California State University at Northridge
UC San Diego
Women's Volleyball Concludes Season at UCSD, Long Beach State
11/21/2024 10:24:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #28 (BIG WEST #17)
CSUN Matadors (9-18, 4-12 Big West) @ UC San Diego Tritons (16-11, 10-6 Big West)
Friday, Nov. 22, 2024 - 6:00 p.m. PT
LionTree Arena - La Jolla, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #29 (BIG WEST #18)
CSUN Matadors @ Long Beach State
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 - 7:00 p.m. PT
Walter Pyramid - Long Beach, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (9-18, 4-12 Big West) concludes the 2024 season this week with road matches at UC San Diego and Long Beach State. The Matadors, who take on the Tritons Friday at LionTree Arena (6 pm) and the Beach Saturday at the Walter Pyramid (7 pm), split two matches last week; falling in four sets at UC Davis before topping UC Riverside (3-2) on Senior Day.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Only Friday's match at UCSD will stream live on ESPN+ while both matches will 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. 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 OPPONENTS
UC San Diego (16-11, 10-6 Big West) is currently in a three-way tie for second place in Big West play after dropping a 3-0 decision to Hawai'i on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Tritons host the Matadors and Cal State Bakersfield to conclude the regular season as Ava McInnes closes in on the all-time kills record in UCSD program history. McInnes currently has 1,511 career kills with two regular season matches to go to reach the record of 1,524.
Series: Friday's match is the 18th meeting all time between the Matadors and Tritons with CSUN holding a 10-7 lead in the all-time series. UC San Diego claimed this season's first match in four sets in Northridge and has now won seven straight (all Big West matches) in the series. The Matadors are 4-3 all-time against the Tritons in La Jolla.
Long Beach State (16-10, 10-6 Big West) hosts Cal State Bakersfield and CSUN this week with two matches critical for the Beach, as Long Beach State is in a three-way tie for fourth place in The Big West Standings. LBSU needs just one win to clinch a spot in The Big West Championships. Long Beach State went 1-1 last weekend and has now won four of its last five matches. The Beach defeated UC San Diego in four sets at home, before dropping a three-set sweep at Hawai'i.
Series: Saturday's match is the 53rd meeting all time between CSUN and Long Beach State with the Beach holding a 39-13 lead in the series. Long Beach won the first meeting this season (3-0 in Northridge) after the two teams split two matches last season. The Matadors are 4-22 in 26 matches all-time in Long Beach.
SENTES RECLAIMS BIG WEST DIGS LEAD
After recording 43 digs in two matches last week, sophomore libero Paige Sentes reclaimed the Big West lead in digs and digs per set this week. Sentes slipped to second behind UCR's Jessica Dean last week before her 26 digs at UC Davis and 17 digs against UC Riverside propelled her back into the lead at 4.03 digs per set. Sentes leads Big West liberos in total digs with 439 in 109 sets with Tayli Ikenaga moving up to second this week at 3.98 digs per set this week. Sentes and Ikenaga are the only two players in the Big West with 400+ digs this season. If Sentes can finish the season as the Big West leader in digs per set, she would become the first CSUN player to ever finish the season as the leader in digs. The last Matador to finish the season as a Big West statistical leader was Tela Burnett who led the conference in blocks per set (1.20) in 2009.
CSUN QUICK SETS
The Matadors set a season-high for a 4-set match with 79 total digs at UC Davis on Thursday. Four Matadors posted double digit dig totals led by Sentes' match-high 26. Katie Kolar added 15 while Layla Cederlind and Autumn Rojelio added 12 each with Cederlind matching her career-high. Amaris Smith narrowly missed her sixth double-double of the season with 18 kills and nine digs against the Aggies. CSUN's season-high in digs this season was 89 in a five-set match against San Francisco on Sept. 6 ... Leah Miller hit a combined .383 in two matches last week to improve her season hitting percentage to .250 ... Kolar, who leads CSUN with 16 double-doubles this season, posted a season-high 19 digs against UC Riverside on Saturday. With 220 attacks this season, Kolar has taken the most swings from the setter spot since Sydney Gedryn took 331 swings in 2013 ... Smith moved into 10th place on the CSUN Rally Scoring era single-season list with 356 kills this season. She is also fourth for a single season with 1,124 swings. Smith and Hailey Brockway will both finish the season ranked in the single season kills per set top 10 ... By defeating UC Riverside in five sets in their home finale on Saturday, the Matadors improved to 5-5 this season in 5-set decisions ... CSUN finished 5-8 at home this season, its best home wins total since finishing 7-3 in 2017.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST RANKINGS
Three CSUN hitters remain in the top-10 in kills per set this week as sophomore Hailey Brockway is fifth at 3.60, followed by Smith (3.52) in sixth, and Miller (2.66) in 13th. Kolar continues to rank in a pair of categories again this week, fourth in assists per set (9.85) and 12th in digs per set (2.72). Miller ranks 16th in hitting percentage (.250), Autumn Rojelio ranks 19th in aces per set (0.28) while Tatiana Turgeon and Iye Okolo rank 14th and 19th respectively in blocks per set at 0.81 and 0.71. As a team. CSUN ranks as high as third in the Big West in digs per set at 14.57. CSUN is also fifth in the conference in kills per set at 12.73.
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.
#GoMatadors
