California State University at Northridge
UC Santa Barbara
No. 8 CSUN Resumes Big West Play With Two vs. No. 18 UCSB
3/27/2025 12:37:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
MATCH #21 (BIG WEST #3):
No. 18 UCSB Gauchos (9-10, 0-2 Big West @Â No. 8Â CSUN Matadors (15-5, 0-2 Big West)
Friday, Mar. 28, 2025Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
MATCH #22 (BIG WEST #4):
No. 8Â CSUN Matadors @Â No. 18 UCSB Gauchos
Saturday, Mar. 29, 2025Â - 7:00Â p.m. PT
The Thunderdome - Santa Barbara, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUN Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
The No. 8th-ranked CSUN Men's Volleyball team (15-5, 0-2 Big West) resumes Big West action with two matches this week, hosting No. 18 UC Santa Barbara on Friday before traveling to The Thunderdome on Saturday. First serve in Northridge is set for 6 p.m. with Saturday's first serve at 7 p.m.
The Matadors concluded the non-conference portion of the 2025 season last week, defeating No. 15 Lewis in five sets before falling to No. 8 Loyola Chicago in five sets on Saturday. The Matadors finished the non-conference portion of the season with a 15-3 record, their only two losses coming against No. 6 USC, No. 3 UCLA, and No. 8 Loyola Chicago.Â
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Both matches this week will be streamed live on ESPN+. 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 with CSUN women's volleyball head coach Aquiles Montoya joining Preston as an analyst for select matches.
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 SLIPS TO EIGHTH IN AVCA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After splitting two matches in the Midwest last week, the Matadors (15-5) slipped one spot to eighth in this week's AVCA National Collegiate Poll (Mar. 24). CSUN has been ranked a season-high seventh three of the past four weeks, its highest ranking since the Matadors also ranked seventh on Jan. 15, 2018. After receiving a season-high 302 points last week, CSUN received 293 points this week. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 polls last season, have now been ranked in all 12 polls this season (7th three times, 8th, 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 (20-0) 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 (14-3) remained second with 437 points followed by USC (16-2), Hawai'i (19-2), and UC Irvine (14-4). Loyola Chicago (17-2) moved up to sixth this week, followed in the top 10 by BYU (15-7), the Matadors (15-5), Pepperdine (14-4), and McKendree (15-5). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes UC San Diego (16-4), Stanford (7-10), Grand Canyon (14-6), Ball State (16-8), Lewis (17-7), Lincoln Memorial (16-1), Ohio State (11-10), UC Santa Barbara (8-10), Princeton (7-9), and George Mason (12-7).
SCOUTING THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
UC Santa Barbara (9-10, 0-2 Big West), ranked 18th this week, also resumes conference play with two matches in Northridge this weekend. The matches at CSUN will be the second and third of the week for the Gauchos, who beat a competitive Cal Lutheran team in five sets on Tuesday night. After losing the first and third sets in extra points, UCSB claimed the fourth and fifth sets rather comfortably. Geste Bianchi had a season-high 28 kills to lead the Gauchos while Cole Schobel posted a career-high 53 assists.
All-time series: The two matches this week mark the 109th and 110th meetings all-time between the Matadors and Gauchos. In the series that dates back to 1978, UCSB holds a 65-43 lead in the series. CSUN snapped a 10-match skid to the Gauchos with a 3-1 win in Northridge in last season's regular season finale. The Matadors are 23-21 all-time against the Gauchos in Northridge and 14-40 all-time against UCSB in Santa Barbara.
DELIBOSOV REMAINS BIG WEST LEADER IN HITTINGÂ
Freshman Stilian Delibosov remained the Big West leader in hitting this week, while slipping to second in blocking. Delibosov also ranks fourth nationally in blocks this week. The freshman from Bulgaria is hitting .486 with 129 kills and just 22 hitting errors on 220 swings this season. Delibosov also has a team-high 80 total blocks through 67 sets this season, including nine solo stuffs.
Jalen Phillips and Donovan Constable also rank among the national leaders in several statistical categories this week. Phillips ranks seventh nationally and second in the Big West in kills per set at 4.23 and is eighth nationally and third in the conference averaging 4.89 points per set. Constable is sixth nationally this week in aces per set (0.58) and 15 in assists per set (9.86) which is second among Big West setters.
CONSTABLE CAREER ASSISTS WATCH
With 77 assists in two matches last week, senior Donovan Constable increased his career assists total to 3,283 in 342 sets, a 9.60 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 247 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 497 assists.
CSUN QUICK SETS
Jalen Phillips went over 600 kills in his Matador career with his fourth kill of the night at Lewis on Thursday. Phillips, who leads the Matadors with 296 kills this season, now has 636 kills in his CSUN career on 1,325 career attempts ... Senior Lorenzo Bertozzi also reached a career milestone last week when his third dig against Loyola Chicago gave him 200 career digs at CSUN ... Thursday's 3-2 win at Lewis was just the Matadors' second win this season when they are out-hit as a team. Lewis out-hit CSUN by the margin of .350 to .216 but the Matadors were able to pull out the 3-2 win ... Last week's two matches in the Midwest marked the first two five-set matches CSUN has played this season. The Matadors are now 1-1 in five sets ... CSUN finished the non-conference portion of the 2025 season with a 13-5 record. The Matadors' three non-conference losses all came against ranked teams. No. 3 UCLA, No. 6 USC, and No. 8 Loyola Chicago ... CSUN will play five of its final eight matches of the regular season on its home court. The only road matches will be at UCSB on Saturday, at UC San Diego on Apr. 10, and at UC Irvine on Apr. 19.
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 0-2 record in 2025, the Matadors are now 15-47 (.242) in 62 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 302 points to rank a season-high seventh on Mar. 10 this season. 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 Saturday's match in Santa Barbara, the Matadors will return home to host fourth-ranked Hawai'i for a pair of Big West matches on Apr. 4-5 at Premier America Credit Union Arena.Â
#GoMatadors
