California State University at Northridge
UC Irvine
CSUN Travels to Orange County for a Pair of Big West Matches
10/3/2024 2:59:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #14 (BIG WEST #3)
CSUN Matadors (5-8, 0-2) @ UC Irvine Anteaters (8-5, 2-0)
Friday, Oct. 4, 2024 - 6:00 p.m. PDT
Crawford Hall - Irvine, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #15 (BIG WEST #4)
CSUN Matadors @ Cal State Fullerton Titans
Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024 - 4:00 p.m. PDT
Titan Gym - Fullerton, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
After wrapping up a six-match homestand, the CSUN women's volleyball team (5-8, 0-2 Big West) heads back on the road this week for Big West matches at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton. The Matadors meet the Anteaters Friday at Crawford Hall at 6 p.m., before concluding the week against Fullerton at Titan Gym on Saturday at 4 p.m. CSUN dropped its first two Big West matches to conclude the homestand last week, falling to Cal Poly (3-0) and UC Santa Barbara (3-1).
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
UC Irvine (8-5, 2-0 Big West) has won three straight and is one of three teams to start league play undefeated (Cal Poly, Long Beach State). The Anteaters opened the conference season with a 3-0 win at Cal State Fullerton (3-0) before knocking off Hawai'i in five sets in Honolulu. UCI's win at Hawai'i as just its second all-time in program history. Opposite Hunter Riedl put down a season-high 21 kills on .423 hitting at Hawai'i while also adding five digs and five block assists.
Series: Friday's match is the 66th meeting all-time between CSUN and UC Irvine with the Anteaters holding a 35-30 lead in the series. CSUN is 12-20 in 32 matches against UCI in Irvine. The Anteaters won both meetings in 2023 and have won six straight in the series.
Cal State Fullerton (4-8, 0-2 Big West) opens the week at home against Cal State Bakersfield before hosting the Matadors on Saturday. The Titans opened the Big West season with a 3-1 loss to UC Irvine before falling in straight sets at Hawai'i last week. Bianca Martinez led Fullerton with seven kills while Ashley Chacon recorded 11 digs at Hawai'i. The Titans are 2-5 in seven matches at home this season.
Series: Saturday's match is the 58th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Titans with CSUN holding a 42-15 lead in the all-time series. The Matadors are 18-10 all-time against the Titans in Fullerton. The two teams split the regular season series last year with CSUN winning in straight sets in Fullerton and the Titans winning in four sets in Northridge to close the season.
MATADOR MILESTONES Â
A pair of CSUN players are approaching career milestones heading into matches at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton this week. Junior Leah Miller had 18 kills in two matches last week to surpass 400 kills in her Matador career. Miller now has 401 career kills in 165 sets to average 2.43 kills per set. Redshirt sophomore Tatiana Turgeon notched a pair of blocks last week and is now within one block on reaching 100 blocks in her CSUN career.
CSUN BREAKS EVEN ON SIX-MATCH HOMESTANDÂ
Hosting its longest homestand in nearly 25 years, CSUN finished 3-3 on recently concluded six-match home stretch. The Matadors opened the homestand on Sept. 17 with a 3-0 win over California Baptist before falling in a tight five-setter to Washington State on Sept. 19. CSUN rebounded with a pair of wins over Portland (Sept. 20-21) before concluding the homestand with losses to Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara last week. The last time the Matadors played five or more in a row on their home court was in 2000 when CSUN hosted Eastern Washington, Portland State, UC Riverside, Weber State, and Sacramento State from Nov. 2-Nov. 11.
MATADOR RANKS IN THE BIG WEST
Sophomore libero Paige Sentes continues to lead the Big West in digs this week, averaging 4.36 digs per set. Sentes is still the only libero in the Big West with 200 or more digs this season. Sentes has 236 digs in 53 sets which ranks just ahead of Jessica Dean of UC Riverside who has 172 digs in 40 sets (4.30). Amaris Smith continues to ranks second in the conference in kills per set (3.80) and third in points per set (4.05). Hailey Brockway remains fifth this week in kills at 3.44 per set. Katie Kolar ranks second in assists at 10.23 per set and is also 12th in aces (0.32). Also for the Matadors, Leah Miller is 18th in kills (2.66), Autumn Rojelio is 20th in aces (0.27), and Tatiana Turgeon is 12 in blocks (0.85). As a team. CSUN continues to lead the Big West in assists per set (12.21) and also ranks third in kills (12.96) and digs (15.08). The Matadors are also fourth in points (16.02), fifth in aces (1.49), and seventh in hitting percentage (.203) and opponent hitting percentage (.224).
MATADOR QUICK SETS
Redshirt sophomore Iye Okolo connected for a career-high 12 kills against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Okolo reached double figures in kills for the second time this season and second time in her career. Okolo, who was hitting .197 at the beginning of last week, upped her percentage to .252 after hitting .556 against Cal Poly and .474 against UCSB ... Hailey Brockway recorded her team-leading sixth double-double with 14 kills and 11 digs against the Gauchos ... The Matadors slipped to 25-13 (.658) all-time in 38 conference home openers after falling to Cal Poly in straight sets in their Big West opener on Friday. CSUN is now 11-13 all-time in 24 previous Big West openers dating back to 2001. After sweeping Cal State Bakersfield in its Big West opener in 2023, CSUN won for the 25th in 37 conference openers dating back to 1987 ... Saturday's 3-1 loss to UC Santa Barbara was the Matadors' first this season when they lead in aces. CSUN posted a 9-7 edge in team aces against the Gauchos.
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 Saturday's match at Cal State Fullerton, the Matadors return home next week to host Long Beach State (Oct. 10) and UC San Diego (Oct. 12).
#GoMatadors
