California State University at Northridge
Pepperdine
#16 CSUN Continues Homestand vs. #10 Pepperdine, Charleston
2/28/2024 9:52:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #15
No. 10 Pepperdine Waves (10-5) @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors (8-6)
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #16
Charleston Golden Eagles @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors
Friday, Mar. 1, 2024 - 6:00 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 CSUN Men's Volleyball team (8-6, 0-0 Big West) heads into the homestretch its season-long, seven-match homestand this week as the 16th-ranked Matadors host No. 10 Pepperdine (8-6) and Charleston in non-conference action at Premier America Credit Union Arena. CSUN takes on the Waves Wednesday at 6 p.m. before closing the week with a Friday matchup against the Golden Eagles, also at 6 p.m.
The Matadors, 2-2 after four matches on the current home stretch, resumed their homestand after a 10-day break last week, falling in a tough five-set match to No. 15 Lewis on Feb. 24.
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. 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 falling in five sets to No. 15 Lewis in their only match last week, the Matadors (8-6) stayed 16th in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. CSUN, which has now been ranked 16th for four straight weeks, earned 112 points this week, down just three points from last week. The Matadors, who received a season-high 149 points on Feb. 5, have been ranked in all nine 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
Grand Canyon (13-0) moved into the top spot for the first time season, receiving 13 of 23 first-place votes. Long Beach State (13-1) picked up 10 first-place votes but slipped to second followed in the top five by Hawai'i (12-1), UCLA (12-4), and UC Irvine (10-4). BYU (10-6) moved up to sixth this week, followed by Ohio State (13-3), Stanford (8-6), Penn State (12-3), and Pepperdine (10-5). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes USC (10-6), Ball State (12-7), Loyola-Chicago (9-8), Lewis (9-7), Princeton (7-8), the Matadors, George Mason (6-6), UC San Diego (6-8), Lincoln Memorial (10-3), and Daemen (10-2).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Pepperdine (10-5, 1-3 MPSF), ranked 10th in this week's AVCA/NVA Top-20 poll, is coming off a two-match split against No. 6 Stanford week last week. The Waves won the opener 3-1 over the Cardinal before falling 3-1 the following day. Pepperdine hit .392 as a team in the win, while also serving 10 aces. Ryan Barnett tied a career high, hitting .667 without an error on 18 swings. Barnett came back with a career-high 20 kills (.389) in the finale as the Waves fell in four sets.Â
All-Time Series: Wednesday's match is the 86th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Waves dating back to 1978. Pepperdine holds a 64-21 lead in the series which includes a 26-12 mark in 38 matches in Northridge. The two teams met twice in 2022, with the Waves sweeping a home-and-home set (Mar. 16-18), their 11th and 12th straight wins in the series. CSUN's last win in the series came in Feb., 2013 when the Matadors upset the No. 5 Waves in five sets in The Matadome.
Charleston (8-7) began up a four-match West Coast trip on Tuesday, falling in four sets at Concordia Irvine. The Golden Eagles travel to No. 18 UC San Diego on Wednesday before heading to Northridge on Friday, concluding the trip at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Prior to the trip west, Charleston split a two-match set with No. 17 George Mason, winning the opener (3-1) before falling in five sets in the finale. Three Golden Eagles had 10 kills in the win, with Ras Jesse Delancy hitting .381 on 18 swings.
All-Time Series: Friday's match marks Charleston's first-ever trip to Northridge and is the just the second meeting all-time between the two schools. CSUN claimed the first meeting, winning in straight sets to open the UCSB Asics Invitational in 2016.
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 fourth with a career kills per set average of 3.41, just ahead of Joe Nargi who averaged 3.38 kps from 2001-03. Last week. Hobus also moved into seventh place in career attacks with 2,160 which surpassed Mike Gaudino (2,157). With a season-high 25 kills against Lewis last week, Hobus boosted his career kills total to 955 career kills, which ranks 10th. Hobus, who needs just 24 kills to move past Kevin McKniff (978) into ninth place, opens the week needing 45 kills to become the 15th player in CSUN men's volleyball history with 1,000 career kills.Â
CONSTABLE SURPASSES 2,000 CAREER ASSISTS Â
Junior setter Donovan Constable, already in the CSUN career top-10 in assists, became the 10th player in CSUN men's volleyball history with 2,000 career assists after posting 43 against Lewis last week. Constable, who ranks third in the Big West and ninth nationally this week at 10.02 assists per set, became 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 the rally scoring format 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
Taking on No. 10 Pepperdine on Wednesday, 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 four matches against ranked opposition after upsetting No. 11 USC (Jan. 24) and No. 4 Stanford (Feb. 3). Pepperdine will be eighth ranked team the Matadors have faced in their first 15 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.
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 home matches against Pepperdine and Charleston this week, the Matadors will wrap up the season-long homestand against No. 9 Penn State on Mar. 5. 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
