California State University at Northridge
Penn State
No. 16 CSUN Wraps Up Homestand vs. Ninth-Ranked Penn State
3/5/2024 1:54:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #17
No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions (12-3) @ No. 16 CSUN Matadors (9-7)
Tuesday, Mar. 5, 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 CSUN Men's Volleyball team (9-7, 0-0 Big West) wraps up not only a seven-match homestand on Tuesday, but also the non-conference portion of the 2024 season as the 16th-ranked Matadors host No. 9 Penn State at 6 p.m. CSUN is 3-3 on the homestand heading into Tuesday night's match against the Nittany Lions. CSUN is also stands at 9-7 in non-conference matches following a split in two home matches last week. The Matadors fell in another tough five-set match to No. 10 Pepperdine last Wednesday before responding with a straight-set sweep over Charleston on Friday to improve to 6-4 on their home court.
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 splitting home matches against No. 10 Pepperdine and un-ranked Charleston last week, the Matadors (9-7) remained 16th in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. CSUN, which has now been ranked 16th for five straight weeks, earned 111 points this week, down one point from last week. The Matadors, who received a season-high 149 points on Feb. 5, have been ranked in all 10 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 (15-0) remained in the top spot for the second straight week, earning 21 of 23 first-place votes. Long Beach State (14-1) picked up the other two first-place votes and is second followed in the top five by Hawai'i (14-1), UCLA (14-4), and UC Irvine (12-4). BYU (10-6) remained sixth this week, followed by Stanford (8-8), Ohio State (14-4), Penn State (12-4), and Pepperdine (12-5). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Loyola-Chicago (11-8), USC (10-6), Ball State (14-7), Lewis (10-8), Princeton (8-8), the Matadors, George Mason (7-7), UC San Diego (7-10), UC Santa Barbara (7-10), and McKendree (9-6).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Penn State (12-4), ranked 9th in this week's AVCA/NVA Top-20 poll, continues its West Coast trip Tuesday in Northridge. The Nittany Lions, who began the trip with a 3-1 loss at No. 2 Long Beach State on Friday, continue the trip at No. 12 USC on Wednesday and at No. 4 UCLA on Friday. This season, Penn State players have won one AVCA National Collegiate Player of the Week award (John Kerr), four EIVA Offensive Player of the Week honors (John Kerr, Michael Valenzi, Michal Kowal, Toby Ezeonu), two EIVA Defensive Player of the Week accolades (Toby Ezeonu, Ryan Merk), one Off the Block National Libero of the Week award (Ryan Merk), and two Off the Block National Middle of the Week honors (Toby Ezeonu 2x).
All-Time Series: Tuesday's match is the 15th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Nittany Lions dating back to 1982. Penn State holds a 9-5 lead in the series but the Matadors are 2-1 in three matches all-time in Northridge. The two teams last met in 2016 in Pennsylvania, with CSUN winning in four sets.
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 up the charts this week. Hobus currently ranks tied for fourth with Joe Nargi (2001-03) with a career kills per set average of 3.38. Two weeks ago. Hobus also moved into seventh place in career attacks. Now with 2,205 attacks, Hobus trails Isaac Kneubuhl by 302 attacks for sixth place. With 19 kills in two matches last week, Hobus boosted his career kills total to 974 which ranks 10th. Hobus, who needs just five kills to move past Kevin McKniff (978) into ninth place, opens the week needing 26 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 on Feb. 24. Constable, who ranks fourth in the Big West and 12th nationally this week at 9.79 assists per set, now has 2,083 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).
MATADOR QUICK SETS Â
With five aces in two matches last week (two against Pepperdine and three against Charleston), senior Griffin Walters reached the 100 aces milestone for his CSUN career ... With a 9-7 non-conference mark heading into Tuesday's match, the Matadors are now 20-14 in non-conference matches under Theo Edwards. CSUN finished 11-5 in 16 non-conferece matches in 2023 ... CSUN is 3-3 on its current season-long, seven-match homestand heading into Tuesday's match against No. 9 Penn State. The Matadors also played a seven-match homestand in 2023, finishing 5-2. The pair of seven-match homestands are CSUN's longest stretch of home matches since 2012 when 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 CSUN finished 8-3. The Matadors also had a seven-match homestand in 2009 (finished 7-1) and a trio of six-match homestands in 1980, 2003 and 2020.
CSUN AGAINST NATIONALLY-RANKED TEAMS Â
Tuesday's match against No. 9 Penn State marks the ninth time in the first 17 matches this season that CSUN has played against nationally-ranked opponents. The Matadors, who are 2-6 this season against ranked teams after falling in five sets to No. 10 Pepperdine last week, have played now played No. 4 twice, No. 7, No. 10, No. 11, No. 15, and No. 20 ranked teams this season. CSUN dropped its first three matches this season to ranked teams (No. 7 Grand Canyon, No. 20 George Mason, No. 16 Princeton), before upsetting No. 11 USC (Jan. 24) and No. 4 Stanford (Feb. 3). The Matadors' win over No. 4 Stanford was their 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 hosting Penn State on Tuesday, the Matadors will have a nine-day break from match action before opening up the 2024 Big West season on Mar. 14 at UC San Diego (7 p.m.). CSUN will host the Tritons the following night at 6 p.m. inside Premier America Credit Union Arena.
#GoMatadors
