California State University at Northridge
Cal Lutheran
No. 18 CSUN Continues Home Stretch vs. Cal Lutheran, #16 Princeton
1/16/2024 1:36:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #5
Cal Lutheran Kingsmen (3-0) vs. No. 18Â CSUN Matadors (2-2)
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
No. 16 Princeton Tigers (2-1) vs. No. 18Â CSUN Matadors (2-2)
Friday, Jan. 19, 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 (2-2, 0-0 Big West) wraps up a three-match homestand this week, welcoming Cal Lutheran (3-0) and No. 15 Princeton (2-1) to Premier America Credit Union Arena for a pair of non-conference matches.
The Matadors, who opened the home season with a dominating 3-1 win over Harvard on Friday, host the D-III Kingsmen Tuesday at 6 p.m. before taking on the Tigers Friday at 6 p.m. No. 16 Princeton will be the third ranked team CSUN has met in the first three weeks of the season, following matches against No. 7 Grand Canyon and No. 20 George Mason in Santa Barbara
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 REMAINS 18TH IN SECONDÂ AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After defeating unranked Harvard in four sets last week, the Matadors (2-2) remained 18th in the third AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll of the 2024 season. CSUN, which is tied with UC San Diego at No. 18, earned a total of 65 points this week. The Matadors earned a season-high 102 points in week one to rank a season-best 17th on Jan. 3. 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 (4-0) is the top-ranked team for the third straight week, collecting all 23 first-place votes and 460 total points. Long Beach State (2-0)Â remained second followed in the top five by Hawai'i (3-1), Ohio State (4-0), and Grand Canyon (5-0). UC Irvine (2-1) slipped to sixth this week, followed by Penn State (4-0), Stanford (4-0), BYU (3-1), and Pepperdine (4-0). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Loyola-Chicago (1-5), Lewis (2-2), USC (4-0), Ball State (6-2), UC Santa Barbara (2-3), Princeton (2-1), George Mason (2-2), The Matadors, UC San Diego (2-3), and Charleston (2-0).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Cal Lutheran (2-0), ranked 12th in the latest AVCA/NVA Div. III poll, opened the season last weekend with three wins at its own CLU Invitational in Thousand Oaks. The Kingsmen swept UC Santa Cruz on Friday before defeating Adrian (3-0) and Vassar (3-1) on Saturday to close out the weekend. Senior outside hitter Jordan Cooper had a match-high 20 kills on .317 hitting against Vasser and leads the team averaging 3.90 kills per set.
All-Time Series: Tuesday's match is the eighth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Cal Lutheran with CSUN holding a 7-0 lead in the series. The Matadors have not dropped a set to the Kingsmen in seven previous meetings, which included a 3-0 win in the most recent meeting in January, 2022. CSUN is 6-0 all-time against CLU in Northridge.
Princeton (2-1) is one match into a three-match West Coast trip. The Tigers opened the season with a pair of wins over Queens University before dropping a 3-1 decision to UC Irvine last Saturday to open the road trip. Princeton plays at UC San Diego on Tuesday before heading to the Valley on Friday. Senior outside hitter Ben Harrington broke an NCAA record with 13 aces in the Jan. 8 win over Queens. In the second match, Harrington put down 18 kills on .531 hitting to earn EIVA Player of the Week honors.
All-Time Series: Friday's match is the sixth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Princeton with CSUN holding a 3-2 edge in the series. The Matadors claimed the most recent meeting in 2023, winning in five sets on the East Coast.
CONSTABLE LEADS BIG WEST IN ASSISTS
Junior setter Donovan Constable, CSUN's lone representative on the UCSB ASICS Invitational All-Tournament team to open the season, has taken over as the Big West assists leader through the first two weeks of the season.. The junior from Clovis had a season-high 48 assists in Friday's win over Harvard to raise his season total to 162. Constable is now averaging 10.80 assists per set which leads Tread Rosenthal of Hawai'i (10.07 aps) who ranks second among Big West setters.
SEASON-HIGHS IN WIN OVER HARVARDÂ
The Matadors set numerous season-highs in Friday's 3-1 win over Harvard. CSUN put down a season-high 63 kills while hitting a collective .404, the first time this season the Matadors have surpassed the .400 mark. Four CSUN hitters hit .333 or better in the win; Griffin Walters (.545), Jalen Phillips (.394), Kyle Hobus (.379) and Malcolm King (.333). Highlighted by Constable's 48 assists, the Matadors set a season-high with 56 assists as a team. CSUN also posted nine team blocks which matched the team total against George Mason for season-high honors.
PHILLIPS SHINES ON THE RIGHT SIDE
Redshirt freshman Jalen Phillips has made a big splash in the Matadors' first four matches of the season. Phillips put down a season-high 18 kills on .394 hitting in CSUN's win over Harvard. The opposite from Anaheim has now hit over .300 in three of CSUN's first four matches of the season and over .390 twice. Phillips now leads the Matadors with 53 kills while averaging a team-leading 3.53 kills per set which ranks fifth in the Big West. With a season hitting clip of .327, Phillips ranks eighth in the Big West while also ranking eighth in points per set at 3.80. 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.
QUICK SETS
King moved into the Big West's top five in blocking this week, averaging 1.20 blocks per set ... After a trio of CSUN players debuted in the season-opening ASICS Invitational in Santa Barbara, redshirt freshman Trevor Lau came on as a serving sub against Harvard to make his Matador debut. Joining Phillips in making his CSUN debut in Santa Barbara was fellow redshirt freshman Chris Karnezis who scooped 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 on the opening weekend, 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.
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
Following Friday's match against Princeton, the Matadors will travel to Los Angeles to take on No. 13 USC next Wednesday (Jan. 24). The match against the Trojans begins a stretch of three road matches in the next four matches for CSUN.
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