California State University at Northridge
Grand Canyon
12th-Ranked CSUN Welcomes #8 Grand Canyon in Top-20 Showdown
2/19/2025 7:41:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #13:
No. 8 Grand Canyon Lopes (9-1) @ No. 12 CSUN Matadors (10-2)
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 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 12th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (10-2, 0-0 Big West) puts its season-long, five-match win streak on the line this week as the Matadors host No. 8 Grand Canyon Wednesday at 6 p.m. CSUN, which reached its highest ranking of the season this week, takes on its fifth ranked team of the season in the eighth-ranked Lopes who come into Wednesday's match with a 9-1 overall record. The Matadors improved to 4-2 on their home court with a 3-1 non-conference win over Jessup last Friday.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Wednesday's match against Grand Canyon will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Ghizal Hasan on the call. 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 RISES TO 12TH IN AVCA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After posting a 3-1 home win over Jessup University last week and riding a season-high five-match winning streak, the Matadors (10-2) moved up to a season-high 12th in this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll (Feb. 17). CSUN received a season-high 198 points this week, a five-point improvement from last week to earn its highest ranking since also ranking 12th on Mar. 13, 2023. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 polls last season, have now been ranked in all seven polls this season (12th, 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 (11-0) remained the No. 1 team in this week's poll, earning all 23 first-place votes and 460 total points. UC Irvine (10-0) remained second with 437 points followed in the top five by UCLA (6-3), Hawai'i (9-1), and USC (9-2). BYU (10-4) moved up to sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by Loyola Chicago (11-1), Ball State (9-4), and Grand Canyon (9-1), and Stanford (4-5). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes Pepperdine (7-3), the Matadors (10-2), UC San Diego (9-4), Lewis (9-4), Ohio State (5-6), UC Santa Barbara (6-6), McKendree (6-5), Lincoln Memorial (10-1), Penn State (3-7), and Princeton (4-4).
SCOUTING THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
No. 8 Grand Canyon (9-1) picked up its fourth and fifth straight wins last weekend, taking a pair from No. 12 UC San Diego at home. After topping the Tritons in four on Friday, the Lopes closed the weekend with five-set win on Saturday. Jarrett Anderson and Karter Rogers combined for 31 kills in the 3-2 win. For the season, Trent Moser leads GCU averaging 2.74 kills per set, followed by Cole Ottmar (2.55 kps) and Rogers (2.41 kps). The Lopes are hitting .307 as a team through 10 matches.
All-time series: Wednesday's match is the fourth all-time between the Matadors and Lopes with GCU leading 2-1 in the series. CSUN won the first meeting between the two teams at home (3-0) in 2013 before the Lopes claimed a 3-2 win in 2019 and a 3-0 win last season, both wins coming at UC Santa Barbara's Asics Invitational.
DELIBOSOV REMAINS NCAA BLOCKS LEADERÂ
Freshman Stilian Delibosov remained the national leader in blocking this week, averaging 1.405 blocks per set. Delibosov has a team-high 52 total blocks through 37 sets this season, including six solo stuffs. Offensively, Delibosov improved his hitting percentage to .544 on the season after hitting .615 (10-2-13) against Jessup last week. At .544, Delibosov remains the only hitter in the Big West hitting over .500 for the season and ranks second nationally.
Other Big West ranks: as a team, the Matadors continue to lead the Big West in both team kills at 13.59 per set and team blocks at 2.58 per set. CSUN also ranks second in hitting percentage at .343, assists at 12.67 per set, and points at 18.01 per set. This week, the Matadors are third in digs at 8.49 per set and fourth in aces at 1.85 per set.
PHILLIPS SURPASSES 500 CAREER KILLSÂ
With 26 kills in matches against Dominican and Pepperdine, 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 181 kills through 12 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 12 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.
CONSTABLE PASSES 3,000 CAREER ASSISTSÂ
With 39 assists against Jessup last week, senior Donovan Constable became just the seventh player in program history with 3,000 career assists. Constable's career total now stands at 3,013 in 312 career sets which is now 517 assists away from sixth place. Constable has already passed Travis Magorien (2,911) and Sam Porter (2,711) this season and has his sights set on Gary Reznick who has 3,530 assists from 1990-94. The senior from Clovis is 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.
CSUN QUICK SETSÂ
A pair of Matadors made his first collegiate start in CSUN's 3-1 win over Jessup. Redshirt sophomore Trevor Lau and junior transfer Shane Nhem combined for 12 kills in the win with Lau posting a career-high seven kills on 16 swings. Nhem, who started at opposite, connected for five kills (.333) while also notching a pair of blocks ... CSUN improved to a perfect 8-0 against unranked teams this season following last week's 3-1 win over Jessup. The Matadors have split four matches against ranked teams with wins over No. 10 Pepperdine (3-1) and No. 20 George Mason (3-1) and losses to No. 3 UCLA (3-1) and No. 6 USC (3-1) ... CSUN's current five-match winning streak is its best since winning eight straight from Feb. 3-Mar. 3 in 2023, Edwards' first season at the helm of the men's volleyball program.
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 Wednesday's match against Grand Canyon - CSUN's second match on its current six-match homestand - the Matadors will remain at home to host Cal Lutheran (Feb. 28), Sacred Heart (Mar. 3), No. 1 Long Beach State (Mar. 5), and Princeton (Mar. 12) on the homestand. CSUN's match against top-ranked Long Beach State on Mar. 5 marks the Big West opener for both teams.
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