California State University at Northridge
UC Santa Barbara
No. 14 CSUN Caps Regular Season With a Pair vs. UC Santa Barbara
4/11/2024 2:41:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATCH #26Â (BIG WEST #9)
No. 14Â CSUN Matadors (11-14, 2-6) @ UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (8-16, 1-7)
Friday, Apr. 12, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PDT
The Thunderdome - Goleta, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #27Â (BIG WEST #10)
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos @ No. 14Â CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Apr. 6, 2024Â - 6:00Â p.m. PDT
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 14th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (11-14, 2-6 Big West) closes out the 2024 regular season this week as the Matadors open a home-and-home series with UC Santa Barbara this Friday in Goleta at 6 p.m. The two teams wrap up the season series Saturday in Northridge at 6 p.m.
Prior to Saturday's match, CSUN will honor its 2024 senior class (Taylan Cook, Kyle Hobus, Jano Tello, Griffin Walters) in a pre-match ceremony. The Matadors dropped a pair of 3-0 decisions to top-ranked Long Beach State last week.
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. Ghizal Hasan will have the call for Saturday's match against UC Santa Barbara.
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 A SEASON-BEST 14TH IN AVCA/NVA TOP-20 NATIONAL COACHES POLL
After dropping a pair of matches to top-ranked Long Beach State, the Matadors (11-14) moved up to a season-best 14th in this week's AVCA/NVA National Collegiate MVB Poll. After earning a season-high 157 points last week, the Matadors earned 146 points this week. CSUN, which was 15th last week after ranking 16th seven times this season, has been ranked in all 15 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, 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 (22-1) is the top-ranked team for the fourth straight week, earning 22 of 23 first-place votes. UCLA (20-4) earned the other two first-place votes to remain second this week, followed in the top five by Grand Canyon (20-4), UC Irvine (17-8), and Hawai'i (21-5). BYU (16-8) remained sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by Stanford (11-11), Penn State (19-6), Pepperdine (17-8), and Ohio State (19-8). The remainder of this week's top-20 includes Ball State (20-9), Loyola-Chicago (18-9), USC (12-12), the Matadors, Lewis (15-14), George Mason (17-7), Princeton (11-10), McKendree (14-11), Purdue Fort Wayne (14-11), and Lindenwood (14-11).
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
UC Santa Barbara (8-16, 1-7 Big West) , receiving 14 points in this week's AVCA/NVA poll, snapped a six-match skid with a 3-2 win over No. 19 UC San Diego last Friday. Big West Player of the Week Geste Bianchi had 23 kills and 13 digs in the win, while Jack Walmer added 45 assists and 10 digs. Bianchi leads the Big West in kills per set at 4.84. The Gauchos, hitting .253 as a team this season, are 4-8 at home and 4-7 on the road in 2024.Â
All-Time Series: The two matches this week mark the 107th and 108th meetings all-time between the Matadors and UC Santa Barbara. In the series that dates back to 1978, the Gauchos hold a 64-42 lead in the series and have won 10 straight dating back to CSUN's last win at the 2018 Big West Tournament at Long Beach State. UCSB claimed both meetings last season, winning in four sets in Goleta and taking a 3-0 win in Northridge. The Matadors are 22-21 all-time against the Gauchos in Northridge and 14-39 all-time against UCSB on the road.
PHILLIPS NAMED BIG WESTÂ FRESHMANÂ OF THE WEEK FOR 3RD TIME
CSUN opposite Jalen Phillips earned his third Big West Freshman of the Week award as announced by the conference office on Apr. 8. In two matches against top-ranked Long Beach State last week, Phillips was CSUN's leading hitter in both matches. In Friday's opener in Long Beach, Phillips had a team-high nine kills (.250) along with seven digs and one block. On Saturday in Northridge, Phillips led the Matadors with 11 kills, while hitting an impressive .526 on 19 swings. He also added one dig and one block in CSUN's 3-0 loss to the Beach. For the season, Phillips ranks second on the Matadors with 276 kills while averaging 3.10 kills per set on .276 hitting. He also earned Big West Freshman of the Week honors on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5.
2024 SENIOR NIGHT Â
Prior to Saturday's regular season finale, CSUN will celebrate its 2024 senior class. Taylan Cook, Kyle Hobus, Jano Tello, and Griffin Walters will be honored in a pre-match ceremony. Hobus, who has played in 322 career sets, became the 15th player in CSUN men's volleyball history to reach 1,000 career kills at UC San Diego on Mar. 14. Hobus opens this week with 1,116 career kills which ranks sixth in CSUN's Rally Scoring era. Hobus also ranked fourth with a 3.47 career kills per set average and is sixth with 2,525 career attempts. Walters has played in 326 career sets since debuting in 2020. He has 783 career kills and ranks sixth in CSUN's Rally Scoring record book with 107 career aces. He also ranks 11th with 1,913 career attacks. Tello has appeared in 216 career sets and ranks 10th in the Rally Scoring era with a career hitting percentage of .402. Tello also has 275 career kills and 125 career blocks. Cook has appeared in 241 sets for the Matadors at libero, posting 272 career digs with a 1.13 digs per set average. He also has 114 career assists as his CSUN career winds down.
In addition, Matador men's volleyball will honor recently retired head coach John Price who led CSUN men's volleyball from 1986-97. Price will be joined by some of his former players between sets two and three during Saturday's match.
CSUN QUICK SETS Â
After leading CSUN in kills in both matches against Long Beach State, Phillips moved past the 300 points milestone for the 2024 season. Phillips now has 313 points in his first season, along with 91 digs which moved him to 1.02 digs per set on the season ... Sophomore Malcolm King returned to the CSUN lineup after missing 11 matches due to injury. King, who last played against The Master's University on Feb. 9, had seven kills and four digs in two matches against No. 1 Long Beach State last weekend ... With six blocks against Long Beach State, Tello has set a new season high with 54. Tello had a previous career-high 53 blocks in 2023 ... Freshman Owen Douphner matched his season-high with 14 assists over the final two sets against Long Beach State on Saturday.
CONSTABLE ON THE CAREER CHARTS
Junior setter Donovan Constable 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 9.85 assists per set, now has 2,412 career assists which ranks 10th in program history. Constable, who trails Tom Ribarich (1986-89) for ninth place by just 11 assists, 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).
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
This season marks CSUN's seventh as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. With a 2-6 record in 2024, the Matadors are now 14-44 (.241) in 58 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 UC Santa Barbara, the Matadors will prepare for the Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship presented by The Hawaiian Islands. All six Big West teams will compete at the tournament which gets underway with first round matches on Thursday, Apr. 18 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. Seeds for the Big West Championship will be determined following Saturday's matches.
#GoMatadors
