California State University at Northridge
UC Merced
CSUN Opens Season-Long, Seven-Match Homestand vs. UC Merced
2/7/2024 12:51:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #11
UC Merced Bobcats (1-5) @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors (6-4)
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #12
The Master's University @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors
Friday, Feb. 9, 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 (6-4, 0-0 Big West) opens up a season-long, seven-match homestand on Wednesday as the Matadors welcome UC Merced to Premier America Credit Union Arena at 6 p.m. The homestand continues Friday as CSUN hosts The Master's University, also at 6 p.m.
The Matadors are coming off a two-match split at No. 4 Stanford last week. CSUN dropped a 3-1 decision in the opener before coming back to win in four sets at Maples Pavilion on Saturday.
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 MOVES UP TO 16TH IN AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After handing No. 4 Stanford its first loss of the season while earning a two-match road split last week, the Matadors (6-4) moved up one spot to a season-best 16th in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. CSUN, which matched its previous season-best at No. 17 last week, earned season-high 149 points this week. The Matadors earned a previous season-high 117 points last week. Ranked in all six polls this season, the Matadors were 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 (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 (9-0) remained top-ranked team for the second straight week, earning all 23 first-place votes and 460 total points this week. Grand Canyon (9-0) remained second followed in the top five by Hawai'i (7-1), UCLA (8-2), and Stanford (7-1). Ohio State (7-2) stayed sixth this week, followed by UC Irvine (5-3), BYU (7-3), Penn State (7-3), and Princeton (6-3). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Ball State (8-6), Pepperdine (7-2), Loyola-Chicago (5-6), Lewis (7-3), USC (7-3), the Matadors, UC Santa Barbara (4-7), George Mason (3-5), UC San Diego (3-7), and Purdue Fort Wayne (6-3).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC Merced (1-5) earned its first win of the season with a 3-0 sweep (26-24, 25-21, 26-24) over Dordt University last Friday at the Jamestown Invitational in North Dakota. The Bobcats, 0-2 on the road this season, come to Northridge on a three-match skid.Â
All-Time Series: Wednesday's match is the sixth meeting all-time between the Matadors and UC Merced with CSUN winning all five previous matches in the series that dates back to 2017. CSUN has won three of the five matches in straight sets, while winning 3-1 in both 2019 and 2022.Â
The Master's University (5-0), which moved into the No. 1 spot in this week's NAIA Coaches' Top 15 poll, remained unbeaten this season after knocking off second-ranked Benedictine Mesa Saturday in four sets in Queen Creek, Ariz. The Master's has played five opponents ranked in the NAIA Top-15 in each of their five matches of the season.
All-Time Series: Friday's match is just the second meeting all-time between the two schools, which are separated by less than 10 miles. CSUN won the first meeting in four sets in 2023 as Nathan Merren led CSUN with 11 kills, hitting .200 on 25 attacks. Merren also contributed six digs, and one block.
CSUN SWEEPS BIG WEST WEEKLY AWARDS
After splitting a two-match series at previously unbeaten and No. 4-ranked Stanford, CSUN men's volleyball swept the Big West weekly awards as Kyle Hobus was named Offensive Player of the Week, Donovan Constable was named Defensive Player of the Week, and Jalen Phillips was named Freshman of the Week. This week marks the first time that CSUN has swept the three Big West men's volleyball weekly awards. The Matadors are also the first team to sweep the awards this season and the first since UC Irvine claimed all three awards on Mar. 20, 2023.
Hobus, a senior outside hitter, earned the award for the second time in his career. He was named Big West Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week on Feb. 28, 2022. Constable was previously named Big West Freshman of the Week in 2022 (Feb. 28) while Phillips earned Freshman of the Week honors for the second time this season and second time in the last three weeks after being named on Jan. 22.
CSUN KNOCKS OFF SECOND RANKED TEAM Â
After dropping their first three matches this season to teams ranked in the AVCA/NVA Top-20, the Matadors have now won two of their last three after knocking off No. 4 Stanford on Saturday. CSUN is now 2-4 this season against ranked teams with wins over Stanford and No. 11 USC. The Cardinal were fifth ranked team the Matadors have faced this season after opening the season against No. 7 Grand Canyon and No. 20 George Mason in Santa Barbara before falling in five tough sets to No. 16 Princeton at home on Jan. 19. CSUN's win over No. 4 Stanford was its first victory over a team ranked in the AVCA top-five since Jan. 9, 2019 when the Matadors upset No. 2 UCLA in straight sets at home.
HOBUS ON THE CSUN CAREER CHARTS
Senior Kyle Hobus has moved into the CSUN Rally Scoring era top-10 in a pair of categories this season and is on the verge of entering a third. Hobus currently ranks tied for fourth with a career kills per set average of 3.38 which is tied with Joe Nargi (2001-03). Hobus also ranks eighth in career attacks with 2,057 which trails Mike Gaudino (2,157) for seventh place. With 895 career kills, Hobus heads into this week just three kills away from the No. 10 spot currently held by Gaudino who had 898 kills from 2007-10.
QUICK SETS
Constable remains the Big West leader in assists per set this week at 10.26. He also ranks third nationally behind only Connor Sheehan of Lindenwood (11.31) and Francisco Pomar of Erskine (10.41). Hobus and Phillips remained in the top-20 in hitting percentage and points per set respectively. Hobus is 14th in points per set at 4.34 while Phillips is 18th in hitting at .368 ... CSUN's match against UC Merced on Wednesday opens a season-long, seven-match homestand for the Matadors. The seven-match homestand, which concludes Mar. 5 against Penn State, matches CSUN's 2023 team for the program's longest homestand since 2012. The Matadors finished 4-3 over the seven-match span last season. In 2012, the Matadors finished 5-4 on a nine-match homestand from Feb, 29-Mar. 24. The program record for consecutive home matches is 11 straight from Feb. 4-Mar. 17, 2004 when the Matadors finished 8-3.
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
Following home matches against UC Merced and The Master's University this week, CSUN continues the homestand with a single match next week against Hope International on Feb. 14. The remainder of the homestand will feature No. 14 Lewis (Feb. 24), No. 12 Pepperdine (Feb. 28), Charleston (Mar. 1), and No. 9 Penn State (Mar. 5).
#GoMatadors
