California State University at Northridge
Jessup University (Calif.)
13th-Ranked CSUN Hosts Jessup to Open Six-Match Homestand
2/12/2025 3:44:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #12:
Jessup University Warriors (3-2) @Â No. 13 CSUN Matadors (9-2)
Friday, Feb. 14, 2025Â - 6:00Â 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 13th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (9-2, 0-0 Big West) returns home on Friday to open up a season-long, six-match homestand against Jessup University (3-2) at 6 p.m. The Matadors, who will play single matches over the next three weeks, won twice last week, sweeping Dominican (3-0) at home before traveling across the Valley to upset 10th-ranked Pepperdine (3-1) on Saturday.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Friday's match against Jessup will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Darren Preston on the call. All Matador home matches this season will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform with 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 MOVES UP TO 13TH IN AVCA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After posting a 3-0 home win over Dominican and upsetting No. 10 Pepperdine on the road, the Matadors (9-2) moved up to a season-high 13th in this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll (Feb. 10). CSUN received a season-high 193 points this week, a 54-point improvement from last week to earn its highest ranking since ranking 12th on Mar. 13, 2023. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 polls last season, have now been ranked in all six polls this season (13th, 15th three times, and 16th twice). Prior to moving back into the AVCA national poll (#15 on Feb. 6, 2023) for the first time since the 2020 season, CSUN had previously 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 (9-0) remained the No. 1 team in this week's poll, earning 22 of 23 first-place votes and 459 total points. UC Irvine (8-0), which earned the other first-place vote, remained second with 438 points followed in the top five by UCLA (6-2), Hawai'i (9-1), and USC (9-0). Loyola Chicago (10-0) moved up to sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by BYU (8-4), Stanford (4-4), Ball State (8-3), and Grand Canyon (7-1). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes Grand Canyon (7-1), Pepperdine (5-3), UC San Diego (9-2), the Matadors (9-2), Lewis (8-3), Ohio State (3-6), UC Santa Barbara (6-4), Lincoln Memorial (8-1), McKendree (4-5), NJIT (6-2), and Penn State (1-7).
SCOUTING THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
Jessup University (3-2), from Rocklin, Calif., travels to UC Merced on Wednesday before venturing to Northridge on Friday. The Warriors have won three of their first five matches to open the season. Behind 21 kills from Jan Lopuch, Jessup picked up its first-ever home victory, 3-1 over Menlo last Friday. Lopuch, who leads Jessup averaging 4.11 kills per set, hit .410 on 39 swings while setter Taylor Marks posted 32 assists in the win.Â
All-time series: Friday's match between the Matadors and Warriors is the first-ever between the two schools in men's volleyball. Menlo is the only common opponent for CSUN and Jessup, the Matadors defeated Menlo 3-1 in Santa Barbara during the season opening weekend while the Warriors are now 1-1 against Menlo this season.
CONSTABLE EARNS 3RD BIG WEST WEEKLY AWARDÂ
Senior setter Donovan Constable was named Big West Setter of the Week for the third time this season as the league announced its weekly awards on Monday (Feb. 10). Constable propelled 16th-ranked CSUN to a pair of wins last week, including the Matadors' first win in Malibu since 2011. He had 31 assists, four kills (.429), three aces, three blocks, and a pair of digs as CSUN hit .324 against Dominican on Friday. In the Matadors' upset over No. 10 Pepperdine on Saturday, he posted 44 assists, three kills, five digs, three blocks, and one ace.
Constable, now a five-time Big West Player of the Week recipient in his CSUN career, picked up the third Big West Setter of the Week award this season, the first year in which the award has been given. He also earned the honor on Jan. 13 and Jan. 20.
PHILLIPS SURPASSES 500 CAREER KILLSÂ
With 26 kills in two matches last week, redshirt sophomore Jalen Phillips moved past 500 kills in his CSUN career. After putting down 340 kills as a redshirt freshman in 2024, Phillips leads CSUN with 175 kills through 11 matches this season. Phillips, who picked up his first career double-double with 22 kills and 12 digs in the Matadors' 3-1 win over No. 20 George Mason (Feb. 2), has now reached double figures in kills nine times in 11 matches this season. He posted a career-high 27 kills (.404) against Lindenwood on Jan. 18 and has 20 or more kills three times this season.
DELIBOSOV IS NCAA BLOCKS LEADER, RANKS THIRD IN HITTINGÂ
Freshman Stilian Delibosov took over as the national leader in blocking this week, averaging 1.455 blocks per set. Delibosov is also the only hitter in the Big West hitting over .500 for the season which ranks third nationally. After hitting .708 (17-0-24) in two CSUN wins last week, he is now hitting .536 on the season while the freshman middle from Bulgaria also has a league-high 48 blocks in 33 sets this season. Other Big West ranks: as a team, the Matadors continue to lead the Big West in team assists at 12.28 per set. CSUN also ranks second in kills per set (13.15) and blocks (2.54), and are third in digs at 8.23 per set.
CONSTABLE CAREER ASSISTS WATCHÂ
With 75 assists in two CSUN wins last week, senior Donovan Constable moved past Travis Magorien into seventh place in career assists in CSUN history. Constable's career total stands at 2,974 which vaulted him past Magorien who had 2,911 assists from 2012-15. The senior from Clovis has already moved past both Magorien and Sam Porter this season, Porter had 2,711 assists from 2016-19. Constable in one of four Matador setters in the program top-10 to play in the Rally Scoring era of collegiate volleyball. He now ranks fifth in CSUN's Rally Scoring era assists list. With his next 26 assists this season, he would become just the seventh player in program history with 3,000 career assists.
CSUN QUICK SETSÂ
In addition to his career assists total, Constable also reached the 400 career digs total last week. He now has 404 in his Matador career ... Redshirt sophomore Trevor Lau matched his career-high with five kills against both Dominican and Pepperdine last week.
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 IN THIRD SEASON AS HEAD COACH
Theo Edwards is in 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 Friday's match against Jessup, CSUN will remain at home through Mar. 12. The Matadors will also welcome Grand Canyon (Feb. 19), Cal Lutheran (Feb. 28), Sacred Heart (Mar. 3), No. 1 Long Beach State (Mar. 5), and Princeton on the six-match homestand. The Matadors' match against the top-ranked Beach on Mar. 5 is the Big West opener for both teams.
#GoMatadors
