California State University at Northridge
Lewis University
No. 16 CSUN Resumes Homestand Saturday vs. #15 Lewis
2/21/2024 2:28:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #14
No. 15 Lewis Flyers (8-6) @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors (8-5)
Saturday, Feb. 24, 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 No. 16 CSUN Men's Volleyball team (8-5, 0-0 Big West) resumes its season-long, seven-match homestand on Saturday as the Matadors welcome 15th-ranked Lewis (8-6) to Premier America Credit Union Arena at 6 p.m. CSUN will play a single match for the second straight week after sweeping Hope International in a non-conference match in its only action last week.
The Matadors, who have been off from match action since Feb. 14, are currently 2-1 on the homestand with wins over UC Merced and Hope International, along with a 3-0 loss to The Master's.
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. Andrew Rector will handle the broadcast duties for Saturday's match against Lewis.
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 REMAINSÂ 16TH IN AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After sweeping Hope International in their only match last week, the Matadors (8-5) remained 16th in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. CSUN, which has now been ranked 16th for three straight weeks, earned 115 points this week, an 18-point boost from last week. The Matadors, who received a season-high 149 points on Feb. 5, have been ranked in all eight polls this season. CSUN was ranked in the AVCA/NVA Top-15 poll for 10 straight weeks 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, 2023 (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
Long Beach State (12-1) remained top-ranked team for the fourth straight week, earning 14 of 23 first-place votes and 446 total points this week. Grand Canyon (11-0), which received eight first-place votes, remained second followed in the top five by Hawai'i (10-1), UCLA (11-3), and UC Irvine (8-4). Stanford (7-5) is sixth this week, followed by Ohio State (10-3), BYU (9-5), Penn State (8-3), and USC (10-4). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Pepperdine (9-4), Loyola-Chicago (8-7), Ball State (11-7), Princeton (6-7), Lewis (8-6), the Matadors, George Mason (5-5), UC Santa Barbara (5-9), Lincoln Memorial (8-3), UC San Diego (5-8), and Daemen (8-2).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Lewis (8-6, 3-3 MIVA), ranked one spot in front of CSUN (15th) in this week's AVCA/NVA Top-20 poll, opens the week at No. 1 Long Beach State on Friday before traveling to CSUN on Saturday. Behind 13 kills from Max Roquet, the Flyers snapped a three-match losing streak last week with a 3-0 road sweep at Quincy on Tuesday. Lewis, 4-1 in road matches this season, is hitting .305 as a team through 14 matches. Roquet leads the team at 3.37 kills per set on .311 hitting.
All-Time Series: Saturday's match is the ninth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Lewis with the Flyers holding a 5-3 edge in the series. Lewis has claimed the last two meetings, 2019 in Northridge (3-2) and 2018 in Romeoville, Ill. (3-1). Six of the previous eight matches have been played at CSUN with the Matadors 2-4 in those matches. CSUN's three wins in the series came during the 2001, 2007, and 2008 seasons, all in straight sets.Â
HOBUS CONTINUES TO CLIMB CSUN CAREER CHARTS
After moving into the CSUN Rally Scoring era career top-10 in recent weeks, senior Kyle Hobus continues his pursuit this week. Hobus currently ranks tied for third with a career kills per set average of 3.38 which is tied with Joe Nargi who averaged 3.38 kps from 2001-03. Hobus also ranks eighth in career attacks with 2,113 which now trails Mike Gaudino (2,157) for seventh place by 44 attempts. With 930 career kills, Hobus has already moved past Gaudino into the No. 10 spot. Gaudino was previously 10th with 898 kills from 2007-10. Hobus opens the week needing 70 kills to become the 15th player in CSUN men's volleyball history with 1,000 career kills.Â
CONSTABLE CLOSES IN ON 2,000 CAREER ASSISTS
Junior setter Donovan Constable, already in the CSUN career top-10 in assists, looks to become the 10th player in CSUN men's volleyball history with 2,000 career assists. Constable, who ranks second in the Big West and seventh nationally this week at 10.17 assists per set, needs just 26 assists to reach the career milestone. Constable would become the first Matador setter since Sam Porter in 2019 to reach 2,000 career assists. Matt Unger is the CSUN record holder with 5.732 assists from 1989-93. Since the sport went to rally scoring in 2001, only six Matador setters have reached 2,000 career assists (John Baxter - 5,164, Ty Tramblie - 4,090, Travis Bluemling - 3,833, Matt Stork - 3,780, Travis Magorien - 2,911, and Porter).
CSUN AGAINST RANKED TEAMS Â
The Matadors will have another chance this week to knock off a team ranked in the AVCA/NVA Top-20. After dropping its first three matches this season to ranked teams (No. 7 Grand Canyon, No. 20 George Mason, No. 16 Princeton), CSUN has won two of their last three after upsetting No. 11 USC (Jan. 24) and No. 4 Stanford (Feb. 3). Lewis will be seventh ranked team the Matadors have faced in their first 14 matches this season. CSUN's win over No. 4 Stanford was its first victory over an AVCA top-five since Jan. 9, 2019 when the Matadors upset No. 2 UCLA in straight sets at home.
QUICK SETS
In his first start of the season, junior Lorenzo Bertozzi led all hitters with a career-high 14 kills while hitting .462 against Hope International. Bertozzi eclipsed his previous career-high in kills (12 at Stanford in 2023) while improving his hitting percentage on the season to .432 ... Hobus only took 10 swings on the night but put down eight kills with one error to hit .700, while fellow senior Griffin Walters chipped in seven kills (.583), three digs, and a pair of blocks in the Matadors' 25-19, 25-18, 25-18 win ... CSUN is 2-1 as it approaches the midpoint of its current seven-match homestand. The Matadors will still face a trio of ranked teams (Lewis, Pepperdine, Penn State) along with unranked Charleston over the final four matches of the homestand ... Niall Finnegan collected his first CSUN kill in the last week's' win over Hope International ... With six aces in the win over the Royals last week, CSUN is now leading its opponents in aces on the season 93-52. The Matadors have also racked up 350 service errors this season, compared to 194 for their opponents.
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
After taking on No. 15 Lewis on Saturday, the Matadors will close the season-long homestand against No. 11 Pepperdine (Feb. 28), Charleston (Mar. 1), and No. 9 Penn State (Mar. 5) over the next two weeks. CSUN will then turn its attention to Big West play as the Matadors open their seventh season of Big West volleyball at UC San Diego on Mar. 14.
#GoMatadors
