California State University at Northridge
Princeton
7th-Ranked CSUN Hosts #19 Princeton, Resumes Big West Play at Long Beach State
3/12/2025 9:46:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #17:
No. 19 Princeton Tigers (6-7)Â @Â No. 7Â CSUN Matadors (13-3)
Wednesday, Mar. 12, 2025Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #18Â (BIG WEST #2):
No. 7 CSUN Matadors @Â No. 1 Long Beach State
Friday, Mar. 12, 2025Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
Walter Pyramid - Long Beach, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The No. 7th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (13-3, 0-1 Big West) wraps up its season-long, six-match homestand this week, hosting No. 19 Princeton on Wednesday before resuming Big West action at top-ranked Long Beach State on Friday. The Matadors, who had their eight-match winning streak snapped in a 3-0 loss to the Beach last Wednesday, are 4-1 on the homestand heading into Wednesday's match against Princeton.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Both matches this week will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Darren Preston on the call. CSUN women's volleyball head coach Aquiles Montoya will join Preston as an analyst for select matches this season. 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 online 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 SEVENTH IN AVCA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After splitting a pair of home matches last week, sweeping Sacred Heart before falling to No 1 Long Beach State, the Matadors (13-3) remained seventh in this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll (Mar. 10). CSUN has now been ranked a season-high seventh for two straight weeks, its highest ranking since the Matadors also ranked seventh on Jan. 15, 2018. CSUN received a season-high 302 points this week, a 19-point jump from last week. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 polls last season, have now been ranked in all 10 polls this season (7th twice, 10th, 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 (16-0) remained the No. 1 team in this week's poll, collecting all 23 first-place votes and 460 total points. The top five remained unchanged as UCLA (12-3) remained second with 433 points followed by Hawai'i (17-1), UC Irvine (12-4), and USC (13-2). BYU (12-6) remained sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by the Matadors (13-3), Loyola Chicago (14-2), Pepperdine (10-4), and McKendree (12-5). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes Stanford (7-8), Ball State (13-6), UC San Diego (14-4), Lewis (16-4), Grand Canyon (11-5), Ohio State (9-8), Lincoln Memorial (14-1), UC Santa Barbara (8-9), Penn State (5-10), and Princeton (6-6).
SCOUTING THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
Princeton (6-7), ranked 19th this week, opened a three-match trip to the West Coast on Monday, falling 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 14-25, 19-25) at No. 13 UC San Diego. Mason Rice led the Tigers with 18 kills, combined with six errors on 35 attempts for a solid .343 hitting percentage. Henry Wedbush led the Tigers with 28 assists, while defensively, Roan Alviar led the Tigers with seven digs. Nyherowo Omene also tallied five digs and a team-high 2.5 total blocks on the night.
All-time series: Wednesday's match is the seventh meeting all-time between the Matadors and Tigers with the series tied at three wins apiece. Princeton claimed the most recent match between the two teams, winning in five sets in New Jersey in January 2024. The Matadors are 1-2 all-time against the Tigers in Northridge, the last match in 2020.
Long Beach State (16-0, 1-0 Big West) has been the No. 1 ranked team in the AVCA Coaches Poll for eight straight weeks. The Beach hosts No. 7 CSUN and No. 19 Princeton this week after sweeping the Matadors in the Big West opener last Wednesday. Long Beach State is ranked in the Top 25 in the country in half a dozen different statistical categories this season. The Beach lead the nation in hitting percentage (.418) and ranks first in aces (2.45) as well. The team ranks third in kills per set (13.35) and fourth in assists per set (12.14). If that weren't enough, LBSU also ranks sixth in blocks per set (2.53) and eighteenth in opponent hitting percentage, holding them to a .216 average.Â
All-time series: Friday's match is the 93rd meeting all-time between the Matadors and Beach dating back to the first meeting in 1981. CSUN is 10-28 all-time against Long Beach State in Long Beach. The Matadors will look to snap a nine-match skid against the Beach dating back to their last win in 2021.
DELIBOSOV REMAINS NCAA BLOCKS LEADER, SECOND IN HITTINGÂ
Freshman Stilian Delibosov remained the national leader in blocking for the fourth straight week, averaging 1.30 blocks per set. Delibosov has a team-high 65 total blocks through 50 sets this season, including six solo stuffs. The freshman from Bulgaria also remained second in the NCAA in hitting percentage this week at .518. Delibosov now has 100 kills and just 13 hitting errors on 168 swings this season. Jalen Phillips and Donovan Constable also rank among the national leaders in several statistical categories this week. Phillips ranks third in kills per set at 4.32 and is fifth in points per set (5.05) and eighth in attacks per set (8.89). Constable is third nationally this week in aces per set (0.66) and fifth in assists per set (10.38). He is also 48th in blocks per set at 0.86 per set.
In this week's Big West ranks, the Matadors rank third in seven of the eight main statistical categories. CSUN is third this week in hitting percentage, points, kills, blocks, aces, and is second in team assists (12.31 per set).
CONSTABLE CAREER ASSISTS WATCH
With 62 assists in two matches last week, senior Donovan Constable increased his career assists total to 3,144 in 325 sets, a 9.67 career assists per set average. Constable became just the seventh player in program history with 3,000 career assists with his 13th assist against Jessup on Feb. 14. The senior from Clovis is now 386 assists away from sixth place on the all-time program list. 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. Constable is one of four Matador setters in the program top-10 to play in the Rally Scoring era of collegiate volleyball. He also ranks fifth in CSUN's Rally Scoring era assists list, trailing Matt Stork and fourth place by 636.
CSUN QUICK SETS
The Matadors hit a season-high .542 in the 3-0 win over Sacred Heart ... The loss to Long Beach State was CSUN's first when out-acing and out-digging its opponent ... CSUN slipped to 20-27 (.426) in conference season openers after falling to the Beach on Wednesday. CSUN also saw its record in conference home openers drop to 26-21 (.634).
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 an 0-1 record in 2025, the Matadors are now 15-46 (.246) in 61 Big West matches over seven-plus 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 in Long Beach , CSUN will travel to the Midwest for its final two non-conference matches of the season. The Matadors will meet Lewis (Mar. 20) and Loyola Chicago (Mar. 22) before resuming Big West play against UC Santa Barbara at home on Mar. 28.
#GoMatadors
