California State University at Northridge
USC
No. 15 CSUN Caps Homestand vs. #6 USC, #3 UCLA This Week
1/22/2025 7:58:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #6:
No. 6 USC Trojans (4-0) vs. No. 15 CSUN Matadors (5-0)
Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #7:
No. 3 UCLA Bruins vs. No. 15 CSUN Matadors
Friday, Jan. 24, 2025 - 6:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The 15th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (5-0, 0-0 Big West) wraps up a four-match homestand this week, hosting sixth-ranked USC (4-0) on Wednesday and No. 3-ranked UCLA (2-1) on Friday. Both matches are scheduled for a 6 p.m. first serve. The Matadors, 2-0 on their home court this season, will put their unblemished 5-0 record on the line against the Trojans and Bruins after defeating Purdue Fort Wayne (3-0) and Lindenwood (3-1) as part of the 2025 Under Armour Challenge held at Premier America Credit Union Arena.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 any live stats, audio and video. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
CSUN REMAINS 15TH IN AVCA TOP-20 NATIONALÂ COACHES POLL
Despite winning both matches at the Under Armour Challenge, the Matadors (5-0) remain 15th in this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll (Jan. 20). After earning 121 points in the preseason poll on Dec. 30, and 130 points last week, CSUN received a season-high 139 points but remained 15th. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 polls last season, have now been ranked 15th in all three polls this season. Prior to moving back into the AVCA national 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 (4-0) took over as the No. 1 team in this week's poll, earning 22 of 23 first-place votes and 459 total points. UC Irvine (3-0) moved up to second with 418 points followed in the top five by UCLA (2-1), Hawai'i (6-0), and BYU (6-0) which earned the other first place vote. USC (4-0) is sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by Ball State (3-3), Loyola Chicago (4-0), Stanford (3-1), and Grand Canyon (4-0). The second half of this week's top-20 includes Pepperdine (2-0), Ohio State (3-3), Lewis (4-1), UC San Diego (6-0, the Matadors (5-0), UC Santa Barbara (4-0), Penn State (0-4), Princeton (0-3), George Mason (0-3), and Harvard (1-2).
SCOUTING THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
#6 USC (4-0) plays its first road match of the season on Wednesday in Northridge. The Trojans opened the season with a 3-1 win over Daemen before sweeping No. 19 Princeton, D'Youville, and Emmanuel in succession. Parker Tomkinson led the Trojans with eight kills on 10 swings and had three blocks against the Saints. Christian Connell poured in 10 kills in his first collegiate start and hit .529 to go with a pair of service aces against the Lions. Noah Roberts logged a career-high seven blocks in the win over Emmanuel and finished with 13.0 points. Johnny Dykstra logged the first double-digit digs match of the season with 10 in his collegiate debut against Emmanuel. The Trojans reached double-digit blocks for the third time in four matches and finished with 11.5 against the Lions.
All-time series: Wednesday's match is the 84th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Trojans with USC holding a 49-34 edge in the series. The Matadors are 16-20 all-time against USC in Northridge and 13-22 all-time in matches at USC but are 9-7 all-time in 16 matches at the Galen Center after defeating the Trojans in five sets last season.
#3 UCLA (2-1) hosts No. 14 UC San Diego on Thursday is its home opener before heading to Northridge on Friday. The then-No. 1 Bruins suffered their first loss of the season, 3-1 to No. 13 Ohio State on Saturday Austin, Texas. Zach Rama led UCLA with a career-high tying 21 kills in the loss, hitting .529 while adding three blocks. Prior to Thursday, the Bruins have played all three of their matches this season at neutral sites (St. Francis in Long Beach, Penn State, Ohio State in Austin, Texas).
All-time series: Friday's match is the 91st meeting all-time between CSUN and UCLA dating back to 1978. The Bruins, who hold a commanding 75-15 lead in the all-time series, have won five straight dating back to the Matadors last win in Northridge in 2019. UCLA won in straight sets in the last meeting between the two teams, Jan. 27, 2023 in Northridge.
PHILLIPS NAMED AVCA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Matador sophomore opposite Jalen Phillips added another accolade following his impressive performances in a pair of CSUN victories last weekend. After picking up his first Big West Offensive Player of the Week award of the season on Monday, Phillips was named AVCA National Collegiate Men's Player of the Week after leading No. 15 CSUN to a pair of wins over Purdue Fort Wayne (3-0) and Lindenwood (3-1) last week. Phillips, the Big West leader in points and kills, came up big to help CSUN earn two wins and stay unbeaten in the new season. The redshirt sophomore averaged 6.57 kills per set while hitting .430 on 86 swings. In seven sets, he committed just nine errors in the two wins while adding seven digs, three blocks, and one ace. Against Lindenwood, he had a career-high 27 kills. Phillips, who has four 2024 Big West Freshman of the Week honors in his career, is the first Matador in seven years to earn the national award. Arvis Greene, Jr. was CSUN's last AVCA National Player of the Week, earning the award on Mar, 20, 2018.
CONSTABLE CAREER ASSISTS WATCHÂ
With 87 assists in two CSUN wins last week, Constable earned his second Big West Setter of the Week award and moved into eighth place in CSUN program history with 2,762 career assists. Constable, who trails Travis Magorien and seventh place by 149 assists, moved past Sam Porter who had 2,711 assists from 2016-19. Constable is now sixth in CSUN's Rally Scoring Era assists list. With 238 assists this season, he would become just the seventh player in program history with 3,000 career assists.
CSUN QUICK SETSÂ
As a team, the Matadors now lead the Big West in points, aces, and blocks ... Freshman middle Stilian Delibosov reached double figures for the first time in his young collegiate career with 11 kills against Lindenwood. Delibosov leads all Matador hitters in hitting percentage at .516 on 62 swings. In all, five CSUN hitters are hitting .291 or better, with three hitting over .400 and five hitting over .349 ... CSUN has out-hit its first five opponents this season and have hit at least .350 in all five contests ... Wednesday's match against USC is the first against a ranked team so far in 2025. CSUN is scheduled to face 17 teams that are included on this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
The 2025 season marks CSUN's eighth as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. With a 3-7 regular record in 2024, the Matadors are now 15-45 (.250) in 60 Big West matches over seven 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 and 2024, 2-8 in 2021 and 1-9 in both 2022 and 2023. The 2020 conference season was not contested due to COVID-19. 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 THIRD SEASON AS HEAD COACH
Theo Edwards opens his third season as CSUN's head coach in 2025 after leading the Matadors back into the AVCA national rankings in his first two seasons. Now in his 15th 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. Last season, CSUN advanced to the semifinal round of the Outrigger Big West Championship for the first time since 2018 and finished the season with a 13-16 (3-7 Big West) record and a No. 14 national ranking.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following the conclusion of CSUN's four-match homestand this week, the Matadors open the second month of the season next week against Saint Thomas Aquinas and George Mason in Fairfax, Va. CSUN will meet St. Thomas Aquinas for the first time on Saturday, Feb. 1 before taking on the Patriots Sunday at 10 a.m. PT.
#GoMatadors
