at last weekend's UCSB ASICS Invitational, the Matadors slipped one spot to 18th in the second AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll of the season. CSUN, which earned 55 points this week, earned a season-high 102 points last week to rank 17th in the first poll of the season. The Matadors were ranked in the top-15 for 10 straight polls last season (Feb. 6-Apr. 10). Prior to moving back into the top-15 poll for the first time since the 2020 season on Feb. 6 (No. 15), 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.Â
UCLA (2-0) is the top-ranked team for the second straight week, collecting all 23 first-place votes and 460 total points. Long Beach State (0-0) remained second followed in the top five by UC Irvine (0-0), Hawai'i (1-1), and Ohio State (2-0). Grand Canyon (3-0) moved up to sixth this week, followed by Penn State (2-0), Stanford (1-0), BYU (2-0), and Loyola-Chicago (1-2). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Pepperdine (2-0), Ball State (3-2), UC Santa Barbara (2-1), Lewis (1-1), Princeton (0-0), UC San Diego (2-1), the Matadors, Charleston (0-0), and George Mason (1-2).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Harvard (0-0) will play its 2024 season opener Thursday (Jan. 11) at No. 12 USC. The Crimson were originally scheduled to travel to Merrimack College last Sunday but the match was postponed due to the winter storm that was expected to hit the Greater Boston area. Harvard will then travel to the Valley to take on the Matadors on Friday at 6 p.m. The two matches in Southern California are a part of a season-opening five-match road trip for the Crimson. Harvard will return home on Feb. 2. to host Grand Canyon. The Crimson finished 9-16 in 2023 while the EIVA named returners Ethan Smith and James Bardin as Preseason Players to Watch.
All-Time Series: Friday's match is the sixth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Harvard with CSUN holding a 4-1 lead in the series. The Matadors claimed the most recent meeting in 2019, winning in five sets to close the ASICS Invitational at UCSB. CSUN is 2-1 all-time against the Crimson in Northridge.
CONSTABLE EARNS ALL-TOURNEY AT ASICS INVITATIONAL
Junior setter Donovan Constable was CSUN's lone representative on the UCSB ASICS Invitational All-Tournament team. Constable led the Matadors with 114 sets over three matches, averaging 10.36 assists per set. He also added 11 digs (1.00 dps) and 10 blocks (0.91 bps) while chipping in three of CSUN's 23 aces. The junior from Clovis had a season-high 44 assists and five digs in the tournament finale against No. 20 George Mason had 39 assists as the Matadors hit a season-high .325 in Friday's 3-1 win over NJIT.
THREE MATADORS DEBUT IN SANTA BARBARAÂ
Last weekend saw the Matador debut of a trio of CSUN players. Redshirt freshman Jalen Phillips made a big splash in the Matadors' three matches, matching Kyle Hobus with 35 kills. As CSUN's starting opposite, Phillips led the Matadors in kills with 14 against No. 20 George Mason and matched Hobus for team-high honors with 12 kills to go with a team-leading five digs against NJIT. In his collegiate debut on Thursday, Phillips had nine kills while hitting .312 against No. 7 Grand Canyon. Fellow redshirt freshman Chris Karnezis also debuted last weekend, scooping up 10 digs in nine sets of action. Karnezis was CSUN's digs leader against George Mason with six. True freshman Owen Douphner was the third player o make his Matador debut, coming off the bench in two of the three matches. Douphner, a 6-7 setter, notched his first collegiate assist in CSUN's 3-1 win over NJIT before posting his first solo block along with one dig against George Mason on Saturday.
CSUN AT THE UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL
Last weekend marked CSUN's 23rd appearance in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament in the last 27 years. The Matadors have now finished 1-2 at the invitational two straight seasons and three times in their last three appearances (2023, 2022, 2020). CSUN last posted a winning record in UCSB's annual tournament in 2019 when the Matadors finished 2-1. CSUN last went undefeated in 2018, dropping a single set in wins over Saint Francis (3-1), NJIT (3-0) and Princeton (3-0). The Matadors won their first-ever UCSB tournament championship in 2009 after upsetting No. 2 UCLA (3-1) before defeating No. 14 UCSB (3-1) and No. 8 Stanford (3-1). CSUN then won its second straight crown in 2010 topping UCSB (3-1), Cal Baptist (3-1) and BYU (3-1). All-time, the Matadors are now 53-37 (.589) in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament.
QUICK SETS
With Thursday's 3-0 loss to No. 7 Grand Canyon, CSUN slipped to 26-21 (.553) all-time in season openers. The Matadors will bring an impressive 33-13 record in home openers into Friday's match against Harvard ... CSUN out-blocked all three opponents in Santa Barbara while also serving more aces than all three teams. The Matadors recorded 29.5 team blocks in the three matches while their three opponents had 19.0. CSUN also served 23 aces, nearly doubling up their opponents who had 12 ... Sophomore Malcolm King had a solid tournament, hitting .611 with 12 kills and one error on 18 swings to go with five aces (co team-high) and a team-high 12 blocks ... Three CSUN hitters finished the weekend averaging over 2.00 kills per set, Hobus (3.18), Phillips (3.18) and Griffin Walters (2.09).
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
2024 marks CSUN's seventh season as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. After finishing 1-9 in 2023, the Matadors are now 12-38 (.240) in 50 Big West matches over six seasons since the conference's inaugural campaign in 2018. CSUN finished 5-5 in the first Big West season in 2018 before finishing 3-7 in 2019, 2-8 in 2021 and 1-9 in both 2022 and 2023. The 2020 conference season was not contested due to COVID-19. The Matadors reached the semifinals of the Big West Championship Tournament in 2018 in Long Beach before falling in the 2019, 2021 and 2022 quarterfinals in Hawai'i. CSUN fell to host UC Irvine in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Outrigger Big West Championship. Prior to 2018, the Matadors 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.
EDWARDS OPENS SECOND SEASON AS HEAD COACH
Theo Edwards opens his second season as CSUN's head coach in 2024 after leading the Matadors back into the AVCA national rankings in his first season. Now in his 14th season at CSUN, Edwards was named the successor to Jeff Campbell on Dec. 9, 2022. CSUN finished 12-16 in Edwards' first season (1-9 in the Big West) as CSUN moved back into the national rankings for the first time in three seasons. The Matadors received a season-high 91 points to rank a season-high 12th on Mar. 13. CSUN was ranked in the top-15 for 10 straight polls in 2023 after moving back into the poll for the for the first time since the 2020 season on Feb. 6 (No. 15).
LOOKING AHEAD
After hosting Harvard in its only match of the week, CSUN continues its three-match homestand next week with non-conference matches against Cal Lutheran (Jan. 16) and No. 15 Princeton (Jan. 19). The Matadors then head out on the road for three of their next four matches beginning Jan. 24 at USC.
#GoMatadors
