California State University at Northridge
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UTEP
CSUN Set to Play Two at Pepperdine's Malibu Invite
3/13/2025 1:43:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEKÂ - MALIBU INVITE
Saturday, Mar. 15, 2025
Pepperdine Beach Volleyball Courts - Malibu, Calif.
CSUN vs. UTEP - 1 p.m. l Live Scoring
CSUN vs. Morehead State - 3 p.m. l Live Scoring
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
Following a six-match week, CSUN beach volleyball (5-7) has a lighter week upcoming, playing just a pair of dual matches as part of the Malibu Invite at the Pepperdine Beach Volleyball Courts on Saturday. The Matadors will take on UTEP at 1 p.m. before meeting Morehead State at 3 p.m. Both matches will have live scoring.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Follow CSUN Matadors' beach volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. For road matches, related links to the match, including any live stats, audio, and video, will be posted before the match on the beach volleyball schedule page of GoMatadors.com.Â
Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official Twitter feed (@GoMatadors) and the beach volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNBeach) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
UTEP (6-4) will play four matches over two days at the Malibu Invite. The Miners will take on Sacramento State and Morehead State on Friday before facing off against Pepperdine and CSUN on Saturday. UTEP went 3-1 at the Javelina Beach Showdown in Kingsville, Texas over the Feb. 28-Mar.1 weekend. The Miners defeated Tarleton State (4-1), Texas A&M-Kingsville (3-2), and Wayland Baptist (5-0) around a 4-1 loss to Colorado Mesa. In its last outing, UTEP fell to Boise State, 3-2 in its first-ever Division I home match at the UTEP Beach Courts.Â
Series: Saturday's dual match is the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Miners.
Morehead State (6-2) opened up its six-match trip to California earlier this week with a pair of 5-0 losses to Concordia and top-ranked UCLA on Tuesday at Mapes Beach. The Eagles will take on Pepperdine and UTEP on Friday, before meeting Sacramento State and the Matadors on Saturday. MSU opened the season with six straight wins, the second-best start in program history.
Series: Saturday's dual is also the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Eagles.
CSUN BEACH NOTES
The Matadors wrapped up a busy week with a Saturday split in dual matches against Utah and Santa Clara. The week began in much the same way it ended with CSUN splitting a pair against Mercer and Cal State Bakersfield. The Matadors dropped the morning dual to Mercer (4-1) before bouncing back for a 3-2 win over the Roadrunners. Friday's quad dual began with a tight 3-2 loss to Concordia before the Matadors again regrouped for a 3-2 victory over Utah in the afternoon. The six-match week concluded with a morning loss to Utah (4-1) before CSUN swept Santa Clara, 5-0 winning all 10 sets in the process ... Through the first two weeks of the season, two CSUN pairs lead the team with five wins as Tasha Mae and Kinley Lindhardt are 5-5 at No. 1 and Tia Mendiola and Julia Bazylevych are 5-1 playing on the No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 courts. Individually, Mendiola and Hannah Heflin share the team lead with eight wins apiece while Bazylevych and Lindhardt each have six wins.
CSUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
The Matadors are 121-140 (.463) all-time in their 12th season of beach volleyball, including a 76-40 (.655) record on their home sand. After setting a program record for single-season wins with 17 in 2018, the Matadors matched that total with a 17-17 overall record in 2022 and a 17-16 record in 2023. CSUN also came within one victory of equaling the season mark in both 2019 (16-12) and last year (16-21).
Head coach Ari Homayun has led the Matadors to 38 wins in her two-plus seasons, finishing 17-16 in 2023, 16-21 in 2024, and 5-7 so far in 2025. She now needs just 11 wins to surpass Noelle Rooke (48 wins from 2018-21) as the program leader in coaching wins.
The Matadors have steadily improved since the induction of the sport in 2014. Playing 10 matches, all on the road in its inaugural season, CSUN finished 1-9 in 2014. The Matadors picked up their first-ever beach volleyball win on Mar. 27, 2014 when CSUN defeated Oregon (3-2) at USC's Merle Norman Stadium.
The Matadors then debuted their on-campus facility in 2015, playing 11 matches overall and four matches at home. CSUN's first-ever home match was Mar. 5, 2015 against No. 7 UCLA. CSUN won at home for the first time on Mar. 9 of the 2015 season when the Matadors defeated TCU, 4-1. CSUN ultimately upped its season win total to three culminating with a 3-8 overall season record to close the 2015 season.
The 2016 season saw the Matadors finish 8-14 before falling to Cal Poly in the third round of the Big West Tournament. CSUN then posted an overall record of 6-12 in 2017 before winning a program-record 17 times in 2018. After posting 16 wins in 2019, the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Matadors off to a 4-1 start. CSUN won 11 times in 2021, finishing with an overall record of 11-15.
BIG WEST BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The 2025 season marks CSUN's 12th season of beach volleyball but also its 10th season as a member of the Big West. The Matadors are 7-17 all-time in the Big West Beach Volleyball Championship since the inaugural championship in 2016. The postseason championship was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At last season's conference championship at KLAC Beach Complex in Long Beach, CSUN fell to top-seeded Cal Poly (5-0), No. 4-seed UC Davis (3-2), and No. 2-seed Long Beach State (5-0).
At the 2023 Big West Championship, held at Queen's Beach in Hawai'i, the Matadors finished in fifth place after winning one of three matches. CSUN, seeded sixth, opened with a 3-2 loss to UC Davis before staving off elimination with a 3-2 win over Sacramento State. The Matadors then fell to Cal Poly (3-2) in an elimination match and finished the championship with a 1-2 record.
CSUN also finished fifth at both the 2021 and 2022 Big West Championships. At Cal Poly's Swanson Beach Volleyball Complex in 2022, the Matadors opened with a 5-0 loss to Cal Poly before staving off elimination with a 4-1 win over Sacramento State. CSUN then fell to UC Davis in an elimination match and finished the championship with a 1-2 record. At Rosie's Dog Beach in 2021, the championship finished in a similar formula for the Matadors. CSUN opened with a 5-0 loss to Hawai'i before sweeping Sacramento State, 5-0. CSU Bakersfield then eliminated the Matadors in a close 3-2 final.
The Matadors were the No. 4 seed in the seven-team field at the 2019 Big West Tournament at Zuma Beach in Malibu. CSUN finished 2-2 in the championship tournament, their best showing since also finishing 2-2 in the inaugural conference tournament in 2016. After winning two of three matches on the opening day, CSUN came up empty against No. 3 seed Long Beach State on Saturday and was the fourth squad eliminated from the tournament. Cal Poly, the No. 2 seed, went undefeated in four tournament matches to capture its first conference championship along with the Big West's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Hawai'i, the top seed coming in, finished second.
At the 2018 championship in Hawai'i, the Matadors were seeded fourth in the six-team field in but were upset by fifth-seeded CSU Bakersfield in the opening round (3-2). CSUN then fell to No. 2 seed Cal Poly in an elimination match (5-0).Â
The Matadors were also seeded fourth at the 2017 Big West Tournament held at Pismo Beach but fell to Sacramento State (3-2) and Cal Poly (5-0) in their two tournament matches.Â
In 2016, CSUN was the third seed in the inaugural conference tournament before finishing 2-2 including a close 3-2 loss to Cal Poly in a third-round elimination match at Huntington Beach.
#GoMatadors
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