California State University at Northridge
UC Irvine
16th-Ranked CSUN Returns Home to Take on #3 UC Irvine
3/28/2024 2:46:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #22Â (BIG WEST #5)
No. 3 UC Irvine Anteaters (15-6, 4-0) @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors (10-11, 1-3
Friday, Mar. 29, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PDT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #23Â (BIG WEST #6)
No. 3 UC Irvine Anteaters @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Mar. 30, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PDT
Bren Events Center - Irvine, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The 16th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (10-11, 1-3 Big West), coming off an impressive two-match split at No. 2 Hawai'i last weekend, opens a home-and-home series with No. 3 UC Irvine this Friday in Northridge. The two teams wrap up the set Saturday at UCI's Bren Center.
The Matadors picked up their first Big West win in four tries on Saturday in Honolulu, winning for the first time since 2013 against the Rainbow Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center while also handing Hawai'i just its second home loss this season. The win also snapped CSUN's four-match skid which included conference-opening losses to UC San Diego (Mar. 14-15). Â
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 BACK UP TO 16TH IN AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After splitting two matches at No. 2 Hawai'i last week, the Matadors (10-11) moved back into a familiar spot (16th) in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. CSUN, which was ranked 16th for six straight weeks (Feb. 5-Mar. 11), earned 115 points this week, up 52 points from last week. The Matadors, who received a season-high 149 points on Feb. 5, have been ranked in all 13 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 (18-1) is the top-ranked team for the second straight week, earning all 23 first-place votes. UCLA (16-4) moved up to second this week, followed in the top five by UC Irvine (15-6), Grand Canyon (20-2), and Hawai'i (18-4). Stanford (9-9) remained sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by BYU (13-7), Pepperdine (16-7), Ohio State (16-7), and Penn State (15-6). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes USC (11-10), Ball State (17-8), Loyola-Chicago (15-9), Lewis (14-11), Princeton (10-9), the Matadors (10-11), UC San Diego (11-10), McKendree (14-8), George Mason (13-7), and UC Santa Barbara (7-14).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC Irvine (15-6, 4-0 Big West) was idle last week but moved up to 3rd in this week's AVCA/NVA Top-20 poll. The Anteaters, who matched their highest ranking of the year, are one of only two undefeated teams in Big West play (Long Beach State). UC Irvine ranks No. 1 in the country in kills (13.48) and assists (12.73) this week while outside hitter Hilir Henno leads the nation in kills (4.78) and points (5.55).
All-Time Series: The two matches this week mark the 78th and 79th meetings all-time between the Matadors and Anteaters. In the series that dates back to 1977, UCI holds a 41-36 edge in 77 previous matches and has won five straight since CSUN's last win in 2021. The two teams last met in Irvine in the 2023 Outrigger Big West Championship tournament (Apr. 20) when the Anteaters won in straight sets. The Matadors are 19-15 all-time against UCI in Northridge and 17-24 in Irvine.
CONSTABLE, HOBUS NAMED BIG WESTÂ PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
After splitting a two-match series at No. 2-ranked Hawai'i in Honolulu, CSUN men's volleyball claimed two of the three Big West weekly awards as Donovan Constable was named Offensive Player of the Week and Kyle Hobus was named Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, Mar. 25. This week marks the second time this season that CSUN has won multiple weekly awards after sweeping all three honors on Feb. 5. Constable, a junior setter, led CSUN to its first win in Honolulu since 2013. In the two matches, he posted 85 assists, 12 digs, six kills, six blocks, and one ace. Constable set the Matador hitters to a .327 hitting clip in the two matches, including a .387 clip in Saturday's 3-1 win.
Hobus, a senior outside hitter, won a Big West award for the second time this season after earning Offensive Player of the Week on Feb.5. Hobus also had a big week as the Matadors handed the Rainbow Warriors just their second loss at home this season. Hobus had double figure kills in each match, including a match-high 21 (.395) on Friday. In Saturday's 3-1 win, Hobus hit .346 with 11 kills to go with two aces and six blocks. For the weekend, the senior from San Pedro had 32 kills, nine blocks, 5 digs, and three aces.
HOBUS IS 15TH CSUNÂ PLAYER WITH 1,000 CAREER KILLS
With his seventh kill in the opening set at UC San Diego on Mar. 14, Hobus became the 15th player in CSUN men's volleyball history to reach 1,000 career kills. Hobus, who opens the week with 1,067 career kills, is the second CSUN hitter in the last five years to reach the milestone after Dimitar Kalchev reached 1,000 in 2019. Hobus, who now trails Kalchev (1,262) by 195 kills for 10th place all-time, moved past Isaac Kneubuhl (1,029) into seventh place on CSUN's Rally Scoring era kills list. Hobus now trails Brian Waite (1,068) and sixth place by a single kill.
Hobus also moved into the top 10 in Rally Scoring era in a pair of other categories in recent weeks. Hobus is currently fourth with a career kills per set average of 3.45 and seventh with 2,412 career attacks. Hobus opens the week trailing Kneubuhl (2005-08) by 95 attacks for sixth place.
CONSTABLE SURPASSES 2,000 CAREER ASSISTS
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 on Feb. 24. Constable, who ranks fourth in the Big West and 11th nationally this week at 9.82 assists per set, now has 2,291 career assists to 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 QUICK SETS Â
Following a 1-1 weekend in Hawai'i, the Matadors open this week with a 6-6 home record and a 3-3 road record, CSUN is also 1-2 in neutral site matches ... With 10 digs in Hawai'i, senior Griffin Walters now has 350 digs in his CSUN career. Constable also surpassed 300 career digs last weekend, scooping up 12 in the Hawai'i series which gave him 305 in his career ... Jano Tello finished the Hawai'i series with 12 kills and one error on 17 swings to hit .647 in the two matches ... Freshman middle Nir Eitan also had a big weekend in the middle, leading CSUN with 10 blocks in the two matches ... Saturday's 3-1 win over the Rainbow Warriors was CSUN's first this season when it is out-aced.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
This season marks CSUN's seventh as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. After starting 1-3 in 2024, the Matadors are now 13-41 (.241) in 54 Big West matches over six-plus 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 this week's home-and-home series with No. 3 UC Irvine, the Matadors will open the final month of the regular season with home and away matches against Long Beach State (Apr. 5-6) and UC Santa Barbara (Apr. 12-13) which will cap the regular season.
#GoMatadors
