Beach Volleyball Concludes Regular Season at LMU Tri-Dual
4/18/2025 1:16:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
MATADORS THIS WEEK:
Saturday, Apr. 19, 2025
LMU Beach Courts - Los Angeles, Calif.
CSUN vs. #4 LMUÂ - 1Â p.m. l Live Scoring
CSUN vs. Cal State Bakersfield - 3Â p.m. l Live Scoring
In-game Twitter updates:Â @CSUNBeach
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Beach Volleyball team (16-13) plays its final two dual matches of the regular season on Saturday, traveling to Los Angeles to take on No. 4 LMU and Cal State Bakersfield to the LMU Beach Courts. The Matadors take on the Lions at 1 p.m. before meeting the Roadrunners for the fifth time this season at 3 p.m. Following Saturday's matches, CSUN will gear up for the 2025 Big West Beach Volleyball Championships in Santa Monica next week (Apr. 24-25).
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.
HEFLINÂ SETSÂ CSUN SINGLE-SEASON INDIVIDUAL WINS RECORD
With a pair of wins against Cal State LA and Cal State Bakersfield at home on Apr. 8, freshman Hannah Heflin took over as the program's single-season individual wins record with 22. With 22 wins this season - 17 with Dylan Hall, 3 with Morgan Gillinger, 1 with Maleya Miles, and 1 with Jarosz - Heflin surpassed Gabriela Griego, Abbey Sweeting, and Victoria Rogers who won 21 times each to hold the previous single-season program wins record. Hall and Heflin have won 17 of their 20 matches this season and are unbeaten at No. 5 (4-0). The pair suffered their first loss in the No. 3 pair (4-1) after falling to Cal State Bakersfield on Apr. 5. The duo have also played 11 times at No. 4 and are 9-2 heading into Saturday's matches.
MATADOR BEACH NOTES
In addition to Hall and Heflin's team-leading 17 wins, three other pairs have reached double figures in wins for the Matadors. Maleya Miles and Layla Cederlind rank second with 15 wins, followed by Tia Mendiola and Julia Bazylevych with 13, and Tasha Mae and Kinley Lindhardt with 12 ... CSUN wrapped up the home season 10-4 on its home sand ... CSUN has played 21 different pairs combinations this season, one behind the record of 22 different pairs combinations in 2024. 19 different pairs combinations partnered up in 2022 and CSUN used 18 in 2023.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
No. 4 LMU (29-6) has won three of its last four matches after topping No. 10 Long Beach State (4-1) on Friday. LMU's pair of Lisa Luini and Abbey Thorup earned WCC Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week honors after upsetting top-ranked TCU, #2 UCLA, and #6 USC this past weekend at Cal Poly's Center of Effort Challenge.
Series: The Matadors and Lions have met 14 times dating back to 2014, with LMU winning 13 of the previous 14. CSUN's lone win in the series came at home in 2016 when the Matadors won 3-2. Since 2016, the Lions have won 10 straight in the series.
Cal State Bakersfield (10-18)Â has dropped four of its last five matches after finishing 1-3 at the Boise State Classic last weekend. The Roadrunners' lone win came over Portland (5-0) as the pair of Ella Erteltova and Vivi Kaelin picked up straight-set victories over Cal State LA (21-6, 21-4), Portland (21-18, 22-20), and Colorado Mesa (22-20, 21-10) to earn Big West Pair of Week honors.
Series: Saturday's dual match is the 37th meeting all-time between CSUN and Cal State Bakersfield, dating back to 2014. The Matadors, 4-0 against the Roadrunners this season, now hold a 21-15 edge in the series and have won seven of the last nine between the two teams after picking up a trio of 3-2 wins (Mar. 5, Mar. 22, Apr. 5) and a 4-1 decision (Apr. 8) this season.
HOMAYUN SETS PROGRAM RECORD FOR COACHING WINS
Head coach Ari Homayun has now led the Matadors to 49 wins in her two-plus seasons, finishing 17-16 in 2023, 16-21 in 2024, and 16-13 so far in 2025. With a pair of wins on Apr. 8, she moved past Noelle Rooke who posted 48 wins from 2018-21.
The Matadors are 132-146 (.475) all-time in their 12th season of beach volleyball, including a 81-41 (.664) 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).
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.
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