California State University at Northridge
Cal State Bakersfield
CSUN Wraps Up Road Stretch at Cal State Bakersfield, Hosts Hawai'i
10/1/2025 2:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK:
MATCH #14 (BIG WESTÂ #3)
CSUN Matadors (7-6, 0-2) @ Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (3-11, 0-2)
Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025Â - 6:30 p.m. PT
Icardo Center - Bakersfield, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #15 (BIG WESTÂ #4)
Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine @ CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025 - 6:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Women's Volleyball team (7-6, 0-2 Big West) concludes a grueling road stretch on Thursday at Cal State Bakersfield before returning home for the first time in nearly a month to host Hawai'i on Saturday. The Matadors meet the Roadrunners on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Icardo Center and host the Rainbow Wahine inside Premier America Credit Union Arena on Saturday at 6 p.m. CSUN opened Big West play last week with a 3-0 loss at Cal Poly and a 3-1 loss at UC Santa Barbara.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
Both Big West matches this week will be streamed live on ESPN+, live stats are also available at GoMatadors.com. For CSUN home matches, Darren Preston returns to call women's volleyball in 2025 and will be joined by men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason for select matches.
Fans can follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. 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 OPPONENTS
Cal State Bakersfield (3-11, 0-2) has dropped its last five matches after opening Big West play with 3-0 road losses at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly last week. Offensively, Virginia Tech transfer Nicole Zake leads the Runners, averaging 3.47 kills per set. CSUB is hitting .164 as a team, which ranks ninth in the Big West.
Series: Thursday's match is the 47th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Runners, with CSUN leading the all-time series 34-12. The two teams met just once last season, with the Runners claiming a 3-1 win in Northridge. Matadors are 13-6 all-time against CSUB in Bakersfield.
Hawai'i (5-8, 1-1) opened the Big West schedule with a five-set win at home over UC Riverside on Sept. 26. UH then dropped a four-set decision to UC Davis to cap the opening weekend of conference play. UH ranks first in the Big West with 1.64 aces per set. Freshman Cha'lei Reid leads the conference and ranks 22nd nationally with 26 aces.
Series: Saturday's match is the 34th meeting all-time between CSUN and Hawai'i, with the Rainbow Wahine holding a 31-2 lead in the all-time series. UH has won 18 straight in the series dating back to the last Matador win in 2014 (3-2 in Northridge). CSUN is 2-9 all-time against Hawai'i in 11 matches in Northridge.
SENTES CLOSES IN ON 1,000 CAREER DIGS
CSUN junior libero Paige Sentes, the 2025 Big West leader in digs, added 24 digs in two matches last week to raise her career total to 957. With 43 more digs, Sentes will become the 11th player in program history with 1,000 career digs. Cindy Ortiz (2009-12) holds the all-time CSUN and rally scoring era records with 1,456 digs, while Alexis Cormier (1998-01) holds the sideout scoring era record with 1,194 career digs. Sentes, a two-time Big West Defensive Player of the Week in 2025, leads the Matadors with 255 digs while averaging 4.64 digs per set. Heading into the week, Sentes leads UCR's Jessica Dean, who ranks second at 4.48.
CSUN IN BIG WEST OPENERSÂ
With Friday's 3-0 loss at Cal Poly, the Matadors slipped to 24-15 (.615) all-time record in 39 previous conference home openers. The Matadors are now 11-14 all-time in 25 previous Big West openers dating back to 2001. CSUN is 24-14 all-time in conference home openers heading into Saturday's match against Hawai'i. The Matadors have already improved to 23-22 in home openers after pulling off a reverse sweep over Idaho State on Aug. 29.
CSUN'S BIG WEST RANKINGS
As a team, the Matadors lead the Big West in digs per set at 14.42. With 793 digs this season in 55 sets, CSUN is 77 digs ahead of second-place Cal State Fullerton, which has 716 digs in 53 sets (13.51 per set). The Matadors also rank fourth in four other Big West statistical categories: hitting percentage (.213), kills per set (12.73), aces per set (1.53), and points per set (16.29).
Individually, Sentes continues to lead the Big West in digs per set (4.64), while Tatiana Turgeon moved up to fourth in blocks per set at 1.16. Julia Bazylevych remains fifth in kills per set (3.48) and Hayley Ogden ranks fifth in hitting percentage (.367) and 12th in blocks (0.93). A host of Matadors are also in the top-20 this week, with Smith 17th in kills per set (2.64), Leah Miller is 13th in hitting percentage (.275), followed by Sentes and freshman Saniyah Sobers, who are tied for 17th in aces per set (0.27).
MATADOR QUICK SETS
Senior Amaris Smith surpassed 500 kills in her CSUN career with 24 kills in two matches last week. After posting a team-high 383 in her first CSUN season in 2024, Smith ranks third this season with 119 kills in 12 matches. With her 12th kill against Portland on Sept. 6, Smith reached 1,000 kills in her collegiate career, which includes 541 kills in two seasons at Long Island (2022-23) ... Due to injuries, CSUN has utilized three setters this season, with Katie Kolar leading the squad with 289 assists, while averaging 8.50 aps, which is fifth in the Big West. In Kolar's absence, the Matadors turned to Jan Marie Duhaylungsod and Taylor Dunlap, who have combined for 251 assists. Duhaylungsod is averaging 3.38 aps with Dunlap averaging 2.95 aps ... Saturday's home match against Hawai'i marks CSUN's first home appearance in 21 days. The Matadors last played on their home floor on Sept. 13 against Lipscomb, which was in the middle of a stretch that saw CSUN play 10 of 11 matches on the road. The Matadors are 4-6 so far in 10 matches during the rough stretch, with wins over Eastern Washington (3-1), Santa Clara (3-1), San Francisco (3-1), and San José State (3-1).Â
CSUN HEAD COACH AQUILES MONTOYAÂ
Aquiles Montoya opens his second season as head coach of the CSUN Women's Volleyball team in 2025. In his first season, Montoya led the Matadors to a 10-19 overall record, as CSUN reached double figures in wins for the first time since 2019. With five Big West wins, Montoya led CSUN to its highest conference win total in three seasons. He was named the ninth head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball program on Apr. 10, 2024. Montoya arrived at CSUN after spending the past four seasons as associate head coach and director of recruiting at Portland State. 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.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following Saturday's match against Hawai'i, CSUN returns to the road to meet Cal State Fullerton next Thursday (Oct. 9) and UC Irvine next Saturday (Oct. 11). The Matadors will then play eight of their final 12 matches at home.
#GoMatadors
