California State University at Northridge
Cal State Bakersfield
CSUN Hosts Bakersfield Before Heading to Hawai'i
10/23/2024 3:11:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #20Â (BIG WEST #9)
Bakersfield Roadrunners (9-12, 3-6 Big West) @ CSUN Matadors (7-12, 2-6 Big West)
Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 - 6:00 p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #21 (BIG WEST #10)
CSUN Matadors @ Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine
Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024 - 8:00 p.m. PDT
SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center - Honolulu, O'ahu
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (7-12, 2-6 Big West) closes out the first half of the Big West season this week as the Matadors host Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday before traveling to Hawai'i for a rare Sunday match. CSUN split a pair of matches last week, winning in straight sets at UC Riverside before returning home to battle conference-leading UC Davis in a five-set loss.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Both matches this week will stream live on ESPN+ with live stats also available at GoMatadors.com. Fans can follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. Darren Preston handles the play-by-play on E+ with CSUN men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason providing commentary for select matches. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X 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
Cal State Bakersfield (9-12, 3-6 Big West) suffered its fifth straight loss on Tuesday, falling in four sets to Hawai'i at home. The 'Runners head to Northridge on Thursday just one-half game ahead of CSUN in the Big West standings. Bakersfield, 3-3 in road matches this season, is led by Sydney Dunning who is tied for the Big West lead in aces at 0.42 per set also ranks fourth in kills at 3.51 per set. Samia Bhakta also ranks fourth in the conference in hitting percentage at .350.
Series: Thursday's match is the 46th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Runners with CSUN holding a 34-11 lead in the all-time series. The two teams split the pair of regular season matches last season with CSUB winning in five at home and CSUN winning in four in Northridge. The Matadors have won 17 of the previous 20 matches between the two teams at home.
Hawai'i (12-7, 6-3 Big West) opened the week with a 3-1 win at Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday, its third win in its last four matches. Senior setter Kate Lang became the fifth Rainbow Wahine setter to surpass 4,000 career assists and junior outside hitter Caylen Alexander joined the program's 1,000-kills club in the win over the Roadrunners. Alexander, a four-time Big West Offensive Player of the Week honoree, led all hitters with 28 kills on .431 hitting in the win.
Series: Sunday's match is the 33rd meeting all-time between CSUN and Hawai'i with the Rainbow Wahine holding a commanding 30-2 lead in the series. Hawai'i, winners of 17 straight in the series, won in straight sets in Honolulu last season to run its winning streak over the Matadors at home to 19 straight, CSUN's two Big West wins over the Rainbow Wahine came in Northridge in 2013 and 2014.
SENTES RECLAIMS BIG WEST DIGS LEAD
With 36 digs in two matches last week - which included a match-high 25 against UC Davis - sophomore libero Paige Sentes reclaimed the Big West lead in digs per set this week. Sentes, who leads all Big West liberos in total digs with 315, boosted her per set total to 4.04 this week. She ranks just ahead of Bakersfield's Katerina Georgiadis (3.92) and UC Davis' Julia Ng (3.88). Sentes has 22 or more digs in a match five times this season, including a career-high 31 in CSUN's five-set win over San Francisco on Sept. 6. With a CSUN-high 315 digs this season, Sentes now has 549 digs in her Matador career.
BIG WEST SECOND HALF WRAPS THIS WEEKÂ
Sunday's match at Hawai'i concludes the first half of the Big West season for the Matadors. CSUN, which plays single matches against Bakersfield and Hawai'i this season, opens the second half of conference play at home next week against Cal State Fullerton (Nov. 1) and UC Irvine (Nov. 2). At 2-6 in Big West play, the Matadors are currently ninth in the standings but open the week one-half game behind eighth-place Cal State Bakersfield (3-6) and two games behind seventh-place UC Santa Barbara (4-4). UC Irvine (5-3) and UC San Diego (5-3) currently hold the final two spots in the Big West Championship which takes the top six teams in the final standings.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST STAT RANKINGS
In addition to Sentes, seven other CSUN players rank in the top 20 in the Big West statistical rankings this week. Katie Kolar ranks third in assists per set (9.92) and 15th in digs per set (2.59), Amaris Smith ranks fifth in kills per set (3.49) followed by Hailey Brockway (3.45) in sixth, and Leah Miller (2.74) in 17th. After hitting .361 in two matches last week, Miller also moved into the top 20 in hitting percentage at ..238 which ranks 16th. Also for the Matadors, Autumn Rojelio is 18th in aces (0.29), and Tatiana Turgeon and Iye Okolo rank 10th (0.87) and 18th (0.74) in blocks respectively. As a team. CSUN ranks third in the Big West in assists per set (11.89) and is fourth in digs (14.59) and fifth in both kills (12.67) and aces (1.49).
MATADOR QUICK SETS
Kolar and Brockway have traded the team lead in double-doubles this season with Kolar currently the team leader with 10. Kolar posted a pair of double-doubles last week and has five doubles in her last six matches. Brockway had 20 kills and 12 digs against UC Davis for her ninth of the season and first since she had 19 kills and 14 digs at Cal State Fullerton on Oct. 5.
MONTOYA IN HIS FIRST SEASON AS CSUN HEAD COACHÂ
Aquiles Montoya was named the ninth head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball program on Apr. 10, 2024. Montoya comes to CSUN after spending the past four seasons as associate head coach and director of recruiting at Portland State. He was instrumental in three straight Vikings' student-athletes earning the Big Sky Conference's Top Newcomer award. On the court, Portland State made consecutive postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022, qualifying for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). The Vikings won their first-round match in 2021, giving Portland State its first win at a national postseason tournament in Division I program history. The Vikings rise in the Big Sky Conference coincided with Montoya's tenure as an assistant and associate head coach under Portland State head coach Michael Seeman. The Vikings posted winning seasons, both overall and in conference play, in each of Montoya's last three seasons while reaching the Big Sky championship match in 2022, their first appearance since 2013. Prior to Portland State, Montoya spent the previous three seasons as the lead assistant of the Pacific Boxers' varsity team. He helped the Boxers set program records for wins in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018. The Boxers went 17-7 overall and 10-6 in the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference (NWC) in 2017, then topped that the following year while going 18-8 overall and 11-5 in NWC play.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following Sunday's match in Hawai'i, the Matadors open the second half of the Big West season on Nov. 1 with a rematch against Cal State Fullerton at 6 p.m. CSUN claimed the first meeting between the two teams in five sets on Oct. 5.
#GoMatadors
