California State University at Northridge
Tusculum
No. 15 CSUN Opens 2025 Season at UCSB Asics Invitational
1/8/2025 9:55:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK - UCSBÂ ASICS INVITATIONAL
MATCH #1
Tusculum Pioneers (0-0)Â vs. No. 15 CSUN Matadors (0-0)
Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025Â - 4:30Â p.m. PT
Robertson Gym - Goleta, Calif.
Live Stats
MATCH #2:
Missouri S&T Miners vs. No. 15 CSUN Matadors
Friday, Jan. 10, 2025 - 7:00 p.m. PT
Robertson Gym - Goleta, Calif.
Live Stats
MATCH #3:
Menlo Oaks vs. No. 15 CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 - 2:00 p.m. PT
Robertson Gym - Goleta, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The 15th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (0-0, 0-0 Big West) opens the 2025 season, its 48th season of men's volleyball, against Tusculum on Thursday at the UCSB Asics Invitational in Santa Barbara. The match is the first of three for the Matadors at the annual tournament held at Rob Gym on the UCSB campus. CSUN opens the tournament Thursday against Tusculum at 4:30 p.m., before taking on Missouri S&T Friday at 7 p.m. The Matadors conclude the three-day event on Saturday, taking on Menlo at 2 p.m. Fellow Big West teams UC Irvine and host UC Santa Barbara round out the six-team field this weekend.
ASICS Invitational Tournament Central
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
All nine matches of UCSB's Asics Invitational will feature live stats (links at GoMatadors.com). 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 RANKED 15TH IN AVCA TOP-20 NATIONAL PRESEASON COACHES POLL
After finishing the 2024 season ranked 14th, the Matadors (0-0) open the 2025 season ranked 15th in the AVCA National Collegiate Preseason Poll. Last season, CSUN was ranked as high as 14th for the final three polls of the season. The Matadors, who earned a season-high 157 points on Apr. 1 (15th), were ranked in all 17 polls last 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
Defending national champion UCLA was the preseason No. 1 team, earning 22 of 23 first-place votes and 458 total points. Defending Big West champion and national runners-up Long Beach State is second, picking up the other first-place vote and 435 points. The rest of the preseason top five features UC Irvine (411 pts.), Hawai'i (387), and Ball State (332). BYU (315) is sixth in the preseason, followed in the top 10 by USC (299), Penn State (257), Grand Canyon (260), and Pepperdine (255). The second half of this preseason top-20 includes Ohio State (240), Loyola Chicago (228), Stanford (199), Lewis (150), the Matadors (121), UC Santa Barbara (105), George Mason (68), UC San Diego (63), Princeton (58), and McKendree (0-0). In all, CSUN is scheduled to play 14 of the teams in the preseason top 20.
SCOUTING THE ASICS INVITATIONAL FIELD
Tusculum (0-0) opens its season Thursday in Santa Barbara. The Pioneers finished off 8-23 in 2024 before finishing third at the Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament. TU returns senior outside hitter Deklan Wingo who averaged 3.47 kills per set and was Offensive Player of the Year last season. First-year head coach Alberto Chiaparini has 16 players on his inaugural roster, composed of eight returners, seven freshmen, and one transfer. All-time series: Thursday's match marks the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Pioneers in men's volleyball.
Missouri S&T (0-0) finished 10-12 in its second season of men's volleyball in 2024. The Miners, who competed a 12-9 season during their inaugural campaign in 2023, who compete as an independent this season before the GLVC begins conference play in 2026. Junior outside hitter Nate Meyer returns after averaging a team-high 3.94 kills per set on .233 hitting in 2024. All-time series: Friday's match marks the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Miners in men's volleyball.
Menlo (1-0), a first-year member of the MPSF in 2025, opened its season last Saturday with a 3-1 win at home over UC Santa Cruz. Senior Mustafa Selçuk Uyar led all hitters with 16 kills while hitting .324 on 37 swings. Junior setter William Lawler added 36 assists for Menlo which hit .255 as a team in the win. All-time series: Saturday's match is the fourth meeting all-time between CSUN and Menlo dating back to 1982. The Matadors have won three of the four previous meetings, the last coming in Northridge in 2023 when CSUN won in straight sets.
CSUN AT THE UCSB ASICS INVITATIONAL
Thursday's match against Tusculum marks CSUN's 24th appearance in UC Santa Barbara's annual tournament in the last 28 years. The Matadors are 53-37 (.589) all-time in the tournament dating back to 2001. Last season, the Matadors finished 1-2 in the tournament, falling to No. 7 Grand Canyon (3-0) and No. 20 George Mason (3-1) around a 3-1 win over NJIT.
Since 2019, the Matadors are 5-7 in UCSB's annual event, finishing 1-2 three times (2019, 2023, 2024) and 2-1 in 2019. After the 2021 tournament was canceled due to the COVID pandemic, CSUN was scheduled to open the 2022 season in Santa Barbara but due to COVID protocols within the program, the Matadors were forced to withdraw, snapping a streak of 16 consecutive appearances. In 2019, CSUN dropped a five-set decision to Grand Canyon which snapped a streak of 11 straight Matador wins in the tournament dating back to a loss to Princeton in 2015. CSUN won its first-ever UCSB Invitational championship in 2009 after upsetting No. 2 UCLA (3-1) and defeating No. 14 UCSB (3-1) and No. 8 Stanford (3-1). The Matadors then won their second straight crown in 2010 topping UCSB (3-1), California Baptist (3-1), and BYU (3-1).Â
MULTIPLE HONORS FOR MATADORS IN 2024
CSUN men's volleyball received an impressive list of honors following the 2024 season, including three All-America accolades. Senior Donovan Constable earned honorable mention AVCA accolades after picking up first team All-Big West honors for the first time in his career. A Big West All-Freshman Team selection in 2022, Constable has earned a pair of Big West Player of the Week honors this season while also earning All-Tournament Team accolades at the season-opening UCSB ASICS Invitational in January. This season, he has posted a career-high 1,077 assists while also surpassing his previous season-bests in nearly every statistical categories. He ranked second on the Matadors with 39 aces while also recording 65 total blocks, 139 digs, and 63 kills.
Sophomore opposite Jalen Phillips was named to the 11-player Freshman All-America Team as announced by Off the Block. The Off the Block Freshman All-America Team honors the top NCAA Division I-II men's volleyball freshmen players from the regular season. Phillips had an impressive debut season for the Matadors after redshirting in 2023. He finished second only to senior Kyle Hobus with 340 kills, hitting .293 on 702 attacks. By averaging 3.27 kills per set, he ranked fourth in the Big West while also ranking in the conference's top 10 in points per set (3.75) and hitting percentage (.293). He also finished his first season with 13 aces, 104 digs (1.00 dps), and 54 total blocks (0.52 bps). He was CSUN's kill leader in 10 matches while posting double figures in kills 18 times.
NEW FACES ON THE 2025 ROSTER
In addition to returning 12 letterwinners and four starters from the 2024 season, CSUN welcomes an impressive list of newcomers in 2025. The group has an international flavor as student-athletes from Brazil, Bulgaria, and Israel join the Matadors this season. Stilian Delibosov (Razlog, Bulgaria), Joao Pedro Avila (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Joao Favarim (Curitiba, Brazil), and Boaz Serson (Kfar Saba, Israel) are all expected to make an impact at CSUN this season. The Matadors also welcome newcomers Shane Nhem (Union City), Braden Pool-Harris (Long Beach), Grayson Albers (Sacramento), and Logan Spencer (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
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 three matches at the UCSB Asics Invitational, the Matadors return home to open the 2024 home season against Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday (Jan. 17). The match opens a four-match homestand for CSUN which also includes visits from Lindenwood (Jan. 18), USC (Jan. 22), and UCLA (Jan. 24). The matches against Purdue Fort Wayne and Lindenwood are part of the 2025 Under Armour Challenge held at Premier America Credit Union Arena.
#GoMatadors
