California State University at Northridge
Cal State Fullerton
CSUN Looks for Home Wins vs. Fullerton, UC Irvine This Week
10/31/2024 10:09:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #22 (BIG WEST #11)
Cal State Fullerton Titans (4-16, 0-10 Big West) @ CSUN Matadors (7-14, 2-8 Big West)
Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 - 6:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #23 (BIG WEST #12)
UC Irvine Anteaters @ CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024 - 5:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
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 (7-14, 2-8 Big West) looks to get back in the win column this week as the Matadors open the second half of the Big West season at home against Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine inside Premier America Credit Union Arena. The Matadors are looking to snap a three-match skid after nearly pulling off their first-ever win in Hawai'i last Sunday. CSUN is 3-7 on its home floor this year and looks to take the season series with Cal State Fullerton after defeating the Titans in five sets on Oct. 5 in Fullerton.
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 THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
Cal State Fullerton (4-16, 0-10 Big West) dropped its 10th and 11th straight matches last week, falling at home to UC Riverside (3-2) and on the road at UC Davis (3-0). The Titans, 2-4 in road matches this season, also travel to Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday. Bianca Martinez ranks seventh in the Big West in blocks at 0.97 per set while Fullerton also ranks seventh as a team in blocks at 1.80 per set.
Series: Friday's match is the 59th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Titans with CSUN holding a 43-15 lead in the all-time series. The Matadors are 23-5 all-time against the Titans in Northridge. CSUN claimed the first meeting this season, winning in five sets at Titan Gym giving head coach Aquiles Montoya his first career Big West win.
UC Irvine (12-9, 6-4 Big West) is 3-4 over its last seven matches after splitting matches against UC Davis at home (3-1) and on the road at UC Riverside (3-0) last week. The Anteaters, 6-2 on the road this year, rank 12th in the country in total blocks (229.5) and are 26th nationally in blocking average with a 2.64 mark. Senior Ofure Iselen leads the Big West with a 1.40 blocking average. She has recorded eight or more total blocks four times this season.
Series: Saturday's match is the 67th meeting all-time between CSUN and UC Irvine with the Anteaters holding a 36-30 lead in the series. CSUN is 16-13 all-time in 29 matches against UCI in Northridge. The Anteaters came back to win the final two sets in a 3-2 win in Irvine on Oct. 4, UCI's seventh straight win in the series.
SENTES EXPANDSÂ BIG WEST DIGS LEAD
With 38 digs in two matches last week - which included a match-high 28 at Hawai'i - sophomore libero Paige Sentes expanded on her Big West lead in digs per set this week. Sentes, who leads all Big West liberos in total digs with 353, boosted her per set total to 4.06 this week. Sentes has expanded her lead over UC Riverside's Jessica Dean (3.90), Bakersfield's Katerina Georgiadis (3.89), and UC Davis' Julia Ng (3.85). With 22 or more digs in a match six times this season, including a career-high 31 in CSUN's five-set win over San Francisco on Sept. 6, Sentes now has 587 digs in her Matador career.
BIG WEST SECOND HALF OPENS THIS WEEKÂ
Friday's match against Cal State Fullerton opens the second half of the Big West season for the Matadors. At 2-8 in Big West play, CSUN is currently tied for ninth in the conference standings with eight matches remaining. The Matadors open the week two games back of eighth-place Cal State Bakersfield (4-6) and four games behind four teams who are currently tied for fourth. Long Beach State, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara all sit at 6-4 with UC Davis (9-1), Cal Poly (7-3) and Hawai'i (7-3) holding the top three spots. Only the top six teams will earn berths in the 2024 Outrigger Big West Championship which will be held Nov. 27-30 at UCI's Bren Center.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST STAT RANKINGS
In addition to Sentes, seven other CSUN players currently rank in the top 20 in the Big West statistical rankings. Katie Kolar ranks fourth in assists per set (9.98), 16th in digs per set (2.61) and 18th in aces per set (0.28), Amaris Smith ranks fifth in kills per set (3.52) and sixth in points per set. (3.85), Hailey Brockway ranks sixth in kills per set (3.48) and fifth in points per set (3.89), Leah Miller ranks 16th in kills per set (2.67) and 20th in points per set (2,91), Autumn Rojelio ranks 13th in aces per set (0.31) with Sentes 20th at 0.26 aces per set. Tatiana Turgeon and Iye Okolo rank 12th and 14th respectively in blocks per set at 0.86 and 0.80. As a team. CSUN ranks as high as fifth in the Big West in digs per set (14.62) and is sixth in kills (12.63), assists (11,82), and aces (1.47).
MATADOR QUICK SETS
With four aces last week, Rojelio took over as CSUN's leader in aces with 26. Rojelio, who matched her season-high with three aces at Hawai'i, has at least one ace in 10 of the Matadors' last 11 matches ... Julia Bazylevych put down a season-high 13 kills on a season-high 35 attacks against Hawai'i ... Presley Nippert also came off the bench to notch her first CSUN ace against Hawai'i on Sunday ... The Matadors slipped to 4-5 in nine five-set matches this season.
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 home match against UC Irvine, the Matadors will open the home stretch of the regular season with road matches at UC Santa Barbara (Nov. 8) and Cal Poly (Nov. 9). CSUN will play five of its final six regular season matches on the road with the lone home match against UC Riverside on Nov. 16.
#GoMatadors
