California State University at Northridge
UNC Wilmington
Beach Volleyball Travels to Bakersfield For Five Dual Matches
3/7/2024 7:19:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
Friday, Mar. 8, 2024
Barnes Beach Volleyball Complex - Bakersfield, Calif.
CSUN vs. UNC Wilmington - 10 a.m.
CSUNÂ vs. Sacramento State - 2Â p.m.
CSUN vs. Cal State Bakersfield - 4 p.m.
Saturday, Mar. 9, 2024
Barnes Beach Volleyball Complex - Bakersfield, Calif.
CSUN vs. Cal State Bakersfield - 10 a.m.
CSUN vs. UNC Wilmington - 2 p.m.
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
After opening the home season with a pair of wins last week, CSUN beach volleyball (3-1) travels to Bakersfield for five matches over two days at the Barnes Beach Volleyball Complex on the CSUB campus. CSUN opens Friday's play against UNC Wilmington at 10 a.m., also taking on Big West foes Sacramento State (2 p.m.) and Cal State Bakersfield (4 p.m.) on Friday afternoon.
Saturday's schedule has the Matadors taking on the host Roadrunners at 10 a.m. before finishing the weekend against UNC Wilmington at 2 p.m.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Follow CSUN Matadors beach volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. For road matches, related links to the match, including any live stats, audio, and video, will be posted before the match on the beach volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.Â
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the beach volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNBeach) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
UNC Wilmington (5-1) has won of its first five dual matches to open the season. The Seahawks had their season-opening winning streak snapped by South Carolina (4-1) before topping Chattanooga (5-0) last Sunday. With two wins last weekend, Bri Haggerty raised her career record to 51-20, and along with Ellie Bucci, is now five wins from tying the program's all-time career mark of 56 wins. Haggerty has the top winning percentage in program history at 71.8% (51-20).
Series:Â Friday's opener is the first-ever match between CSUN and UNC Wilmington in beach volleyball.
Sacramento State (5-1), coming off a 2-1 weekend in Santa Cruz, is off to its best six-match mark in program history at 5-1. The Hornets fell to Santa Clara (3-2) before defeating Portland (4-1) and Pacific (4-1). The No. 1 pair of Kalani Hayes and Ellie Tisko is 5-0 to open the season, while Ashlynn Archer and Hailey Plugge is 5-1 after winning a pair last weekend.
Series: The Matadors and Hornets have met 10 times dating back to 2016 with CSUN holding a 9-1 lead in the all-time series. The Matadors have won seven straight since Sac State's lone win in 2017. Last season, CSUN defeated the Hornets at both the Big West Challenge and the Big West Championship.
Cal State Bakersfield (4-3) has won four straight after defeating Portland State, the University of Pacific, and Santa Clara in Santa Cruz last weekend. The Roadrunners, playing at home for the first time this season, dropped their first three matches of the season before topping UTEP in Tucson, Ariz.
Series: The Matadors and CSUB have met 26 times since 2014 with each team winning 13 times. Bakersfield has won three straight and six of the last seven between the two teams including all three dual matches last season.
CSUNÂ WINS BOTHÂ ENDS OF HOME OPENING TRI-DUAL
The CSUN beach volleyball team (3-1) took both ends of its home-opening tri-dual on Friday, defeating The Master's University (4-1) and Westcliff University (5-0) at the CSUN Beach Volleyball Complex.
CSUN 4, THE MASTER'S 1
The Matadors began the day with a 4-1 win over the Mustangs, CSUN's second win over The Master's in the first two weeks of the season. Lauren Eknoian and Tasha Mae opened the scoring for the Matadors, taking a 21-12, 21-19 win over Zoe Yates and Faith Wada in the No. 2 pair. Abbey Sweeting and Taylor Buckley made it 2-0 CSUN after sweeping Ashlyn Unruh and Violet Avila in the No. 4 pair, 25-10, 21-15. Layla Cederlind and Sophia Jarosz then finished the first flight with a 21-11, 21-12 win in the No. 6 (exhibition) pair over Kayla Goodwin and Emma Winter.
CSUN clinched the dual win in the No. 5 pair as Julia Bazylevych and Tia Mendiola remained unbeaten on the season with a straight-set (21-14, 21-14) win over Ellie Unruh and Ellie Niehus. Maleya Miles and Kinley Lindhardt won for the second time this season, sweeping Breanna Brooks and Isabella Rodriguez, 21-16, 21-14 at No. 3 before the Mustangs took a three-set win in the No. 1 pair as Evi Yates and Annika Booker went the distance to knock off CSUN's Gabriela Griego and MayaMay Brown, 21-17, 17-21, 15-13.
CSUN 5, WESTCLIFF 0
After The Master's topped Westcliff in the middle dual, the Matadors did not drop a set against the Warriors in a 5-0 win. Sweeting and Buckley picked up their second sweep of the day with a 21-12, 21-15 win over Izzy Duchaine and Ava Himstreet at No. 4. Eknoian and Miles then paired up for the first time this season at No. 2, sweeping Sabrina Galassi and Diamonique Brogan, 21-12, 24-22. The Matadors capped the first flight when Jarosz and Haley Coggins swept Sam Swanson and Abbey Beckwith in the No. 6 (exhibition) pair by the score of 21-10, 21-15.Â
Mae then teamed up with Lindhardt at No. 3 and CSUN would clinch its second win of the day with a 21-12, 21-8 victory over Serena Comer and Faith Webb. Mendiola and Bazylevych improved to 4-0 on the season with a 21-18, 21-9 win over Chloe Johnson and Ella Beck at No. 5 before Griego and Brown closed out the 5-0 win with a 21-16, 21-16 victory over Marcella Rodriguez and Brooke Scheidle in the No. 1 pair.
CSUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
The Matadors are 103-113 (.477) all-time in 10 seasons of beach volleyball, including a 65-35 (.650) record on their home sand. After setting a program record for most wins in one season with 17 in 2018, the Matadors matched that win total with a 17-17 overall record in 2022 and a 17-16 record in 2023. CSUN also came within one victory of equaling the mark with a 16-12 record in 2019.
The Matadors have steadily improved since the induction of the sport in 2014. Playing 10 matches, all on the road in its inaugural season, CSUN finished 1-9 in 2014. The Matadors picked up their first-ever beach volleyball win on Mar. 27, 2014 when CSUN defeated Oregon (3-2) at USC's Merle Norman Stadium.
The Matadors then debuted their on-campus facility in 2015, playing 11 matches overall and four matches at home. CSUN's first-ever home match was Mar. 5, 2015 against No. 7 UCLA. CSUN won at home for the first time on Mar. 9 of the 2015 season when the Matadors defeated TCU, 4-1. CSUN ultimately upped its season win total to three culminating with a 3-8 overall season record to close the 2015 season.
The 2016 season saw the Matadors finish 8-14 before falling to Cal Poly in the third round of the Big West Tournament. CSUN then posted an overall record of 6-12 in 2017 before winning a program-record with 17 times in 2018. After posting 16 wins in 2019, the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Matadors off to a 4-1 start. CSUN won 11 times in 2021, finishing with an overall record of 11-15.
BIG WEST BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The 2024 season not only marks CSUN's 11th season of beach volleyball but its ninth season as a member of the Big West. The Matadors are 7-14 all-time in the Big West Championship since the inaugural championship in 2016. The postseason tournament was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the 2023 Big West Championship, held at Queen's Beach in Hawai'i, the Matadors finished in fifth place after winning one of three matches. CSUN, seeded sixth, opened with a 3-2 loss to UC Davis before staving off elimination with a 3-2 win over Sacramento State. The Matadors then fell to Cal Poly (3-2) in an elimination match and finished the championship with a 1-2 record.
CSUN also finished fifth at both the 2021 and 2022 Big West Championships. At Cal Poly's Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex in 2022, the Matadors opened with a 5-0 loss to Cal Poly before staving off elimination with a 4-1 win over Sacramento State. CSUN then fell to UC Davis in an elimination match and finished the championship with a 1-2 record. At Rosie's Dog Beach in 2021, the championship finished in a similar formula for the Matadors. CSUN opened with a 5-0 loss to Hawai'i before sweeping Sacramento State, 5-0. The Matadors were then eliminated by CSU Bakersfield in a close 3-2 final.
The Matadors were the No. 4 seed in the seven-team field at the 2019 Big West Tournament at Zuma Beach in Malibu. CSUN finished 2-2 in the championship tournament, their best showing since also finishing 2-2 in the inaugural conference tournament in 2016. After winning two of three matches on the opening day, CSUN came up empty against No. 3 seed Long Beach State on Saturday and was the fourth squad eliminated from the tournament. Cal Poly, the No. 2 seed, went undefeated in four tournament matches to capture its first conference championship along with the Big West's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Hawai'i, the top seed coming in, finished second.
At the 2018 championship in Hawai'i, the Matadors were seeded fourth in the six-team field in but were upset by fifth-seeded CSU Bakersfield in the opening round (3-2). CSUN then fell to No. 2 seed Cal Poly in an elimination match (5-0).Â
The Matadors were also seeded fourth at the 2017 Big West Tournament held at Pismo Beach, but fell to Sacramento State (3-2) and Cal Poly (5-0) in their two tournament matches.Â
In 2016, CSUN was the third seed in the inaugural conference tournament before finishing 2-2 including a close 3-2 loss to Cal Poly in a third-round elimination match at Huntington Beach.
#GoMatadors
