California State University at Northridge
Texas A&M - Kingsville
Beach Volleyball Travels to Irvine to Take on TAMU-Kingsville, Concordia
3/26/2025 7:18:00 AM | Beach Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
Friday, Mar. 28, 2025
OC Great Park - Irvine, Calif.
CSUN vs. Texas A&M-Kingsville - 12 p.m.
CSUN vs. Concordia - 2 p.m.
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
Coming off a 10-match week, CSUN beach volleyball team (12-12) plays one tri-dual match this week, traveling to Irvine to meet Texas A&M-Kingsville and Concordia at the OC Great Park on Friday at 2 p.m. The tri-dual match opens the homestretch of the 2025 regular season that will see the Matadors play five of their final seven dual matches on the road.Â
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.
CSUN FINISHES 5-5 OVER 10-MATCH WEEK
The Matadors opened their busiest week of the season by winning three straight duals last Tuesday and Wednesday. The stretch began with a 3-2 win over No. 19 FIU, CSUN's first win over a ranked opponent in program history. The Matadors then swept both Colorado Mesa and The Master's University before dropping a close 3-2 decision to Nebraska to wrap up the homestand.
CSUN next headed to the Big West Challenge in San Luis Obispo, where the Matadors picked up wins over Sacramento State (3-2) and Cal State Bakersfield (3-2) to finish the weekend 2-4. CSUN wound up falling to a trio of ranked teams (No. 8 Long Beach State, No. 17 Hawai'i, No. 6 Cal Poly) along with another close 3-2 loss to UC Davis.
MATADOR BEACH NOTES
CSUN is 8-4 on its home sand with two more dual matches to go in 2025. The Matadors will host Cal State LA and Cal State Bakersfield on Apr. 8, when the team will also honor seniors Layla Cederlind, Sophia Jarosz, Tasha Mae, Tia Mendiola, and Jadin Williams between matches ... The pair of Dylan Hall and Hannah Heflin has taken over the team lead in pairs wins with 13. Since pairing up for the first time against Utah (Mar. 7), Hall and Heflin have won 13 of 15 matches including a nine-match win streak from Mar. 7-19 ... Three other CSUN pairs have double figures in wins this season, Tia Mendiola and Julia Bazylevych (11-7), Maleya Miles and Layla Cederlind (11-12), and Tasha Mae and Kinley Lindhardt (10-12).Â
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Texas A&M-Kingsville (14-6) has dropped four of its last five matches after finishing 1-3 at the Bayou Beach Duals last weekend in Elmwood, La. The Javelinas defeated Spring Hill College (4-1) but dropped duals to Tulane (5-0), Utah (5-0), and a rematch against Spring Hill College (4-1). Texas A&M-Kingsville will take on Vanguard, the Matadors, The Master's, and Concordia on its four-match trip to the West Coast.
Series: Tuesday's dual match is the first-ever meeting between the Matadors and Javalinas.
Concordia (16-7) has won four straight and eight of its last 10 dual matches after picking up a pair of 4-1 wins over South Florida and Pepperdine at the Asics Classic in Malibu last weekend.  The Golden Eagles have played just a pair of home dual matches this season, defeating Colorado Mesa and Cal State LA on Mar. 19
Series: Friday's dual is the 17th meeting between CSUN and Concordia, with the series tied at eight wins apiece. After a 3-2 win in Northridge on Mar. 7, the Golden Eagles have won five straight and six of the last seven meetings with the Matadors.
CSUN BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY
The Matadors are 128-145 (.469) all-time in their 12th season of beach volleyball, including a 79-41 (.658) 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 45 wins in her two-plus seasons, finishing 17-16 in 2023, 16-21 in 2024, and 12-12 so far in 2025. She now needs just four wins to surpass Noelle Rooke (48 wins from 2018-21) as the program leader in coaching wins.
BIG WEST BEACH VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2025 season marks CSUN's 12th season of beach volleyball and its 10th season as a member of the Big West. The Matadors, who will host the 2025 Championship at Ocean Park Courts in Santa Monica (Ap3. 24-25), 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
