California State University at Northridge
Sacramento State
CSUN Travels to Sacramento For Second Tournament of 2024
9/4/2024 2:29:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK - SACRAMENTOÂ STATE INVITATIONAL:
MATCH #4 (TOURNAMENT MATCH #1)
CSUN Matadors (1-2 @ Sacramento State Hornets (0-2)
Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024 - 7:00 p.m. PDT
The Nest - Sacramento, Calif.
Live Stats  // ESPN+
MATCH #5Â (TOURNAMENT MATCH #2)
CSUN Matadors vs. San Francisco Dons
Friday, Sept. 6, 2024Â - 4:00Â p.m. PDT
The Nest - Sacramento, Calif.
Live Stats // ESPN+
MATCH #6Â (TOURNAMENT MATCH #3)
CSUN Matadors vs, New Mexico State Aggies
Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024Â - 12:00Â p.m. PDT
The Nest - Sacramento, Calif.
Live Stats // ESPN+
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (1-2, 0-0 Big West) continues tournament play this week as the Matadors head to the State Capitol for three matches at the Sacramento State Invitational. CSUN opens the tournament against the host Hornets (0-2) on Thursday at 7 p.m., before taking on San Francisco (1-2) Friday at 4 p.m., and New Mexico State (1-1) Saturday at noon. The Matadors finished 1-2 at the Idaho State Tournament last weekend, picking up head coach Aquiles Montoya's first career win with a 3-2 victory over San Diego State on Saturday.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
All three CSUN matches at Sacramento State will be streamed live on ESPN+ and will have live stats (link at GoMatadors.com).
Fans can follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. All home matches will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Darren Preston handling the play-by-play and CSUN men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason providing commentary for select matches. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
Sacramento State (0-2) dropped a pair to open the season at the Cal Poly tournament last weekend. The Hornets fell 3-1 to the host Mustangs in the opener before falling in straight sets to 19th-ranked Arkansas. The three-set loss to the Razorback saw all three sets decided by three points or less (25-22, 26-24, 25-22). Senior OH Bridgette Smith had 23 kills against Cal Poly before finishing the weekend averaging 5.14 kills per set.
Series: Thursday's match is the 54th meeting all-time between CSUN and Sacramento State with the Matadors holding a 29-24 lead in the series. The former Big Sky rivals most recently met in 2021 with the Hornets taking a pair of wins, 3-0 in Sacramento and 3-1 in Nevada. The Matadors are 12-12 all-time in matches in Sacramento.
San Francisco (1-2) won one of its three matches last weekend at the Rose City Showdown at Portland State. The Dons swept Portland State in their season opener before falling in five sets to both California and Nevada. Sophomore OH Astrid Puig was named to the Rose City Showdown All-Tournament Team after finishing the weekend with 48 kills on .324 hitting, including a career-high 24 kills against California.
Series: Friday's match is the 12th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Dons with San Francisco holding a slim 6-5 edge in the all-time series. The Matadors are 1-1 against USF on neutral courts. The Dons claimed a five-set victory in San Francisco last season to snap a one-match CSUN winning streak (2022).
New Mexico State (1-1) split a pair of matches at the Georgia Tech Invitational last weekend. The Aggies defeated Coastal Carolina (3-1) before falling in four sets to No. 14 Georgia Tech. Redshirt junior OH Starr Williams, a Long Beach State transfer, was named CUSA Offensive Player of the Week after hitting .560 in consecutive matches. Williams had 14 kills against Coastal Carolina and 16 kills against Georgia Tech.Â
Series: Saturday's match is just the third meeting all-time between CSUN and New Mexico State and first since 2001. The Matadors claimed a 3-1 win at home in 1983 and a 3-1 win over the Aggies in 2001 at the Oregon Fall Classic in Eugene.
SMITH, KOLAR EARN BIG WEST WEEKLY HONORS
In the first Big West weekly awards of the 2024 season, CSUN picked up two of the four honors as junior Amaris Smith was named Offensive Player of the Week and sophomore Katie Kolar earned Setter of the Week accolades on Monday (Sept. 2). In her CSUN debut weekend, Smith was selected to the Idaho State All-Tournament Team after an impressive offensive weekend. Smith averaged 5.29 kills per set which leads the Big West after one week of play. CSUN's kills leader in all three matches, Smith put down 74 kills on 183 swings to hit .284. She also added 22 digs (1.57 dps), six blocks, four assists, and one ace. In Saturday's 3-2 win over San Diego State, Smith led all hitters in the match with 29 kills, the most by a CSUN hitter since Cieana Stinson also had 29 against UC Riverside in 2015. Smith hit an impressive .439 on 57 attacks while adding nine digs, two assists, one block, and one ace. Kolar, also making her Matador debut in Idaho, was named Big West Setter of the Week after posting three straight double-doubles while averaging 10.93 assists per set which also leads the conference. Kolar posted at least 50 assists in all three matches including a season-high 53 against Seattle in the season opener. She also added 16 digs in the opener, followed by 13 and 14 digs over CSUN's next two matches. Kolar, who led the Matador hitters to a .215 combined hitting clip, also chipped in four aces and seven blocks over three matches.
MATADOR QUICK SETS
The Matadors lead the Big West in a pair of offensive categories after one week of play. CSUN ranks first in both kills per set (13.86) and assists per set (13.21) while Smith and Kolar each lead in the same two individual categories. Sophomore Paige Sentes is also fourth in digs per set at 3.93 ...  Iye Okolo and Tatiana Turgeon posted solid numbers in the middle last weekend, with Turgeon hitting a team-high .414 and Okolo posting 16 total blocks to lead the team ... Leah Miller scooped up a career-high 18 digs against Seattle ... In addition to Smith and Kolar, several other Matadors made their CSUN debut last weekend in Idaho. Hailey Brockway had a match-high 22 kills against Seattle and averaged 3.64 kps in three matches. Autumn Rojelio and Julia Bazylevych also made her Matador debut last weekend ... CSUN slipped to 20-24 (.455) all-time in season-openers after falling in five sets to Seattle.
MONTOYA OPENS HIS FIRST SEASON AS CSUN HEAD COACHÂ
Aquiles Montoya was named the ninth head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball program on Apr. 10, 2024. Montoya comes to CSUN after spending the past four seasons as associate head coach and director of recruiting at Portland State. He was instrumental in three straight Vikings' student-athletes earning the Big Sky Conference's Top Newcomer award. On the court, Portland State made consecutive postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022, qualifying for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). The Vikings won their first-round match in 2021, giving Portland State its first win at a national postseason tournament in Division I program history. The Vikings rise in the Big Sky Conference coincided with Montoya's tenure as an assistant and associate head coach under Portland State head coach Michael Seeman. The Vikings posted winning seasons, both overall and in conference play, in each of Montoya's last three seasons while reaching the Big Sky championship match in 2022, their first appearance since 2013. Prior to Portland State, Montoya spent the previous three seasons as the lead assistant of the Pacific Boxers' varsity team. He helped the Boxers set program records for wins in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018. The Boxers went 17-7 overall and 10-6 in the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference (NWC) in 2017, then topped that the following year while going 18-8 overall and 11-5 in NWC play.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following this week's tournament at Sacramento State, the Matadors will play one final non-conference neutral site match next week against Nevada at California Baptist in Riverside. CSUN then opens up a season-long six-match homestand that includes the 2024 home opener against CBU on Sept. 17. The Matadors will also host Washington State (Sept. 19), Portland (Sept. 20-21), Cal Poly (Sept. 27), and UC Santa Barbara (Sept. 29) on the homestand.Â
#GoMatadors
