California State University at Northridge
Santa Clara
CSUN Plays Two at Bulldog Invitational, Hosts Lipscomb on Saturday
9/11/2025 8:41:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUN THIS WEEK:
MATCH #1 (SEASON MATCH #7)
CSUN Matadors (4-2) vs. Santa Clara Broncos (2-4)
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025 - 6:00 p.m. PT
Save Mart Center - Fresno, Calif.
Live Stats
MATCH #2 (SEASON MATCH #8)
Lipscomb Bisons vs. CSUN Matadors
Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025 - 3:00 p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+ // Live Stats
MATCH #3 (SEASON MATCH #9)
CSUN Matadors @ Fresno State Bulldogs
Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025 - 2:00 p.m. PT
Save Mart Center - Fresno, Calif.
Mountain West Network // Live Stats
In-game X updates: @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FOR STARTERS
The CSUN women's volleyball team (4-2, 0-0 Big West) will make two trips to Fresno around a home match against Lipscomb this week. The Matadors will take part in the Bulldog Invitational, taking on Santa Clara on Thursday at 6 p.m. and host Fresno State on Sunday at 2 p.m. In between trips to the Central Valley, CSUN will host Lipscomb on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Premier America Credit Union Arena.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
CSUN's match against Santa Clara on Thursday will have live stats only, while Saturday's home match against Lipscomb and Sunday's match at Fresno State will stream live on ESPN+, Live stats will be available at GoMatadors.com. Darren Preston returns to call CSUN Volleyball home matches in 2025 and will be joined by men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason for select matches.
Fans can follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week, as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Santa Clara (2-4) takes on the Matadors on Thursday before facing off against Fresno State on Friday. The Broncos went 1-2 last weekend at the SCU Mission Classic, posting a 3-1 victory over Cal Baptist before falling in four sets to Long Beach State and five sets to UNLV. Sophmore setter Macy Hinshaw earned WCC Setter of the Week after posting three straight games with 40 or more assists and 10 or more digs.
Series: Thursday's match is the 14th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Broncos, with Santa Clara holding an 8-5 lead in the all-time series. The Broncos won the last meeting between the two teams, 3-2 in Santa Clara in 2023.
Lipscomb (2-4) finished 1-2 at the Lippy Invitational last week, falling to Vanderbilt (3-1) and No. 14 Minnesota (3-0) before closing with a 3-0 win over Tennessee State. The Bisons were the preseason pick to win the ASUN regular season title after finishing 19-11 in 2024.
Series: Saturday's match is the just the third meeting all time between CSUN and Lipscomb, with the Bisons claiming the first two meetings in 2015 and 2016. The most recent match in 2016 was a 3-2 Lipscomb win at the Pepperdine Asics Invitational in Malibu.
Fresno State (2-4) opened the season winning two of three at the Wildcat Classic at Arizona, before dropping all three matches at UCI's Anteater Classic last weekend. The Bulldogs fell to Colorado (3-0), UCI (3-0), and Penn (3-0).
Series: Sunday's match is the 28th meeting all time between CSUN and Fresno State, with the Matadors holding a 16-11 lead in the series. The two teams split a pair of matches in 2023, each team winning on their home court. CSUN is 4-7 all-time in 11 matches at Fresno State.
SMITH ECLIPSES 1,000 CAREER KILLS
With her 12th kill against Portland on Saturday, senior Amaris Smith reached 1,000 kills in her collegiate career. Smith amassed 541 kills in two seasons at Long Island (2022-23) before heading west to Northridge. She notched a team-high 383 kills in her first season at CSUN in 2024. With 77 kills this season - which ranks second on the team - Smith now has 1,001 kills in her career.
OGDEN NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT IN PORTLAND
Sophomore Hayley Ogden had a breakout weekend in Portland, culminating with all-tournament honors. Making her second start of the season against Eastern Washington, Ogden had seven kills (.333) and four blocks in a 3-1 win over the Eagles. She then came with a season-high 13 kills (.393) with seven blocks against Colorado State, before capping the weekend with 10 kills and a single hitting error on 17 swings (.529) with seven blocks against Portland.
OKOLO, SENTES LEAD BIG WEST
After two weeks, juniors Iye Okolo and Paige Sentes hold the Big West statistical lead in hitting percentage and digs respectively. Okolo leads the conference with a .381 hitting percentage with 49 kills and 12 errors on 97 swings so far in 2025. Ogden also ranks fifth at .357 and Leah Miller is eighth at .321, making it three Matadors in the top 10 in the Big West. Sentes heads into the third week of the season with 132 digs, 31 ahead of second place among Big West liberos. Sentes opens the week averaging 4.89 digs per set with 132 digs over 27 sets this season. As a team, CSUN leads the Big West in digs per set at 14.96.
CSUN QUICK SETS
Julia Bazylevych had a career match against Eastern Washington, putting down a career-high 26 kills while hitting .262 on 61 swings, which was also a career-high. Bazylevych had double-doubles in two of CSUN's three matches in Portland, missing a third by a single dig against Portland ... With a 3-1 win over Eastern Washington, the Matadors won their fourth straight match, their longest win streak since also winning four straight from Nov. 1 to Nov. 9 during the 2019 season.
CSUN HEAD COACH AQUILES MONTOYA
Aquiles Montoya opens his second season as head coach of the CSUN Women's Volleyball team in 2025. In his first season, Montoya led the Matadors to a 10-19 overall record, as CSUN reached double figures in wins for the first time since 2019. With five Big West wins, Montoya led CSUN to its highest conference win total in three seasons. He was named the ninth head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball program on Apr. 10, 2024. Montoya arrived at CSUN after spending the past four seasons as associate head coach and director of recruiting at Portland State. Portland State made consecutive postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022, qualifying for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). The Vikings won their first-round match in 2021, giving Portland State its first win at a national postseason tournament in Division I program history. The Vikings' rise in the Big Sky Conference coincided with Montoya's tenure as an assistant and associate head coach under Portland State head coach Michael Seeman. The Vikings posted winning seasons, both overall and in conference play, in each of Montoya's last three seasons while reaching the Big Sky championship match in 2022, their first appearance since 2013. Prior to Portland State, Montoya spent the previous three seasons as the lead assistant of the Pacific Boxers' varsity team.
LOOKING AHEAD
CSUN continues its stretch of 10 of 11 road matches next week, traveling to the Bay Area to meet San Francisco (Sept. 18) and San José State (Sept. 19).
#GoMatadors
